Leyla Gencer Archive

AGNESE DI HOHENSTAUFEN

Gasparo Spontini (1774 - 1851)

Opera in three acts in German [Sung in Italian]

Libretto: Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach
Premièrs:
1827, 18 May Act I only
1829, 12 June Two Act Version
1837, 06 December Revised Three Act Version
All premiers was performed at Köningliches Opernhaus, Berlin.

09, 12†, 17, 19 May 1974

Teatro Comunale, Firenze

XXXVII. MAGGIO MUSICALE DI FIORENTINO

Conductor: Riccardo Muti

Chorus master: Adolfo Fanfani

Stage director: Franco Enriquez

Scene and costumes: Corrado Cagli

Choreography: Susanna Egri

Female Chorus of RadioTelevision of Madrid

The Caroli, in the second part of the second act, are performed by the Guardia di Finanza Band conducted by Maestro Olivio Di Domenico.

I Caroli, nella seconda parte del secondo atto, sono eseguiti della Banda della Guardia di Finanza diretta dal Maestro Olivio Di Domenico.

Direttore dell'alesstimento / Production Manager: Raoul Farolfi

Registe assistente / Assitant Director: Ruggero Rimini
Scenografo realizzatore / Set Designer: Raffaele Del Savio
Direttore musicale di palcoscenico / Musical Director: Erasmo Ghiglia
Maestro collaboratore / Accompanist: Marcello Guerrini
Maestro suggeritore / Prompter: Luigi Morosini
Altro maestro suggeritore / Prompter: Gilberto Fintoni
Maestro della banda / Bandmaster: Angiolo Massini
Maestro colloboratore al coro / Choir Accompanist: Roberto Gabbiani
Assistente alla regia / Assistant Director: Paolo Coccheri
Scenografo collaboratore / Assistant Set Designer: Giuseppe Bottaro
Assistente per i costumi / Costume Assistant: Angelo Delle Piane
Assistente alla scenografia / Assistant Set Designer: Franco Muzzi
Assistente alla coreografia / Assistant Choreographer: Aldo Gardone
Maestri collaboratori di palcoscenico / Stage Reherasal Accompanists: Danna Brunsma, Gianni Del Testa, Giovanni Tanzini, Gennaro Urbani
Realizzatore delle luci / Lighting Designer: Guido Baroni
Capo macchinista / Chief Engineer: Enzo Mariti
Capo attrezzista / Chief Porps Master: Giulio Cipriani
Direttore di Scena / Stage Manager: Luciano Barontini
Costumi / Costumes: Cerratelli
Parrucche / Wigs: Filistrucchi
Attrezzi / Props: Rubechini

Agnes von Hohenstaufen LEYLA GENCER soprano [Role debut]

Irmengard JOY DAVIDSON soprano
Enrico II Palatino VERIANO LUCHETTI tenor
Filippo NICOLA MARTINUCCI tenor
Enrico il Leone WALTER ALBERTI baritone
Enrico VI MARIO PETRI bass
Duca di Borgogna DAN IORDACHESCU baritone
Arcivescono FERRUCIO MAZZOLI baritone
Tebaldo OTTAVIO TADDEI tenor
Il castellano CARLO MICALUCCI bass

Herald GUERRANDO RIGIRI baritone

First Judge GIORGIO GIORGETTI baritone

Second Judge AUGUSTO FRATI bass

A jailor MARIO FROSINI bass

Solo dancers MATILDE DI MATTEI / FRANCESCO BRUNO

Time: Germany

Place: Middle ages

† Recording date

Photos © FOTO MARCHIORI, Firenze

A note from the book I Disegni del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Inventario – V (1973 – 1980) 1980 Moreno Bucci)

The sketches created by Corrado Cagli for Agnese di Hohenstaufen by Gaspare Spontini at the Maggio Musicale in Fiorentino 1974 are not preserved in the Historical Archive of the Theatre. They remained the property of the artist and are currently in the Corrado Cagli Archive in Rome.

The only testimony remaining at the Theatre is the scenic sculpture, more than seven meters high, created by Corrado Cagli as a central element and visual fulcrum for the three Acts of the staging of Gaspare Spontini's opera.

