This is the first performance to reopen the doors of the Ponchielli Theatre for the new 2026–2027 season, on Friday, September 18, at 8:30 p.m. It will pay tribute to one of Cremona’s most distinguished figures in the world of music: baritone Aldo Protti. The protagonist will be one of the most highly regarded baritones on the international opera scene, Luca Salsi, accompanied on piano by Nelson Calzi. Just a few days before the concert, CremonaSera spoke with Luca Salsi.

Maestro Luca Salsi, what does it mean in today’s opera world to remember a figure such as Aldo Protti, who may seem very distant from us historically?

It is tremendously important, because Aldo Protti was certainly one of the greatest baritones of the 20th century and, without a doubt, the last great exponent of the true Italian baritone tradition. That tradition began with Antonio Cotogni and then continued through Titta Ruffo, Riccardo Stracciari and Carlo Tagliabue, all the way to my teacher Carlo Meliciani, who always spoke to me about Aldo Protti and called him “my big brother.”

So Aldo Protti was probably the last representative of this great school. For me, therefore, remembering him has enormous significance.

Protti was always closely associated with Verdi, even living very close to places physically connected with the composer. Is there a Verdi-inspired interpretative message that he passed on to the next generation of singers and that remains relevant today?

Being born near the places associated with Verdi—I too come from just eight kilometres away—and living in these lands, breathing the same air, eating the same food and experiencing life in the Verdi tradition is certainly fundamental for anyone interpreting Verdi, as Protti did.

This is especially true in certain roles in which he became an absolute icon, such as Rigoletto. For me, Aldo Protti’s Rigoletto is the finest there is.

After all, Verdi was a simple man, and from what people who knew Aldo Protti have told me, Aldo too was a simple, genuine and straightforward person. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet him.

Puccini’s Scarpia and Verdi’s Rigoletto: two icons of Protti’s repertoire. Two characters who represent power and its opposite, yet seem to draw on the same reservoir of emotions. Was this a weakness or a strength of Protti?

No, absolutely a strength. Being able to convey emotions and to change and modulate your voice according to the character you are portraying is unquestionably a virtue.

In this respect, Protti was a giant. He could play a villain such as Scarpia, or Barnaba, for example. He was a great Barnaba in La Gioconda, as well as in Andrea Chénier and Pagliacci.

He was able to bend his voice to those paternal accents and melancholic emotions. Above all in Rigoletto and other roles in which that melancholic quality emerges, this was one of his greatest strengths.

After all, with the extraordinary technique he possessed, he could do whatever he wanted. He could bend his voice, then change it and use it according to what the character required.

What do you envy about Protti?

Everything. As I do with all those great baritones. Sometimes people make comparisons that are absolutely out of place. At times they compare me to him, or to Bastianini.

They tell me: “You sound like one of the great voices of the past.” And that is enormously flattering to me, because I am a great “voice enthusiast”—a lover of the great voices of the past.

But I don’t think I would have existed in that era. Perhaps I would have, but I might have been singing smaller roles, because there were so many immense baritones like him that I don’t know whether there would have been room for me.

What have you chosen for the Cremonese audience so that, through your voice, you can evoke the memory of this great Cremonese artist in his own theatre, the Ponchielli?

It will be mainly in the second half of the concert, where I have included much of my more usual repertoire, which was also part of Aldo Protti’s repertoire. And if the audience asks for encores, there will be more.

In the first half, I have chosen a lighter repertoire, also tracing something of my own career. There will be a bit of everything, starting with Mozart and going all the way to Verdi.

There will also be a tribute to Ponchielli, since, after all, the theatre is named after him.