Alberto Mattioli
"Il loggionista impenitente"

“You can’t understand a word of it.” Let’s be honest — that’s the verdict most non-initiates deliver when the curtain falls on an opera. And yet, from a scandalously young age, Alberto Mattioli fell hopelessly in love with musical theatre — enough to dedicate his life to it: as a journalist, a critic, a devotee, even a believer.
Now that opera seems more than ever like a hopelessly rétro spectacle — a relic from distant times — Il loggionista impenitente dares to celebrate it. Because it’s true: opera is a difficult, costly, complex art form, telling implausible stories in a language no one ever really spoke (and many don’t even understand), built on the absurd convention that people communicate by singing.But it’s even truer that opera invites reflection, argument, self-awareness — and above all offers a way to narrate and to be narrated. In that lies its undeniable modernity.
What you’ll find in these pages, then, is far more than a collection of reviews, portraits, polemics, titles, or trends. It’s the unfiltered confession of an incurable, almost shameless passion. Perhaps even an obsession.
And the best part? Mattioli’s enthusiasm is contagious. His words don’t just preach to the converted — they might even persuade the skeptics to dress up, take their seats, and, ready to be amazed, step for the first time beyond the doors of the foyer.

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