After being placed for years in the municipal warehouses and in various places in the city, in 2000-2001, Superintendent Stefano Merlini, Moreno Bucci, curator of the Historical Archives, with the collaboration of the Municipality of Florence, proposed to place the sculpture by Corrado Cagli in the pedestrian area of via Solferino 15, in front of the entrance of the employees and artists of the then Teatro Comunale. Problems related to the anchoring of the scenic sculpture, under the small gardens runs the artificial canal of the Fosso Macinante built by Giovanni Poggi at the time of Florence, the capital of Italy, did not allow the new placement of the sculpture which remained, at that time, nearby of Florence Airport.

In 2014, thanks to the joint effort of the Municipality of Florence and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Foundation, Corrado Cagli's sculpture was placed in front of the Giordano entrance of the new building of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Foundation.

I bozzetti e figurini realizzati da Corrado Cagli per Agnese di Hohenstaufen di Gaspare Spontini al Maggio Musicale di Fiorentino 1974 non sono conservati nell'Archivio Storico del Teatro. Sono rimasti di proprita dell'artista e attualmente presso l'Archivio Corrado Cagli di Roma.

L'unica testimonianza rimasta al Teatro e la scultura scenica, alta piu di sette metri, realizzata da Corrado Cagli come elemento centrale e fulcro visivo per i tre Atti della messinscena dell'opera di Gaspare Spontini.

Dopo essere stata collacata per anni nei magazzini comunali e in vari luoghi della citta, nel 2000-2001, Sovrintendante Stefano Merlini, Moreno Bucci, curatore dell’Archivio Storico, con la collobrazione del Comunale di Firenze, propose di collacare la scultura di Corrado Cagli nello spazio pedonale di via Solferino 15, davati all’ingresso dei dipendenti e degli artisti dell’allora Teatro Comunale. Problemi legati all’ancoraggio della scultura scenica, sotto i piccoli giardinetti scorre il canale artificiale del Fosso Macinante costruito da Giovanni Poggi all’epoca di Firenze Capitale d’Italia, non permisero la nıova collacazione della scultura che rimase, a quel tempo, nelle vicinanze dell’Aeroporto di Firenze.

Nel 2014, grazie allo sforzo contigiunto del Comune di Firenze e della Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, la scultura di Corrado Cagli e stata posta davanti all’ingresso del giordano del nuovo edificio della Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

A note from the book I Disegni del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Inventario – V (1973 – 1980) 1980 Moreno Bucci)

CORRADO CAGLI

Act I, Act II, Act III Sculpture as a scenic element / Scultura come elemento scenico

This scenic sculpture is the only remaining testimony of Corrado Cagli's staging for Agnese di Hohenstaufen by Gaspare Spontini at the XXXVIII Maggio Musicale in Fiorentino 1974. The sketches remained the property of the artist and are currently preserved in the Cagli Archive in Rome. The sculpture was placed in 2014 outside the courtyard of the new Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino thanks to a collaboration between the Municipality of Florence and the Theatre. The sculpture has not yet been acquired as a heritage by the Teatro del Maggio Musicale of Fiorentino and therefore is not included among the assets of this Historical Archive. For this region the s.n. formula was written. (without inventory number)

Act I, Act II, Act III Sculpture as a scenic element
Atto I, Atto II, Atto III Scultura come elemento scenico

Questa scultura scenica e l’unica testimonianza rimasta della messinscena di Corrado Cagli per Agnese di Hohenstaufen di Gaspare Spontini al XXXVIII Maggio Musicale di Fiorentino 1974. I bozzetti e i figürini sono rimasti di proprieta dell’artista e attualmente conservati nell’Archivio Cagli a Roma. La scultura e stata posta net 2014 all’estrano del giordino de nuovo Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorebtino grazie una colloborazione fra il Comune Firenze ed il Teatro. La scultura non e stata ancora acquisita a patrimonio da parte Teatro del Maggio Musicale di Fiorentino e quindi non risulta inserita fra i beni di questo Archivio Storico. Per questa regione e stata scritta la formula s.n. (senza numero d’inventario)

