Franco Ferrara

I met Franco Ferrara in Venice with my husband Mark Starr, who had studied with him at the Conservatory in Rome.  Not many outside Italy know Ferrara's name.  But those who do, know he was one of the most prodigiously gifted, multi-faceted musical geniuses of the 20th Century.  At the same time, he was also one of the most tragically afflicted.  Meeting him and seeing him in action was an experience I will never forget.  Here is a photo taken by my husband in Venice outside La Fenice.

Incredibly handsome, charismatic, passionate and elegant, he radiated star quality that could put Marcello Mastroianni to shame.  (Incidentally, he was Mastroianni's good friend from his years conducting the music for Fellini's films.)  Ferrara began his career as a violinist -- and he served as concertmaster of several major Italian orchestras (including the orchestras of Florence and his native Sicily.)  As a pianist, he performed in recitals throughout Italy.  With his boyhood friend fellow Sicilian Franco Mannino -- who also performed on piano and violin -- he formed a duo.  On the first half of recitals, Ferrara would play violin and Mannino would accompany on piano; after the intermission, they would switch.

It was not long before Ferrara came to the attention of Toscanini -- who immediate recognized his genius and took him under his wing.  Indeed, Ferrara was in the Green Room with Toscanini when Toscanini received the historic slap across the face from the chief of Mussolini's Fascist police.  Toscanini arranged for Ferrara's first conducting engagement, and immediately after declared Ferrara his musical heir.  Ferrara's conducting career took off like a rocket: La Scala, Rome's Orchestra Santa Cecilia, Florence, the RAI, the Berlin Philharmonic. 

Within just a few years, however, everything exploded. During a performance, he suffered an epileptic fit.  Soon seizures became frequent, at both rehearsals and concerts.  Despite all the medical attention available in Europe, there was never any treatment for his condition.  Ferrara retired from performing to a life of teaching and occasional conducting for films.  His pupils include Riccardo Muti and several hundred young conductors around the world.

Ferrara gave many conducting courses in Italy, and during these courses he would permit himself to conduct for only a few minutes.  Despite the precautions, he sometimes collapsed in fits after only a few moments into the music.  The 2 photos below, which are not mine, were taken at his conducting course in Venice, and they give some idea of the power and intensity of the man.

Here he is in his youth, in a published photograph, together with Herbert von Karajan and Italian musicologist Mario Labroca.

At the piano, Ferrara was congenial and untroubled.  Also, for some unknown reason, he was not subject to epileptic fits at the piano.  Of Ferrara's many extraordinary musical abilities, none was more remarkable than his score-reading -- or rather, his score-performing. His ability to sight-read full orchestral scores of major symphonic works at the piano -- at the level of a concert performance -- was legendary.  Conductor George Cleve once said he would rather listen to Ferrara read Debussy's La Mer at the piano than hear any orchestra play it.  As Professor of Score Reading & Conducting at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, Ferrara read through effortlessly whatever scores were placed in front of him that day: Stravinsky's Firebird, Strauss' Death and Transfiguration, Bruckner's Ninth, Verdi's Falstaff and Otello (singing all the roles), Mahler's Fifth.  They were the performances he never got to conduct.

Among the many musicians who made a pilgrimage to Rome to meet Ferrara was Leonard Bernstein.  The two hit it off immediately.  They spend the afternoon together reading through works for two pianos -- including Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major.  The few who were lucky enough to have heard it say it was the performance of a lifetime.

And for all the flutists reading this, here below is Ferrara with flute soloist Severino Gazzelloni drinking an aperitivo in the Piazza in Sienna -- where they were both teaching at the Accademia Chigiana.  Gazzelloni, who was Principal Flute of the Orchestra sinfonica della RAI di Roma, was one of Ferrara's close friends.