Leyla Gencer Archive: Events [1970

Events [1970 - 1979]

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1970.11.05

TEATRO ALLA SCALA

CONCERT

Riccardo Muti’s first concert with La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala

Riccardo Muti conductor
Roberto Benaglio chorus master

Dino Ciani piano

Bettinelli Varianti per orchestra
Beethoven Fantasia in do min. per pianoforte, coro e orchestra op. 80
Hindemith Konzertmusik op. 50 per archi e ottoni
Strauss R. Tod und Verklärung

1970.11.05

LEYLA GENCER’S HOUSE (24.00)

LATE NIGHT OPERA: LA TRAVIATA

Complete performance of La Traviata at Gencer's home

with Pollini and Ciani

Leyla Gencer Violetta Valery

Placido Domingo Alfredo Germont
Maurizio Pollini Giorgio Germont
Dino Ciani Piano and chorus

As I wrote in detail at the “Queen of Pirates” section which you can find at the second page of the Blog, Renato Caccamo who was a big fan of Leyla Gencer recorded all of her performances. In addition to being a prosecuting attorney in Milan, he was also a close friend of all the renowned artists of that era.

Gencer at Duomo with Caccamo, Pizzi and a friend

In November 1970 (it’s indicated as December-1969 in the video below), the Milan prosecuter Renato Caccamo was at the concert of La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Riccardo Muti along with his friends. Some of those friends were: Leyla Gencer, Placido Domingo and Maurizio Pollini. The pianist Dino Ciani was the soloist of the concert.

with Domingo in another date and place

with Pollini in Milan's Teatro Archimboldi

When the concert ended, Muti left and Gencer, Domingo, Ciani, Pollini, Caccamo got together (probably at Gencer’s apartment) and they sang whole La Traviata from the beginning until the end. And that midnight concert was recorded by Caccamo. You can listen to Gencer’s interpretation Addio del passato in the video below. This video is also very interesting since it also contains some information about Gencer.

Addio del passato

1970.11.05

Jeffrey Swann remembers Renato Caccamo

2018.01.18

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1971 October

BASILICA DI SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE, BERGAMO

VISITING DONIZETTI'S TOMB

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1972.06.12-17

PICCOLO TEATRO, MILANO

3rd INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF VERDI STUDIES

Round Table: Psychology of Verdi’s characters (15 June)

Leyla Gencer (soprano), Marcello Cesa-Bianchi (psychologist),

Lorenzo Arruga (musicologist), Giorgio Strehler (stage director),

Gino Negri (composer)

Photo © Teatro alla Scala / ERIO PICCAGLIANI, Milano

Abbado, Simionato, Domingo

Photo © Teatro alla Scala / ERIO PICCAGLIANI, Milano

CORRIERE DELLA SERA

1972.06.17

CORRIERE DELLA SERA

1972.08.10

OPERA MAGAZINE

1972 October

Milan. The third International Congress of Verdi Studies was to have been held in New York, but technical difficulties led Sir Rudolf Bing to cancel the invitation. On short notice, the Institute of Verdian Studies arranged for La Scala to play host, and so instead of gathering daily in the Metropolitan's List Hall, the Congressisti were received in the white-and-gold elegance of the Piccola Scala. In spite of the last-minute change of venue, 61 Verdians managed to make the Congress, coming from 12 different countries. At all of the sessions, too, there was an audience of local enthusiasts, who came out in especially large numbers for the 'round-tables' at which popular artists like Giulietta Simionato, Placido Domingo, Claudio Abbado, and Leyla Gencer were present.

On the opening day, there were the usual speeches: Italy's Minister of Tourism; Milan's member of the city council for culture; Paolo Grassi, the new general manager of La Scala; Professor Bruno Molajoli, president of the Institute for Verdi Studies. And then, the first of the papers to be read: Guglielmo Barblan's analysis of the sentiment of honour in Verdian dramaturgy.

