An opera by Ernesto Tatafiore for the opening of the opera season at Teatro alla Scala

On Dec. 7, Teatro alla Scala in Milan will open its opera season with Umberto Giordano’s "Andrea Chénier." A portrait of Chénier signed by Neapolitan painter Ernesto Tatafiore was chosen as the poster. The artist used the colors of the French flag, blue, red and white, to tell the story of the poet swept up in the Revolution of 1789.

Tatafiore is not new to this kind of representation: other of his works are inhabited by heroes(Robespierre, Mozart, Maradona, Danton, Masaniello, Virtue, Liberty) or narrate great historical events or permanent vicissitudes of humanity outside, however, of a logical-consequential historical narrative, rather as a dream or continuous flow. Back in 2015, the artist signed a manifesto for Mario Martone (who is directing Chénier). At that time it was "Death of Danton," a play by Georg Büchner, staged in Turin.

Ernesto Tatafiore, born in Naples in 1943, still works in his hometown, and it was in 1969 that he presented his first solo exhibition in Lucio Amelio’s gallery: already on that occasion Achille Bonito Oliva called his work ’neo-Enlightenment’, as it tended to indicate an ethical link between art and history.

An opera by Ernesto Tatafiore for the opening of the opera season at Teatro alla Scala

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