Formed in 1933 – the inaugural year of the Festival of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino – under the guidance of Andrea Morosini, the Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is one of the most prestigious Italian vocal ensembles across both opera and symphonic repertoire. The chorus has also explored the fields of chamber and contemporary music, giving important premiere performances of works by Penderecki, Dallapiccola, Petrassi, Nono and Bussotti. In recent years the chorus has expanded its repertoire to include major choral symphonies, classical and modern works, and has participated in international tours both as an independent ensemble and with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. The willingness and ability to interpret works of different periods and styles in their original language have made the Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino one of the most flexible and appreciated ensembles of conductors and international critics.

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The Fiorentino Maggio Musicale Chorus with the Fiorentino Maggio Musicale Orchestra
Photo: Pietro Paolini - TerraProject - Contrasto

Founded in 1928 by Vittorio Gui as Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina, the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has performed in the concert and operatic seasons of the Teatro Comunale of Florence since its inception.

Gui was succeeded as permanent conductor by Mario Rossi and Bruno Bartoletti; Riccardo Muti and Zubin Mehta have also served as principal conductors. Throughout its history the Maggio Musicale Orchestra has been led by conductors such as Victor de Sabata, Antonio Guarnieri, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Tullio Serafin, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Issay Dobrowen, Erich Kleiber, Artur Rodziński, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Thomas Schippers, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Carlo Maria Giulini, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlos Kleiber, Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Seiji Ozawa and Fabio Luisi, who was its musical director from April 2018 to July 2019. Daniele Gatti is currently principal conductor, and Zubin Mehta is Honorary Conductor for Life.

www.maggiofiorentino.com

The Fiorentino Maggio Musicale Orchestra with the Fiorentino Maggio Musicale Chorus
Photo: Pietro Paolini - TerraProject - Contrasto

The Italian composer Franco Alfano was born in the neighbourhood of Posillipo, in Naples, in 1875, to a prosperous family of silver engravers. In 1891 the 16-year-old Alfano entered the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella as a piano pupil of Alessandro Longo, a highly regarded pianist and composer with whom he also studied composition. By his third year at the conservatory Alfano felt that he needed better tutelage elsewhere, so he travelled to Leipzig to attend the famed conservatory there. He had as his composition teacher the renowned Salomon Jadassohn.

After graduation, Alfano toured Russia as a pianist in 1898. Returning to Italy, he spent several months fruitlessly trying to find suitable librettists and, failing to find publishers willing to bring out his operas, he moved to Paris in order to make a living. Alfano’s mother hailed from France, and he maintained a life-long affinity for that beacon of culture and sophistication. In 1902, the composer attended a theatrical adaptation of Tolstoy’s last major novel, Resurrection, and he instantly knew that he must create an opera based on this highly dramatic and tragic story. The opera, Risurrezione, was premiered in Turin in 1904 and was an immediate success for the composer. In fact, by 1950 the opera had achieved its thousandth performance!

Alfano wrote many more operas, including L’ombra di Don Giovanni, The Recognition of Sakuntala and La leggenda di Sakùntala. He died on 27 October 1954. His name has long been remembered for the completion of Puccini’s last opera, Turandot, but his reputation as an original composer has more recently been reassessed.

Stage Works

After earlier ballet music, written during a period in Paris, Alfano won his first operatic success with Risurrezione (‘Resurrection’), staged in Turin in 1904. He used some of his 1921 opera La leggenda di Sakùntala in his completion of Turandot. His opera, which reflects the influence of Debussy, was later reconstructed and revived under the title Sakùntala. Other operas include a version of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, testimony to his importance in Italian opera after Puccini.

Instrumental and Vocal Music

Alfano had recourse to the work of Rabindranath Tagore in his vocal settings. His chamber and piano music includes three string quartets, a cello sonata and a concerto for piano trio.