Silvio Barbato
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Silvio Sergio Bonaccorsi Barbato (born Candeias (Minas Gerais) (Brazil), 11 May 1959; died in mid-Atlantic Ocean, on the Air France Flight 447, 1 June 2009) was an Italian-Brazilian opera conductor and composer.
Life and Career
Maestro Barbato was son of Daniele Barbato and Rosalba Bonaccorsi, daughter of Silvio and Alvara Bonaccorsi and granddaughter of Celestino and Luigi Bonaccorsi, firsts descendants of Bonaccorsi brothers, originars of Fornaci di Barga, (Italy), emigrated in Brazil at the end of the 19th Century [1].
His grandparents were both doctors in Candeias (Minas Gerais), (Brazil). His father dead in Brasilia, for an heart attack, in the 90s, when he was professor at the University of the capital.
He graduated in "Conducting" at the University of Brasilia; he studied Conducting and Composition first with Cláudio Santoro and then he moved to Milan where he continued with Azio Corghi at "Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi". In 1984 he received his merit degree at the "Accademia Musicale Chigiana" of Siena, and one year later he graduated at "Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi", also receiving the gold medal in High Conducting, first Brazilian to be confired of this honour after Carlos Gomes . His conducting career started at the age of only 25, when he directed a performance of Tosca at the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro becaming known as "maestro menudo" ("little conductor") as he was the youngest conductor in Brazil to direct a complete opera and because he used very big hair. In Italy he also studied with Franco Ferrara, and he became the assistent director of M° Romano Gandolfi at the Teatro alla Scala. Master in "Italian Opera" at the University of Chicago in the class of Philip Gossett.
Barbato was two times director of the Orchestra of the Nazional Theatre of Brasília: from 1989 to 1992 and from 1999 to 2006.
In 1996, for centenary of Antônio Carlos Gomes, he was called by Placido Domingo to reconstruct the original partition of the opera "O Guarany", for the opening night of the Washington National Opera[2]. This version had never been performed before, after its debut at Teatro alla Scala in 1870.
He is musical director of the film “Villa Lobos, Uma Vida de Paixão”, and was awarded with “Grand Prize of the Cinema Brazil 2001”, in the cathegory "best soundtrack"[3]. In 2002 he received the "Medal for Cultural Merits" from the President of Brazil[4] and he was also named "Commendatory of the Rio Branco Order".
He also conducted choral works such as Berlioz's L'enfant du Christ (performed with the city's combined musical forces in 2004).
During his life he promoted the works of his teacher Claudio Santoro whose music he regarded as "indisputably composed in the mould of Soviet socialist realism" on a par with Shostakovich. He also championed the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Barbato was en route to Kiev where he was due to conduct and teach. He was on Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris early on 1 June 2009 when it mysteriously crashed over the Atlantic Ocean.
Silvio Barbato's partner was the violinist Antonella Pareschi.
References
- ^ Article on the Italian journal "Il Giornale di Barga" that speaks about the history of the Bonaccorsi-Barbato family
- ^ Article of the Italian jornal "Corriere Mercantile" regarding the opening night of 'O Guarany' in Washington
- ^ Iternet site of the Brazilian jornal "Folha" with all the winners of the 2001 edition
- ^ Internet site of the Brazilian Minister of Culture with the list of all the winners from 1995 to 2002
- Obituary in The Daily Telegraph 6 June, 2009 p.33