Category Archives: Lucca

Napoleonic Dances, Food and Costumes at Lucca’s Ducal Palace

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Courtesy of my friend Anna Benedetto, who promotes these events, there is a wonderful series of events in Lucca which will be of particular interest to all lovers of matters Napoleonic.

 

Fans, buffets, quadrilles and cotillons form part of historical re-enactments of the Napoleonic era in a very accessible way without one having to hunt for a suitable costume.

The events take place in Lucca’s Palazzo Ducale the historic centre of the city’s government and the residence of Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi as well as of Maria Luisa di Borbone, after having been the seat of the Luccan republic for four hundred years.

The events run from 6 March to 3 April, at 5pm to 7 pm, with free admission and take place in the state rooms of the Ducal Palace. It is also possible to attend just one event.

Margarita Martinez, an Australian from Sydney, former director of Opera Australia and Victoria State Opera, before moving to Florence, where she promotes the rediscovery and spread of vintage dance and launched the Napoleonic Ball which enjoys international success, is the organiser.

From etiquette to food, to clothes from the Regency of Jane Austen to the Empire of Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, there will be five conference-laboratories on history, costume and society. They are five historical laboratories for learning about court life of the first decades of the nineteenth century. The five meetings will develop many themes: court customs, in particular Napoleonic customs characterized by a very rigid code dictated personally by the Emperor and in force at the Paris court as in all Napoleonic courts.

The initiative was born following the success of the Napoleonic dances and the afternoon dedicated to Luigi Boccherini’s Fandango, held during the last two years.

 

 

Programme Events

Tuesday, March 6: “Ventagli e Bicorni”.
(Fans and Hats). Through the dance, discovering the subtle language of the court in the Palazzo Ducale.

Tuesday, March 13: “Fashion: a ‘battle’ of styles”. Jane Austen’s Regency and Elisa Baciocchi’s Empire. You will be able to see and try faithful reproductions of men’s and women’s clothes with their accessories.

Tuesday, March 20: “Le Buffet Froid – food presentation”. The table as an essential part of scenography. Antonin Carême, great chef of the Empire and his ‘extraordinaires’ of cotton candy sweets.

Tuesday, March 27: “Contraddanze e Quadriglie”. (Contredances and quadrilles.) First practical lesson on the steps and basic dance figures at the time of Napoleon. No dance experience is required, but the use of shoes without heels is required.

Tuesday, April 3: “Minuetti and Cotillons”. Second practical lesson on the choreography of the various Napoleonic dances. No dance experience is required, but the use of shoes without high heels is required.

“Ballo a Palazzo” is an initiative of the “Napoleon and Elisa: from Paris to Tuscany” association, created on the occasion of the bicentenary of the installation of the Duchess Maria Luisa di Borbone in Lucca (1817-2017), whose commemorative events are sponsored by the City of Lucca, the Province of Lucca, the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Foundation and the Banca del Monte di Lucca Foundation.

Info: Facebook; Margarita Martinez: mailto, 340 853 4505. @annabe

LENNY KRAVITZ and GARY CLARK JR. AT LUCCA’S SUMMER FESTIVAL

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On July 18th, at 9.30 pm Lenny Kravitz, with special guest Gary Clark Jr., will be on the stage of Piazza Napoleone, for the Lucca Summer Festival.

Recognized as one of the most eminent rock musicians of our time, Kravitz has transcended genres, styles, races and classes over the course of a twenty-year career. Influenced by 60s and 70s soul, rock and funk, this song writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist has won four consecutive Grammy Awards as well as setting the record for the most wins in the category “Best Male Rock Voice Performance”

In addition to his ten studio albums, which have sold more than thirty eight million copies worldwide, this multidimensional artist has also ventured into the cinema appearing in the role of Cinna in “The Hunger Games” and “The Hunger Game: Catching Fire”, big hits at the box office. Kravitz has also appeared in the critically acclaimed films “Precious” and “The Butler”

It’s his guitar skill that strikes every performance of Gary Clark. The sound is round and raw, and rises directly from the earth. His skills are impressive, agile and fluid, though extremely expressive. It only takes a moment to understand that Gary Clark’s affinity with giants such as Hendrix, Clapton and Beck is his passionate love for all music and his rare ability to make it his own and make it personal.

