PUCCINI'S UNIQUE COMMEMORATION IN ART
“Visse d'Arte”, (“I Lived for Art”), the celebrated aria from Giacomo Puccini's opera “Tosca”, has been chosen as the title for the solo exhibition by polymath artist, musician and writer, Corrado Veneziano, at present on show at the National Museum of Musical Instruments, Rome.
As part of the Puccini centenary celebrations (the composer died in 1924), the exhibition features 12 oil paintings, each dedicated to one of the operatic works in the composer's repertoire, as well as a number of experimental studies, called by the artist “a Moment Before Composing”, plus three additional major works relating to the maestro's life and preferences:
“Antilisca”, the winged female demon that introduces the exhibition, refers to a ghostly presence Puccini, in order to tease visitors, would claim lived in the woods surrounding his villa, “L'incipid”, or “the Beginning” of the Old Testament, which he read assiduously along with Dante's “Divina Commedia”. Veneziano has represented the latter with the frail and tragic hands of Pia de' Tolomei emerging from the grey mists of Purgatorio.
Veneziano's works are dominated by swathes of colour covering the entire canvass, in which fragments of the musical scores float in barely perceptible horizontal lines.
Colours are used to convey the mood of the different operas: thus a proud and defiant Tosca, already half a ghost, appears faintly against the battlements of Castel Sant' Angelo illuminated by the golden glow of a sunrise that she will never see. The faces of the “Le Villi”, the death spirits of young women, float in a mist of purples, blues and pinks. “La Boheme” features a wall of graduating pastels, peppered with diminishing red musical notes. The tiny, iconic butterfly of “Madame Butterfly” is placed in the centre of a sky of tender blue that contrasts with the deep indaco of the “Turandot”, which is represented by a flight of stairs where the heartless and icy princess abandons her jewels and precious ornaments, as she surrenders to the dominant power of love. In “Il Tabarro”, one of the most complex of the compositions, the white figure of the dead child emerges from a gloomy sea of browns and blacks under a canopy of heavenly light. By contrast, “Gianni Schicchi”, Puccini's only comic opera, lifts the mood with bubbles that float in a bright yellow and amber sky.
Veneziano has exhibited widely in Italy and the EU, as well as in the USA, North Africa, Russia and a number of East European countries. Ancillary commissions and achievements include his design chosen for the logo for the Prix Italia 2015, inspired by the figure of the Ancient Greek historian and geographer Herodotus, and the commemorative stamp issued by the Italian post office for the “Year of Dante 2023”.
The choice of the venue of the National Museum of Musical Instruments, where the artist's works hang alongside the exceptional collection of historic harps, mandolins, violins, wind instruments, harpsichords and so on, offers a unique and unmissable experience. The 800 musical instruments on display in the museum come mainly from the private collection of the tenor Gennaro Evangelista Gorga (1865 - 1957) who was Puccini's first Rodolfo in “La Boheme”.
The exhibition “Visse d'Arte” runs until the 23rd June 2024.
M. STENHOUSE
Info: Tel. +39.06.7014796 https://museostrumentimusicali.beniculturali.it
