‹ Collection ‘Gli artisti dello spettacolo alla Scala’ ›
Hockney at La Scala
by Vittoria Crespi Morbio.
Essay by Vittoria Crespi Morbio, La natura domata / Nature Tamed.
Appendices: biographical notice; chronology of stage designs.
Collection «Performing Artists at La Scala».
Amici della Scala – Umberto Allemandi & C., Turin 2003.
Italian edition, pp.55.
The swimming pools, California interiors, landscapes, portraits by David Hockney (Bradford 1937) contributed to define pop-art, becoming icons of the contemporary world. However, the very famous British painter is a man of the theatre as well: an opera enthusiast, he signed performances admired on the stages of the New York Metropolitan, Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival. In Milan, Hockney staged two legendary performances, The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky (Teatro Lirico, 1979) and Die Zauberflöte by Mozart (Teatro alla Scala, 1985): a wealth of cultural allusions and hidden quotations, unmistakable in style, these are two phantasmagorias which rightly belong in the catalogue of one of the favourite living artists.