Presale TicketOne – Infoline 0584.26477

And meanwhile, just to warm you up:

 

 

An Opera For Those Who Can’t Stand Opera

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“TACI”, THE WORLD’S SHORTEST OPERA

“Taci”, ‘minimodrama’ for voice and orchestra written by Girolamo Deraco, composer and artistic director of ‘Cluster’ Contemporary Music association, has entered the history of music as the shortest opera ever written (it lasts eight seconds). The work (“absolute lyric gesture” as its author defines it) will be performed on Friday 23rd February at 8 pm at the Teatro del Giglio, as part of the “Dillo in sintesi- Festival delle brevità intelligenti”.

(Girolamo Deraco)

Performers are the Città di Grosseto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Diego Sánchez Haase (director of the Orquesta Sinfónica of the Congreso Nacional del Paraguay) and soprano Maria Elena Romanazzi.

At 6 pm, also at the Theatre, there’s a listening guide, with Deraco, Romanazzi, Sánchez Haase, composer Luigi Esposito and musicologist Renzo Cresti, as the ‘provocateur’.

At 7 pm an aperitif will be offered to the public at the Teatro del Giglio.

At 8 pm the opera “Taci” will be performed.

Free admission

 

 

 

A Novel Based on the ‘Arandora Star’ Tragedy

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Italy has ever been a nation of emigrants. It wasn’t just the working classes who went abroad to find jobs, it was the professional ones too. Just to take Lucca and its fabulous composers: Luigi Boccherini sought his fortune in the Spanish court and Francesco Geminiani found fame with the English aristocracy. Today the Italian tradition in the UK cultural scene continues with such persons as Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, and Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House.

In London I am constantly surprised at the number of young Italians working there: it’s a rare bus ride in that city where one doesn’t hear some Italian spoken. The good thing is that they are not all working on zero hour contracts but have been able to obtain prestigious jobs in finance, commerce and, naturally, catering.

The obverse is also true: for example, the head of Italy’s great Brera Gallery in Milan is James Bradbourne, born in Canada but a British citizen.

That’s why, of course, this Brexit nonsense is so hopeless and retrograde: a sign that an outdated colonial attitude still infiltrates the minds of too many English. As for those British emigrants (note: emigrants – not ‘expats’) to such places as our own Bagni di Lucca, and who still believe they voted ‘out’ correctly, I can only suggest that (unless they have since repented of their ill-informed choice) they are either unhinged or else totally without regard to the younger generation who, thinking about their future, overwhelmingly voted to remain within the European Community.

Sadly, the attitude of those persons reflects a similar attitude which permeated the background to the ‘Arandora Star’ tragedy. This was a British cruise liner requisitioned for war purposes. Loaded with Italian and German civilian internees on their way to camps in Canada, the liner was sunk off the Irish coast by a torpedo, launched by the U-47 enemy submarine under the command of Gunther Prien, on the 2nd of July 1940 with the loss of 865 lives of which 446 were Italian and 13 from our area of Garfagnana,

This tragic incident has inspired writer Caterina Soffici to write a novel to be presented on Monday 19th February at 11 am in the Great Hall of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana’s Istituto Superiore di Istruzione. “Nessun puo’ fermarmi” (‘Nobody can stop me’) is published by Feltrinelli with a historical introduction by Pietro Luigi Biagioni of the Paolo Cresci Foundation.

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The novel begins with the casual discovery of a letter shedding new light on the disappearance of her grandfather, believed dead in action during the Second World War. The search for the truth  leads the protagonist to discover the real cause of death: the sinking of the Arandora Star.

Those who drowned were innocent victims of suspicion and xenophobia: they had lived in the United Kingdom for years and many were second or even third generation. Yet all were considered aliens, even spies, and a threat to a country at war.

I can only imagine what these people must have felt when they were arrested for being ‘aliens’ and interned. It’s not surprising that something of the same fear permeates Italian and other European Union citizens living in the UK at the present time. To wake up after years of living in a country which seemed so open-hearted, in which one had a career, raised a family, a place one truly loved, and then suddenly feel unwanted, unwelcomed, uncertain of what may happen to one’s status; indeed to feel betrayed, as the result of a referendum which imposed a ‘will of the people’, using, incidentally, the same word as Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 film ‘Triumph Des Willens‘ which extolled the Nazi credo.