COSTUME DRAWINGS OF AGNESE DI HOHENSTAUFEN

CORRADO CAGLI

Duca di Borgogna

Agnese di Hohenstaufen

COSTUMES OF AGNESE DI HOHENSTAUFEN

CORRADO CAGLI

FONDAZIONE CERRATELLI

AGNESE DI HOHENSTAUFEN

Theatrical costume for the character of Filippo di Hohenstaufen in Agnese di Hohenstaufen by Gaspare Spontini, play directed by Franco Enriquez in 1974, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Costume of fantastic inspiration that evokes the medieval world of chivalry. The creation of the costumes and scenery is by the artist Corrado Cagli. The costume is screen-printed (print on fabric) and enriched with applications in cloth that evoke stylized symbols of chivalry, interpreted in a modern key. The costume was worn by opera singer Nicola Martinucci. \Details: Printed cotton moleskin, copper-colored lurex cloth; felt appliqué: Visualità del Maggio, Prato, 1979.\nCostumes for a Middle Ages, Cerratelli Foundation, San Giuliano Terme (Pisa), 2010-2011.\nL'arte della Meraviglia, Filatoio di Caraglio, Caraglio (Cuneo), 2012-2013. \n&Bibliography: Visualità del Maggio. Costumes and Documents 1933 - 1979 1979, p. 44. \nL'arte della Meraviglia 2012, pp. 106-107

http://fondazionecerratelli.it/gallery/#jp-carousel-3602

Filippo

Duca di Borgogna

ARTECARTE

BY RICCARDO MUTI

2000s

Quando incontrai la prima volta Corrado Cagli, per chiedere la sua collaborazione all’Agnese di Spontini per il Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, ero già da anni un grande e appassionato ammiratore della sua arte e del suo travolgente talento. Alla sua fantasia, alla sua profonda cultura, ero andato a chiedere aiuto per poter realizzare la messa in scena di un’opera che amavo intensamente, ma di cui conoscevo la complessità e il difficile piegarsi o quasi il ribellarsi ad un logico inquadramento scenico. Dopo alcune mie puntualizzazioni sulla collocazione storica del lavoro, Cagli mi chiese di suonargli alcuni brani. Attaccai subito la famosa aria di Agnese e notai che quella melodia, così densa di sublime affanno, andava quasi trasformando il suo viso, mentre nei suoi occhi brillava una luce, che era ormai volontà irrefrenabile di dare un volto a quel mondo di suoni. Il mio stupore doveva crescere ancor più quando egli, in base solo a pochi cenni musicali, dimostrò di aver colto le caratteristiche essenziali dell’opera proponendo immediatamente idee, che dovevano rivelarsi in futuro delle vere e geniali soluzioni di molti complessi problemi. Se è infrequente incontrare i registi alle prove musicali dei direttori d’orchestra, è certamente rarissimo incontrare gli scenografi. Cagli era sempre lì, nel buio della sala, ad entusiasmarsi per un «crescendo», per un interessante impasto timbrico, per un particolare suggerimento musicale, discutendone dopo e aprendo talvolta orizzonti che potevano gettare nuova luce sull’intero risultato artistico. Ricordo ancora come egli cercasse di spiegare, per esempio, come quella luce contrastava con quella situazione musicale in orchestra o in palcoscenico. Nacque per l’Agnese un accordo perfetto tra direttore, regista e scenografo: ma sento di dovere a Corrado Cagli gran parte dell’enorme successo di quell’opera. Lo determinò la sua genialità di pittore e di scultore, la profonda sensibilità per la musica, il suo amore grande e autentico per l’Arte.

When I first met Corrado Cagli, to ask for his collaboration in Spontini's Agnese for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, I had already been a great and passionate admirer of his art and his overwhelming talent for years. I went to his imagination, his profound culture, to ask for help in order to stage a work that I loved intensely, but whose complexity I knew and how difficult it was to bend or almost rebel against a logical scenic framework. After some clarifications on the historical location of the work, Cagli asked me to play him some pieces. I immediately started Agnese's famous aria and noticed that that melody, so full of sublime breathlessness, was almost transforming her face, while a light shone in her eyes, which was now an irrepressible desire to give a face to that world of sounds. My amazement must have grown even more when he, on the basis of just a few musical hints, demonstrated that he had grasped the essential characteristics of the work, immediately proposing ideas, which were to prove to be true and ingenious solutions to many complex problems in the future. If it is uncommon to meet directors at orchestra conductors' musical rehearsals, it is certainly very rare to meet set designers. Cagli was always there, in the darkness of the room, getting excited about a "crescendo", an interesting timbral mixture, a particular musical suggestion, discussing it afterwards and sometimes opening horizons that could shed new light on the entire artistic result. I still remember how he tried to explain, for example, how that light contrasted with that musical situation in the orchestra or on stage. For Agnese, a perfect agreement was born between director, director and set designer: but I feel I owe a large part of the enormous success of that work to Corrado Cagli. This was determined by his genius as a painter and sculptor, his profound sensitivity for music, his great and authentic love for Art.

http://www.arteecarte.it/artisti/cagli/critiche/agnese.php

FROM THE BOOK "AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY"

BY RICCARDO MUTI

2011

After Vlad’s departure in 1973 I learned that, for political reasons, his successor was to be a certain member of a given party.

