The United Palace Theater in New York hosted an intense and open conversation between Maestro Riccardo Frizza, musical and artistic director of Donizetti Opera Festival and the American opera historian Fred Plotkin. among the most authoritative in the American opera scene. The meeting, entitled Behind the Baton: Insights from a Maestro, was organized by the Musicians Foundation, the oldest American organization dedicated to supporting musicians and their families, in collaboration with the United Palace of Cultural Arts.
The initiative is part of the Metropolitan Opera season, in which Frizza currently manages the production of La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini.
During about sixty minutes of dialogue, followed by a thirty-minute session to questions and answers with the public, Frizza told his method, the relationship with the orchestra and singers, and the idea that for him lies at the center of the musical direction: listen before heading, know how to read the silence as well as the note. The master, recently appointed Knight to the merit of the Italian Republic by President Sergio Mattarella, offered a full-scale reflection on the profession of the conductor, talking about the gesture, the listening and the responsibility of the interpretation. During the evening, he also told the artistic challenges that await him with productions and concerts at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, at the ABAO Bilbao Opera, the Royal Ballet and Opera in London and again at the Metropolitan Opera.
Plotkin, led the conversation by insisting on a crucial point: “nothing is comparable to live opera”. He stressed that the exchange that takes place on stage — between the vibrate of a voice, the orchestra and the viewer — is the true essence of the melodrama. Author of the famous book Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera — the introductory text on the best-selling work in the United States — has been able to interweave anecdotes and questions capable of revealing the most human dimension of the Frizza craft.
The audience responded with curiosity and participation, asking questions about the relationship between tradition and innovation, the spaces of live execution and the future of the work in an increasingly digital world.
For the Musicians Foundation, the initiative confirms the commitment to stimulate not only passive listening, but participation and reflection, enhancing the importance of sharing.
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