(The Will of the People?)

This is, indeed, what has happened, since the June 2016 Brexit referendum, to EU citizens who have made their life in the UK.  (In this respect, “In Limbo: Brexit testimonies from EU citizens in the UK” by Elena Remigi, is an essential read: a book of testimonies from those who now feel in limbo in the UK).

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It’s also useful and educational to visit the Paolo Cresci museum of the history of Italian emigration in Lucca, situated to the right of the ducal palace in Piazza Napoleone.

 

 

Well set-out in a former chapel, the museum guides one through photographs and objects from the emigrants’ moment of departure through to the arrival in foreign lands and describes their difficulties and dangers. What is especially poignant is the fact that this is one place where a memorial to the victims of the ‘Arandora Star’ is found:

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The museum is part of the Paolo Cresci foundation which has a significant archive relating to emigration and also publishes a monthly bulletin. Full details are available at http://www.fondazionepaolocresci.it/.

 

Korea in Lucca (and Lucca in Korea)

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What with the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchan and their combined ice Hockey team, the Koreans are very much in the news. In Italy, too, Koreans (or at least South Koreans) have received a special focus. They were present in Viareggio’s Carnival where I met them during one of the float parades.

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I officiated at a Korean wedding for Lisa Redgrave of ‘Hitched in Italy’ at

A Different Kind of Butterfly House

Korea was also present at last Saturday’s ‘Baluardo’ concert with their chorus master Elio Antichi.

Founded in 1989, ‘Il Baluardo’ has participated in over five hundred concerts. They have performed in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain and have established ties with other Italian and foreign choirs.  In 2016 ‘Il Baluardo’ even performed at Fornoli:

Il Baluardo di Lucca

‘Il Baluardo’ repertoire consists of traditional Tuscan folk-songs which they perform in a cappella style. They also sing folk-songs from other regions of Italy and several European countries. In addition ‘Il Baluardo’ performs items like French renaissance chansons and contemporary pieces.

The concert took place in the austere beauty of San Salvatore, a church dating back to 1009 and situated in Lucca’s square of the same name, (known to locals as ‘piazza della pupporona’ – square of the big boobed lady – after the well-endowed statue there).

 

 

The concert’s first half featured the choir in a characteristic repertoire which included a moving evening hymn to our Apuan Mountains. They also sang ‘Jeongseon Arirang’, a 600-year-old folk-song sung as the unofficial national anthem for both Koreas in the Olympic Games.

 

Here is a performance of ‘arirang’ by the members of Seo-Do Traditional Songs Institute with the Korean National Classical Orchestra.

These are the words of that song:

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo…

You are going over Arirang hill.

My love, you are leaving me;

Your feet will be sore even before you go.

Just as there are many stars in the clear sky,

There are also many dreams in our heart.

There, over there, that mountain is Baekdu Mountain,

Where, even in the middle of winter days, flowers bloom.

The second half featured the delightful trio of Lee Eunji (violin), Lee Kungmin (viola) and Yulee Kang (vocals). These three Korean girls have just completed musical masters at Lucca and, judging by their performance, will have a very successful career in the music world. As a ‘thank you for the Baluardo’s performance of ‘Arirang’ Yulee Kang replied with a terrific rendering of ‘O Sole mio’ bringing the house down.

 

 

It was a very convivial concert and fully proved the power of music in bringing different cultures together. As I have argued in my post at

https://longoio3.com/2018/02/06/music-an-international-language/

music may turn out to be more effective in this matter than any number of international conferences…

For more information on ‘Il Baluardo’ and forthcoming concerts see http://www.coroilbaluardo.it/calendario.php

 

Ps Il Baluardo’ is always on the look-out for new recruits. If you are looking for a choir which includes a very wide repertoire comprising classical, folk and pop then this is the place for you!

PPS ‘Il Baluardo’ means bulwark and refers to Lucca’s walls in which lovely city the choir is based. At least we have a well-defined origin for that word!

 

(L’après concert in Lucca)

 

 

James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt at the Lucca Summer Festival!

