From Scarlatti to Verdi, the great airs of Italian opera are sung all over the world, even if it is indeed in the setting of the peninsula that this lyrical art was born and flourished, today a candidate for Unesco heritage.
“Opera was born in Italy”, recalls the Frenchman Stéphane Lissner, director since 2020 of the San Carlo Theater in Naples, inaugurated in 1737 and as such the oldest opera in the world.
After various experiences of musical theater in the XVIand century, opera finally saw the light of day around 1600 in Florence, where an academy was founded to promote an innovative association of sung text and music.
The first great opera composer was also Italian: Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). And that’s just the beginning.
“If you look at the history of opera in the eighteenthand century, there were 400 creations during this century” alone in Naples, then capital of a kingdom ruled by the Bourbons, marvels Mr. Lissner during an interview with Agence France-Presse under the gold from the royal box of “his” theatre.
But why does Italian opera have more legitimacy to enter the intangible heritage of humanity than its French or German counterparts? For Mr. Lissner, who has also conducted the prestigious Scala in Milan and the Paris Opera, the answer is beyond doubt: “the way of singing with this Italian language unquestionably provokes, whether we agree or not, the greatest emotion among opera lovers”.
This state of mind is also reflected in the perfectly proportioned architecture of the San Carlo, far from the very Second Empire bombast of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. The great room, the real beating heart of Naples, exudes a perfume of sensual intimacy: red velvet armchairs, shimmering lights, refined gilding, boxes adorned with mirrors…
In his dressing room at the San Carlo, the Italian baritone Gabriele Viviani interrupts his vocalizations before a performance of Tosca, of Puccini, to defend the colors of his country: “Without wanting to take anything away from French and German composers […], I think that Italian singing has this little something extra, which is sensitivity in the expression of emotions. »
A few minutes later, the public rushes into the foyer before taking their seats for the start of the show.
Verdi in Odessa
In the crowd, a particularly elegant spectator in a kimono attracts attention: Sumiko, a middle-aged Japanese woman who lives in New York, came to Naples especially for this show. The application of Italian opera to UNESCO excites him: “The emotions that these composers transmit to us are universal, they go beyond history and borders. »
For the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, with this application decided at the end of March and which will be examined by UNESCO at the end of the year, “Italy aims to have one of its most authentic and original cultural expressions recognized “.
The minister then did not fail to evoke the poignant images from Ukraine showing the choir of the Odessa opera in the street, under the Ukrainian flag, singing the famous aria on March 13 Go, thinkerextract of Nabuco, by Verdi. He saw in it “one more proof that Italian opera singing is an integral part of the cultural heritage of Humanity, which resorts to it in the darkest hours to rediscover light, strength and beauty”.
the Go, thinkerwhich was also the anthem of Italian patriots under the Austrian yoke in the 19th century.and century, illustrates well the popular adhesion to this form of art: “In the XIXand century, when you arrived in any Italian city, the whole population sang opera tunes, it was normal! observes Stéphane Lissner.
“Italy is apart, Italian theaters are apart […] and if you go to the villages, I’m not even talking about towns, you find small theatres! The peninsula has no less than sixty opera houses, a world record.
The tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) also perfectly illustrates Italy’s carnal relationship with its opera: during his lifetime, this giant was venerated as a true rock staras well as singers of popular music.
Here, lyrical music “is not only reserved for the elite”, underlines Mr. Lissner, regretting however that the opera has “neglected the popular public, which is no longer able to pay certain ticket prices” .
A trend that the San Carlo is also trying to curb by reserving places at reduced prices for young audiences.