Lorenzo Ferrero

Lorenzo Ferrero (born 1951 in Turin) is a contemporary Italian composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal and instrumental music, with a predilection for opera. After being initially self-taught, he studied composition from 1969 to 1972 with Massimo Bruni and Enore Zaffiri at the Turin Music Conservatory, earning in 1974 a degree in aesthetics from the University of Turin with a thesis on John Cage.

His early interest in the psychology of perception and psychoacoustics led him to IMEB, the International Electroacoustic Music Institute of Bourges, France where he did research on electronic music between 1972 and 1973, IRCAM in Paris, and to the Musik/Dia/Licht/Film-Galerie in Munich, Germany in 1974.

Lorenzo Ferrero has received commissions from numerous festivals and institutions, his works being constantly restaged by major theatres in Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain, United States, Finland, and the Czech Republic. In 1986 he was awarded the Premio Italia for his stage work Il fuga di Foscolo. His most popular compositions include the operas Marilyn, La figlia del mago and Salvatore Giuliano, the Piano Concerto, the Triple Concerto for violin, violoncello and piano, the Capriccio for piano and string orchestra, the set of six symphonic poems La nueva España, Canzoni d'amore, Parodia, Ostinato, and Tempi di quartetto for string quartet.

As an active opera conductor and manager of art events, he has served as artistic director of the Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago (1980-84), Unione Musicale in Turin (1983-87), Arena di Verona (1991-94), and the Musica 2000 fair. In 1999 he co-founded and coordinated the Festa della Musica, a showcase of classical, jazz and world music held in Milan, and four years later managed the symphonic section of the Ravello Festival. In 2007 he was appointed on the board of directors of SIAE, the Italian Authors and Publishers Association.

Recently he published the Manuale di scrittura musicale, a manual which describes the basic rules of correct and elegant music writing from the orthographic as well as the graphic point of view, and which is addressed to all composers, musicologists, teachers, students and copy-editors in need of practical advice. His music is published by Casa Ricordi, Milano.

He features in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, The Italian Opera since 1945 and The New Penguin Opera Guide as "a principal exponent of the neo-tonal tendencies common to a number of Italian composers of his generation, who has championed a brand of narrative music-theatre that aims to capture a wider audience than that achieved by the heirs of the modernist tradition. His idiom, highly eclectic from the start, has drawn increasingly upon popular and neo-romantic idioms." Currently, Lorenzo Ferrero is professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory.

Works

In addition to the works listed below which include original orchestral, instrumental, choral, vocal, piano solo, organ and harpsichord pieces, Lorenzo Ferrero completed in 1994 the orchestration of the third version of La Rondine by Giacomo Puccini. Furthermore, he wrote film scores, the anthem for the Sestriere Ski World Championship opening ceremony of 1997, incidental music for stage productions, and a second Piano Concerto which is on the way to its world première in Florence in February, 2009. Several performance videos can be viewed on YouTube.

Ballet

• Invito a nozze (1978)
• Franca Florio - Queen of Palermo (2007)

Opera

• Rimbaud, ou le fils du soleil (1978) Quasi un melodramma in three acts
• Marilyn (1979) Scenes from the 1950s in two acts
• La figlia del mago (1981) Giocodramma melodioso in two acts
• Mare nostro (1985) Comic opera in two acts
• Night (1985) Opera in one act
• Salvatore Giuliano (1986) Opera in one act
• Charlotte Corday (1989) Opera in three acts
• Le bleu-blanc-rouge et le noir (1989) Marionette opera on a libretto by Anthony Burgess
• La nascita di Orfeo (1996) Musical action in one act
• La conquista (2005) Opera in two acts
• Le piccole storie - ai margini delle guerre (2007) Chamber opera in one act

Orchestral

• Ellipse IV (Waldmusik) (1974) for folk ensemble ad libitum
• Arioso II (1981) for large orchestra
• My blues (1982) for string orchestra
• Thema 44 (ad honorem J. Haydn) (1982) for small orchestra
• Ombres (1984) for orchestra and live electronic
• Intermezzo notturno from Mare nostro (1985) for small orchestra
• Intermezzo "Portella della Ginestra" from Salvatore Giuliano (1986) for orchestra
• Four Modern Dances (1990) for small orchestra
• Zaubermarsch (1990) for small orchestra
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (1991)
• Paesaggio con figura (1994) for small orchestra
• Concerto for violin, cello, piano and orchestra (1994-95)
• Palm Beach Overture (1995) for orchestra
• Capriccio (1996) for piano and string orchestra
• Three Baroque Buildings (1997) for bassoon, trumpet and strings
• Championship Suite (1997) for large orchestra
• Storie di neve (1997) music for the Ski World Championship opening ceremony
• La nueva España (1992-99), a set of six symphonic poems
  • La ruta de Cortés (1992)
  • La noche triste (1996)
  • Memoria del fuego (1998)
  • Presagios (1999)
  • El encuentro (1999)
  • La matanza del templo mayor (1999)
• Rastrelli in St. Petersburg (2000) for oboe and string orchestra
• Two Cathedrals in the South (2001) for trumpet and string orchestra
• Five Easy Pieces (2002) transcription for orchestra
• Guarini the Master (2004) for violin and strings
• Second Piano Concerto (2006-2007)

