Awards Ceremony of the 44th “Franco Abbiati” Italian Music Critics Prize in Pesaro.
At the Teatro Rossini on Sunday, August 10, the parchments of the Abbiati Prize were presented to the winners, together with the official motivations.
The “Franco Abbiati” Italian Music Critics Prize is awarded by the National Association of Music Critics. For several years now, on the initiative of the Association’s president, Andrea Estero, the award ceremony has been hosted by the institution that won in the “Best Production” category.
Just a few hours before the opening of its 46th edition with a performance of Zelmira, the Rossini Opera Festival welcomed the National Association of Music Critics and received the “Best Production” award for its 2024 staging of Ermione, with musical direction by Michele Mariotti and stage direction by Johannes Erath. Both artists, along with ROF’s superintendent Ernesto Palacio, were present to collect the parchment, bearing the following motivation:
“For the nuanced interpretation achieved through the symbiotic relationship between musical and theatrical conception, with a unity of intent and a quality aimed—according to the principle set out by the Festival’s founder Gianfranco Mariotti—not at reassuring seduction, but at provoking reflection and debate on the opera itself.”
The jury of the 44th edition of the “Franco Abbiati” Prize—named after the Bergamo-born music critic and long-time contributor to Corriere della Sera—was chaired by Angelo Foletto and composed of the board of the National Association of Music Critics (Andrea Estero, President; Alessandro Cammarano; Carlo Fiore; Gianluigi Mattietti; Carla Moreni; and Roberta Pedrotti), along with seven critics elected by the members of ANCM: Attilio Cantore, Susanna Franchi, Cesare Galla, Giancarlo Landini, Gregorio Moppi, Alessandro Rigolli, and Lorenzo Tozzi.