By Mauro Battocchi The San Francisco Opera company has announced an ambitious calendar of ten operas this season, up from eight last year.   Included from the Italian opus will be Vincenzo Bellini's Norma (Sep 5 - 30, 2014), Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera (Oct 4 - 22, 2014), Gioachino Rossini's La Cenerentola (Nov 9 -26, 2014), Marco...

By Nancy Gilson On a sultry Saturday afternoon, Alessandro Siciliani stood at the front of an old church in the University District, directing the principal singers in a rehearsal of the 125-year-old opera Cavalleria rusticana. Despite the heat, he waved his baton, jumped, stomped a foot and hummed along during some of the most dramatic momen...

Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 Time: 6:30 PM. Location: IIC (Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue, Suite F, San Francisco) Organized by: IIC To illustrate the theme of this year's Italian Language Week, which is "The Italian of Music, the Music of Italian", Kip Cranna from the San Francisco Opera and Marina Romani from UC Berkeley will give a talk ab...

By Gretchen WingWe've seen it with jazz, rock, and hip-hop: musicians around the world pick up the American sound and run with it, and we're flattered. But Italian bluegrass? Never fear: Beppe Gambetta is a master innovator of the acoustic guitar, and the music he brings to Lopez Community Center on Sept.25 at 7 p.m. will dazzle bluegrass and world...

Like Enrico Caruso before him, Luciano Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera. Quickly establishing his trademark rich sound as the great male operatic voice of the 20th century, he expanded his reach to stadium concerts and pop collaborations which brought him fame beyond measure. The 50th anniversary of the launch...

by Steve Smith   Though she is beloved of connoisseurs and critics, the Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci remains little known among a broader New York public. It's not for lack of talent, since she is an artist of singular gifts and refined temperament.   But her local performances have been limited to just two concerts: one in...

The voice of Snow White in the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937 belonged to Adriana Caselotti. The 21-year-old coloratura soprano beat out 148 other candidates for the role. Her father Guido Caselotti, an immigrant from Italy, was a teacher of music and a vocal coach.   Her mother, Maria Oref...

Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata" is one of the most performed operas in the world, yet it hasn't appeared on a Boston Lyric Opera stage for more than a decade. That is, until this October, when the renowned company will stage a production of the classic work, interpreted by some of the country's rising stars of opera. Five performances will take...

On October 26th, classical music for piano and voice by the early 20th century Italian composer Salvatore Arnò, will be performed for the first time this century. During Arnò's lifetime, he achieved the admiration of his audiences and fellow musicians throughout Italy and in Boston. Newspaper reviews heartily express these sentiments. A representa...

I'm sure many Medford residents remember an Italian teacher named Michelina Pietrangelo, who taught at Medford High School until 1991 when a terminal illness struck her. She died shortly after and left a bequest for students of Italian at Medford High School.Cesare Pietrangelo, Michelina's brother and executor of the endowment, has given scholarsh...