Chamber/Instrumental

• Ellipse III (1974) for any 4 players/ensembles
• Siglied (1975) for chamber orchestra
• Romanza senza parole (1976) for chamber ensemble
• Adagio cantabile (1977) for small orchestra
• Arioso (1977) for chamber ensemble and live electronic
• Romanza seconda (1977) for bassoon and strings
• Variazioni sulla notte (1980) for guitar
• Respiri (1982) for flute and piano
• Ellipse (1983) for flute
• My rock (1985) (versions for piano and for big band)
• Empty Stage (1985) for 4 clarinets and piano
• My Blues (1986) for flute and piano
• Passacaglia (1986) for flute, clarinet and string quartet
• Ostinato (1987) for 6 violoncelli
• Onde (1987) for guitar
• Parodia (1990) for chamber ensemble
• Discanto sulla musica sull'acqua di Handel (1990) for flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, French horn and percussion
• Cadenza (1990) for clarinet and marimba
• Movimento americano (1992) for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, string quartet
• Maschere (1993) for string quartet
• Portrait (1994) for string quartet
• Seven Seconds (1995) for clarinet, violin and piano
• Shadow Lines (1995) for flute and live electronic
• My Piece of Africa (1996) for violin, viola, violoncello and contrabass
• Five Easy Pieces (1997) for flute and piano (version of a piano work)
• Tempi di quartetto (1996-98) for string quartet
• Glamorama Spies (2000) for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano
• Sonata (2000) for viola and piano
• Moonlight Sonata (2001) for 5 percussion instruments
• Five Aztec Gods (2005) for string quartet
• Fantasy Suite (2007) for flute, violoncello and piano
• Soleils for harp

Piano music

• Aivlys (1977)
• My Rag (1983)
• My Rock (1983)
• My Blues (1984)
• Rock my Tango (1990)
• Five Easy Pieces (1994)
• Seven Portraits of the Same Person (1996)
• Rubato

Organ and harpsichord

• A Red Wedding Dress (1998) for organ
• Ellipse II (1975) for harpsichord/clavichord

Choral/Vocal

• Ellipse III (1974) for any 4 voices/choruses
• Le neant ou l'on ne peut arriver (1976) for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
• Non parto, non resto (1987) for mixed choruses
• Introito, part of the Requiem per le vittime della mafia (1993) for chorus and orchestra

• Night of the Nite (1979) for soprano and piano
• Canzoni d'amore (1985) for voice and chamber ensemble
• La fuga di Foscolo (1986) for 4 soloists, speaker and small orchestra
• Poi andro in America (1986) for voice and orchestra
• Ninna-nanna (1986) for tenor and piano

Incidental music

• Nebbia di latte (1980) for flutes and live electronic
• La cena delle beffe (1988) stage music for Carmelo Bene
• Maschere (1993) for Le Massere by C. Goldoni for string quartet

Theatre music

• Lontano dagli occhi (1999) for one actor, 4 voices, piano trio
• Mozart a Recanati (2006) for one actress, 1 voice, piano trio

Film soundtrack

• Anemia (1986)

Discography

• Lorenzo Ferrero: Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra, Parodia, Ostinato, Canzoni d'amore (1991) Nuova Era
• Lorenzo Ferrero - Different views: La ruta de Cortés, La noche triste, Championship Suite, Palm Beach Overture (1998) BMG Ricordi
• Lorenzo Ferrero: Capriccio per pianoforte e archi, Concerto per violino, violoncello e pianoforte, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra (1999) BMG Ricordi
• Lorenzo Ferrero: Mare nostro (1999) Ricordi
• Lorenzo Ferrero: La nueva España (2000) Naxos

• Italian Guitar Music (1994) Onde, Arc Music
• L'arte del funambolo (2004) My Blues, Stradivarius
• Sentieri Selvaggi - AC/DC (2006) Glamorama Spies, Cantaloupe Music
• The Best of Christmas in Vienna (1998) Noels d'autre fois, When a Child is Born, Carol of the Bells, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Kum Ba Yah - arrangements by Lorenzo Ferrero
• A Tenors Christmas (1997) A Very Private Christmas - arrangement by Lorenzo Ferrero
• The Domingo Collection (1997) The Student Prince: I'll walk with God - arrangement by Lorenzo Ferrero
• Christmas in Vienna III (1995) Noels d'autre fois, When a Child is Born, Carol of the Bells, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Kum Ba Yah, and A Very Private Christmas - arrangements by Lorenzo Ferrero

References

Baransky, Zygmunt G., West, Rebecca J. (2001) The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture, Cambridge University Press

Girardi, Enrico Il teatro musicale italiano oggi: La generazione del post-avanguardia, Torino: Paravia

Gruhn, W. ed. (1989) Das Projekt Moderne und die Postmoderne: Die neue Tonalität bei Lorenzo Ferrero (by Theo Hirschbrunner), Kassel

Fearn, Raymond (1998) Italian Opera since 1945, Routledge

Ferrero, Lorenzo (2007) Manuale di scrittura musicale, Torino: EDT Srl

Hirschbrunner, Theo (2000) Musikhistoriche Dimensionen Italiens 1600 bis 2000: Lorenzo Ferrero und die Neotonalität, Verlag Dohl, Köln

Holden, Amanda ed. (2001) The New Penguin Opera Guide, London: Penguin Books

Sadie, Stanley ed. (1992-2002) The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, London: Macmillan Press

Wignall, Harry James (1990) Current Trends in Italian Opera: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp 312-326

L'opera negli anni Ottanta, atti del convegno internazionale di studi: Il teatro musicale in Italia fra il 1980 e il 1990 (by Michele Girardi), Roma: I.R.TE.M. 1998, pp 8-12

External links

• Lorenzo Ferrero at Freebase
• Lorenzo Ferrero at Opera Italiana
• Lorenzo Ferrero at CEMAT
• Lorenzo Ferrero at Ricordi
• Lorenzo Ferrero at Comitato Ricordi
• Lorenzo Ferrero at EDT, Manuale di scrittura musicale
• Lorenzo Ferrero at EDT
• Lorenzo Ferrero interview with Luciano Berio
• Lorenzo Ferrero at LA Opera