First edition of the “FRANCO CORELLI” INTERNATIONAL AWARD

For a Theatre with all the right numbers

Corrado Rovaris will be presented with an original sculpture by Eliseo Mattiacci

The attention of the media and the welcome of the public confirm the need for the lyrical season to return to Ancona (and shows the success that it has obtained). All 11 shows of the third season (Dittico – 3, Norma – 3, and La Bohème – 4 + general open evening) which ended last January were complete sell-outs: 10.459 paying spectators, pf which 801 season-ticket holders, 300 special season-ticket holders from the Dopolavoro Ferroviario (Italian railway workers free-time association),  300 foreign and Italian accredited journalists, fan clubs and associations like the Amici della Lirica (Friends of Lyrical Music), groups of music lovers willing to travel from Pesaro, Ravenna, Monaco, Perugia, Padova, Bologna, Ferrara to Ancona (making up a group total  of 2583 people), 465 students from schools that participated in the delle MusEducazione project, as well as foreigners from Japan, Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The event was also deemed to be a success by critics in the sector: the series of shows at Le Muse Theatre was described as being of the highest-quality (Carla Moreno of the business daily il Sole 24 ore), a sentiment shared by the Foundation, the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana (Philharmonic Orchestra of the Marche region) and by the Coro Lirico V. Bellini (V. Bellini Lyrical Choir). The result of this is a high artistic-musical level which places the Teatro delle Muse Foundation in the perfect position to re-establish cultural contact with the imposing figure of Franco Corelli, after whom the first International Award has been named to commemorate an artist who made his debut in the Le Muse Lyrical Season, and who contributed to keeping the name of the Ancona Theatre high.

The commission for the first “Franco Corelli” International Award awarded the prize to Master Corrado Rovaris, for the level of the deep and intelligent contribution given to the Mozartian interpretation in the musical direction of the opera Il Re pastore, which opened the 2003-2004 Lyrical Season in Ancona.

Over and above considering the staging of the opera in its various constituting elements, the Award has another important peculiarity: the winner receives an original sculpture which is crafted specially for the occasion by a great artist and which  is different every year. Eliseo Mattiacci, one of the prominent figures of the renewal of art since the Sixties, sculpted the piece for the first edition of the “Franco Corelli” International Award.

The prize will be presented to Corrado Rovaris on 22 March at 20h30 on the stage of Le Muse Theatre, where the Master will return to direct the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana and the Coro Lirico “V.Bellini” (V. Bellini Lyrical Choir) in the  Requiem K 626 of W.A. Mozart (the concert is part of the Società Amici della Musica “Guido Michelli” concert season programme, in conjunction with the Teatro delle Muse Foundation e la Fondazione Orchestra Regionale delle Marche  (Regional Orchestra of the Marche Foundation)