Donella Del Monaco was born in Villorba (in the province of TV), and she graduated in Architecture at the University of Venice.
Donella del Monaco’s musical training was quite complex: she began studying at a young age with her father Marcello who ran an International School of opera singing in Treviso and later she studied with her uncle, the tenor Mario Del Monaco (in the photo on the left side: Donella with her father and her uncle, Lancenigo (TV), 1979). But alongside the traditional opera and concert repertoire she also cultivated an interest in the various timbres and expressive possibilities of the voice creating her own “different” artistic path as a singer-composer-researcher of traditional Veneto culture as well as Avant-garde compositions.
In 1974 she founded the musical research group “OpusAvantra” (Avant-garde and Tradition) together with the composer Alfredo Tisocco (in the photo on the right side, together with Giorgio Bisotto, the philosopher of the group, 1989): the group is composed of classical musicians interested in combining different musical genres, including Avant-garde, rock music, and songs.
(THE GIBRALTAR ENCYCLOPEDIA – voce "Donella Del Monaco"
www.gepr.net/da.html)
(WIKIPEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA – voce "Opus Avantra"
www.wikipedia.it)
The four CD – Introspezione, Lord Cromwell, Strata and Lyrics – belonging to progressive genre, become immediately "cult" and up till now they are recorded again and required from many collectors (in the photos the interviews published in Japanese review Euro-Rock press, 2003 and 2004).
In 2003 she took up her research with “OpusAvantra” once more in a new musical experience presented in the CD Venetia et Anima performed in cooperation with the composer Paolo Troncon (director of the Music School of Vicenza). The CD embraces composition as well as group improvisation, based on a new concept while remaining closely connected to the initial inspiration of the OpusAvantra idea.
download PDF articolo Euro-Rock press 2003
Recently the historical pieces of the group were re-proposed in a prestigious live performance in Tokyo on 12 April 2008 together with Alfredo Tisocco.
In 1974 she began a series of conferences for the music festival of the Biennale of Venice on contemporary music that continued to develop in the years 1975-76-79. She was also present at various Festivals and Reviews on Contemporary Music where she interpreted works by all of the major contemporary composers (S. Sciarrino, S. Bussotti, J. Cage, L. Nono, M. Tutino and A. Corghi) presenting works in their first world performance, some of the pieces being written specifically for her.
Her interest in avant-garde music has been consistent and among various initiatives she founded OpusAvantra studium, a recording label dedicated to research of neo-prog and new tendencies.
The new label, besides being a sophisticated recording company, also promotes conferences and musical meetings (section OpusAvantra studium – meetings) with discussion concerning the way in which varying aspects of progressive music have interacted with the tendencies of contemporary music in the past and present. In 2004, in collaboration with the department of Philosophy of the University of Venice “Ca’ Foscari” and the Music Biennial, she created Meetings on Music and Philosophy. These annual appointments promote a debate on musical and aesthetic themes of a contemporary nature including: The creative interpreter (in 2004), Composing and improvising (2005), Composing together (2006), (Un)defining music (2007. The meetings have seen the participation of personalities such as Marco De Natale (President of the Italian Society of Musical Analysis) and of the prog world such as Riccardo Storti (Progressive italiano Research Centre and director of the magazine Contrappunti) and Donato Zoppo (critic and progressive composer), as well as contemporary authors of research such as Markus Stockhausen, and Elliott Sharp who presented a creative workshop (OpusAvantra studium is about to present the CD Em/Pyre by Elliott Sharp).
Alongside her research work in the progressive field, from 1977 she has continued her personal studies dedicated to traditional Veneto folk songs. On rediscovering the Veneto Boat Songs of the eighteenth century she asked the composer Salvatore Sciarrino to arrange them: this resulted in a refined work that was recorded by Fonit-Cetra with the participation of various instrumentalists of the Scala theatre. The "Canzoni" were admired even by Mozart during his stay in Italy, and were composed to enliven the parties held in the villas of the aristocracy, or the great public celebrations on boats and barges (from which they took their name). They portray the characters of 18th Century Venice in comic 'squabbles' and disputes, but also speak to us of love with passion and often with mischievous eroticism. There is also a more theatrical version where Donella Del Monaco will be flanked by two figures of the 'Comedia de l'Arte' - a Harlequin (in the photo) and a Colombina who move with the age- old gestures characteristic of the two characters of the Theatre of the Venetian School.
