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Finally a Festival at A=432 Hz,
In front of Verdi’s home in Roncole!

By Liliana Gorini
May 2015

Giuseppe Verdi.

August 11th, 12th and 13th, 2015 will be an historic date for Verdi’s lovers all over the world: in front of Verdi’s home, in Roncole (near Busseto) conductor Silvano Frontalini, the City of Busseto and the Casa Verdi in Milan have organized the Primo Roncole Festival, with three concerts in the Verdi tuning (A=432 Hz) under the baton of Mo. Silvano Frontalini, who will conduct the Primo Roncole Orchestra. Among the Italian singers, there is also Cristian Lanza, nephew of the world famous tenor Mario Lanza. All singers, and the Coro delle Terre Verdiane, will perform arias, scenes and choruses from Verdi’s operas at A=432 Hz.

As Mo. Frontalini writes in the website dedicated to the Festival http://www.nuovoverdianeum.it/
roncole-verdi-festival---2015
, “the highpoint of the Festival will be to pay homage to great Giuseppe Verdi, despite the lack of funds from official institutions because of the crisis, and only thanks to music lovers (who can already book cheaper tickets on the website), to realize Verdi’s will of playing in the scientific pitch of A=432 Hz as opposed to today’s A=442”. The official program quotes to this effect the Schiller Institute conference at the Casa Verdi in Milan in 1988, with Piero Cappuccilli giving the first example in both tunings, and also the bill which was introduced in the Italian Senate as a result of the Schiller Institute petition, signed by more than 2000 opera singers, conductors and musicians from all over the world. The Schiller Institute video “A musical revolution: Verdi’s tuning” will be shown at the press conference announcing the Roncole Festival, on june 13th, and also at the Busseto stand at the Milan Expo.

As Mo. Frontalini says in the announcement, talking to Verdi, “Dear Maestro, after more than a century we have managed to grant your wish, and right in front of your house!”