The interview of the month

Meet Claudia Rondolini, coordinator of Crescendo per Rossini project

  1. Can you tell us about your professional experience before joining ROF?
    I graduated in Classics from the Liceo Mamiani in Pesaro and then from the University of Urbino, where I majored in Greek and Latin literature in High School. The study of antiquity is a fundamental part of my education, which has allowed me to become a teacher and to get closer to my greatest passion: the theatre. When I was at the Classical School, I had the opportunity to attend the performance of ‘Oedipus Rex – Oedipus at Colonus’, performed and directed by Glauco Mauri. I still remember the emotion I felt, the intensity of the interpretation that made Sophocles’ words come alive. Since then, theatre in all its expressions and forms has been a constant in my life. Thanks to this passion, new opportunities for cultural and professional growth have arisen: for several years I have collaborated with AMAT and the Associazione Amici della Prosa in initiatives to bring students closer to the world of theatre. My teaching career has been a precarious one, and I do not hide the fact that I have experienced moments of discouragement, which I have overcome thanks to my curiosity and my love of classical languages, to which I owe my rigour, my ability to listen and my attention: translating an ancient text requires respect and care for every word of the author; in fact, it is necessary to weigh and identify the exact meaning so as not to “betray” the communicative intention.
  2. What was your first contact with the Festival?
    My first experience of the ROF dates back to 2000 when, on the advice of a friend, I took part in an audition for the role of Public Relations Assistant. After a few days I was called back, which was very exciting for me as I was already familiar with the festival as a spectator and thanks to a previous job as an usher. Working in the Public Relations department, under the direction of Welleda Donovan, proved to be very useful and valuable in other professional situations as well; I learnt a lot: knowing how to deal with the public, keeping a form appropriate to the cultural context in which you work, maintaining discretion and having respect for everyone’s work. This role allowed me to get to know the ROF’s perfect mechanism better and from the inside, and to approach the beauty of opera theatre with awe and wonder. At the end of my shift, I would go and watch the performance, fascinated by the orchestral direction and the singers’ performances, and curious about the sets and the stage direction. When this experience ended in 2005, I continued to attend the ROF as an audience member. At the time, I could not have imagined that what I had experienced and learnt would later allow me to combine two areas of my professional profile. During a substitution at the classical high school in Pesaro, at the suggestion of the mother of one of my students, I planned an approach to opera for the students in my class. It was natural to return to the ROF and ask for the collaboration of the people who had taught me so much: the then Superintendent Gianfranco Mariotti and the Artistic Director Alberto Zedda enthusiastically accepted the invitation to meet the students and reveal to them the secrets of melodrama. That was the first germ of Crescendo per Rossini, with a different title and structure, but the interest that the initiative aroused made me realise that an experience similar to the one that had already been carried out for prose theatre could also be carried out for opera.
  3. Could you explain what your job involves?
    Thanks to the collaboration of Federica Bassani and the entire ROF, Crescendo per Rossini was born, a project aimed at all school levels, up to and including university students and teachers, through a training course. As the title suggests, it is an initiative open to innovation and inclusiveness: in fact, in recent years the project has been extended to other social realities in our territory. Since 2010, Crescendo per Rossini has been an integral part of the educational activities of the Rossini Opera Festival, offering students and teachers a unique opportunity to get to know the world of opera and the composer from Pesaro. Since then I have been coordinating the project. My role is quite varied and includes, for example, managing contacts with the authorities and schools, supervising the work of the staff, the actual teaching and organising the schools’ participation in the Opera Antegenerale in August, which is the real goal of the entire Crescendo team. Ours is indeed a team effort and each of us lives this experience with commitment, dedication and enthusiasm.
  4. What is your fondest memory of your experience at ROF?
    It is difficult to say which is my favourite memory of my experience at the ROF, because I have so many in my heart, some linked to the first period of my work in Public Relations, others to my passionate view as an audience member, and many to Crescendo per Rossini: the meetings and workshops with the students, the relationship with the teachers, the working relationships within the Festival. If I really had to choose one, I would say the most recent one, when the opening of the Barbiere di Siviglia’s antegenerale was open to schools: the theatre was full of enthusiastic children and young people, their faces full of wonder, but above all their final, endless applause for the singers, the conductor and the director, Pier Luigi Pizzi, the king of the stage, who came on stage to greet them – what can I say, a “crescendo” of emotions!

Published in : 23 September 2024