This theatre-recital was presented at the Biennial Theatre Festival before being taken by Donella to various prestigious theatres and festivals, including: the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Deutches Theater in Munich (Germany), the Grand Opera House in Philadelphia (USA), concerts at the University of Metz (France) and the Festival of Dubrovnik (Croatia). The performance, or part of it, was filmed by many television channels from Italy and abroad including the RAI in Italy, CBS in America, Antenne 2 in France and Tokyo Broadcasting Television in Japan.
Following this, her research on the cultured and popular songs of Venice and the Veneto region broadened further to encompass other historical periods, beginning from the Late Middle Ages to recent times and her research was extended to include language. In the poetic and musical texts of Donella del Monaco, linguistic stratifications evidence a history of crossroads between the East and the West where the Veneto language is imprinted with Greek, Slavonic and even Franco-Veneto traces that go back as far as the Middle Ages and even to the Paleo-veneto Epoch of pre-Roman history.
The underlying theme of this research became an imaginary re-creation of antique phonemes and formulas in a temporal trip that dives into the past remote of great civilizations and their remaining fragments.
The phases of this work are documented in several CDs: Venexia de oro (1999) where the musical theme is represented by the Venetian dialects from the Middle Ages to modern times, and with the participation of the poet Andrea Zanzotto; Merica, Merica (2000), a research on traditional songs based on work and emigration with a classical re-elaboration by the composer Paolo Troncon and a folkloristic presentation by the Barbapedana group; Venetia et Anima (2003), a suite of pieces based on spiritual themes, from the past and present, produced in collaboration with the composer Paolo Troncon and supported by the instrumental experimentation of the OpusAvantra group; and lastly, Canzoni da Battello del Settecento veneziano (Venetian Boat Songs from the Eighteenth century 2007), a collection of songs, with several pieces orchestrated by the composer Salvatore Sciarrino.
Among the numerous concerts devoted to the Venetian repertoire at least three events deserve to be mentioned:
In 1981, the tour with the “Theatre of the World”: a floating theatre built by the architect Aldo Rossi for the Venice Biennale on Theatre with Maurice Scaparro.
In 1989, the concert at the Fenice Theatre in Venice directed by G. Marotta. In 2000, the show Donella Del Monaco chante Paris, Berlin, Venise at the Espace Cardin in Paris with choreography by Pier Paul Koss. She was also invited to the Music Biennal in the years 1975, 1976, and 1979, as well as the Deutches Theater in Munich, the “Opera Haus” in Philadelfia, the Roman Theatre in Verona during the international festival Canzone d’Autrice (dedicated to female composers) and the world Festival at Pyong-Yang in 1995.
Notwithstanding her numerous commitments in the above repertoires, she nevertheless made her debut as an opera singer, following in the family tradition. She has interpreted many different roles including Bohéme, Stiffelio, Andrea Chenier, Didone ed Enea, La vedova allegra, Il Flauto magico, La serva padrona, Bastiano e Bastiana, La Granduchesse de Gerolstein, La rondine, Der Ferne Klang, Crispino e la Comare, Il Campiello, etc.; making her appearance in many important theatres such as the Fenice of Venice, Palermo, Treviso, Florence, Genoa, Turin, Bergamo, Philadelpia, Munich, etc.
Theatrical recital devoted to the Cabaret Songs of Arnold Schoenberg performed in numerous reviews and festivals (CD: Schoenberg Kabarett 1, Schoenberg Kabarett 2). Recitals devoted to Erik Satie (CD: Chansons Satie presented by Ornella Volta, the director of the Satie Museum in Paris). Recital devoted to American authors from the beginning of the twentieth century including Gershwin, Kern, and Porter, for piano and sax with original arrangements by the composer Giovanni Sollima.
Recital devoted to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche with lieders either composed by him or dedicated to him: the French director Simone Benmoussa based an important theatrical work Les Voyageurs on this concert, which made its debut in Paris at the Espace Cardin in 1999 continuing with over thirty repeat performances. Subsequently Donella was invited by Franco Battiato (in the photo) to the summer festival in Sicily. Her repertoire includes Folksongs by Luciano Berio that she is performed both in the orchestral form as well as the chamber version. She has also recorded Fragments, a collection of compositions marking the creative “history” of the singer that encompasses various musical genres; the CD includes two unpublished works by OpusAvantra (that first came out in 1974 as 45 rpm and records and not since recorded). Lastly, her first consistent work as a composer, Shakespeare Ballet, with pieces for the ballet season “The Venetian dream of Shakespeare”, presented at the Arena of Verona in 2005.
She is the director of the recording label OpusAvantra studium based in Treviso and Luxemburg.
First prize during the International Music Festival of North Korea as the Italian representative in 1996 where she presented Airs by Puccini.
Member of the jury at the prestigious “Rachmaninov Competition” in Moscow in 1997.
