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11b2. Collaboration with Jerrold Pope, Chair, Vocal Studies on The Spirit of Verdi project.

[draft of proposal submitted to the Boston University Humanities Foundation]

THE SPIRIT OF VERDI

Colloquia, residencies, and performances, throughout the 2012-2013 academic year, celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi,

A. Project Description 2013 is the year in which the musical world celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of probably the most well-known opera composer of all time. But Verdi’s importance resonates far beyond the musical world: he was a national hero who came of age during the Italian Risorgimento, and whose effect on Italian culture, social order, nationalism and a myriad other fields (even agriculture) are central to understanding Italian society and the European community beyond. It is hard to imagine another cultural figure whose likeness would be placed on the thousand-lire bill--the equivalent of our dollar. The proposed academic year of events will provide opportunities to explore and celebrate the spirit of Verdi, in an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural way that will benefit the entire Boston University community and, through tech-forward approaches, the academy as a whole. The yearlong project will be highlighted by three evenings of insightful panel discussion sponsored by Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Center featuring a variety of guest experts in the field of Verdi and Bel canto studies and performances. There will be two residencies hosted by the School of Music featuring international artists known for their contributions to the performance of Verdi and the Bel canto repertoire. Planned also are interdisciplinary studies and projects with CAS faculty members focusing on Italian culture and politically historical events; these will embrace topics in agriculture, religion and social reform as relating to the composer and his world. In keeping with the spirit of Verdi the opera composer, there will be a series of vocal concerts, featuring highly talented students of the School of Music and Opera Institute, the proceds of which will benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank. There will also be smaller concerts given at various assisted-living communities and nursing homes that will reflect the spirit of Verdi’s commitment to social reform and community welfare. In order to bring this project beyond Boston University and reach out to the community at large, there will be an Internet Blog established on Facebook welcoming student, faculty and community observations from all interested parties, fostering discussion on the social and artistic impact of this pivotal figure, and moderated by the blog’s creators. Facebook members will be able to contribute relevant information about 2

their favorite performances past and present, articles, their thoughts regarding the composer, his traditions, the culture, the genres. Links to events and sites at Boston University will also help to highlight the importance our university places on cultural issues. This interdisiplinary project is very much in accord with the spirit of the recent BU arts initiative, begun by our new University Provost, Jean Morrison, As she writes, “Boston University has long supported artistic study and creation as integral to its academic efforts... [the goal is to] improve visibility for the University’s broad array of existing arts-related activities.” This project would be a valuable--and visible--step in that direction.

B. Participants and Formats

1. Gotlieb Conversational Evenings

Rather than present a formal symposium, we feel that colloquia or conversational evenings would best put forth the Verdi’s spirit of community. Our attempts to connect intimately with the works of this important figure necessitate inviting a wide range of guests from several different disciplines. Focusing during these conversations on the traditions and progression of the Italian Bel canto, its relationship to the art of Verdi, and the composer’s subsequent development, we propose three evenings sponsored by Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Center that feature three honored guests: pre- eminent Verdi scholar Phillip Gossett, tenor Francisco Araiza and opera director Francesca Zambello.

Phillip Gossett is the Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, a music historian with special interest in 19th-century Italian opera, sketch studies, aesthetics, textual criticism, and performance practice. The author of several award-winning books, he also serves as General Editor of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi (The Univesity of Chicago Press and Casa Ricordi of Milan) and of Works of Gioachino Rossini (Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel). Professor Gossett was the first musicologist to be awarded the Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award as one of the world’s foremost experts on Italian opera. He was the musicological consultant to the Verdi Festival in Parma during the Verdi centennial year (2001).

Internationally celebrated tenor, Francisco Araiza is considered to be one of the most important interpreters of Bel canto repertoire of our time. He was named Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera in 1988 and since 1977 has been a permanent member of the Zurich Opera where he currently teaches for Zurich International Opera Studio classes on technique and style. He has performed at all the great opera houses and festivals of the world as one of the great interpreters of Rossini and later became a leading tenor of the Italian lirico-spinto with such Verdi roles as Duke of Mantua 3

(Rigoletto); Alfredo (La traviata); Don Carlo (Don Carlo); to name but a few. In 2007 Mr. Araiza was named Artistic Director of the HUGO-WOLF-AKADEMIE in Germany.