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JAMES TAYLOR & HIS ALL-STAR BAND

The great American songwriter, with six Grammys, a hundred million records sold and a place in both the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, will be on the Piazza Napoleone stage on July 20 at 9:30 pm.

Bonnie Raitt, longtime friend and colleague of Taylor, on tour with her twentieth album’ Dig In Deep’, will open the evening and form an incredible double bill.

In total, the two singer-songwriters have more than thirty completed projects, so there should be no lack of material for the tour’s set-lists!

James Taylor will perform all his memorable hits along with songs from the album ‘Before This World’, released in 2015, thirteen years after his previous one.

Backing James Taylor, the ‘All Star Band’ is made up of some of the best musicians on the American scene such as:

Steve Gadd (Drums) – Luis Conte (Percussion) – Kevin Hays (Piano / Keyboard) – Mike Landau (Electric Guitar) – Walt Fowler (Horns / Keyboard) – Jimmy Johnson (Bass Guitar) – Lou Marini (Horns) – Arnold McCuller (Vocals) – Andrea Zonn (Vocals / Fiddle) – Kate Markowitz (Vocals).

Tickets for sale on http://www.ticketone.it

Infoline 0584.46477

 

 

Lucca’s Archbishop comes to Bagni di Lucca

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The rare visit of an archbishop to Bagni di Lucca means that something of major ecclesiastical importance will be announced.

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Last week, in Villa’s parish hall, Castellani’s simple message to the congegations of Val di Lima was that many local churches will have to be closed down, and parishes merged, within ten years because of a lack of priests. The figures are stark: since archbishop Italo Castellani succeeded to the See of Lucca in 2005 one hundred and fifty priests have died of old age or ill health and just ten new ones have been found to replace them. Currently the seminary of Lucca, where fledgling priests are trained, has been reduced from over two hundred entrants to just five – and the majority of the novices are not of Italian origin.

Of course, those who object to priestcraft and think that the Roman Catholic Church is a cover-up for exploitation of people’s superstitions and are instigators of sexual abuse and corruption will be delighted. But that is not the point. Religion in Italy is a cultural phenomenon which permeates all aspects of life in this country whether one is a believer or not. To give a very simple example: near our village a young man some years ago fell in love with a girl from another part of the Lucchesia. Both wanted to get married and desired a white wedding. This proved to be impossible since the groom had dropped out of his catechism class, had not received the Holy Communion sacrament and was, therefore, ineligible for a church ceremony. Much against his instincts, but realizing that the respective families would have felt done out of a ‘proper’ wedding, the groom, in his twenties, re-attended catechism classes, fortunately this time with a more personable priest, and a white wedding was able to be celebrated.

Of course, social change, anomie and immigration in Italy’s big cities are changing the picture but it still remain true to state that belief in the Holy Family, and particularly the Madonna, is at the heart of the majority of social nuclei in this country.

Furthermore, the largest part of Italian artistic creation, some of the highest order the world has known, has been sponsored by ecclesiastical institutions.  I am not just referring to the great fresco cycles, like Michelangelo’s in Rome’s Sistine chapel, or the wonderful basilicas and sanctuaries that grace our landscape. Even Longoio’s little church has a beautiful seventeenth century altarpiece which would be extolled by the UK’s National Trust but is here just another humble example of religious manifestation.

Who would look after or even be able to think of looking after such a heritage? Up to now it’s been the priests with their acolytes, parishioners and volunteers. What would happen if the last priest vanished from the Controneria countryside? How could one commemorate the annual saint’s day festivals with their colourful processions, their elaborate church displays and their joyful celebrations? Are we really beginning to see something as drastic as that which happened with the dissolution of the British monasteries under Henry VIII – the overnight sweeping away of centuries of history, tradition, artistic creation and literature?

This picture’s paint is even bleaker when one considers that, of the priests left to serve the community, few are below the age of sixty.

Of course, the Church has exploited the naivety of the faith of many locals in the past, burnt heretics, forced women into nunneries, abused the young etc. but it has also helped social cohesion (‘Vox Populi Vox Dei’) and provided education and social care.

