In 2001, the world celebrated the great Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) one hundred years after his death. One of the year’s most exciting commemorative events was the Gran Gala di Verdi, a gala concert in Parma that brought together some of the greatest opera singers of the age: Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, José Cura, Ruggero Raimondi, Marcelo Alvarez, Daniela Dessi, Elisabete Matos, Barbara Frittoli, Leo Nucci, and many others! Joined by the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Zubin Mehta’s baton, they performed beloved airs from Verdi’s twenty-eight operas, putting on full display the genius that made the composer’s works fixtures of every opera house’s repertory throughout the last century.
The Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino an...