Locanda San Viglio Hotel
The setting appealed to Napoleon and Churchill. It is so enchanting that San Vigilio assuages one to rescue and preserve
anything remotely evocative of the place, especially that which
would give a wider audience a similar visual and thereby transcendent experience. Zeffirelli���s threatened sets come to mind.
They embody the aesthetics of period opera as much as San
Vigilio���s setting.
Are we aesthetically astray by setting Zeffirelli���s sets aside, replacing them the new? Or should such sets be contrived for
contemporary opera? Those privileged to see the brilliant,
highly modern set designs created for the Metropolitan Opera���s Madame Butterfly would disagree. Such is the quandary. More importantly, the intellectual impact of being at San
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