Beatrice Venezi: “Women don’t need an extra help”

Beatrice Venezi has a secret. Which is the basis of being one of the few female conductors in the world to work with orchestras of international level – from Japan to Belarus, from Portugal to Lebanon, from Canada to Argentina and up to Japan and Armenia – and to collaborate with internationally renowned interpreters of the caliber of Bruno Canino and Andrea Bocelli or orchestras such as that of the theater The Phoenix o la New Japan Philharmonic. His secret is that at 31 he combines this talent with the equally strong-willed strength and gentle grace of guiding him with very natural awareness. As did the brave heroines who accompany her new recording adventure. His new album on the Warner Music Italia label is called Heroines and it is a two-century journey through the history of music through some of its most representative figures. The work of Beatrice Venezi, who avails herself of the collaboration of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento comes later My Journey – Puccini’s Symphonic Workif it tells about female empowerment through controversial heroines of the historical and lyrical tradition such as Giovanna D’Arco, Salomè, Medea, Evita, Lady Macbeth through the eyes of Shostakovic, Verdi, Strauss and many other greats of the classical.

In this record he tells about very different women, yet united by a common denominator: strength.
“Strength of which there is still too often too little awareness. As I also told in my last book Mozar’s Sisterst, there is still too much talk of “sisters of”, “daughters of” and little of the specific size of the character. With Heroines I wanted to present a varied female collective imagination that is appreciated by everyone, especially the new generations. All my heroines propose different aspects of femininity and femininity: there is a champion of freedom like Joan of Arc, but also the sensuality of Salome, the absolute love of Isolde, the true feminism of Evita Peròn, the conquest of freedom through the murder of Macbeth, the infanticide for revenge of Medea. Varied characters with the common denominator of courage, tenacity, perseverance in which every woman can find a piece of herself. And, perhaps, by inverse property it can also define a bit of itself “.

Which of these heroines currently represents you the most?
“Avoid, without a shadow of a doubt. And not only because I have just returned from Argentina, but also because I was passionate about his strenuous fight for civil rights. It was she who convinced her husband’s government to grant universal suffrage, after all. And then her character inevitably influenced the perception of the female figure in Argentina, where there is not all the prejudice that we find in our country “.

And if he were to spot a contemporary heroine, who would he choose?
“They are all working mothers who wake up in the morning and do everything to combine family life with a career. They are the courageous women who took care of the physical and mental health of the family during the pandemic. Yet our country is still too little attentive to these issues and to the extent to which women are healthy bearers of heroism “.

She first seems to be a heroine, but of the everyday.
“I don’t have moments too, in truth. I like to get out of this narrative of the superhero conductor raising his baton and doing the miracle. This is a work of dedication, of many defeats, of clashes with some people at times. We are not immune from difficulty. We are and I am fallible, like everyone else ».

Fallible, but never failed.
«Which is the great strength of women, first of all: the intensity can sometimes fade, but it never runs out, despite everything. We have to build this new narrative every day and I try to do it with my work, with this album, with a concrete work of sensitization. The first step for all of us, in my opinion, is to be increasingly aware of our profound value ».

Who were your first heroines?
“My mother, who was and is every single moment. My first piano teacher, through whom I discovered my talent, in the true meaning of education. And my English teacher in high school: a blonde woman, very cultured and beautiful who gave me the living demonstration of how much charm and vocation could coexist ».

Having discovered her talent, the success that led her to be an internationally renowned conductor soon arrived. How do you manage it?
«I experience it as something so normal and everyday that I don’t manage it, I don’t perceive it. I am extremely self-critical, for me everything is never enough. And then I work in a sector where we start with a handicap: when a woman gets on the podium she is judged, regardless of the curriculum she has gained over the years. This does not happen to a man. And always having to prove something makes you happy but never really makes you feel the goal reached “.