Giovanni Battista Fontana News
Italian Baroque composer and violinist
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2024-03-28
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2024-03-23 15:27:00
R.I.P. Maurizio Pollini (1942-2024)
[…] in Bettina Erhardt’s wonderful film on Nono, A Trail on the Water, made after Nono’s death, Pollini recalled one incident in particular: There was a lot of tension in the air. We have to remember the situation in Italy back then. People were even talking about a possible Fascist coup. There was the example of the colonels in Greece. The fear of a turn towards authoritarianism was serious. After the massacre on the Piazza Fontana in Milan and the bombs, we took it all the more seriously. I think it was the reaction of the whole country that kept it from happening. Back then, I once read, or rather tried to read, a declaration against a hideous atrocity in the Vietnam War when the United States bombed Hanoi and Hai Phong. Several Italian musicians had signed the declaration: Claudio Abbado, Luigi Nono, [Giacomo] Manzoni and the Quartetto Italiano, as […]
2024-01-02 10:48:00
William Christie & Les Arts Florissants celebrate New Year's Eve at Wigmore Hall in fine style with Hugh Cutting & Carlo Vistoli
Antonio CaldaraMonteverdi, Steffani, Fontana, Caldara, Vivaldi, Bononcini, Handel; Hugh Cutting, Carlo Vistoli, Les Arts Florissants, William Christie; Wigmore HallReviewed 31 December 2023One of those evenings where the performers sheer delight in the music carried you away; Les Arts Flo in a delightful sequence of Italian Baroque duets and solo cantatasThe Wigmore Hall ended the year in fine style with a concert of 17th and 18th century Italian duets from Les Arts Florissants. William Christie directed from harpsichord and organ with Emmanuel Resche-Caserta and Augusta McKay Lodge, violins, and Cyril Poulet, cello, with countertenors Hugh Cutting and Carlo Vistoli. The programme included duets by Monteverdi, Agostino Steffani, Giovanni Bononcini, Handel and Vivaldi, along with solo cantatas by Antonio Caldara and Vivaldi, and instrumental music by Giovanni Battista Fontana, Vivaldi and Caldara.We began with one of Monteverdi's Scherzi Musicali, the duet Damigella tutta bella published in 1607, a delightfully perky and distinctly skittish dance. Then came the duet Aita […]
Norman Lebrecht - Slipped disc
2023-06-20 10:11:12
Jonas Kaufmann mourns his biggest fan
The Italian superfan Laura Fontana who maintained a... The post Jonas Kaufmann mourns his biggest fan appeared first on Slippedisc.
2022-07-22 12:36:00
Operatic rarities in a striking double bill at Opera Holland Park
[…] I have to confess that I found the work an interesting curiosity rather than a major discovery.If, in Margot la Rouge, Delius set a libretto that seemed to tell the sort of story that would attract the mature Puccini, for his first opera the young Puccini created a work that was far more abstract and shied away from realism. Puccini was still a student when he wrote the opera and was introduced to the librettist, Ferdinando Fontana, by his teacher Ponchielli (both Ponchielli and Fontana had links to the Scapigliatura movement). Despite Ponchielli being on the Sonzogno competition jury (or perhaps because of this) Puccini's opera was disqualified because it was 'illegible'. It was Fontana who gained support to put on a performance, which attracted the attention of the publishing house Ricordi. The result, for Puccini, was a contract and ongoing support from Ricordi.Ferdinando Fontana's libretto for Le Villi provided a series of […]
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