Paolo Isotta
Paolo Isotta | |
|---|---|
| Born | 18 October 1950 Naples, Italy |
| Died | 12 February 2021 (aged 70) Naples, Italy |
| Occupation | Music journalist and writer |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Alma mater | University of Naples |
| Period | 1974–2021 |
| Notable works | Il ventriloquo di Dio La virtù dell'elefante/ La dotta lira. Ovidio e la musica/ Verdi a Parigi |
Paolo Isotta (18 October 1950 – 12 February 2021)[1] was an Italian musicologist and writer.
Life
Isotta graduated from the University of Naples, where he studied classic Letters and law. He also studied piano with Vincenzo Vitale and composition with Renato Parodi and Renato Dionisi.[2] From 1971 to 1994, he was ordinary professor of history of music in the Conservatory of Turin and Naples. In February 2019, he was named Professor Emeritus.
He was the musical critic for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera from 1980 to 2015 and for other journals such as Il Giornale.
In 2013 he published a critical article against Daniel Harding and, indirectly, Claudio Abbado, following which Stéphane Lissner, La Scala's director, banned him from the theatre.[3]
He wrote several books of musical criticism, among these one on the influence of the music in the Works of Thomas Mann and one which is the first ever written about the influence of the poetry of Ovid on music from XV to XXI century.
Decorations and awards
- 2006: Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art[4]
- 2017: Isaiah Berlin Prize
Works
- Antonio Caldara: problemi e prospettive (1971)
- I diamanti della corona. Grammatica del Rossini napoletano (1974)
- I sentieri della musica (1978)
- Dixit Dominus Domino meo. Struttura e semantica in Haendel e Vivaldi (1980)
- Il ventriloquo di Dio: Thomas Mann e la musica nell'opera letteraria (1983)
- Le ali di Wieland (1984)
- Per una lettura de "Il Turco in Italia", (1985)
- Protagonisti della musica (1988)
- Victor de Sabata: un compositore (1992)
- Omaggio a Renata Tebaldi (2002)
- La virtù dell'elefante (Marsilio, 2014)
- Altri canti di Marte (Marsilio, 2015)
- La bellezza nell'estetica dei 'Meistersinger' di Richard Wagner (2016)
- Paisiello e il mito di Fedra (2016)
- Othello: Shakespeare, Napoli, Rossini (2016)
- Jérusalem: Verdi et la persécution de l'honneur (Liège, 2017)
- Il canto degli animali. I nostri fratelli e i loro sentimenti in musica e in poesia (Marsilio, 2017)
- De Parthenopes musices disciplina. L'educazione musicale a Napoli dal Medio Evo ai giorni nostri (Napoli, 2018)
- "Non si pasce di cibo mortale chi si pasce di cibo celeste". Il convito e la fame tra mito, musica, poesia e teatro napoletano (Ariano Irpino, 2018)
- La dotta lira. Ovidio e la musica (Marsilio, 2018)
- La tradizione napoletana dei Responsori per la Settimana Santa. Tenebra della Passione e luce di Leonardo Leo, "Napoli Nobilissima", 2018
- Rossini 1868-2018. Schizzo per un ritratto, Roma, 2018
- La rivoluzione estetica del "Rigoletto", Roma 2019
- Osmo, musica, uomo nell'antichità e Dante, Ariano Irpito, Edizioni Biogem, 2019
- Verdi a Parigi, Venezia, Marsilio, 2020
References
- ^ Morto il critico musicale Paolo Isotta (in Italian)
- ^ Doremi, Daniela (November 2, 2015). "Paolo Isotta". Catalogo dei viventi 2015 – Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved June 24, 2016.
- ^ Davies, Lizzy (February 3, 2013). "La Scala blacklists veteran music critic". The Guardian. Retrieved June 24, 2016.
- ^ "Medaglia d'oro ai benemeriti della cultura e dell'arte - Isotta Prof. Paolo". Quirinale.it (in Italian). Retrieved February 6, 2017.
Sources
- Zurletti, Sara (22 January 2015). De la critique musicale à la "transvaluation" de la musique italienne : le cas de Paolo Isotta, critique musical du Corriere della sera. Le technicien et l’écrivain. Questionner la légitimité des figures de la critique musicale du XXe siècle à nos jours (in French). Paris-Sorbonne University. Retrieved 6 February 2007.
External links
- Works by Paolo Isotta at Open Library
- "A dialogue with Maestro Paolo Isotta". Oclarim. November 27, 2015.
- Paolo Isotta discography at Discogs
- 1950 births
- 2021 deaths
- Writers from Naples
- Italian essayists
- Italian columnists
- Italian male non-fiction writers
- Male essayists
- Recipients of the Italian Order of Merit for Culture and Art
- University of Naples Federico II alumni
- 20th-century essayists
- 20th-century Italian male writers
- 21st-century Italian essayists
- 21st-century Italian male writers
- 20th-century Italian musicologists
- 21st-century musicologists