Member of the jury at the International Toti dal Monte Competition in Treviso during the years 1996/97/98.
Donella del Monaco’s musical training was quite complex: she began studying at a young age with her father Marcello who ran an International School of opera singing in Treviso and later she studied with her uncle, the tenor Mario Del Monaco (in the photo on the left side: Donella with her father and her uncle, Lancenigo (TV), 1979). But alongside the traditional opera and concert repertoire she also cultivated an interest in the various timbres and expressive possibilities of the voice creating her own “different” artistic path as a singer-composer-researcher of traditional Veneto culture as well as Avant-garde compositions.
In 1974 she founded the musical research group “OpusAvantra” (Avant-garde and Tradition) together with the composer Alfredo Tisocco (in the photo on the right side, together with Giorgio Bisotto, the philosopher of the group, 1989): the group is composed of classical musicians interested in combining different musical genres, including Avant-garde, rock music, and songs. www.gepr.net/da.html)
www.wikipedia.it)
The four CD – Introspezione, Lord Cromwell, Strata and Lyrics – belonging to progressive genre, become immediately "cult" and up till now they are recorded again and required from many collectors (in the photos the interviews published in Japanese review Euro-Rock press, 2003 and 2004).In 2003 she took up her research with “OpusAvantra” once more in a new musical experience presented in the CD Venetia et Anima performed in cooperation with the composer Paolo Troncon (director of the Music School of Vicenza). The CD embraces composition as well as group improvisation, based on a new concept while remaining closely connected to the initial inspiration of the OpusAvantra idea.
Recently the historical pieces of the group were re-proposed in a prestigious live performance in Tokyo on 12 April 2008 together with Alfredo Tisocco.
In 1974 she began a series of conferences for the music festival of the Biennale of Venice on contemporary music that continued to develop in the years 1975-76-79. She was also present at various Festivals and Reviews on Contemporary Music where she interpreted works by all of the major contemporary composers (S. Sciarrino, S. Bussotti, J. Cage, L. Nono, M. Tutino and A. Corghi) presenting works in their first world performance, some of the pieces being written specifically for her.
Her interest in avant-garde music has been consistent and among various initiatives she founded OpusAvantra studium, a recording label dedicated to research of neo-prog and new tendencies.
The new label, besides being a sophisticated recording company, also promotes conferences and musical meetings (section OpusAvantra studium – meetings) with discussion concerning the way in which varying aspects of progressive music have interacted with the tendencies of contemporary music in the past and present. In 2004, in collaboration with the department of Philosophy of the University of Venice “Ca’ Foscari” and the Music Biennial, she created Meetings on Music and Philosophy. These annual appointments promote a debate on musical and aesthetic themes of a contemporary nature including: The creative interpreter (in 2004), Composing and improvising (2005), Composing together (2006), (Un)defining music (2007. The meetings have seen the participation of personalities such as Marco De Natale (President of the Italian Society of Musical Analysis) and of the prog world such as Riccardo Storti (Progressive italiano Research Centre and director of the magazine Contrappunti) and Donato Zoppo (critic and progressive composer), as well as contemporary authors of research such as Markus Stockhausen, and Elliott Sharp who presented a creative workshop (OpusAvantra studium is about to present the CD Em/Pyre by Elliott Sharp).
Alongside her research work in the progressive field, from 1977 she has continued her personal studies dedicated to traditional Veneto folk songs. On rediscovering the Veneto Boat Songs of the eighteenth century she asked the composer Salvatore Sciarrino to arrange them: this resulted in a refined work that was recorded by Fonit-Cetra with the participation of various instrumentalists of the Scala theatre. The "Canzoni" were admired even by Mozart during his stay in Italy, and were composed to enliven the parties held in the villas of the aristocracy, or the great public celebrations on boats and barges (from which they took their name). They portray the characters of 18th Century Venice in comic 'squabbles' and disputes, but also speak to us of love with passion and often with mischievous eroticism. There is also a more theatrical version where Donella Del Monaco will be flanked by two figures of the 'Comedia de l'Arte' - a Harlequin (in the photo) and a Colombina who move with the age- old gestures characteristic of the two characters of the Theatre of the Venetian School.
This theatre-recital was presented at the Biennial Theatre Festival before being taken by Donella to various prestigious theatres and festivals, including: the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Deutches Theater in Munich (Germany), the Grand Opera House in Philadelphia (USA), concerts at the University of Metz (France) and the Festival of Dubrovnik (Croatia). The performance, or part of it, was filmed by many television channels from Italy and abroad including the RAI in Italy, CBS in America, Antenne 2 in France and Tokyo Broadcasting Television in Japan.
