Alvise Casellati: Can Music Heal? The Powerful Story Behind Opera & Therapy - 280 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Release Date: 04/05/2026
Nathalie Droulers: Architecture, Taste and the Balance of Opposites - 284 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
COMBINING ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN. Nathalie Droulers and her twin sister Virginie were born in Milan in 1973. Nathalie graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University in Milan in 1997. She worked in New York as a Creative Director in product design development and in 2000 returned to Italy, where she collaborated with the Milan-based Dstudio as a Project Manager. In 2005 she founded Nathalie Droulers Studio, developing residential and commercial projects internationally. Her sister Virginie graduated in Graphic Design from Parsons School of Design in New York...
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Jay McInerney on New York During COVID: A City Without People - 283 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
COVID REFLECTIONS. Jay McInerney is a well-known American writer, one of the most gifted of his generation. Novelist, screenwriter and wine connoisseur, McInerney recently published See You on the Other Side, the eagerly anticipated final volume of his stunningly accomplished and profoundly affecting fictional tetralogy: Brightness Falls, The Good Life, and Bright Precious Days. “The stories that I’m interested in ultimately are the personal ones.” “The people who come here are ambitious and energetic and they come here because it’s the biggest stage in America that there is.”...
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Andrew Graham-Dixon: The Hidden Meaning of Vermeer - 282 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
LUMINARY IN ART CRITIQUE. Andrew Graham-Dixon is a leading art critic and presenter of arts television in the English-speaking world. With a long history of public service in the field of the visual arts he has won numerous awards for writing and broadcasting. His book “Caravaggio A Life Sacred and Profane” is a Sunday Times Bestseller, and his recent title “Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found” paints a dramatically new picture of Vermeer. Graham-Dixon reveals many of the painter’s hitherto unknown friendships, as well as his previously undetected allegiance to a radical movement...
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Valerie Steele: Fashion Is More Than Clothes, Here’s Why - 281 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
TAKING FASHION SERIOUSLY. Valerie Steele is an American fashion historian and the Director and Chief Curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City. A pioneer in the field of fashion studies, she has been instrumental in establishing fashion as a legitimate intellectual and cultural subject. “Both the allure and the problematic aspects of fashion attracted and interested me.” “Although most people don’t get any exercise, they want to look sporty.” “The body is central to fashion.”
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Alvise Casellati: Can Music Heal? The Powerful Story Behind Opera & Therapy - 280 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
CHAMPION OF ITALIAN OPERA. Alvise Casellati was born in Padua, Italy, from a Venetian musical family with important ties to the top classical music scene in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is currently serving as Artistic Director of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, one of the most prestigious opera and dance theaters in Italy and in the world. He is the Founder and Music Director of Opera Italiana is in the Air (OIA), created in 2017 to bring superstar singers and the young talents in iconic locations in the air such as Central Park, New York, to give...
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Bianca Jagger: “I Am a Human Rights Defender. That Is My Mission” - 279 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
DEFENDER OF JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS. Bianca Jagger is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation (BJHRF), a UK-based human rights organisation that defends human rights and civil liberties, promotes international justice, campaigns to end violence against women and girls, addresses the threat of climate change, and advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples and future generations. “Being born in Nicaragua shaped my understanding of repression, injustice and inequality.” “I have dedicated my life to the defence of peace, justice and...
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Thomas Clement Salomon: How Italy Secured a Lost Caravaggio After 60 Years - 278 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
REVIVIFYING ROME. Thomas Clement Salomon is the director of Rome’s Baroque Palazzo Barberini and the Galleria Corsini since January 2024. Palazzo Barberini is home to the National Gallery of Ancient Art, with a collection of paintings by Caravaggio and other Caravaggesque painters that now includes the very recently acquired Caravaggio Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini. Thomas studied art history and archaeological heritage protection law, for many years he helped organize major exhibitions at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome and the Palazzo Reale in Milan, worked at the Galleria...
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The life and achievements of Jennifer Montagu, a leading British art historian known for her work on Italian Baroque sculpture - 277 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
PIONEER OF BAROQUE SCULPTURE. Jennifer Montagu LVO CBE is a highly regarded British art historian whose emphasis is in the study of Italian Baroque sculpture. A daughter of Ewen Montagu, a British lawyer, writer and Naval intelligence officer, and granddaughter of painter Solomon J. Solomon RA, she studied under Sir Ernst Gombrich at the Warburg Institute, London where she received her PhD degree. Montagu lectured in History of Art at Reading University 1958–64, then was assistant Curator 1964–71, and Curator 1971–91, of the Photographic Collection at the Warburg Institute....
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Antonio Citterio: Why Good Design Starts With the End of a Product’s Life - 276 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
DAY TO DAY BRILLIANCE. ANTONIO CITTERIO is an Italian architect, furniture and industrial designer. Today his cross-disciplinary practice for architecture and interior design is known as “ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel”. The firm works internationally, developing projects on all scales in collaboration with a network of specialist consultants. In both 1987 and 1994, Antonio Citterio was awarded the Compasso d’Oro (“Golden Compass”) prize, the world’s oldest and most prestigious industrial design award. In 2008 the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts,...
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Francesco Billari on Population Decline, AI & Identity - 275 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
LEADING AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. Francesco Billari is Professor of Demography at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He became Rector in November 2022 after having held the role of Dean of the Faculty. He has worked at the University of Oxford Department of Sociology, at Nuffield College, and at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. His recent book Domani è Oggi offers a demographic lens to shed light on the potential futures shaped by today’s choices. “The important thing is that all young people should think that going to university is a wise and...
info_outlineCHAMPION OF ITALIAN OPERA. Alvise Casellati was born in Padua, Italy, from a Venetian musical family with important ties to the top classical music scene in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is currently serving as Artistic Director of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, one of the most prestigious opera and dance theaters in Italy and in the world. He is the Founder and Music Director of Opera Italiana is in the Air (OIA), created in 2017 to bring superstar singers and the young talents in iconic locations in the air such as Central Park, New York, to give everyone the opportunity to appreciate Italian Opera.
"The locals look at Teatro Massimo as a myth, as the centre of cultural gravity in Palermo."
"We wanted to give young people and people who could not afford to go to the Met Opera the opportunity to fall in love with Italian opera"
"What I adore about this theater is the investment in the young generation."