Fabio Luisi Tweets About Death Of Conductor Angleo Campori

Fabio Luisi took to Twitter on November 25 to discuss the death of fellow Italian conductor Angelo Campori. Luisi also commented that Campori, who died at age 79, "was one of the last Italian conductors who knew exactly what Italian opera means and how to conduct it." Maestro Campori worked with many of the great opera sopranos: Renata Scotto, Maria Chiara, Raina Kabaivanska, Giusy Devinu, and Anna Caterina Antonacci. "For the soundtrack to Woody Allen's Hannah and her Sisters, the indie film auteur, who knows his opera, plumped for an authentically Italian excerpt from Puccini's Manon Lescaut. The cast was from the Ragio Theater of Turin, the conductor was Angelo Campori. And the complete performance from which that was taken is indicative of the conductor Campori became--a noted exponent of musical Italy. It featured in its cast good voices that were idiomatically Italianate, with Maria Chiara and Nicola Martinucci in the leads...His closest associations were with the Teatro Regio in Parma and with the Verona Arena. But he had an American profile, as well. He had been close to Leonard Bernstein and had performed at the Metropolitan Opera, in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He had been seriously ill a decade ago and had required heart surgery, since when he'd been almost completely unable to perform. He left several recordings. As well as that Manon Lescaut, there's a film of Lucia Di Lammermoor from Parma starring Alfredo Kraus and Luciana Serra, Soliva's rarely-heard Guilia E Sesto Pompeo on the CPO label and Licinio Refice's Cecilia with Renata Scotto on VAI Audio." [Source] More about the conductor, and a riveting performance he conducted of Renato Bruson in "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" from Verdi's Rigoletto, after the jump.

Annenberg Center Presents "Il Teatro Alla Moda" in Beverly Hills

Roberto Capucci diva gowns: (top row) Raina Kabaivanska, Helga Dernesch*, Anna Caterina Antonacci;
(bottom row) Stefania Bonfadelli, Katia Ricciarelli, Anna Caterina Antonacci
[*costume originally for Salome/Teatro alla Scala/1987 as Herodias]

"The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the U.S. premiere of Il Teatro Alla Moda (Theater in Fashion), the first exhibition to explore Italy’s famous haute couture designers and their impact on the stages of opera, dance and theater. More than 80 costumes, sketches and drawings from Giorgio Armani, Roberto Capucci, Enrico Coveri, Fendi, Alberta Ferretti, Romeo Gigli, Antonio Marras, Missoni, Emanuel Ungaro, Valentino and Gianni Versace will be on display here to celebrate the current transformation of the Italian Renaissance Beverly Hills Post Office into a distinctive performing arts venue and to honor the designers’ contributions to the performing arts. The exhibition will have a limited 4-week run from Oct. 14–Nov. 13. While the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is under construction, the exhibit will be on display at 253 N. Beverly Dr. on the ground floor of the new MGM Place, which will be converted into a temporary gallery." [Source]

For more information about the operatic connections to the costumes in this exhibit, click here. More information for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts can be found here. Check out two more colorful costumes after the jump.

Maria Agrestra, Native of Vallo della Lucania, Likes a Challenge

Mezzo-turned-soprano: Maria Agresta

"Santo di Patria" Attila (Verdi)

"Merce diletto" I Vespri Siciliani

"Arrigo! ah, parli a un cuore" I Vespri Siciliani (Verdi)

"Salce, salce" Otello (Verdi)

"Ave Maria" Otello (Verdi)

"Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" Carmen (Bizet)

As Odabella in Attila

"Maria Agresta began to study as mezzo at Conservatorio Giuseppe Martucci in Salerno (Italy). In 2006 she won the 60th Competition for Young Opera Singers of Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto. The prize directly led to her debut as mezzo in the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia by G. Rossini in Spoleto and in Japan (a tournee with Antonino Siragusa as Conte d'Almaviva). Afterwards she left Salerno and went to Modena, where she continued the studies as soprano at the Conservatorio Orazio Vecchi under the guidance of Ms. Raina Kabaivanska. In 2007 she won as soprano the First International Competition "Tommaso Traetta" in Bitonto (Italy). In the same year she made her debut as soprano in Spoleto in the role of Mimì in La Bohème by G. Puccini and as Leonora in Il Trovatore (G. Verdi). In 2008 she made her debut at

LaCroix Sweetie, LaCroix! Fashion Designers in Opera

Fleming wears LaCroix (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Since declaring chapter 11, Christian Lacroix has kept himself busy in the opera world designing costumes around the globe. In 2008 he, along with John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld, designed soprano Renée Fleming's gowns for opening night scenes of La Traviata, Manon and Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera. As an encore, he returned to the MET in January 2009 to design the costumes for Massenet's Thaïs featuring Fleming and Thomas Hampson with Jesús López-Cobos conducting. [Source, Source]

Pendatchanska in Berlin

This March, Lacroix is creating the costumes for Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Conductor Yves Abel leads a cast that will include Vesselina Kasarova, Eri Nakamura and Dimitri Pittas. [Source] In February 2010 he designed the costumes for Händel's Agrippina at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. The occasion marked his debut at the German opera house. He flew back and forth between Paris and Berlin to personally oversee the fittings. Alexandra Pendatchanska sang the title role and René Jacobs led the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. [Source]

After the jump is a 30-year retrospective of designers (Capucci, LaCroix, Armani, Versace) creating costumes for opera and evening gowns for divas (Kabaivanska, Antonacci, Fleming, Dernesch, Ricciarelli).