The only religion that is growing in these parts is that which has roots outside Europe. The Muslim community is ever clamouring for more spaces in which to practices its faith. (See my post on the Florence mosque at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/a-mosque-for-florence-una-moschea-per-firenze/ ). If the picture does not change regarding priesthood recruitment are we to expect what is happening to several cities in (e.g.) the UK: the sale of churches to other convictions? In that country, for example, 500 churches have closed down since 1990 and 423 new mosques founded, over half of which use converted ex-Christian churches. The landscape of Birmingham is now increasingly dominated by minarets rather than by spires and, regrettably, British multiculturalism is giving way to Islamic fundamentalism as the phenomenon of ‘foreign fighters’ has demonstrated.

What is the answer to all this? My solution would be the following:

  1. The setting up of an effective government, business and church financed body to look after closed or abandoned churches rather in the style of the Redundant Churches Fund in the UK.
  2. The encouragement of young people who are believers in the Roman Catholic Church to participate more fully in its liturgy. This is already taking place in the case of a local young Religious Instruction teacher who assists the priest in the Mass and conducts a church choir. Could not these young persons conduct more of the church service like a ‘Diacono’ or Deacon? (A ‘Diacono’ is a layperson who is able to celebrate the Mass without blessing the Host, which must be sanctified by the priest).
  3. Could not ‘Diacono’ qualifications be extended? (For example, married men can become ‘Diaconi’ but single men can only be ‘Diaconi’ provided they remain unmarried). Also, in this age of gender equality, why can’t women become ‘Diaconi’?

Regrettably I see, if the Church does not move forwards and grasp the nettle, a scenario where. perhaps by the end of the next century, churches in our valley will either be turned into perpetually locked-up museum pieces or have their campaniles converted into minarets to cater for the increasing Islamic community and the Val di Lima may echo to the call of the muezzin rather than the ring of bells. It happened in 1453 when the cathedral of Santa Sophia in Constantinople was converted into a mosque in its renamed city of Istanbul and it’s happening in many parts of the UK today. So why shouldn’t it happen here in the Val di Lima (or rather, why mustn’t  it happen…)

 

 

What a Wally in Lucca!

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I don’t like the late start of operas in Italy. 9.15 pm seems to be the usual procedure and by the time one has got home it’s closer to 2 am. The way to get round this in Lucca is to attend a Sunday 4 pm matinee. It’s also a great chance to savour the crisp winter sunlight on the city walls and browse through the city’s antiques market.

 

 

Despite the name of its heroine, ‘Wally’, (which should not be pronounced in the English way but in the Italian one as ‘Val-ley’- short for ‘Valpurga’) Catalani’s last of six operas – composed in a  sad life cut short at age thirty-nine by TB – proved a thrilling experience at Lucca’s Giglio theatre last Sunday. The Tyrolean scenario, by Puccini’s librettist Illica after Wilhelmine von Hillern’s novel Die Geier-Wally, provided the composer with opportunities for Austrian Ländler (at the time of the opera Südtirol still belonged to the Hapsburg empire), yodeling arias and atmospheric scoring depicting the icy mountains which, in the end, kill off the heroine and the hero with an avalanche.

Indeed, Catalani’s instrumentation of these alpine landscapes, using just the highest and the lowest orchestral timbres in octave unison, was also adopted by Prokofiev in the ‘Battle on the ice sequence’ in his ‘Alexander Nevsky’ score and in Vaughan Williams’ seventh ‘Antarctica ‘ symphony. The inevitable wind-machine makes its eerie entrance too…

 

 

Even if you’ve never seen ‘La Wally’ you’ll recognize at least one aria from it.  It’s the heart-melting aria Ebben ne andrò lontana made well-known to the world through Wiggins Fernandez’ rendition in Jean-Jacques Beineix‘s 1981 cult movie Diva.

I’ve written extensively on Catalani here and in ‘Grapevine’ magazine. His is a life plagued by false promises, unrequited love and a killer disease. See:

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/catalanis-calamitous-life/

and

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/magnificent-san-michele-mass/

Here is the cast list for the performance I attended last Sunday:

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I felt Serena Farnocchia was superb as the protagonist (befitting a winner of the coveted Luciano Pavarotti prize, Find out more about her at

http://www.serenafarnocchia.com/HOME_ITA.html)

Of Wally’s two competing lovers I was a little underwhelmed by Gellner but fully convinced by Hagenbach. Supporting cast and choir were resoundingly adequate. Regarding the scenario I was disappointed by the few fluffs of artificial snow announcing the annihillatory avalanche. Actually, only Hagenbach is suffocated by the snow since Wally, Tosca-like, leaps to her death into a ravine.

