On the occasion of the centenary of the death of Giacomo Puccini, Corrado Veneziano presents his latest work expressly dedicated to the musician from Lucca. The cycle of oil works, entitled Visse d'arte, will be part of an exhibition scheduled at the National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome from 19 April to 23 June, under the curatorship of Francesca Barbi Marine, Cinzia Guido and Sonia Martone. A very personal tribute from the multifaceted artist - already author of iconic pictorial works as well as valuable essays on theater and linguistics - who, through painting, aims to enhance the strong tension of the composer in Puccini's dramaturgy, in a dialogue with the notes of the pentagram, evoking places and characters from his absolute masterpieces, including Tosca, Turandot, Manon, Suor Angelica, La Fanciulla del West, Madama Butterfly.

“Endowed with an extraordinary technical culture – states Veneziano – Puccini also transformed, sometimes erased and rewritten, passages of the works of the libres with whom he collaborated. And in all of this he managed to restore - in the complex dialogue that has always linked music to words - a homogeneous meaning and a visual communication of rare power. His works establish themselves as exquisitely musical melodic masterpieces, but they also become evocative symbols on which a precious part of the contemporary imagination is based.”

Of the twenty-five paintings in the exhibition created by Veneziano, twelve of them recall the entire Puccini operatic repertoire: with the horizontal lines parallel to each other that recall spar and musical lines. These aerial and pictorial parts appear separated from each other by different visual intervals: ropes, threads, branches, stairs, sea waves (and more) which become light and ethereal elements, almost desemantic and at the same time proudly bearers of Puccini's primary suggestion . To the works inspired by the classics of opera, three others are added: the Anlisca, an imaginary animal, a dangerous but seductive "female bird" that Puccini often evoked in order to jokingly scare his friends, on the Torre del Lago estate; the Incipit of the Old Testament, a book that Puccini "never tired of reading and recommending" to his acquaintances; a visual quote by Pia de' Tolomei, inspired by the Divine Comedy of her beloved Dante Alighieri to underline the profound affinities with Puccini's powerful female figures.