Opening of the Flora with the “Lungoreggia liberato” and the simultaneous opening of the Macrico. This is the project scheduled for the Caserta summer announced during the conference presenting the initiatives to enhance the Royal Palace of Caserta scheduled from May to the first half of October.
The reopening of the Flora
Among the most interesting news is certainly the reopening of the Flora between debates and cinema. The project – “Rosso Vanvitelliano: Il Lungo Reggia Liberato” – is carried out in collaboration with the associations Compagnia della Città, Committee for the Social Center ODV, Committee Città Viva ODV, Lipu ODV Caserta, Asd Dinamika Outdoor. It is planned to hold five opening days of the Flora dedicated to specific social themes and conveyed through laboratories, meetings, workshops, games and artistic shows: the cultural promotion of the city (14 July); the discovery and protection of flora and fauna (8 September); psychophysical well-being through sport and healthy lifestyles (15 September); sustainable mobility and common goods (29 September); interculture and solidarity (13 October). At the same time, on the same days, there will also be the opening of Macrico, with Corso Trieste which will effectively become the artery between the two ‘green’ poles of the city.
Not only. This year the film festival in the Flora gardens also returns. The Committee for Villa Giaquinto, in collaboration with Caserta Film Lab, proposes an initiative linked to the tradition of the city with “Cinema alla Flora”, a film festival (from 13 to 15 September with free entry) which has as its objective the valorisation of cinema as an aggregation tool and vehicle of social messages, to build a new way of experiencing sociality in the city, stimulate the growth of the artistic-cultural sector and activate innovative channels of involvement for third sector associations, giving a space before any films to the realities of the territory to talk about the good practices carried out in their work.
Concerts at the Palace
The musical offering is wide. “From mid-May to the end of June there will be one concert per week”, highlighted Valeria Di Fratta, coordinator for communication, valorisation and promotion of the Royal Palace of Caserta. It begins on May 11th, at 5.30 pm, in the Palatine Chapel, with the AMI Napoli – Associazione Mozart Italia and the exhibition “Music, Il Mito, La Memoria _ Percorsi d’autore al piano”. The project is divided into three concerts for solo piano. Myth, madness, the Dionysian, constitute the fulcrum of the musical program and include the presentation of piano works by Franz Liszt, Brahms, Ravel, Robert Schumann. On May 11th the concert “Angels and Demons” will feature the pianist and composer Maria Gabriella Mariani, who on this occasion will present her latest composition “Pezzi Sinfonici”, a journey into the past and into the memory of her land, in search of the origins.
The Chamber Orchestra of Caserta then returns to cheer the audience of the Palace in collaboration with the Anna Jervolino association which, from 18 May to 29 June, will present the Mozart Spring. Five concerts directed by Antonino Cascio with two “rising stars” for the first time in the Campania Region – the violinist Simon Zhu, winner of the 2023 Paganini Prize and Hyun Jung Song, oboist of the Berliner Philarmoniker Academy, winner of the International Oboe Competition of Japan in Tokyo in 2023 – and the Orchestra’s Ensemble. From the Museum the exhibition will then extend to the provincial territory with the section “Mozart beyond the Reggia in Terra Laboris… on Mozart’s path”. Ten concerts and two masterclasses in Aversa, Capua, Teano and Sessa Aurunca for an ideal re-presentation of Mozart’s presence in Terra di Lavoro in May 1770.
Great return to the Museum also for the Sonora Wind Trio who will present rarely heard musical programs linked to the compositional production of the Neapolitan area between the 18th and 19th centuries for the Night of the Museums on 18 May. The Royal Staircase, the Upper Vestibule and the rooms of the Royal Apartments will be punctuated by musical tableaux vivants with the participation of the dancers of the Arabesque company. The Sonora Wind Trio will also perform in the “Dawn Concert”, scheduled for the end of August 2024. A listening journey at sunrise in the gardens of the Palace with a recited story about the history of the Royal Park. The dancers and performers of the Arabesque association, with the “Vivi la Reggia” project, will improvise moments of dance to the music chosen by the Progetto Sonora partners.
It continues on June 1st, in the Palatine Chapel, at 5.30 pm, with the Campania Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Maestro Giulio Marazia, who will present a concert by Anja Malkov, considered a promising young flute player at an international level, and who will compete in the performance of Jacques Ibert’s concert for flute and orchestra with the baton of Claudio Cohen.
Two exclusive novelties this year are, then, the concerts of the Guardia di Finanza and the State Police. For the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Guardia di Finanza, on 18 July there will be a performance by the Corps Band (102 elements) in the first courtyard of the Royal Palace of Caserta. From 18 to 28 July there will also be an exhibition of uniforms and memorabilia, in the rooms on the ground floor of the Grand Gallery, linked to the presence of the Guardia di Finanza Academy in the Royal Palace of Caserta between the end of the 19th century and the first quarter of the twentieth century.
The Caserta Police Headquarters will present, however, in September, the project “Legality between aesthetics and ethics”, with the performance of the State Police musical band made up of 105 performers coming from the most prestigious Conservatories in Italy, with the extraordinary participation of the maestro Giuseppe Gibbone, famous violinist. The band will perform songs contemporary with the architect Luigi Vanvitelli.
The exhibitions
Two exhibitions are scheduled. Danilo Ambrosino, an artist who has exhibited in various cultural institutes such as the Mann, the Botanical Gardens of Naples and Palermo and in some contemporary art fairs, in Italy and abroad, will present an exhibition from 13 June to 13 July at Castelluccia of botanical-themed paintings entitled “A treasure of light and leaves” curated by Alessandra Pacelli, journalist and art curator. The works are inspired by the flora of the Royal Palace of Caserta and draw on historical sources on the natural heritage of the Royal Park such as the “Plantarum Regii Viridarii Casertani”.
Furthermore, the Giorgio Persano Gallery in Turin will bring the “Splendor Solis” exhibition and installation to the Royal Palace of Caserta during the summer, a site-specific project by Marco Bagnoli curated by Marina Guida in collaboration with Studio Trisorio. Marco Bagnoli is one of the most significant exponents of the artistic trends that established themselves in Italy at the end of the Seventies.
Yoga in the Royal Park
For the well-being of the body and mind, Kundalini Yoga returns with the Rosa Del Nilo association with the fifth edition of “T-Essere Insieme”. The event, organized by the association in collaboration with internationally and nationally certified teachers, will take place on 14 and 15 September and aims to spread knowledge of the ancient discipline of Yoga. The event will be structured by offering participants Kundalini Yoga classes and techniques, inspired by the theme of the ability to network, i.e. to weave healthy relationships, of the human being, between them and other living beings and with the surrounding environment. The initiative will take place in suggestive but less frequented areas of the Royal Park to synergistically unite two cultural realities, Kundalini Yoga and the architectural and landscape beauties of the Vanvitellian complex. The events are included in the entrance ticket to the Royal Palace of Caserta and in the season tickets while those taking place at the Flora will be free of charge.
Director Maffei: “Cultural center is in the DNA of the Palace”
“We are in the third year – explains the director of the Royal Palace Tiziana Maffei – A system with which we ask the territory to propose a new way of creating culture within the Royal Palace of Caserta. There were 18 applications from as many associations approved for valorisation by May to October and in the next few days a new announcement will be published for the initiatives of the winter months. We have a calendar full of events that will also take place in unexpected places of the Palace, such as the Ambrosino exhibition at the Castelluccia. The concert at the Castelluccia will also be repeated. Sunrise and the extraordinary openings at dawn to fully immerse yourself in the natural heritage of the museum – he continues – has in its DNA that of being a center of culture and well-being for the territory. .