It was what we’d now call a politically motivated “apportioning”. It bothered me deeply, because I feel that in some places the importance of cultural vision should prevail over that of political divides. The idea that whoever was nominated creative director would have to pick someone from the opposite party as the theatre director, just to even the scales, embarrassed me as a musician. I had no say in the matter-the principal conductor doesn’t decide things like that-but I couldn’t see keeping quiet and not condemning such a procedure. So, I let it be known that, if that’s how the nomination was to be carried out, I would resign. The nomination was made, of course (I don’t question the nominee’s qualifications, so I don’t intend to name him here), and I was limited to lighting the “rules.”

This created a bit of a fuss. The orchestra interrupted its rehearsal with another conductor and mounted a strike on my behalf, and so did the chorus and ballet company and some of the technicians. The theatre went through a period of crisis, complete with outside demonstrations and dissent among the internal factions, which wasn’t without its spirited and humorous moments. Once, I was told, someone heatedly concluded “Muti said so!”" to which someone else replied by citing the folk song “La leggenda del Piave”: “Muti passaron quella note I fanti, / tacere bisognava e andare avanti”. In any case, the person nominated never ended up taking the position. After a while everyone reconciled their differences, and Mario Polifroni became administrator. He was very open, and helped produce one of the period’s best Maggio Musicale festivals.

We chose Spontini’s Agnes von Hohenstaufen, which 1 had already done in 1970 at the RAI auditorium in Rome, upon Siciliani’s invitation. Siciliani’s shrewdness was much like the clever ploy Vlad had used to get me to do L’Africaine. One night when we met for dinner at his place he’d put the score on the piano and asked me to play the best parts-first and foremost (and it was no coincidence) the scene with the French knights from the sublime second act, when the orchestra plays the endless note Fedele D’Amico’s review discussed in such fascinating words." When I finished, Siciliani proclaimed in his characteristically good-humoured, peremptory tone: “Muti, my dear, this is the opera for you; you must do it!” He was right, and I hope that before I leave this world I’ll have the chance to perform Agnes in German, as Vienna and Berlin have requested.

The cast that time was stellar: Montserrat Caballé, Antonietta Stella, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Sesto Bruscantini,Bruno Prevedi. Montserrat was divine, even if, when the maestro invited her to sing the part, she asked, “Maestro, what is Agnes, is it an Opera?"’ In a passage that later became famous, the wind section imitates the sound of an organ. (Why don’t they show that to students in conservatory composition classes on a daily basis?) At the end of the evening D’Amico himself came to my dressing room and literally pounced on score as if to glean its secrets with his own eyes. And it’s worth mentioning that the instrumentation was always that effective, even if in Agnese von Hohenstaufen – and perhaps in Spontini’s work in general – the instrumentals are almost always hefty, what the Germans term voller Satz (full phrase, full score). On that historic occasion, still serenely smoking his cigarette, Siciliani whispered into my ear, “You know, Muti, Gui conducted it with the score!” When I met the elderly maestro in Florence and asked him why, he replied, “What do you expect? They all play together anyway,

it’s all the same!”

All this was during Polifroni’s administration. You’ll think it strange-and I don’t mean to imply that, in order to do things well, theatres should replace their elected leadership with an appointed leadership! - but it all went well thanks to his honest foresight, in spite of the fact that he was burdened by the often-unpopular task of overseeing everything. Mentality is what counts.

That run of Agnes brought about another important encounter when I met Corrado Cagli, the set and costume designer. Enriquez had shown me the fire-red volcanoes that Cagli-such a taciturn, grumpy, yet fascinating character-had in mind, and I was immediately taken by them. The cast was led by Leyla Gencer and Veriano Luchetti; Ms. Gencer once again, despite being somewhat older, did a marvellous rendition of Agnes.

L'UNITA

1974.05.08