Until 28 December, the Instituto Italiano de Cultura of Madrid presents an exhibition and musical itinerary dedicated to the great Italian composer, librettist and poet “scapigliato” Arrigo Boito.
This itinerary is part of the parallel activities with the Teatro Real de Madrid, on the occasion of La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini, on stage at the Real until 4 January 2022, co-produced with the Royal Opera House of London and the Lyric Opera of Chicago and directed by Maestro Nicola Luisotti.
This activity, curated by the Institute for Theatre and Melodrama of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in collaboration with the National Committee for the centenary celebrations of the death of Arrigo Boito, was conceived with the intention of presenting the life and work of the famous writer Arrigo Boito (Padua 1842 – Milan 1918) to the general public. A friend of Rossini and Verdi, a relationship – also dualistic – with the work of Wagner, Boito devoted himself mainly to writing librettos for illustrious works destined to become part of the history of lyric poetry, which he almost always signed with the anagrammatic pseudonym Tobia Gorrio. Among others, we also remember La Gioconda for Amilcare Ponchielli, Ero e Leandro written for himself in 1871 and then donated to Giovanni Bottesini, Pier Luigi Farnese for Costantino Palumbo, La falce for Alfredo Catalani and Un tramonto for Gaetano Coronaro. For Giuseppe Verdi, with whom some arguments arose in 1863 over an offensive ode (Alla salute dell’Arte Italiana), he wrote Shakespeare’s Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), and made major changes to Simon Boccanegra (1881). During their relationship and collaboration, despite unpleasant events, a deep and sincere friendship was born, as well as a mutual appreciation…
