Book presentation

THE PEOPLE’S THEATER

People, events and stories of Italy’s first public theater from the late 19th century to the year 2000.
FROM PUCCINI TO DALLA

by Cristiano Cremonini

Squid editions

People’s theater. From Farinelli to Wagner , which concluded with the brief stay in Bologna of the well-known composer of the Tetralogy in December 1876, continues its ideal journey between music and history by traversing the entire Italian twentieth century up to the present day. In this second volume People’s theater. From Puccini to Dalla prominent personalities such as Arrigo Boito, Johannes Brahms, Giuseppe Martucci, Giacomo Puccini, and Ottorino Respighi cross paths, as well as other undiscovered figures such as composers Stefano Gobatti, Luigi Mancinelli, Filippo Clementi, and Vittorio Gnecchi.

There is no shortage of the first great voices of the 20th century, such as tenors Borgatti, Caruso and Bonci, and those of the post-World War II era, such as Maria Callas, Gianni Raimondi, Montserrat Caballé, Raina Kabaivanska and Mirella Freni.

Ample space is reserved for famous chefs d’orchestras such as Toscanini, Molinari Pradelli, Celibidache and Cillario and superintendents Cappelli, Badini and Fontana.

This journey through time concludes with the “tenorissimo” Luciano Pavarotti and his unforgettable Bolognese beginnings, and with an unusual “classical” Lucio Dalla, acting voice and opera director. Between the two artists emerges a true, instinctive, deep friendship that overcomes the ideological barriers imposed by the “different” worlds from which they came. But you know, music has no boundaries.

Guest of honor
Alfonso Antoniozzi
Baritone and director

Discussed with the author:
Fulvio Macciardi
Superintendent of the Municipal Theater of Bologna

Alessandra Scardovi
President of Fondazione Musica Insieme Bologna

Luigi Verdi
Composer and musicologist, professor of composition at the Conservatory of Lucca

Andrea Faccani
President Lucio Dalla Foundation

“Write Opera History!”

Here was the challenge that was given to me. And I was going to tell it in my own way… with the heart of one who had first dreamed of it ardently, then lived it on stage for twenty years, plunging into it suddenly as if sucked by a vortex or thrown from a dumb and steep precipice. An adventure that began about ten years ago with the aim of recounting the fortunate experience of some meetings I activated in the territory to promote the great Italian tradition of Melodrama, now finally recognized by Unesco as an intangible heritage of humanity.

Approach these pages as if you were standing in front of a giant, colorful matryoshka doll. The only way to grasp its secrets will be to open it. You will thus embark, together with me, on an authentic, intriguing journey of almost total identification with the hearts and minds of so many people who lived in distant and recent times, seemingly absent, but who in fact continue to speak to us-always, to arouse our curiosity and make us think. Enjoy your journey through time!

Cristiano Cremonini