OMBRA DELLA SERA Award to GIUSEPPE SABBATINI and STEFANO PODA

OMBRA DELLA SERA Award to GIUSEPPE SABBATINI and STEFANO PODA in Volterra – news by William Fratti – “Bruno Landi” for Opera, Giuseppe Sabbatini and “Cosimo Daddi” for Performing Arts, Stefano Poda –

August 3, 2019. On the splendid and evocative stage of the Roman Theater of Volterra, the Ombra della Sera Awards ceremony concluded with great applause, the central event of the International Festival, founded seventeen years ago by the actor and director Simone Migliorini, who still presides over it.

The jury, chaired by Giovanni Antonucci, composed of Vito Bruschini, Maura Catalan, Luca Chiellini, Maria Letizia Compatangelo, Alma Daddario, Paola Dei, Elena D'Elia, Natalia Di Bartolo, Lia Gay, Simone Migliorini, Carmela Piccione, Rainero Schembri, Mariano Rigillo, Anna Teresa Rossini, Edoardo Siravo, awarded, in the various sections provided, the “Fedra Inghirami” Ombra della Sera Lifetime Achievement Award to Carlo Simoni; the “Ernestina Fenzi” Ombra della Sera alla Danza Award, to Luciana Savignano; the “Bruno Landi” Ombra della Sera Award for Opera, to Giuseppe Sabbatini; the “Giovanni Villifranchi” Ombra della Sera Award for Dramaturgy, to Furio Bordon; the “Franco Porretti” Ombra della Sera Award, to Stefano De Lellis from Volterra who distinguished himself in Arts and Crafts; the “Cosimo Daddi” Ombra della Sera Award for Performing Arts, to Stefano Poda; the “Nuccio Messina” Ombra della Sera Award for the editorial photographic project for the ArtSipario show – Read the stage, to Tommaso Le Pera and Manfredi Edizioni.The evening was presented by Ubaldo Pantani and Marianella Bargilli.

M° GIUSEPPE SABBATINI
“Bruno Landi” Shadow of the Evening Award for Opera

(motivation)

Maestro Giuseppe Sabbatini's curriculum is of great prestige. From first double bass at the Verona Arena at just 24 years old, he then moved on to study opera singing as a tenor, embarking on a career which in a short time led him to perform in the main theaters and concert halls of the world, in a dazzling career.
His vocal quality has granted him a difficult and often little-attended repertoire, together with the best-known works of Italian melodrama: he also loved and loves French opera, in which he excels in Gounod as Faust and above all in Massenet as Werther.
In the twentieth year of his career he decided, as he had always planned, to dedicate himself to conducting, retiring from the stage as a tenor and undertaking this highly demanding activity. His latest effort, last May, was a splendid “Così fan tutte” by Mozart at the Teatro Peréz Galdos in Las Palmas, island of Gran Canaria, home of the great tenor Alfredo Kraus, his admirer and mentor.
He also dedicates himself to teaching, particularly in Japan, where he holds the role of Teaching Director of the Opera Academy of the prestigious Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and in Italy, as teacher of the Singing Class of the private AIMART Academy in Rome . AND’ was awarded prestigious prizes and honours, including that of Kammersànger (pron. Kammersàngher) of the Vienna Staatsoper from the Republic of Austria.
The reasons for our "Shadow of the evening Bruno Landi for Opera 2019" award, which we are awarding to him this evening, have therefore already been said. Maestro Giuseppe Sabbatini, an all-round musician, "omnivorous" as he also loves good contemporary music, who officially returned to singing as a baritone in 2018 with a tour in Japan, was and is one of the most applauded and appreciated opera singers in the critical on the international scenes, but he also has an edge, which binds him inseparably to Opera and gives him even more merit for this award: he has lived and lives Opera today even from the podium: his infinite experience allows him an ability particular support for the singers and perfect management of tempos and orchestral dynamics, coloring his performances with conscious refinement and making him one of the few in the world who have successfully undertaken and continued such a prestigious musical process.

Giuseppe Sabbatini and Natalia Di Bartolo

M° STEFANO PODA
“Cosimo Daddi” Shadow of the Evening Award for Performing Arts

(motivation)

The worldwide career of Maestro Stefano Poda, who takes care of the all-round direction, choreography, scenography, costumes and lighting of his own opera shows, includes around a hundred productions in the most prestigious theatres. The latest feather in his cap in chronological order was his production of the opera “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue” by Paul Dukàs at the Theater du Capitole de Toulouse, which earned him the prestigious “Claude Rostand” Grand Prix from critics on 21 June French for the best opera show of 2019.
In his search for aesthetic and conceptual unity, his artistic work is founded on a visionary and multi-level imprint balanced between ancient images and contemporary art. He has developed a language in which music, sculpture, painting and architecture can coexist.
His characters are always symbolic, dressed in dreamlike clothes and follow choreographic movements of stylized opulence, which also involve the performers.
Undoubted references to high fashion and design shine through in his works, all with a taste for wise refinement, a visionary capacity for dreamlike transposition and a great directorial flair in managing a stage often filled with a considerable quantity of people, including performers, choristers, dancers and extras.
And’ for this immense, inspired, highly personal work in which Maestro Poda manifests his intelligence, rigor and stylistic coherence at the service of the Opera, we award him this evening the Cosimo Daddi Shadow of the Evening Award for the Performing Arts: in his art nothing is gratuitous and everything is justified under a sign, which has managed to consolidate itself as its own aesthetic brand. A sign that is the fruit of a long investigation that feeds on broad literary, musical, philosophical and figurative horizons and that makes him one of the most original directors of our times, creator and creator of unique and unforgettable shows.