The Operas

In this page you can discover in which opera, in which productions and what kind of sounds were used since 1990 until today

These files reproduce two excerpts from "Die Zauberflöte" by W.A. Mozart performed in Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Italy in 1993 (conductor Zubin Mehta); Here the sound of sampled Glockenspiel appears, and you will listen to a very special kind of sampled sound. The real glockenspiel plays two octaves up higher than the written score. Maestro Zubin Mehta wanted instead a sound that was only one octave higher, like celesta, but not warm as celesta, maintaining the peculiar sharpness of the sound of the keyboard glockenspiel. That is the result of a very special procedure of mixed sampling techniques.

This example plays the sampled bells programmed for "Parsifal" as performed in Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, in 1997 (conductor Semyon Bychkov), which shows how the sound changes with respect to the dynamics written in the score ("p" and "sehr stark")

Click on one of the pictures for an audio example

Click on the picture for an audio example

Click on one of the images for a video example

My sampled sounds and my work as Sound Designer appear also in those CD and DVD recordings:

G. Puccini, Tosca in the settings and at the times of Tosca (Malfitano, Domingo, Raimondi, Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAI di Roma, Z. Mehta) CD TELDEC 0630-12372-2

G. Puccini, Tosca (Guleghina, Licitra, Nucci, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, R. Muti) CD SONY CLASSICAL S2K 89271

G. Puccini, Tosca (Cedolins, Bocelli, Guelfi, Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Z. Mehta), CD Sugar 473 920-2

G. Puccini, Il trittico (Freni, Pons, Giacomini, Suliotis, Nucci, Alagna, Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, B. Bartoletti) CD DECCA 436 261-2

G. Verdi, Aroldo (Schicoff, Vaness, Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, F. Luisi) CD Philips 462 512-2

L. Berio, Many more voices, CD RCA Victor 09026-68302-2

Aftergenesis, The cryme of selling lambs after Genesis, CD NBB Records, I3 2004

G. Puccini, Madama Butterfly (Dessì, Armiliato, Pons, Orchestra e Coro Città Lirica, P. Domingo) DVD Dynamic S51109

G. Verdi, Simon Boccanegra (Guelfi, Konstantinov, Mattila, La Scola, Gallo, Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, C. Abbado) DVD TDK DV-OPSIBO

G. Puccini, Tosca (Malfitano, Margison, Terfel, Chorus of the Nederlandse Opera, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, R. Chailly) DVD DECCA 074 3201

G. Puccini, Tosca (Cedolins, Alvarez, Raimondi, Orchestra e Coro dell’Arena di Verona, D. Oren) DVD TDK DVWW-OPTOv

G. Puccini, Turandot (princesse de legende, au Stade de France) (Gordei, Martinucci, Hong, Orchestra di Salerno, Coro Città Lirica, J. Acs, DVD TF1 Video EDV1035

G. Puccini, Tosca (Guleghina, Licitra, Nucci, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, R. Muti) DVD TDK 10 5008 9 DV-OPTOS

G. Puccini, La fanciulla del West (Dessì, Armiliato, Gallo, Orchestra e Coro “Città Lirica”, A. Veronesi) CD RS RealSound RS 052-0149

G. Puccini, La Bohème (Fantini, Pisapia, D’Annunzio Lombardi, Orchestra e Coro del Festival Puccini, S. Robertson) DVD Dynamic 33564

Click on one of the images for a video example

In this example you can listen to the hammer played bells (in the russian way) in the opera “Boris Godunov” by M. P. Musorgskij. The mapping of the samples on the keyboard is conceived to give an always different combination of sounds, to achieve a better realism.

Click on one of the pictures for an audio example

In these two different examples you can listen to the low Church bell in “Gianni Schicchi” and the sounds of tug boat siren and car horn that Puccini wanted in “Tabarro” in order to add a deeper sense of realism to the action; You can easily reckon how faithfully the digital sampling corresponds to the Author’s idea.

Click on the picture for an audio example

In this example you can listen to an example of sampled female choir for “Nutcracker” by P.I. Tchaikowskij , as played live in Teatro Verdi in Firenze in 1993. The loudspeaker were positioned in the backstage, very far from the pit, to achieve a sense of “magic” to the sound.

Click on the picture for an audio example