Dante’s Tomb which he visited in search of inspiration, the Albergo Imperiale where he stayed in 1819 (in its place today stands the Oriani Library), Palazzo Guiccioli where he lived as the lover of Countess Teresa and Palazzo Cavalli where he attended a party accompanied by seven servants, nine horses, three peacocks, two cats, a mastiff and a goose. Ravenna is dotted with the echo of the eccentric and romantic steps of Lord Byron. For the bicentenary of his death, Ravenna Festival designs yet another itinerary: it is the musical and poetic one which Thursday 27 June the English tenor Ian Bostridge and the pianist Julius Drake propose at 9.30 pm in the Cloister of the Loggia Lombardesca at the Art Museum of the city of Ravenna.
Homage to Lord Byron
From the verses of Jewish melodies written in view of the collaboration with Isaac Nathan, but also set to music by Schumann and Loewe, up to Die schöne Müllerin And Die Winterreise by Schubert, composed on texts by Wilhelm Müller who was a supporter of Greek independence for which Byron sacrificed his life, the path is intertwined with the readings entrusted to the writer and literary critic Lucasta Miller, underlining the link between Byron’s poetry and history of the nineteenth-century Lied, of which Bostridge and Drake are undisputed and celebrated champions.
«On the bicentenary of Byron’s death, we intended to present a recital of songs that would restore, in addition to the beauty and charm of his poetry, also the impact that Byron, the first true VIP of the post-revolutionary era, had on the whole European culture – explain Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake – The event aims above all to celebrate Byron in a country to which he was deeply attached. But, indirectly, it also tells of the pan-European culture of the time and of the interactions, through music, between the nascent nationalisms of the post-Napoleonic period (German, Greek, Irish and Jewish): a legacy that survives two centuries later” .
Read also: Byron in a ‘love trap’ in monotonous Ravenna
It is in May 1813 that the Gentleman’s Magazine of London reports an announcement: the aspiring composer Isaac Nathan, son of a cantor of the Canterbury synagogue, intends to publish melodies of the Jewish tradition dating back to a time before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem (in reality, many of the melodies had roots in the European popular music and certainly not the antiquity that Nathan attributed to them). The first part of the concert closely compares compositions by Nathan himself with those of Loewe and Schumann, in turn based on Jewish melodies, whose success was contributed to by the scandal of Byron’s affair with his half-sister Augusta. Six Venetian Lieder by Schumann are an opportunity to remember the restless Lord’s stay in Venice, the Winterreise Schubert’s has always been considered inspired by Byron’s poetry. The concert is crowned with pieces that the Mendelssohn brothers, Felix and Fanny, wrote on his verses.
Read also: Byron, the antelope, the tiger and Teresa, the sixteen-year-old countess
Byron and Ravenna
«Ravenna preserves more of the old Italian style than any other city. It remains out of the way of travelers and therefore that style has remained original”: with these words Lord George Gordon Byron expressed his appreciation for the atmosphere of a city not commonly included in the Grand Tour, the itinerary that generations of scions of good European society went through as part of their education in the beautiful and the ancient. It is no coincidence that Byron’s Ravenna begins not in Ravenna but in Venice, in the living room of Countess Benzoni where the English poet meets Count Guiccioli’s wife.”
«It is as a “servant knight” – or official lover – of Teresa that we find Byron in Ravenna, where he wrote, wandered, meditated on Dante, loved and even joined the Carboneria; it was precisely his subversive activity that cost him his welcome in the city (that and the tax breaks that Guiccioli obtained in exchange for his denunciation). Soon Byron would sail from Genoa to Greece, where he would meet his end. Was he still thinking of that very Italian city, where “it is the bard’s tomb, not the warrior’s column that is venerated”? What is certain is that on October 26th, thanks to the commitment of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation, Palazzo Guiccioli will open its doors in its new guise as the Byron Museum and Risorgimento Museum, as well as home to the newly formed Italian Byron Society.”
Info and presales: 0544 249244 – www.ravennafestival.org. Show tickets: single unnumbered seat 25 Euro (reduced 22). Young people at the Festival: under 18 5 Euros; National Youth Card (18-35 years): 50% discount