Wally, unusually for many nineteenth century heroines, is a wild child of nature with no time for sentimental Traviata-type gushings. She knows what she likes and abruptly repudiates those lovers she can’t stand. True, there is heartrending emotion in her famous act one aria but Wally does point forwards to Minnie, heroine of Puccini’s 1910 ‘Girl of the Golden West’. In this respect, Catalani’s opera does not reduce women to a vessel at the mercy of opportunistic men but creates a new feminine dimension fully equal to the machinations of the male sex – surely a timely insight today in view of all those exploitation accusations in the news.

What would Catalani have gone on to create had he lived longer? This is the unanswerable question which could be put with regard to so many other musical geniuses, Mozart and Schubert for a start. One thing is certain, however: Catalani’s premature death must count as one of Italy’s and Europe’s greatest artistic losses. I looked almost tearfully at the under-rated composer’s memorial plaque in the Giglio’s foyer:

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For the next two operas concluding the Giglio season click on

http://www.teatrodelgiglio.it/it/stagione-in-corso/lirica/la-fanciulla-del-west/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No More Animal Circuses in Lucca

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In line with many other European cities, and reflecting increased public sentiment against the use of animals in circuses, Lucca has stopped hosting what, in Italian, are called ‘circhi equestri’ – which means not just the use of horses but also other animals in circus acts.

The edict from City Mayor Alessandro Tambellini came out in February last year after the Circo Orfei, made famous by Fellini, had finished their tournée at Lucca. Mayor Tambellini’s reasons are primarily of a hygienic nature “due to the unavoidable presence of organic material that remains on the street. The resolution follows the shifting of the twice-weekly market from Via dei Bacchettoni, (the old traditional site running from Porta Elisa to Porta San Jacopo), to Piazzale Don Baroni, an area that was, by current regulations, also intended for travelling circus shows. The location of the market, however, does not make it possible for hygienic and sanitary reasons to allow circuses with the presence of animals there.”

Furthermore, mayor Tambellini, states that the decision “also goes in the direction of underlining those principles of respect for co-existence between man and animal that we believe are important for a civilised sensibility. This will be followed by collaboration with animal lovers and aimed at revising municipal rules regulating the sector, inspiring all to ​​ common sense values “.

The hygienic reason given is surely a tactful way of getting out of the potential confrontation between those who condemn the use of animals in circuses and those who think the use of animals in circuses is fun. We remember walking around the area in Lucca previously occupied by circus elephants and being dangerously close to getting immersed in the largest shits we’ve ever seen in our lives.

The Circo Orfei used animals and we attended one of its at Lucca shows in 2016 which we describe in our post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/01/10/the-circus-comes-to-town/

Indeed, an animal circus last came to Bagni di Lucca in the same year, an experience we’ve described in the post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/the-circus-is-coming/

Interestingly, the UK government’s environment secretary Michael Gove is about to introduce legislation which will ban all animal circuses (of which there are eight still remaining) in that country. (In London they have not been allowed for many years). Apparently 94.5% of the public support such a ban. It’s a pity that the same person is not hearkening to other opinion polls that show that the British public is increasingly unsure about the national suicide note that is Brexit and which Gove is adamant about proceeding with.

In the meanwhile the following photographs taken by us of the Circo Orfei at Lucca  in January ten years ago will become historical and increasingly odd mementoes:

 

 

 

 

‘Musica Ragazzi’: Lucca’s Children’s Concerts Season

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THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

“Musica Ragazzi”, a season of concerts and events for children from maternal to high school, was founded in 2006 because of an awareness of the importance of early encounters with art and the fact that music did not sufficiently form part of children’s schooling.

In its first ten years “Musica Ragazzi” has established itself as an evolving project, capable of attracting the attention and praise of Italian music critics and involving great names in the international music scene.

Monday January 15th 9.45a m and 11.00 am – ISSM Luigi Boccherini Auditorium

THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

Tetraktis, percussion

FILIPPO GORINI

Saturday, January 20 at 9.30 am – Magna P. S. “Fermi – Giorgi” Hall (event reserved for students of the “E. Fermi – G. Giorgi” Centre).

