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| Gran Teatro La Fenice, Brachino
with Tosi and Protti |
Gran Teatro La Fenice |
MARIA CALLAS PROGRAMME ON THE CHANNEL "RETE4"
(mediaset) - part of the Weekly Serie "Top Secret"
Date 28th April 2005 time 23,40.
Conduttore: Claudio Brachino
Regista: Giovanni Giovannini
Partecipants: Bruno Tosi e Daniele Protti Direttore de
L'Europeo
One of the most widely-followed transmissions, “ TOP SECRET”
screened a special episode on thursday April 28th at 23,40
dedicated to three famous women. ( RETE 4 MEDIASET) two
of these women achieved the status of Icons- wordwide
legends: Maria Callas and Marilyn Monroe.
The programme is entitled “ The fall of the godesses”
(“la caduta delle dee”) and has been seeked to explore
not only the secrets regarding their lives, but more markedly
those involving the deaths of these historic and mega-famous
stars.
The presenter is the popular T.V. personality Claudio
Brachino, and the transmission is directed by Giovanni
Giovannini, who also took the photographs that accompany
this news.
There is a very special section of this programme which
was filmed in an extra ordinarily appropriate setting-
the Royal Box of the Fenice Opera House.
Here, the special guests invited to talk about the “ Divina
Maria Callas” included Bruno Tosi, President of the Associazione
Callas and the director of the important magazine “ L’Europeo”
Daniele Protti.
It was not by chance that Venice was the choice of venue
to remember Callas: in fact it was here at the Fenice
that Callas made her real debut in December 1947 in Wagner’s
“ Tristan and Isolde” following the rather luke-warm reception
for the then twenty-three year-old Prima Donna at the
Arena di Verona in the role of the “ Gioconda” by Ponchielli
in the August of the same year-her Italian debut.
This edition of “ Top Secret” has placed a special emphasis
on the real revelation of Callas in 1949, when she appeared
on the stage of the Fenice in the role of Elvira in Bellini’s
“ Puritani”, just a few days after she had sung in Wagner’s
“ Walkure” .
The performance was unscheduled , given that the young
Callas was “standing in” at the last minute for Margherita
Carosio, who had been taken ill. It proved to be a resounding
success both with the public and with the critics-and
led to the twentieth century re-introduction of a category
“ Soprano Drammatico d’agilità) in which the singer was
placed upon a pedestal alongside Maria Malibran and Giuditta
Pasta.
Callas sang in Venice from 1947 to 1954, her last role
being “ Lucia di Lammermoor” and in Cherubini’s “ Medea”
immediately after her unforgettable triumphs at the Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino and at La Scala Milan.
One could thewefore say that Callas achieved her real
stardom at the Fenice in 1949. Nearly thirty years later,
on the 16th of September 1977 she was to die in Paris,
unhappy and practically alone- possibly, as has been recethy
suggested by Franco Zeffirelli, poisoned.
A tragic and mysterious ending- like that of Marylin Monroe
in 1962 in California. Different women - different ways
of reaching celebrity-different fields-music and cinema
- both heroines of the Dream Factory who, when they fall
from grace, leave sadness, anguish, and an endless air
of mystery.
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| Claudio Brachino - Rete4 on Gran
Teatro La Fenice |
Bruno Tosi with Daniele Protti |
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