il Barbiere Gui

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. This translates as the Florence May Festival Orchestra (Florence being the city and May being the month).The orchestra was founded in 1928 by Vittorio Gui, as the Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina, with its home the Teatro Comunale di Firenze. It took its current name in 1933, when the Festival was instituted. After Gui, Mario Rossi became music director in 1937. Then, after the war, Bruno Bartoletti was appointed to the post. From 1969-1981, the position was given to Riccardo Muti, then to Zubin Mehta, who became Principal conductor from 1985, and then to Fabio Luisi, who became Principal conductor from 2018 to 2019. Zubin Mehta was made Honorary Conductor for life in 2006.

The role of the betrayed and finally murderous Medea became closely associated with Maria Callas. In 1969, several years after her final operatic performance, she even starred as Jason’s spurned wife – as an actress, not as a singer – in a film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. She first appeared in Cherubini’s opera in 1953 in Florence, with Vittorio Gui conducting, and later that year collaborated with Leonard Bernstein in a staging at La Scala; in 1962, the role brought her final appearances at Milan’s great opera house.