THE FIFTH “TRIUMPH INTERNATIONAL” AWARD CEREMONY

On December, 30th, 2020 in Italy, at the Ceremonial Royal Hall in Asti-Montevarchi, Olga Kuzmicheva, President of the “Triumph International” Award awarded soloists of the La Scala Theatre in Milan Maestro Massimiliano Pisapia and Maestro Luca Canonici with the “Triumph International” Award dedicated to the United Nation International Human Solidarity Day in the nomination “Global Culture”.

After the solemn Award Ceremony, we got exclusive interviews for the “La Nota della Pace” with the President of the “Triumph International” Award, Olga Kuzmicheva, and the opera singers Massimiliano Pisapia and Luca Canonici who were awarded the “Triumph International” Award in the “Global Culture” nomination.

• President Olga Kuzmicheva, what the Fifth Ceremony of the “Triumph International” Award 2020 was dedicated to? 

Olga Kuzmicheva: The Fifth “Triumph International” Award Ceremony was dedicated to the United Nations’ (UN) International Human Solidarity Day. In the “Global Culture” nomination were awarded the outstanding Italian opera singers, soloists of the La Scala Theatre Massimiliano Pisapia and Luca Canonici, compatriots of the laureates of the previous “Triumph International” Award“ Ceremonies: Ennio Morricone, Franco Zeffirelli, Michele Placido.

• Maestro Massimiliano Pisapia and Maestro Luca Canonici your unique voices have conquered the best opera stages of the world. What does it mean in your life? The coronavirus pandemic changed people’s lives all over the world. In 2020, live opera performances almost stopped. In September 2020, Milan’s La Scala Theater staged Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, honoring the memory of all the Covid victims. What do you think about performing without audience? Would video performance create the same energy? Would it be easier or harder for you to perform for remote audience? Could this be an alternative for opera singers until the pandemic is over?

Massimiliano Pisapia: The opera has a fundamental importance in my life because it has always accompanied me since I was young, and I have shared with it many important professional and personal moments. It is like a longtime friend and a comfort in hard times. Unfortunately, the pandemic came totally unexpected and was devastating, and the theater, together with other sectors, collapsed. The way theaters found to go on making opera is a live streaming. I personally do not like this kind of a solution. Theater is magic, and it is surely not the same without the power of its audience. An opera singer needs to feel that the listener is living the sensations of the character interpreted by him.

Luca Canonici: Opera for me is that place where good feelings and bad feelings are underlined by heavenly melodies, where you can love a gentle character like Nemorino and a cruel one, like Lady Macbeth, in the same way. Music is the leitmotiv of my life. A fusion between the voice and the instruments that accompany it is really very strong in a theater. It is something incomparable for a listener to feel this connection in all its strength. As an opera singer, I believe the public gives you unexpected powers. I think having people there for you in a theater makes you do your best. Anyway, the world evolves, there must be something solid and unchangeable in all this continuously changing situation. We have to start applying new methods during the Pandemic we are facing now: we have to find other feasible solutions to keep alive this so important phenomenon called is Opera, and we should do it whatever it takes.

• President Olga Kuzmicheva, what do friendship and solidarity of people mean to you in a today’s global society? What would you like to wish to your colleagues, opera artists, and to all people of the world in the incoming year 2021?

Olga Kuzmicheva: I absolutely agree with Antonio Guterrez, the United Nations Secretary-General who, speaking at the 2020 World Health Assembly said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated our global fragility. Now is the time for unity, for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences”.

Friendship, solidarity, consolidation are fundamental needs for the global world today. In this regard, I wanted, first of all, to support my opera colleagues of the La Scala Theatre in 2020 year. Opera singing is a powerful intellectual, spiritual, and physical work that requires enormous efforts and titanic health. An opera voice is the most fragile and, at the same time, the most powerful musical instrument that covers an entire orchestra on stage.

As Johann Sebastian Bach said, “Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence”. The voice of an opera singer has a divine origin that sings in the soul of the singer and the souls of the audience.And I believe that the creative sounds of peace are the most beautiful sounds for all humanity as they give the melody of peace and life to the entire global world!

As the Author, Founder and President of the “Triumph International” Award, I am deeply touched and proud that Italian diplomats and the International media have compared the “Triumph International” Award to the Nobel Prize, calling it the Nobel Prize of Europe.

The motto of the “Triumph International” Award is to follow the philosophy of friendship, consolidation, cross-cultural cooperation, solidarity and peace, and to promote the development of International relations in accordance with the United Nations Charter.

I wish my colleagues, opera artists, and all people of the world a Serene and Healthy 2021, Happy New Year!