Conductor Composer Pianist Musicologist Electronic Musician
I am glad to announce the publication of my article Opera or ballet? Ottorino Respighi vs. Sergei Diaghilev: a study of the sources for La boutique fantasque, Le astuzie femminili, La serva padrona, «Archival notes», Venezia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, II, 2017, pp. 1-16. (issn: 2499-832x).
You can read the full text here.
Dalla magica penna di Emy Bernecoli, splendido articolo per Cultweek sulle vicende dei musicisti italiani all’estero, con un’intervista ad Elia Andrea Corazza sulla riscoperta della Serva padrona di Paisiello-Respighi, nella ricorrenza di entrambi i compositori.
Leggetelo su: http://www.cultweek.com/fuga-di-cervelli-musica/
Beautiful article by Jason Steinhauer on my tenure at the Kluge Center of The Library of Congress, documenting my rediscovery of the lost opera “La Serva padrona” by Ottorino Respighi.
«[…] With these missing manuscripts, Corazza was able to recreate Diaghilev and Respighi’s La Serva Padrona, and conduct the first-ever performance of it in Bologna—the city where Respighi was born.»
Read the full article here!
Dan Turello wrote this article on my research at The Library of Congress, during my Kluge Fellowship. He describes my quest to reconstruct the entire score of Paisiello’s La Serva Padrona, which Ottorino Respighi orchestrated for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1920, but was not staged and considered lost.
Short excerpt from the article by Dan Turello:
Sometimes a few missing pages can make it a challenge to reconstruct an entire work. This was exactly the case when current Kluge Fellow Elia Corazza discovered the autographed orchestration of La Serva Padrona, an 18th century opera written by Giovanni Paisiello and then adapted by Ottorino Respighi for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1920.
Corazza, a composer, conductor, and musicologist, with training in piano, composition and orchestral conducting, as well as a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Bologna (Italy), became interested in La Serva Padrona as a part of his broader effort to rediscover some of Respighi’s lost works. Respighi became popular in Italy after the First World War, just as Fascism was taking hold in the country. During these years, Respighi transcribed various works of pre-romantic music created by Italian composers including Monteverdi, Paisiello, Cimarosa, and Rossini, that had long since been forgotten and seldom, if ever performed.
You can read the entire interview on The Library of Congress’ blog.
In 1920, impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi to revise Giovanni Paisiello’s opera buffa, La Serva padrona, for his Ballets Russes. Respighi shortened Paisiello’s work, reorchestrated it, and even added choir in several places. Also he added a ballet finale at Diaghilev’s request, based on a selection of ballet music by Paisiello composed during his tenure at the court of Catherine II in St. Petersburg. A performance of this revised version of La Serva padrona, however, never materialised.
A few years ago, conductor, composer, and musicologist Dr. Elia Andrea Corazza undertook to realise Diaghilev’s vision. The resulting critical edition, which expands Respighi’s piano reduction into a full score for the first time, is now available from Schott music. Notes by Diaghilev in his own copies of Paisiello’s original score helped Corazza to reconstruct Respighi’s version of the opera. The world première will take place on 5 August 2014 in the court of the Piccoli Teatro del Baraccano in Bologna, conducted by Corazza in a production by Paolo Billi. The production can be seen two more times on 6 and 7 August.
Read the full article, forthcoming performances and the full score on Schott’s website.