Under the banner of ‘classic is contemporary’ the 24th Emilia Romagna Festival – ERFthe long musical itinerary that begins this year on July 3rd and ends on September 11th, featuring an impressive edition with 55 extraordinary events, in the most precious places of the architectural tradition, from castles to ancient parish churches, from theaters to squares, and involving 20 municipalities distributed between the provinces of Bologna, Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena and Ferrara, with 37 locations that will host more than 600 artists from all over the world.
From classical to jazz, from pop to ethnic music, from musical theater to world music, the festival signs a program in search of a new definition of “classical”, breaking temporal boundaries and embracing multidisciplinarity, with the aim of exploring connections unexpected events and bring classical music to an increasingly wider and more varied audience.
From the first appointments, the coordinates of this research are clear: after the preview on June 27th at the Cloister of the Bishop’s Palace in Imola, with a dear friend of ERF, Ramin Bahrami, the inauguration, on 3 July at the San Mercuriale Abbey in Forlì, is entrusted to an extraordinarily current music giant, Claudio Monteverdiand to one of his masterpieces Il Vespro della Beata Vergine, a concert which is a declaration of love towards Great Music, here performed by an ensemble which is a point of reference in the philological performance of ancient music, the Venice Monteverdi Academy together with the Orchestra “Lorenzo Da Ponte” and the Schola Gregoriana choir. The whole edition will be marked by this concept of “classical” aimed towards a more dynamic and inclusive perspective, promoting the fusion and interaction between different artistic disciplines and proposing works both rooted in tradition that is open to contemporary innovation.
Many artists are involved this year too, among which stand out names such as Noa, Peppe Servillo, Danilo Rea, Martin Kasik, the duo Igudesman & Joo with the national premiere of CODA – The Final Nightmare and Pino Donaggio who will be awarded the XV ERF Lifetime Achievement Award. The 24th edition will also see the return of the great international orchestras, such as the Korean Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Symphony Orchestra of Ningbo, the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra Budapest, the Czech Chamber Orchestra Philharmonic Pardubice and the Venetian Ensemble already mentioned for the inauguration. From an interdisciplinary perspective, there will also be space for bel canto with opera stars from the international scene and acting voice, with actresses and actors, among others, of the caliber of Vanessa Gravina, Sonia Bergamasco and Stefano Fresi. Of course the First Prize cycle is back! in which young winners of international competitions will have the opportunity to show all their skills. Finally, in an area rich in organs, ERF wanted to propose three concerts dedicated to this extraordinary instrument of very ancient origins.
The valorization, discovery and knowledge of the territory, its architectural heritage, but also the history and culture to which it gave rise has characterized the ERF program since the first editions. The spaces that host events have always been not mere containers but an integral part of the cultural “fact”. With The Enchantment of Places, spectators will be able to discover the many museums, parks, villages, abbeys, crypts and historical libraries that host the long event this year, from the most well-known and prestigious ones, to the smallest and least known, by participating in the over 20 guided tours planned for this edition.
Below are some of the events in the area: for the complete calendar with all the dates, please refer to the website: https://www.emiliaromagnafestival.it/erf-summer/.
The events return to explore the infinite connections between sounds and words, between the languages of music and theatre, with established interpreters of the contemporary Italian scene. Among these, the July 6 at the Rocca di Ravaldino, the actress Vanessa Gravina, narrator and Stefano Giavazzi on piano, bring to the stage a rather unusual but very fascinating genre which consists in the precise combination of a monologue on a musical score: this is the immortal melodrama Enoch Arden, a great text by Alfred Tennyson set to music equally splendidly by Richard Strauss. The 7 July at the Cloister of San Francesco in Cesena, another story for voice and piano, “Paolina Leopardi tells Mozart”, acute and surprising recital taken from the biography of the great musician written by Giacomo’s beloved sister in 1837. The show was born from a proposal by Nino Criscenti, with the dramaturgy and speaking voice of Sonia Bergamasco and the piano of Marco Scolastra, who will perform music of the famous Austrian composer.
On July 27th in Forlì, the China Symphony Orchestra in Ningbo, a group of around 60 members, founded in 2015 and quickly becoming one of the main Chinese orchestras, led here by its chief conductor Ji Yu, who is also deputy conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, with the soloist Lei Chen on the pipa, a four-stringed instrument often referred to as the “Chinese lute”. The pipe will be at the center of a program that includes, among others, a song by Ennio Morricone taken from the successful television series Marco Polo, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of the great Venetian explorer who also lived in Ningbo, one of the oldest cities in the China, with a history dating back to 4800 BC The concert is organized in collaboration with the Ljubljana Festival and the Ningbo Municipality.
The July 25th at the Cloister of San Francesco in Cesenaan important original project is on stage “Piazzolla rediscovered: The rough dancer and the cyclical night” which gives new life to the show, The rough dancer and the cyclical night, commissioned from Piazzolla in 1987 by the Intar Hispanic American Arts Center in New York. An authentic musical masterpiece of which unfortunately the music, as well as the track of the entire show, have been completely lost. To revive this extraordinary music, all that remained was to reconstruct from the LP of the same name the notes played by Piazzolla and his group, a long and complex work to which Roberto Porroni dedicated himself with great passion and which made it possible to revive, with this project, the show created in New York. The protagonist of the concert is the Cuartet group led by Porroni, with two tango dancers Laura Borromeo and Roberto Orru, together with the actress Elda Olivieri who is entrusted with the part of reciting Borges’ poems.
Baroque music for the original event of August 30th at the Cloister of San Francesco in Cesena when Il Genio e il Divino will be staged. Performance in the form of tableaux vivants from the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, a show that combines the visual arts with theater and music, presented by the Soloists of the Philharmonic Orchestra Vittorio Calamani and Massimo Mercelli on the flute, in collaboration with the Teatri 35 company, tip of excellence in the creation of theatrical actions of tableaux vivants, in which the paintings and sculptures of Raphael and Michelangelo will be brought to life accompanied by pieces taken from the Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Making its debut in this new edition of the festival, a short journey dedicated to organs with the aim of highlighting the various valuable organs, ancient and modern, present in our territory: the 2 September in the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Ravaldino in Forlìthe protagonist will be a beautiful organ by Alessio Verati, built in 1858 and restored in 2004. To play it Giulio Mercatian internationally renowned organist, here with a program that pays homage to European baroque music.
The search for new young performers has always been an objective of the Festival which since its inception, with the Primo Premio! is actively engaged in promoting the best talent from all over the world. The collaboration with the most important national and international competitions allows the winners to find a highly prestigious showcase in ERF. Thanks to a stable and prolonged collaboration of over 20 years with the very prestigious First Prize of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, this year too ERF will host the winners. Appointment also on August 9th at the Rocca di Ravaldino in Forlì, on August 26th at the Cloister of Santa Lucia in Forlì
Tags: #24th edition Emilia Romagna Festiva returns Cesena