The Congress, like its two predecessors, had an announced theme: 'The theatre and the music of Giuseppe Verdi' —a theme broad enough to comprehend almost anything one wanted to say about the Verdi canon, apart from merely biographical data. Some of the papers, in fact, seemed to have more to do with the music than with the theatre; but departure from the theme did not make these papers the less interesting. In some cases, the papers were, in fact, progress reports on various musicological undertakings. Hans Busch indicated the problems and the hopes involved in his planned complete documentation of the gestation of Aida. David Lawton and David Rosen discussed the revisions and added or substituted arias that Verdi wrote for later performances of some of the early works (eventually these scholars' enquiry will lead, one hopes, to a complete list of Verdi oddments).

Other scholars offered technical examinations of the operas themselves. Roman Vlad — composer as well as scholar — gave some arresting examples of Verdi's free use of tonality. Pierluigi Petrobelli spoke of the use of certain keys associated with certain characters in II Trovatore, and Martin Chusid illustrated the significant use of the key of F major in La Traviata. The librettists and the dramatic sources of the librettos, naturally, also came in for considerable discussion. Two papers centred around the figure of Salvatore Cammarano, and Jose Lopez-Cabo examined Verdi's Spanish sources and, by the way, Verdi's relations with Spain in general.

The history of Verdian performances was enlightened by papers like Leonardo Pinzauti's on Aida and Lohengrin in Florence a century ago, and Giorgio Gualerzi's on the development of Verdian theatre in the post-war period. Other papers revealed recent biographical discoveries. Marcello Conati indicated the problems of establishing a Verdi bibliography, and Ornella Zanuso, editor of the Italian magazine Discoteca, spoke about the Verdian discography of the last decade.

The papers were many: close to 40. They will all eventually be published (along with four papers from Con gressisti unable to attend, who sent copies of their reports) in the Atti, which will make a welcome addition to the shelf of handsome and stimulating publications of the Institute. Naturally, the Congress was not all meetings and papers. La Scala's Museum organized a fascinating display of Verdian documents in the foyer of the theatre. Though the opera season was over, there were concerts which the delegates were invited to attend, and there were also other invitations: a sumptuous lunch given by the city of Milan, a dinner given by La Scala, and a grand buffet-supper party in the home of Ornella Zanuso, where delegates mingled with 'le tout Milan'. Guests of honour were Placido Domingo and Claudio Abbado, who were the recipients of the annual Discoteca prizes for outstanding interpreters. The prizes, gold plaques — were awarded in the course of the evening.

MİLLİYET WEEKLY ART MAGAZINE

1972.09.27

1972.10.05

PICCOLO TEATRO, MILANO

KING LEAR

CORRIERE DELLA SERA

1972.11.07

1972.10.14

MUSEO TEATRALE ALLA SCALA “L’ARTE DI GIANNINA ARANGI LOMBARDI”

CONFERENCE BY RUDOLFO CELETTI

1972.11.20

NEW JERSEY

AFTER PARTY

A Reception after her performances of Attila

with Charles Handelman, New Jersey

A few anecdotes from Charles Handelman:

I wish to repeat my two Gencer stories. I know some of you have heard them ad nauseum, so just skip over this, go to Youtube and listen to the great diva in some of her 567 roles.

1. After Attila, we had a party for her, and all photos of "RIVALI" were taken down. Only Leyla remained! (She even signed my "Pirata Catalogue card."). Also, she almost caught the "shrine-maker" in her mink! Shortly after, Raina Kabaiwanska visited, looked at the walls, and exclaimed, "What is this, a shrine?"

2. The "shrine concept" was not so far-fetched, because the person who made sure Leyla was never denigrated was present at one of our opera parties. We were listening to "D'amor sull'ali rosee" as sung by Callas and Gencer. Innocently, a friend felt that Callas had some better phrasing, or whatever.

The Leyla nutcase jumped up (maybe drunk, although I do not think it mattered), and ordered my friend out of the house! My friend said, "BUT I LIVE HERE!" The guy said, “So what. Get out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Don't you see how elegant and sophisticated opera lovers are???

Once this guy started yelling (at my house) about the Gencer vs. Sills Devereux. Happily, my Madre came in and calmed him down, or else I might have had to have my apt. re-decorated!

1972.12.07

TEATRO ALLA SCALA, MILANO

OPENING GALA OF UN BALLO IN MASCHERA