UN ORAFO SULLA SCENA LIRICA

Abstract

Abstract
A celebrated miracle by the Volto Santo of Lucca that smells like an anecdote, a lyrical
opera performed for the first time in 1961 that chooses that medieval legend as plot,
but with the innovation of a goldsmith in a co-starring role: this is the centre of interest
of Il Calzare d’argento, libretto by Riccardo Bacchelli, set to music by Ildebrando
Pizzetti. The character has the name of Paio di Nocco, a really existed artist – even if
some time later – and it is meaningful as the writer conceives him: famous for his art
even abroad, so that a foreign king ordered him precious gifts for the Volto Santo, but
also important as citizen, to the point that he is dressed not like a working-class man,
but just like a lord.