MEETING THE INTERPRETER

Filippo Gorini piano

ORCHESTRAL REHEARSAL

Thursday January 26th 9.45 am and 11.30 am – ISSM Luigi Boccherini Auditorium

ORCHESTRAL REHEARSAL

ISSM Luigi Boccherini Orchestra – Conductor: GianPaolo Mazzoli

WAITING FOR BOCCHERINI’S BIRTHDAY

Wednesday 7 February at 9.45 am and 11.30 am – Caserma San Colombano, city walls

WAITING FOR BOCCHERINI’S 275th BIRTHDAY

“Luigi and me: true friends” (In collaboration with ‘Centro Studi Boccherini’)

Music and stories about Boccherini’s life

WAITING FOR BOCCHERINI’S BIRTHDAY

Thursday 8 February, 9.45 am and 11.30 am – Caserma San Colombano, city walls

WAITING FOR BOCCHERINI’S 275th BIRTHDAY

“Luigi and me: true friends” (In collaboration with ‘Centro Studi Boccherini’)

Music and stories about Boccherini’s life

WAITING FOR BOCCHERINI’S BIRTHDAY

Friday 9 February, 9.45 am and 11.30 am – Caserma San Colombano, city walls

WAITING FOR BOCCHERINI’S 275th BIRTHDAY

“Luigi and me: true friends” (In collaboration with ‘Centro Studi Boccherini’)

Music and stories about  Boccherini’s life

MEETING WITH MARIO BRUNELLO

Monday 19 February 9.45 am and 11.30 am – Boccherini Institute Auditorium

Dedicated to Luigi Boccherini on the occasion of his 275th birthday

MEETING THE INTERPRETER – Mario Brunello cello

MUSIC AND DANCE

Thursday 8 March 2018 9.45 am and 11.30 am – ISSM Auditorium Luigi Boccherini

MUSIC AND DANCE. MINUETTO, FANDANGO AND MORE

Organized by the Luigi Boccherini ISSM guitar class.

MEETING BEATRICE VENEZI

Monday 19 March 2018 9.30 am – Magna P. S. “Fermi – Giorgi” Hall (event reserved for students of the “E. Fermi – G. Giorgi” Centre)

MEETING THE INTERPRETER

With Beatrice Venezi.

SING FABRIZIO DE ANDRÈ’S POEMS

Friday 23 March 2018 9.45 am and 11.30 am – ISSM Auditorium Luigi Boccherini

SING FABRIZIO DE ANDRÈ’S POEMS

ANDRÈ (In collaboration with the De Andrè Foundation)

Project in A minor – With the participation of Laura De Luca

RHYTHM AND FANTASY IN ITALIAN SONGS

Friday, April 13, 2018 9.45 am and 11.30 am – Luigi Boccherini ISSM Auditorium

WORDS, RHYTHM AND FANTASY IN ITALIAN SONGS OF THE 30s – 40s – 50s

Less Jazz 4et

A MORNING AT THE OPERA

Thursday 19 April 2018 10.30 am – ISSM Auditorium Luigi Boccherini

A MORNING AT THE OPERA … DISCOVERING THE VOICES AND THE CHARACTERS OF OPERA’S MOST FAMOUS WORKS

Organized by the singing classes of Maestro Giovanni Dagnino and Prof. Maria Pia Ionata

MEETING GABRIELE RAGGHIANTI

Friday 20 April 2018 9.30 am – Magna P. S. “Fermi – Giorgi” Hall (event reserved for students of the “E. Fermi – G. Giorgi” Pole)

MEETING THE INTERPRETER

Gabriele Ragghianti, double bass

I AND LUIGI: GOOD FRIENDS

Saturday 5 May 2018 4 pm – Baluardo San Colombano and Sotterranei Mura Urbane (In collaboration with the Luigi Boccherini Study Center)

Lucca Classical Music Festival 2018

TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TEACHING PROJECT “I AND LUIGI TRUE FRIENDS”

Band concert by the Florentine Musical Association with the participation of the pupils of the schools that have joined the project.

Conductor: Marco Mangani