Following this, her research on the cultured and popular songs of Venice and the Veneto region broadened further to encompass other historical periods, beginning from the Late Middle Ages to recent times and her research was extended to include language. In the poetic and musical texts of Donella del Monaco, linguistic stratifications evidence a history of crossroads between the East and the West where the Veneto language is imprinted with Greek, Slavonic and even Franco-Veneto traces that go back as far as the Middle Ages and even to the Paleo-veneto Epoch of pre-Roman history.
The underlying theme of this research became an imaginary re-creation of antique phonemes and formulas in a temporal trip that dives into the past remote of great civilizations and their remaining fragments.
The phases of this work are documented in several CDs: Venexia de oro (1999) where the musical theme is represented by the Venetian dialects from the Middle Ages to modern times, and with the participation of the poet Andrea Zanzotto; Merica, Merica (2000), a research on traditional songs based on work and emigration with a classical re-elaboration by the composer Paolo Troncon and a folkloristic presentation by the Barbapedana group; Venetia et Anima (2003), a suite of pieces based on spiritual themes, from the past and present, produced in collaboration with the composer Paolo Troncon and supported by the instrumental experimentation of the OpusAvantra group; and lastly, Canzoni da Battello del Settecento veneziano (Venetian Boat Songs from the Eighteenth century 2007), a collection of songs, with several pieces orchestrated by the composer Salvatore Sciarrino.
Concerts and shows
Among the numerous concerts devoted to the Venetian repertoire at least three events deserve to be mentioned:
In 1981, the tour with the “Theatre of the World”: a floating theatre built by the architect Aldo Rossi for the Venice Biennale on Theatre with Maurice Scaparro.
In 1989, the concert at the Fenice Theatre in Venice directed by G. Marotta. In 2000, the show Donella Del Monaco chante Paris, Berlin, Venise at the Espace Cardin in Paris with choreography by Pier Paul Koss. She was also invited to the Music Biennal in the years 1975, 1976, and 1979, as well as the Deutches Theater in Munich, the “Opera Haus” in Philadelfia, the Roman Theatre in Verona during the international festival Canzone d’Autrice (dedicated to female composers) and the world Festival at Pyong-Yang in 1995.
Opera
Notwithstanding her numerous commitments in the above repertoires, she nevertheless made her debut as an opera singer, following in the family tradition. She has interpreted many different roles including Bohéme, Stiffelio, Andrea Chenier, Didone ed Enea, La vedova allegra, Il Flauto magico, La serva padrona, Bastiano e Bastiana, La Granduchesse de Gerolstein, La rondine, Der Ferne Klang, Crispino e la Comare, Il Campiello, etc.; making her appearance in many important theatres such as the Fenice of Venice, Palermo, Treviso, Florence, Genoa, Turin, Bergamo, Philadelpia, Munich, etc.
Recitals
Theatrical recital devoted to the Cabaret Songs of Arnold Schoenberg performed in numerous reviews and festivals (CD: Schoenberg Kabarett 1, Schoenberg Kabarett 2). Recitals devoted to Erik Satie (CD: Chansons Satie presented by Ornella Volta, the director of the Satie Museum in Paris). Recital devoted to American authors from the beginning of the twentieth century including Gershwin, Kern, and Porter, for piano and sax with original arrangements by the composer Giovanni Sollima.
Recital devoted to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche with lieders either composed by him or dedicated to him: the French director Simone Benmoussa based an important theatrical work Les Voyageurs on this concert, which made its debut in Paris at the Espace Cardin in 1999 continuing with over thirty repeat performances. Subsequently Donella was invited by Franco Battiato (in the photo) to the summer festival in Sicily. Her repertoire includes Folksongs by Luciano Berio that she is performed both in the orchestral form as well as the chamber version. She has also recorded Fragments, a collection of compositions marking the creative “history” of the singer that encompasses various musical genres; the CD includes two unpublished works by OpusAvantra (that first came out in 1974 as 45 rpm and records and not since recorded). Lastly, her first consistent work as a composer, Shakespeare Ballet, with pieces for the ballet season “The Venetian dream of Shakespeare”, presented at the Arena of Verona in 2005. She is the director of the recording label OpusAvantra studium based in Treviso and Luxemburg.
Recognition
First prize during the International Music Festival of North Korea as the Italian representative in 1996 where she presented Airs by Puccini.
Member of the jury at the prestigious “Rachmaninov Competition” in Moscow in 1997.
Member of the jury at the International Toti dal Monte Competition in Treviso during the years 1996/97/98.