Internationally recognized opera and theater director, Francesca Zambello has directed for the Metropolitan Opera ; Teatro la Fenice (Venice); Chicago Lyric; San Francisco Opera; Paris Opera; Royal Opera House (London); and so many other renowned opera companies all over the world. She was recently named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her contribution to French culture and received the Russian Federation’s medal for Service to Culture. Her many other awards and citations are too numerous to list. Collaborating with outstanding artists and designers and promoting emerging talent, Ms. Zambello takes a special interest in new music theater works, innovative productions, and in producing theater and opera for wider audiences. She is currently the Artistic and General Director of the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in Cooperstown, and has been visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Berkley University and The Juilliard School.

These three illustrious guests (who have already agreed to participate) represent the diverse spirit of Verdi and will be joined in conversation with other invited experts such as Martina Arroyo (Metropolitan Opera spinto soprano, who most recently received the Medal of Honor from the Italian Institute for Verdi Studies for the contribution of her work in performing Verdi); David Rosen (musicologist and editor at American Institute of Verdi Studies, Professor Emeritus at Cornell University); Deborah Burton (Boston University Assistant Professor of Music and opera scholar); and Maestra Eve Queler (Conductor and Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Opera Orchestra of New York the leading American opera-in-concert organization).

2. Guest Residencies

Two residencies are planned; one for each semester of the 2012-2013 academic year.

Tenor Francisco Araiza will conduct master classes on technique and style for a week-long residency. Students participating in his master classes will be featured on concerts celebrating the Verdi bicentennial. Master classes will be open to the public as will his anticipated conversational evening for the Gotlieb series.

Conductor Eve Queler will conduct master classes with the Opera Institute for two days. All sessions with Maestra Queler will be open to the public. Repertoire discussed and perform will range from the Bel canto to Verdi. Her anticipated conversational evening on the Gotlieb series will also be open to the public.

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3. Concerts

The concerts proposed for the year will not only feature the talents of our Boston University students performing operatic arias and songs from the Bel canto and Verdi repertoire; but also reflect the spirit of the composer in service to the community. Verdi’s work in social reform also addressed the care and sustainability of the disenfranchised and the elderly. To that end he was convinced that his large estate should become a retirement home for Italian musicians. Verdi at times also actually considered himself a better farmer than composer, and was innovative in farming techniques and cultivation. He frequently developed plans for sustaining his regional community through his farming system. In many ways Verdi was attempting a “green” culture long before our modern era conceived of the idea.

Therefore, in the spirit of this great composer we will offer two very special concerts which will benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank. One concert in particular will feature many of the Graduate and Undergraduate Voice Majors in the School of Music singing the entire collection of Verdi songs.

For the centennial remembrance of the death of Verdi a special recording was created of [Verdi’s?] songs performed by Mariella Devia, Sergej Larin, and Michele Pertusi and accompanied by the Parma Opera Ensemble. The songs were arranged by Andrea Chenna for a small wind ensemble and voices. We have been in touch with Maestro Chenna, who will graciously reproduce his wind ensemble arrangements so that we may perform the songs here with Boston University School of Music students.

The other special concert will feature selections from Verdi’s operatic repertoire as sung by members of Boston University School of Music’s Opera Institute and Graduate Voice Majors. In keeping with the political and social reformation spirit of Verdi, and to reach out to the Boston community at large, we are considering the John F. Kennedy Library as a possible venue for this performance.

To highlight the talents of our Undergraduate Voice Majors, we will turn over the department’s Honors Songbook recital to the performance of Bel canto song and perform portions of the program at assisted-living communities and nursing homes in the Boston area throughout that academic year.

4. Interdisciplinary Activities

Classroom and intra-university interdisciplinary study projects will include collaborations with CAS (Romantic Studies and Modern Language Studies). Because Professor Philip Gossett has taught in various departments at the University of Chicago (Music, Romance Languages and Literatures), we are recommending that he make a presentation to the President’s Honors College.