There Tower of Pisa turns 850 years old and the Opera della Primaziale Pisana concludes the year of celebrations from the laying of the first stone of the famous leaning bell tower, which opened last August, with a summer of events, including music, readings and conferences.
Free reading, music and monuments
The readings by Toni Servillo with literary passages referring to the Tower and Piazza dei Miracoli and the final concert by the tenor Francesco Meli are the main events that will be held respectively on July 19th and August 9th. Meli’s closing concert, accompanied on the piano by maestro Davide Cavallini, will be held in the cathedral churchyard.
For both occasions they will be can be visited for free, but by reservation, all the monuments in Piazza dei Miracoli, as illustrated yesterday by the president of the Opera Primaziale Andrea Maestrelli.
“From the great fear of January 6, 1990when the Tower was closed due to stability problems, we arrived at today’s celebrations – Maestrelli recalled – the gratitude and admiration of the entire scientific and cultural world for this result and above all for the ways in which it was achieved, can be attributed to the characteristics of an intervention which, despite the dramatic nature of the surrounding conditions (the bell tower could collapse at any time and without any notice or due to subsidence of the underlying ground or breakage of the elevated structure), has resolved the problem without modifying the characteristics of the monument in the slightest, with absolute respect for its uniqueness and originality”.
Science, faith and “Music under the Tower”
Among the main events there is another on 16 July in the Duomo, a meeting on the theme of science and faith between the Portuguese cardinal and theologian José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Vatican dicastery for culture and education, and the rector of the University of Pisa, Riccardo Zucchi.
Furthermore the “Music under the Tower” will be held on 3, 5, 10 and 12 July in the cloister of the Opera Museum with the violinist Chiara Morandi, Vivacidade Trio, Trio Kanon and the world-famous jazz musician Simona Molinari.
Finally, from 15 June to 30 September the Palazzo dell’Opera in Piazza Duomo will host the exhibition curated by Professor Stefano Renzoni “The Tower in the Mirror. The many lives of the Bell Tower of Pisa Cathedral”, which will represent the history of the Tower of Pisa through a story of works, images, restorations, prints and photographs of the monument over the centuries.
