Leone Magiera (born 1934) is an Italian pianist and conductor.
Career
Early life
He was born in Modena in 1934, the son of an engineer named Ubaldo. He belonged to an ancient Modenese family of jurists. Anna Maria, his mother, was from a long line of large landowners.
A childhood music prodigy, he performed for the first time in concert at age 12. He grew up in Lino Rastelli, Giorgio Vidusso and Alberto Mozzati's school and graduated in piano at the age of 18 at the Conservatory "Arrigo Boito "of
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
. He later graduated in singing (didactic branch), choir direction, composition and choral music at
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
Conservatory,
Giovanni Battista Martini Conservatory.
Teaching and performing
He won a national competition to become a teacher at just 25 years old. He taught at the Conservatory for the next 35 years. His students were
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, OMRI (, born Mirella Fregni, 27 February 1935 – 9 February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Gl ...
,
Luciano Pavarotti,
Ruggero Raimondi
Ruggero Raimondi (born 3 October 1941) is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures.
Life and career
Early training and career
Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II. His voice mat ...
,
Peter Glossop. Mirella Freni was also his first wife. Magiera was opera singer Luciano Pavarotti's childhood friend, longtime accompanist pianist and favorite conductor, accompanying him in more than a thousand recitals, concerts, and operatic performances. He led the orchestra in Pavarotti's last performance, of the aria "
Nessun dorma
"" (; English: "Let no one sleep") is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' (text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni) and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, (the unknown prince), ...
" from ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
'' at the opening of the
Torino Winter Olympic Games in 2006.
As a pianist, he has performed both as a soloist and as an accompanist to singers at all major festivals and concert halls; Among them,
Teatro alla Scala,
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (English: Florence Musical May) is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annual ...
,
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...
,
Vienna Musikverein
The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra.
The acoustics of the building's 'Gre ...
, Paris Opera, Metropolitan of New York. As a conductor and composer he has collaborated with many of the most important conductors:
Otto Klemperer
Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...
,
Carlo Maria Giulini,
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...
,
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Mehta's father was the fou ...
,
Carlos Kleiber
Carlos Luis Bonifacio Kleiber (3 July 1930 – 13 July 2004) was an Austrian conductor who is widely regarded as among the greatest conductors of all time.
Early life
Kleiber was born as Karl Ludwig Bonifacius Kleiber in Berlin in 1930, the ...
,
Georg Solti. With
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...
he had an intense artistic relationship: von Karajan wanted him as a collaborator for numerous operatic productions and as a coordinator for singers at the Salzburg Festival.
During his career Magiera discovered several singing talents, such as soprano
Carmela Remigio. He is involved in many masterclasses, both in Italy and abroad. He was artistic secretary of
Teatro alla Scala (
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
), director of
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (English: Florence Musical May) is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annual ...
and music consultant and artistic director of various music associations. He has published volumes dedicated to singing, translated into many languages: Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni and Ruggero Raimondi for memoirs. His discography, as pianist and orchestral conductor, includes hundreds of CDs and DVDs for EMI, DECCA, BASF, DDG labels.
He has recently resumed his solo pianist career and has been working on particularly complex programs, which have highlighted a solid technique and extraordinary musicality. After the CD with a selection of sonata by
Clementi Clementi may refer to:
People
* Aldo Clementi (1925–2011), Italian composer
* Cecil Clementi (1875–1947), British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong
* Cecilia Clementi, Italian-American scientist
* David Clementi (born 1949), B ...
(ed. Bongiovanni), he has just published with AURA Music. He lives in
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
.
Personal life
Magiera was married to soprano
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, OMRI (, born Mirella Fregni, 27 February 1935 – 9 February 2020) was an Italian operatic soprano who had a career of 50 years and appeared at major international opera houses. She received international attention at the Gl ...
in 1955. The couple had one daughter. Magiera and Freni divorced in 1978. He later married gynecologist Lidia la Marca.
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magiera, Leone
1934 births
Living people
Italian male conductors (music)
Musicians from Modena
Italian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
Italian male pianists
Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini faculty
21st-century Italian conductors (music)
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century Italian male musicians
20th-century Italian conductors (music)
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century Italian male musicians