Asecret appointment exists between past generations and our own," Walter Benjamin wrote. "Our arrival on earth was expected." At pivotal moments, the philosopher argued, voices from the past reach out to us with prophetic force, escaping oblivion as a result. The past is not a fixed, eternal image; it is shaped by present concerns.
A few years back, Will Crutchfield, the artistic director of the Teatro Nuovo opera company, happened upon the name of Carolina Uccelli, a Florentine composer, singer, and poet who lived from 1810 to 1858. Her opera "Anna di Resburgo" had its premiere in Naples, in 1835, and then dropped from sight. The idea that a woman had gained a foothold in the otherwise all-male world of Italian operatic composition intrigued Crutchfield, and he got hold of the score. Convinced that it merited a second chance, he brought it to Teatro Nuovo. A pair of performances last month, at Montclair State University and at Jazz at Lincoln Center, proved him emphatically right. "Anna' is a formidable achievement for a composer in her mid-twenties. It feels like the slightly overstuffed but hugely promising early work of a major voice. The fact that Uccelli never completed another opera shows the extent to which musical history is influenced by forces that have little to do with innate talent.
This story is from the August 12, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 12, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Screams from a Marriage
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
Fly with Me
The children’s books of Katherine Rundell.
The Mystery of Pain
Garth Greenwell’s novel of extreme affliction and ordinary happiness.
The Show Must Go On
What if Ronald Reagan’ Presidency never really ended?
LAST COFFEEHOUSE ON TRAVIS
For a few months, I stayed with my aunt's friend in Midtown, back when she could still afford to live there.
Tales from the New World
The novelist Richard Powers considers our changing earth.
Land of the Flea
What America 1s buying and selling.
The Dark Time
On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging.
The Post-Moral Age
If conscience is merely a biological artifact, must we give up on goodness?
How We Got the Story
This five-part series, which includes this three-part series on how we got the story, is the result of a two-year investigation, involving dozens of legal filings, scores of interview requests, several interviews, innumerable Zoom meetings, and five 311 calls.
