Gianandrea Gavazzeni (Gianandrea Gavazzeni) |

Gianandrea Gavazzeni

Debut 1940 (Parma). Worked in Bologna. Since 1948 at La Scala (in 1965-68 artistic director, among the best productions of Huguenots, 1962). Specialist in Italian and Russian operas. Participated in the world premieres of his teacher Pizzetti’s operas (Yorio’s Daughter, 1954; Murder in the Cathedral, 1958). He successfully performed Anna Boleyn by Donizetti at the Glyndebourne Festival (1965).

In the repertoire of the opera “The Stone Guest” by Dargomyzhsky, “Sorochinsky Fair” by Mussorgsky. Toured with La Scala in Moscow (1964, 1989). In 1976 debut at the Metropolitan Opera (“Il trovatore”). Author of books about Donizetti, Mussorgsky (1943) and others. He performed until 1993. Among the recordings are Anna Boleyn (soloists Callas, Rossi-Lemeni, Simionato, D. Raimondi and others, EMI), Mascagni’s Friend Fritz (soloists Pavarotti , Freni, EMI) and many others. others

E. Tsodokov

At the end of 1966, Gianandrea Gavazeni became artistic director of the La Scala Theatre. This appointment adequately crowned the career of a remarkable conductor, composer, music writer, who for many previous years had made a significant contribution to the prosperity of the first theater in Italy.

Gavazeni was born in Bergamo. He received musical training at the Rome Conservatory, where he studied in 1921-1924, and at Milan, from which he graduated in 1931 as a pianist and composer. Until the early 1940s, Gavazeni was mainly engaged in composition and, as a conductor, performed only with the performance of his own compositions. He wrote the opera “Paul and Virginia”, a number of orchestral compositions, and romances. Beginning in XNUMX, the musician’s conducting activity came to the fore, although he continued to compose music and write critical articles, studies and literary works on musical topics, among which was the book Mussorgsky and Russian Music of the XNUMXth Century.

In subsequent years, Gavazeni won the fame of one of the best opera conductors of modern Italy. In the first post-war seasons, he began to perform regularly at the La Scala theater, of which he became a permanent conductor in 1943; has repeatedly toured in theaters in Italy, as well as in Austria, Germany, England, Switzerland, Spain, the USA and other countries. In 1964, Gavazeni traveled to the USSR with the La Scala troupe, conducting Verdi’s Il trovatore; the brilliant artistry and skill of the conductor were highly appreciated by Soviet critics.

Gavazeni’s repertoire is based on Italian operas of all times and styles. He is especially successful in the works of Rossini, Donizetti, early Verdi, as well as modern operas by Pizzetti, Malipiero and others. At the same time, works by foreign authors have repeatedly been under his control. Gavazeni is considered perhaps the best performer and connoisseur of Russian music in Italy; among his achievements are the productions of Dargomyzhsky’s The Stone Guest and Mussorgsky’s Sorochinsky Fair.

Gavazeni’s repertoire is based on Italian operas of all times and styles. He is especially successful in the works of Rossini, Donizetti, early Verdi, as well as modern operas by Pizzetti, Malipiero and others. At the same time, works by foreign authors have repeatedly been under his control. Gavazeni is considered perhaps the best performer and connoisseur of Russian music in Italy; among his achievements are the productions of Dargomyzhsky’s The Stone Guest and Mussorgsky’s Sorochinsky Fair.

“Contemporary Conductors”, M. 1969.