Small Opera Festival of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Bookings for shows ( some of which are free) can be made from the website www.piccolofestival.org . The performances will all be held outdoors and will have as a corollary guided tours, aperitifs, introductions to listening and dinners before and after the musical events. For an experience that will allow you to know not only the history and architecture, but also the flavors and wines of this extraordinary border region stretching towards Central Europe.

The 13 scheduled appointments

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, he manages to confirm a large part of his 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 thus becomes a custom-built stage , where the audience itself becomes an integral part of the staging . The production of L'elisir d'amore in the past edition is exemplary, set in a countryside tavern 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 well as its 13th edition.

The chamber opera at the Castello di Spessa

Also this year the Festival will re-propose the long-awaited and now traditional chamber opera show at the Castello di Spessa, which hosted the well-known Mozart librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and Giacomo Casanova , and in the 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 propose an absolutely original show by proposing in the same evening two mini works ( The telephone by Giancarlo Menotti and The secret of Susanna by Ermanno Wolf Ferrari), which are a sort of tale 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 of the young local director (from San Floriano del Collio) Jasmin Kovic. The corollary will be a dinner with tasting of Collio wines.

"La verde musica" and "Castles in the air"

The offer of concerts in the "Green Music" section is unusual and stimulating, real musical visits to historic gardens in the region, with an all-baroque program with the young soloists of the Accademia per l'Opera di Verona-Polo Nazionale Artistico prepared from mezzo-soprano Sonia Prina. Four appointments: Cordovado Castle (24 August), Lantieri Palace 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 of the territory, based in Villa Manin.

"Castles in the air" 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 (August 20), Villa Gorgo in San Vito al Torre (August 29), Vila Vipolze in Dobrovo in Slovenia (September 11) and Villa Partistagno in Faedis (September 6). With the appointment in Vila Vipolze, the Festival will become cross-border this year, to make its spectators discover the wonderful territory of the hills covered with vineyards of Brda / Collio, which has advanced its candidacy for UNESCO.

Three event concerts

The Festival will close 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 engaging concert of sacred music will be held with Franz Listz's Requiem 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 made in collaboration with the Digital Contamination Festival.

The program will end on 12 September in the Piazza di Cormòns, which will turn into a lively open-air café chantant , where on the notes of the most gourmet composer ever, Gioacchino Rossini, a glass of the aperitif dedicated to him, but interpreted, will be enjoyed. in the key of the Collio, or with a sparkling Ribolla Gialla. Special guest will be the famous Rossinian tenor Antonino Siragusa together with the mezzo-soprano Sofia Koberidze and the Trieste baritone Niccolò Ceriani.

Appointment to 2021

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 with 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. The support of the municipalities of Aquileia, Cormons, Rivignano-Teor and Faedis should also be mentioned. Next year the Festival will propose itself again with the 14th edition on its usual dates, ie between the end of June and the beginning of July.