By Alberto Triola
Lecture and book presentation
With the participation of EDWARD SMALDONE, DIRECTOR, AARON COPLAND SCHOOL OF MUSIC
GIULIO GATTI-CASAZZA (1869-1940) who was born in Udine, Italy was the beneficiary of extensive education at major universities as well Genoa’s Naval School of Engineering. He left the world of engineering, however, to conduct the opera orchestra in Ferrara. From there he went to La Scala Opera House in Milan where he gained such fame that in 1908 New York’s Metropolitan Opera House invited him to become manager and director. He served until 1936, a tenure longer than anyone at the Metropolitan.
Gatti-Casazza must be credited with bringing from Italy many Italian singers and conductors who ushered a golden age for the musical medium. Among these was the incomparable Enrico Caruso whose instant acclaim rendered him a legend. He also brought over the renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini. Gatti-Casazza premiered and thereby introduced New York to dozens of foreign operas as well as American operas and ballets. In a word his administration was most successful and considered a key factor in making the Metropolitan Opera House one of the world’s premier opera houses.
ALBERTO TRIOLA
Since January 2013, Alberto Triola is the general director of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. As of January 2010 he is the Artistic Director of the Festival della Valle d’Itria.
He has been in the field of music and theatre for over twenty years. Since 2002 he has been artistic director of theatres and festivals nation-wide, and has produced and planned highly successful seasons packed with new talents: singers, directors and conductors.
He was born in Milan, in 1965. He studied cello, and also has a degree in engineering, which he obtained with full marks. He gathered his professional expertise during fourteen seasons of work at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he occupied a number of different posts from 1988 to 2002.