(May 6th, 2016) “The miracle of music is just that: to be like a light that comes into all areas of the temple of our soul. This light is a consolation: sometimes in the silence of our unbearable solitude, music becomes a traveling companion and takes us by the hand and accompanies us for a stretch of our existence”: words and ‘music’ by Giuseppe Sinopoli. On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of his death (1946-2001), the Italian Cultural Institute in Cologne offers an encounter dedicated to the multifaceted figure of the doctor, composer, maestro and archaeologist. The event is schedule for May 10th at 19:00 with a lecture by Dr Leopoldo Siano. Sinopoli is of Sicilian and Venetian origins and was a mitteleuropean intellectual who lived and worked constantly between Italian and German culture. After completing his medical studies at the University of Padova he lived for many years in Vienna, where he developed in depth his interest in psychoanalysis. After the performance of his opera “Lou Salomé” 1981 (Bayerische Staatsoper) Sinopoli interrupted his composing to devote himself exclusively to conducting. Not least, thanks to his deep philosophical and literary culture, he was distinguished as an original performer of not only late German romanticism (Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner, Richard Strauss) but was also the musical theatre of Verdi and Puccini. Since the eighties he undertook extensive archaeological studies going on expeditions to Egypt and the Middle East. On April 20 2001, a few days before the discussion of his thesis in archaeology in Rome, he died unexpectedly at the podium during a performance of Verdi’s Aida in Berlin.
