Teresa Favi
Alexander Pereira. Maggio Musicale is back
Superintendent of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino tells us about the opera theatre’s reopening
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino did not give up during the lockdown despite the cancellation of the Festival. How are you planning the reopening?
We will go back to normal activity in autumn. We must overcome fear. The positive and under-control evolution of the health situation has been clear since early June in Florence. The Festival will reopen with a baroque opera, Rinaldo, which will be followed by all the other shows that had been scheduled for the Festival. This year’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is going to be an autumn festival.
What changes do you expect in the music world after this pandemic?
The increasing use of streaming media during the lockdown is a positive change. I appreciate that an opera lover is able to watch one of our performances live, even in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. We should see it not as an alternative to theatre, but as an extra opportunity to be distributed across the world. Coronavirus forced us all to look beyond our habits and routines, in all fields.
Will the production methods and the way we go to the Opera change as well?
The theatre is a unique experience and this will never change: the smell, the atmosphere, the direct contact with the artists. Live performing cannot die, and all the more so after the pandemic.
What was your personal perception of Florence in such an unusual situation?
I’ve never felt and seen Florence so pure, so focused, steady, united and determined to climb back up. And I’m sure of one thing: it’s going to reach higher than ever before.
