Opera music in castles, old houses, historic gardens , in a symphony of sounds and voices that will lead to the discovery of enchanted and secret corners, rich in history and art, of Friuli Venezia Giulia, from the 20th August to the 13th September the Piccolo Opera returns Friuli Venezia Giulia Festival , awaited summer program that also this year does not want to miss the appointment with its audience. Outdoor shows , which will be accompanied by guided tours, aperitifs, introductions to listening and dinners before and after musical events.
13 events for the 13th edition of the Festival
Now in its 13th edition , the Piccolo Opera Festival of Friuli Venezia Giulia - under the artistic direction of Gabriele Ribis - enters the maturity of its original cultural and tourist proposal. Thanks to the strong identity built over the years, it manages to confirm a good part of its program, despite the stringent measures for the live show made necessary by the health emergency. The spirit of the Festival has always been not to adapt the place to the show but the show, in particular the opera, to the place . A castle or a villa therefore becomes a tailor-made stage , where even the public itself becomes an integral part of the staging . Exemplary the production of L'elisir d'amore in the past edition, set in a country inn literally surrounded by the vineyards of Castello di Spessa, the beating heart of the festival and headquarters of the association, where even the orchestra was also part of the scene . 13 is the magic number of the Festival : the program will in fact be full of 13 events (2 chamber opera performances, 4 musical visits, 4 recitals, 3 event concerts) as is its 13th edition.
The chamber opera
Also this year the Festival will re-propose the long-awaited and traditional chamber opera show at Castello di Spessa, which hosted the well-known librettist of Mozart Lorenzo da Ponte and Giacomo Casanova , and in summer it becomes the home of the opera in Friuli Venezia Giulia. The appointment is on August 30th and September 1st . For this year the artistic director Gabriele Ribis has decided to offer an absolutely original show by proposing two mini-works in the same evening ( The telephone by Giancarlo Menotti and The secret of Susanna by Ermanno Wolf Ferrari), which are a sort of story of two couples during quarantine. The musical direction will be entrusted to the emerging Alessandro Cadario, principal conductor of the Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, and the direction to the young local director (from San Floriano del Collio) Jasmin Kovic.
Musical visits to historic gardens and villa recitals
Unusual and stimulating the offer of the concerts of the "La verde musica" section , real musical visits to historical gardens of the region, with an all-Baroque program with the young soloists of the Academy for the Verona Opera-National Artistic Center prepared from the mezzo-soprano Sonia Prina. Four appointments: Cordovado Castle (24 August), Palazzo Lantieri in Gorizia (31 August), Formentini Castle in S. Floriano del Collio (3 September), Villa Manin di Passariano (13 September). The visits will be conducted by the curators of the Cataloging, Promotion, Enhancement and Development Service of the territory, based in Villa Manin.
"Castelli in aria" is the title of the solo recital section, which will feature prestigious names from the opera scene, such as Massimo Giordano and Giorgio Caoduro , together with young local talents such as the sopranos Giulia Della Peruta and Francesca Paola Geretto as well as the accordionist Igor Zobin. The venues will be Villa Ottelio Savorgnan in Ariis (20 August), Villa Gorgo in San Vito al Torre (29 August), Vila Vipolze in Dobrovo in Slovenia (11 September) and Villa Partistagno in Faedis (6 September). With the appointment in Vila Vipolze the Festival will become cross-border this year, to let its spectators discover the wonderful territory of the hills covered with vineyards of Brda / Collio, which has advanced its candidacy for UNESCO.
Three particular events
The program will end with three event concerts . The first in a symbolic location of the Region such as Piazza Capitolo in Aquileia (21 August), where a spectacular and involving concert of sacred music will be held with the Requiem by Franz Listz which, in memory of the victims of the pandemic, will have a particularly meaningful meaning, and a tribute to the bicentenary of the birth of the regional composer Jacopo Tomadini, of which Anima Christi will be performed. The musical direction will be by Igor Zobin, the choir of the Piccolo Opera Festival will be prepared by Elia Macrì. The solo voices will be those of Andrea Galli, Alessandro Cortello, Giorgio Caoduro, Massimiliano Svab.
From Aquileia to Gradisca d'Isonzo , where the dance show presented by the famous French company Eugénie Andrin of Antibes will be held on 5 September , with the well-known pianist Giovanni Bellucci and the dancer Eugénie Andrin, united by the video art of Gabriel Grinda . The show is produced in collaboration with the Digital Contamination Festival.
The program will end on September 12 in Piazza di Cormòns, which will transform into an animated outdoor chantant café , where social distance will be creatively reinvented in front of a glass of Collio wine. The music will be that of the most gourmet composer ever: Gioacchino Rossini . Special guest was the famous Rossini tenor Antonino Siragusa together with the mezzo-soprano Sofia Koberidze and the Triestine baritone Niccolò Ceriani.
The Piccolo Opera Festival, which traditionally has a loyal audience from Austria and Germany, will address this year in particular to the local and national public and, despite the difficulties caused by the problems of the post-pandemic, did not want to miss its music, made possible thanks to the fundamental support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Department of Culture and Sport and Department of Productive Activities), the Chamber of Commerce of Venezia Giulia, the Friuli Foundation. Also worthy of mention is the support of the municipal administrations of Aquileia, Cormons, Rivignano-Teor and Faedis. Next year the Festival will re-launch with the 14th edition on its usual dates, that is between late June and early July.
