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Ponnelle at La Scala

by Vittoria Crespi Morbio.
Essay by Vittoria Crespi Morbio, A Humanist Ministering to Music.
Appendices: biography; catalogue of works; chronology of performances.
Collection «Performing Artists at La Scala».
Amici della Scala – Umberto Allemandi & C., Turin, 2012.
Italian edition, pp. 181.

The career of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (Paris, 1932–Munich, 1988), a Frenchman but a world citizen, is matched by few directors for the vast body of work he created and the importance of the theatres which hosted him.  “His” theatres: La Scala, the Metropolitan, the San Francisco Opera, continue to  stage his legendary performances. A protean artist, able to conceive every aspect of a design perfectly attuned to the music, Ponnelle represented a milestone in the history of La Scala with his Rossini performances conducted by Claudio Abbado, but also left his unmistakable signature on a wide-ranging repertory, from Monteverdi to Hindemith.