BWW Interviews: Filippo Sugar and Renee Fleming Talk LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA

The New York Philharmonic is kicking off their 2014-15 season on September 16th with LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA, a special concert presented in collaboration with Sugarmusic. Celebrating the music of Italian cinema, the tribute concert will feature famous suits and songs pulled from Filippo Sugar's impressive library of soundtracks. Additionally, Josh Groban, Renee Fleming, and Joshua Bell will also be performing at the concerts. The music will be accompanied by historical footage from Istituto Luce Cinecittà, which has been reworked into special moving digital "paintings." With so many exciting elements coming together to make LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA one of New York City's hottest tickets in September, I spoke with Filippo Sugar and Rene Fleming about the concerts and what audiences can expect.

BWW: Where did the idea to do a tribute concert to classic Italian cinema come from?

Filippo Sugar: This is something we always thought about, but we really started working on it when we acquired the CAM catalogue, which is probably one of the most important independent cinema music catalogues in the world. We thought that a night where a selection of the most beautiful and iconic Italian cinema music-written by composers like Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Armando Trovaioli, Luis Bacalov, Nicola Piovani, and many others-would be performed by orchestras and soloists would be greatly appreciated by music lovers around the world.

BWW: Sugarmusic has an extensive library of masterpiece soundtracks that date back to the 1930s. How was this catalog developed and how is it maintained?

Filippo Sugar: Sugarmusic is a family company, founded in 1932 in Milan, by my grandfather Ladislao Sugar. Since 1932 my grandfather, then my father, my mother, and myself have always invested in Italian writers and artists with the goal to make their work successful in Italy and abroad. Even in today's difficult times for the music industry, we still produce between three to five soundtracks, five to seven artists' albums, and over 500 new copyrights from pop music to cinema music to classical contemporary music.

BWW: What lead to this collaboration between the NY Philharmonic and Sugarmusic?

Filippo Sugar: We worked together for Andrea Bocelli's Central Park Concert in 2011, which Sugarmusic produced. We've always been in love with this orchestra's present and with its glorious past. Alan Gilbert was fantastic and supportive throughout all the rehearsals and during the show. I remember the weather was pretty awful, and everybody from the Phil really helped us and supported us. In the end, it turned out great, and I started to talk to Ed Yim about another project I had in mind. This was LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA.

BWW: LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA will feature music from well-known films, such as Federico Fellini's 8½ and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso, but will there be any surprises for diehard fans of Italian cinema?

Filippo Sugar: Yes, I think so. Sometimes a great piece of music in a movie will be forgotten because the movie was not successful. For example, in our show, Josh Groban will perform "Non penso a te," a piece written by Ennio Morricone with lyrics by Giuliano Sangiorgi, from the movie Incontro. The music is emotional and poetic, but the movie was never successful. I think it will be a nice surprise for the audience. Also, regarding visuals, we have found footage from the 50s and 60s, when all the great Hollywood stars came to Italy in the golden era of Cinecittà. Thanks to the cooperation with Istituto Luce we have selected the original footage to accompany a stunning Italian music theme by Riz Ortolani that become the American evergreen song "More." There will be a lot of surprises!

BWW: Tell me more about the historical footage from the iconic Istituto Luce Cinecittà, which has been reworked into special moving digital "paintings" that accompany the performance. What can audiences expect from these?

Filippo Sugar: Istituto Luce's Historical Archive is one of the biggest collections of film and video in Italy and Europe. Its heritage is made up of collections of newsreels, documentaries, more than 150,000 titles, ranging from the beginnings of cinema to our days, and some three million photos, covering different events from the 20s to the 70s. The uniqueness of the project is to reinterpret the relationship between music and movies, where the images usually assume the leading role. In this case, the visuals are conceived to increase the emotional power of the music played live by the orchestra, like a sort of movie of the soundtracks that allows the audience to experience the atmosphere of the original movies.

BWW: How do these digital "paintings" enhance the experience?

Filippo Sugar: The visuals that will be projected in the background have the goal of "accompanying" the audience through memories and images that allows the connection with the movie and the atmospheres of the films. We wanted to establish a clear connection between each musical piece and the movie for which it was written. So, basically, every piece has a clip mostly made up of original animations that give the music a visual companion. Giuseppe Ragazzini, who designed all the original animations, and Giampiero Solari, who scripted the clips, worked for more than a year to put this together. It wasn't easy, but I think the result really contributes to making this show special and unique. There is nothing like this that I know of. This being said, make no mistake, the protagonist of the show is the music, the orchestra, and the performers. The visuals will just enhance this experience.

BWW: What it is like preparing for a concert like this?

Renee Fleming: Because this music is written to be performed with amplification, I won't need to project in the same way I would for a typical classical concert, and the style is totally different. Two of the pieces are new for me, but I actually recorded the Italian version of "Your Love" for an album, WE ALL LOVE ENNIO MORRICONE. He loved the soprano voice. Katia Riccarelli sang his music, and there is often a high soprano obbligato presence in his films. The same exists in film today, but it's usually a straight toned mezzo voice with an eastern melismatic style, similar to the work I was asked to do for The Lord of the Rings.

BWW: What is your favorite piece of music from Italian cinema, and is it performed in the concerts?

Renee Fleming: Morricone's melodies are gorgeous, so I'm looking forward to singing those. And the program will include Nino Rota's music from the great Fellini films. Those scores are beautiful, and absolutely essential to the fantastic world Fellini creates.

BWW: What is your favorite part of this particular concert?

Renee Fleming: We rarely get to hear this music in the concert hall, and it's a luxury to hear it played by an orchestra with the prestige of the New York Philharmonic. Of course, having Alan Gilbert at the podium is a joy for any musician. And, it's a treat to get to perform with my friends Josh Groban and Joshua Bell. I sang with Josh Groban most recently on Live from Lincoln Center, and he gave a heartbreaking rendition of the Chaplin song "Smile" in my curated festival, AMERICAN VOICES at the Kennedy Center last fall. I performed with Joshua Bell most recently last year at the National Christmas Tree Lighting in Washington, DC. His easy-going charm belies the incredible virtuosity and musicianship that has brought him to the top.

BWW: What do you hope audiences take away from LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA?

Filippo Sugar: I hope people will leave the show emotionally touched and willing to dig into the works of the composers they have heard during the evening. I hope they will include these melodies in the soundtrack of their lives, just like they are part of mine.

The second season of THE ART OF THE SCORE: Film Week at the Philharmonic and the Philharmonic's 2014-15 season opens with LA DOLCE VITA: THE MUSIC OF ITALIAN CINEMA. These concerts will be held on September 16, 2014 (the Philharmonic's Opening Gala Concert) and September 17, 2014 in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. For tickets and more information, please visit http://nyphil.org or call the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office at (212) 875-5656. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m.