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Turning 200 in the U.S.

(September 04, 2013)

The Cameristi della Scala, the Chamber Orchestra founded in 1982 and formed by musicians from the Orchestra of La Scala and the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, brings to the US an exclusive program, absolutely unique in the international music world.

The project is sponsored by the Istituto Nazionale per gli Studi Verdiani, the prestigious institute for Verdi studies. Verdi explains Verdi features “Fantasie” from Verdi’s operas composed in the 19th century by important Italian composers, some of whom were Verdi’s friends and coworkers.

The composer of these transcriptions, fantasies or paraphrases, was often a well-known virtuoso, who used the famous opera themes to demonstrate his talent as a composer and a player. These pieces, gifts and celebrations to the greatness of the composer from Busseto had been left to oblivion, scattered around in different world libraries.

The Cameristi della Scala found them, transcribed and revisited them, and now perform them for the first time in our modern times. These “Fantasie” from Verdi’s operas represented a very important way to spread Verdi’s music in a time when it was not possible to reproduce music except in a live concert.

These re-elaborated versions, which could easily be considered covers, are versions of Verdi’s most famous melodies and testament to the incredible popularity of the original themes that inspired them.
The soloists are Francesco Manara, violin, and Massimo Polidori, cello. Since 2001, Francesco Manara has been the First Violin of the “Quartetto d’Archi della Scala”, with whom he has performed throughout Italy and on tours in South America, Japan, the United States, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Since 2001, Massimo Polidori has been the cellist in the chamber music group “Quartetto d’Archi della Scala” and in 2000, Maestro Riccardo Muti chose him for the role of Principal Cello in the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala.

Through the execution of these pieces, there will be the reading of a few texts written by the journalist and musicologist Sandro Cappelletto. The text is inspired by some letters Verdi wrote during his life, which are used to narrate, in an autobiographic form, some episodes of the composer’s life.

The event is sponsored by ENI in its quality as Corporate Ambassador of Year of Italian Culture in the US.


The US tour has three dates:

October 7: Cambridge, MA, MIT Auditorium; October 9: Washington DC, Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress; October 10: New York City, Carnegie Hall