Opera composers, this is the catalogue
For the Amici del Canto, an opening
…Listen and read along with me:
in Italy 2040
in Romagna more or less 31
6 in Sicily and in Calabria none
But in Tuscany,
but in Tuscany already 1003…

Do you remember the driving rhythm of the Aria del catalogo sung by Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni?
Almost a necessary allusion, indeed an affectionate parody, to tell the story of the association Amici della Lirica di Perugia, more than 35 years after its founding [1].
First, the name. It is a convention of recognisability and simplicity. Lirica in fact stands for Opera in music, that invention of theatre, music and dance which has taken on different modes and styles across more than four centuries, starting from its origin in Italy. A collective ritual, yet another aspect of the 'utopia of beauty', to express in a single formula the sense of this artistic creation.
So we were speaking of the Amici della Lirica di Perugia [2], of which we give a brief account, since their longevity and activity, with all the changes of a long span of time, deserve a certain attention. The history of an association is almost always the history of a passion (it is certainly the reason for its existence).
A passion for Opera, and, being in Italy, it seems legitimate to specify Melodramma, a formula by now well established, with all its apparatus of history and of the imaginary.
A group of people shares interests, ideas, aspirations; from this are born projects and programmes.
The association Amici della Lirica di Perugia, precisely on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary, produced a publication on its own history; yet these lines do not aim to be a summary or a review of the book, but rather an occasion to place the accent on this reality, similar to others in Italy and certainly significant of the spirit of a musical tradition: opera lirica, melodramma, in the common sense of the word. One may therefore insist that the term lirica appears too univocal to represent a universe rich in developments across the centuries.
In fact, all the activity, all the choices or most of them, cultural, organisational, didactic, have been under the banner of Opera in music, which proves to be the most appropriate term to designate 'musical theatre', from its dawn to the hybrid forms of our own day.
This, then, is also the story of the experiences and of the shaping of a taste, one even eclectic in relation to traditional models, which years of attendance and listening have fostered and formed.
In parallel with the research and experimentation of the live performing arts, innovations have arrived in the choice of repertoire: 'minor' works by unfashionable composers and periods, works recovered from the great map of the centuries (buried in archives, musicological and historiographical discoveries), titles by modern and contemporary composers seldom performed; the demands of interpretation have grown sharper, especially in the field of stage direction, starting with the summoning of authorial names from theatre and cinema, certainly a robust draw for a 'popular' genre now different in many respects from the nineteenth-century welter, as memory recalls and as historians have by now definitively acknowledged. The audience has changed, perception and experience have changed, and so, of course, have tastes and the forms of representation. The technological equipment, for example, has offered enormous possibilities to the vision and perception of the stories; characters, figures of myth and of exemplary tales (the comic, the lyric, the tragic…). Set designers, costume designers, choreographers, in various styles and coming from various backgrounds, and above all directors, contribute in full standing, alongside the conductor, to the performance; they work, or ought to work, together, sometimes even in dissociation, with the relentless risk of a failed effect, of a language disharmonious if not altogether foreign to the musical compositional intentions. On the other hand, the heterodox vivacity of contemporary culture and its media allows keys of interpretation and of staging that reveal infinite nuances and meanings, when they are placed at the service of the individual works and are not claims of updating as an end in themselves.
The importance assumed by opera direction thus sanctions, for better or worse, a range of solutions and interpretations, and issues into alternating vicissitudes of taste and rediscovery, especially for those by-now classic titles that push towards unusual stagings, acting styles and settings, sometimes quite out of context: they become real and painful trials for the spectator. On the other side, drawing closer to heterodox, if not rare or seldom-performed, authors and titles offers occasions for discovery and discussion.
In short, an audience that moves between the apparent safety of the familiar (works by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Bellini..) and adventures with less usual composers (Vinci, Janacek, Casella, Britten, Bernstein…), following 'minor' and rarely performed compositions, by way of stagings realised with those technologies that consign traditional costumes and scenic apparatus to the attic (video, holograms, digital art).
These points are made here to show how the current repertoire is a frequent stimulus of renewed interest, often of controversy, and in any case a further cause of curiosity and passion.
Quoting from the preface with regard to the members: 'not only the pleasure of opera, but the culture of opera'.
In some way the vicissitudes of the Association seem to mirror those of the repertoires at the principal Italian theatres, with all the variants of taste and also of consensus; not only that, it must be stressed how much everything has moved within the Association, from the moments of preparation and introduction to the programme through to its assessment, after a performance. A kind of rugged path among resistance, discoveries and the evolution of taste.
Knowledge proceeds hand in hand with experience. Meetings and conversations are always organised on the individual works to be heard in the various theatres, and for every extraordinary occasion that arises: anniversaries, collaborations with public and private institutions, the availability of guests to explore themes, works and composers in depth, book presentations, in short a truly wide range of presence and activity, which testifies to how rich the operatic form is in subjects and in links among the arts.
Every aspect of it, assuming a precise list could be drawn up, vocality, characters, stories, literatures, mythographies, dramaturgies… becomes an occasion for discoveries, for bringing things into focus. Every performance and listening experience, an object of study and comparison, in order to rediscover its vital breath in each staging, because this is precisely the main aim of the Association.
An aim that has made its way over time, after meetings, trips, discussions, magnificent or disappointing listenings, and that has been fostered by those who have organised and coordinated the Association. A long familiarity with classic titles, heterogeneous repertoires, with visits to glorious and sumptuous theatres: S. Carlo, La Fenice, La Scala, Opera Garnier, Royal Opera House, to cite the most famous. Each time interested in finding links among the arts and the characters of the various periods and composers; in discovering that the vices of performance practices, of singers, of acquired formulas have contributed to creating that unique and at the same time eclectic genre which is opera lirica. In the end, however, even those who seek the reassuring 'tradition', in the sharing of the operatic mania, they too experience the elusive and indecipherable magic of those stories in which one sings by speaking and speaks by singing, in costume or naked (as in Ercole sul Termidonte), and at times the doubt may arise that among the many follies of art, as cited in the title, this is one of the most successful.

[1] On the occasion of the anniversary the volume was published: 'Andare all'Opera. Storia dell'Associazione Amici della Lirica di Perugia. 1983-2013'. Morlacchi editore, 2014.

[2] The city of Perugia has for years lacked an opera season of its own, while it has a notable concert programme plus several prestigious festivals (Sagra Musicale Umbra, Umbria Jazz and others in the region). This reality nourished expectations and interest in Opera until a band of enthusiasts toyed with the idea of promoting a dedicated association. Hence a series of activities and initiatives, beginning with trips to the theatres of the nearest cities, Rome and Florence on a continuous basis.

ASSOCIAZIONE AMICI DELLA LIRICA DI PERUGIA

06123 PERUGIA – via del Verzaro, 20 – Tel. and Fax 0755725257 – e-mail: amicidellaliricaperugia@gmail.com

www.amicidellaliricaperugia.it

Angela Margaritelli works at the Study Centre of the Teatro Stabile dell'Umbria. An expert in the performing arts, she has long been engaged in artistic and cultural promotion and outreach.