Guided tours of art and music, conversations, many concerts, the Lucca Classica 2024 award ceremony in Nuria Schoenberg Ninth and the show with Claudio Santamaria at Giglio. Even the penultimate day of the festival confirms itself as a kaleidoscope of events for the most diverse audiences.
It will leave from the Servi church at 10am an itinerant journey discovering the paintings of Madonna del Latte from Luccaaccompanied by the notes of Bach performed on the violin by Alberto Bologni. At the same time operatic fantasies for flute will be shown in the Ademollo room at Palazzo Ducale (Filippo Rogai) and piano (Elia Faccini), ‘salottieri’ homages to Puccini, Verdi and Bizet. But music, in Lucca Classica, is also synonymous with well-being: the new artistic trajectories in therapeutic and rehabilitation paths will be presented at 10.30 by Adalgisa Soriani and Enrico Marchi at the former Casina Rossa mental health center. For the occasion, the soprano Mirella Di Vita and the piano of Antonio Cipriani will perform chamber arias by Puccini. The Syncordia Trio – flute, viola and harp – will play notes by Ravel and Debussy at 11am in the oratory of the Guardian Angels.
The pianist Simone Soldati and the mezzo soprano Veronica Simeoni are entrustedor the homage to Giacomo Puccini at 12pm in Sala Ademollo, with a selection from the maestro’s compositions for solo piano and lyrics for voice and piano. At the same time, Isabella Cantieri, a student of the Boccherini conservatory, will perform at the church of San Salvatore on pages of Beethoven and Listz, while at the church of the Servi Gregorian chants and sacred music from the choir of the Machiavelli institute of Lucca will resonate.
The afternoon opens at 2pm with a guided tour of the Puccini residences in Chiatri, Viareggio and Torre del Lago included in the historical-musical itinerary curated by Gabriella Biagi Ravenni and Fabrizio Giovannelli. At 3pm, in the church of San Francesco, the provincial youth band Anbima directed by Cristian Pepe will pay homage in music to the centenary of Puccini’s death. In the church of San Salvatore, at 3.30 pm, Arianna Presepi will perform, to the tune of Chopin.
Two appointments on the agenda at 4pm: the first, with great cinema music from Morricone to Williams arranged and performed by the Faccini piano duo in Sala Ademollo; the second, with the sound atmospheres of palaces from the end of the Renaissance to the Baroqueedited by Concertus Lucensis in the Music Hall of Palazzo Mansi. At 4.30 pm, the Giacomo Puccini di Nozzano philharmonic, the official band of the Municipality of Lucca, will leave from the Cortile Carrara of Palazzo Ducale and, at the same time, the musicians of the Lilium Quartet will perform music by Boccherini and Puccini in the church of San Cristoforo, on the occasion of the exhibition De artis magicale by Mario Cenni. Brahms and Rachmaninov will be narrated by the piano of Lorenzo Corsaro, a pupil of Boccherini, at 5pm in the church of San Salvatore; always at 5pm in San Girolamo, an appointment with contemporary music, including electronic and classical sounds, videos and lyrical voices, curated by Puccini Chamber Opera Festival.
The highlight arrives at 6pm in the Boccherini auditorium, when a Nuria Schoenberg Ninth the Lucca Classica 2024 prize will be awarded. Daughter of Arnold Schönberg and wife of Luigi Nono, she is one of the most authentic witnesses of the musical avant-garde of the twentieth century. She will follow a tribute to Nono, who would have turned one hundred in 2024, and to Schubert, conducted by the narrative voice of Sandro Cappelletto, with Aldo Orvieto (piano), Monica Bacelli (mezzo-soprano) and Alvise Vidolin (sound direction).
The intense evening opens at 9.15pm at the Teatro del Giglio with The rape of Lucrezia by Shakespeare brought to the stage by Claudio Santamaria and Francesca Barra and accompanied by the violin of Lorenzo Fuoco. From the current and burning topic of gender violence to the love that illuminates the darkness of Schönberg’s Transfigured Night, scheduled at 11.30 pm in the Boccherini auditorium performed by the Guadagnini Quartet.
Tickets can be purchased online, on the Vivaticket platform http://luccaclassica.vivaticket.it/ita, or at the Teatro del Giglio ticket office (open one hour before the start of each show). For events that are not available in advance, ticket offices will be set up directly in the various concert venues. The complete program on www.luccaclassica.it.
