Monday 11 December, 7pm
Giacinto Scelsi: The Composer and his Work
To examine the personality and works of this revolutionary artist of sounds, the Italian Cultural Institute is delighted to feature a conversation between violinist Marco Fusi and composer Dimitri Scarlato: a mighty and enlightening insight on a reserved and meditative, ascetic and evanescent composer whose signature is the circle representing the sun in zen symbolism.
Giacinto endlessly explores the sound as “the first motion in the Immovable” by creating music, and he strives to fade behind the sound of (his) music not only by deliberately leaving little and enigmatic information about himself and always refusing to be portrayed, but even by abhorring dates and concealing those of his compositions, to turn them into something merely hypothetical.
Tuesday 12 December, 7pm
Marco Fusi: Donatoni, Sciarrino, Billone
Please note: this event will take place at City University of London
Violinist Marco Fusi presents three works by masters of the Italian avant-garde: the intricate and playful music of Donatoni, Sicarrino’s ethereal Caprices and a UK premiere by Billone
Programme:
Franco Donatoni Ciglio III
Salvatorie Sciarrino Sei capricci per violino
Pierluigi Billone Equilibrio. Cerchio (UK premiere)
Wednesday 13 December, 7pm
Toscanini and La Scala
A talk by Alexander Pereira – Sovrintendente and Direttore Artistico del Teatro alla Scala.
Dr Pereira will be welcomed by H.E. the Italian Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano and will be introduced by Dr Gaia Servadio
To celebrate the one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of Arturo Toscanini’s birth, the Italian Cultural Institute in London is pleased to feature an event in which Alexander Pereira – Sovrintendente and Direttore Artistico del Teatro alla Scala – will speak about this Italian conductor whose fame is still sound and bright all over the world.
After being introduced by writer and music expert Gaia Servadio, Pereira talk about some episodes of Toscanini’s extraordinary life and examine not only his unique performative qualities, but also the outstanding heritage he left as a musician and as a man.
Wednesday 3 December, from 3pm
La Giovane Scuola:
Protagonists and Antagonists
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana Leoncavallo: Zaza’
THE SERIES
The Italian Cultural Institute in London is proud to feature a series of five musical episodes, to show the multifaceted complexity of the Italian operatic scene in the period comprising the last decades of the nineteenth century and the initial ones of the twentieth. Click on the image for all info and complete programme of the series.
THIRD EPISODE
PIETRO MASCAGNI: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA – RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO: ZAZÀ
Since “Pagliacci”, by Ruggero Leoncavallo, was premiered in Milan in 1892, this short masterpiece has very often been coupled with another earlier short mastepiece – “Cavalleria rusticana” (Rome, 1890), by Pietro Mascagni – for reasons musicologists have analysed in depth.
Matching “Cavalleria” and “Zazà”, the Italian Cultural Institute infringes this tradition widely observed by opera houses all over the world, to feature two of the recurring settings in the works of the Giovane Scuola – a remote village in the South of Italy and some French typically bohémien haunts – and to juxtapose a story of jealousy, revenge and violent death with one of seduction, purity and desperate abandonment.
Programme & Performers
The episode will feature and contrast some pieces from the operas “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Zazà” as well as some pieces from other operas constituting the musical context of Mascagni’s and Leoncavallo’s works.
Carmen Solís, soprano
Nicholas Chalmers, pianoforte
The students of the Masterclass
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The Episode consists of two moments.
15:00-18:00
Masterclass. A three-hour learning opportunity tailored especially for a public of music students and opera enthusiasts.
19:30
Concert. An event open to a general public eager to appreciate exquisite excerpts from an outstanding Italian operatic masterpiece.
A cura di Katya Marletta
