THE CASSANDRA CASE
Vittorio Gnecchi, a 20th century story
di - Marco Iannelli -
Editore: Bietti Media
Genere: Saggistica
Anno publicazione: 2007
Pagine: 295
Prezzo: 16,00
isbn: 9788895493046
Recensione
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CONTENTS:
«For music, the performance is life.
An opera does not have the perennial
breath of a painting:
hidden, it is dust».
(Vittorio Gnecchi)
Bologna, December 5, 1905: the première performance of Cassandra by Vittorio Gnecchi, with
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THE CASSANDRA CASE
Vittorio Gnecchi, a 20th century story
di - Marco Iannelli -
libretto by
Luigi Illica.
The conductor:
Arturo Toscanini
.
Dresden, January 25, 1909: the première performance of Elektra by Richard Strauss, with
libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The conductor: Ernst von Schuch.
April 1909: Critic Giovanni Tebaldini publishes a series of synoptic tables in the Rivista Musicale
Italiana
journal d
emonstrating the surprising musical similarities between
Elektra
and
Cassandra.
Newspaper headlines wrote: “Richard Strauss, a plagiarist?”
This marks the beginning of an investigation that appeared in newspapers at the turn of the last
century and was considered a genuine inquiry mainly caused by a circumstance: one of the
accused was a musician of such stature and international fame that he quashed the name of
the other, despite his talent.
Young Milanese composer Vittorio Gnecchi seemed to be the only victim of a “case” that
escaped the control of its alleged instigators. Even the theaters -- including La Scala in Milan -went back on their word and cancelled all plans to stage Cassandra. When La Scala’s Artistic
Director listened to Gnecchi play his entire score, he said that the opera was a powerful work
with a grandeur that suited the La Scala stage, but he added, “We are on such good terms with
Strauss, whose
Elektra we
have just staged, that it would seem an insult to him to announce
Cassandra
for next year.”
The “case” proved to be one of those irreversible misfortunes that change the course of a life
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THE CASSANDRA CASE
Vittorio Gnecchi, a 20th century story
di - Marco Iannelli -
from the very beginning, when much could still have been achieved. COVER : portrait of Vittorio Gnecchi painted by Arturo Rietti on 1937.
More information on Vittorio Gnecchi life: www.associazionegnecchi.org
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