Great anticipation in the city for the Sarzana Lirica Festival, an event that aims to enhance the promising young opera artists organized by the Amici del Loggiato association in collaboration with the Municipality of Sarzana, which contributed to the realization of the event by making 25 thousand euros available, and thank you to the precious support of Banca Versilia, Lunigiana and Garfagnana. A Festival which, as the mayor Cristina Ponzanelli recalled, “this year will blow out its first twenty-five candles on the centenary of the death of the great composer Giacomo Puccini, a figure around whom the entire event will revolve, which has the merit of generating dynamism and involve the whole city”.
To open the opera festival, after the masterclass held by maestro Fabio Armiliato who from 22 to 27 June will prepare the 15 young Italian and international opera talents for the performance, will be La Bohème, a beloved Puccini opera which will be performed in Piazza Matteotti, Saturday 28 June, at 9.30pm. The following day, again in Piazza Matteotti at 9.30pm, La notte blu della opera will be staged. A great gala in which some of the most beautiful voices that have followed one another over the years of the event will take part: from Magda Gallo to Ivan Ayon Rivas up to Leon Kim. On June 30th the accordion orchestra directed by maestro Francesco Fucelli will be the protagonist of the evening which will be held in the square in front of the civic palace at 9.30pm. On 2 July it will be the turn of Mediterranea, Onde Sonore, a show for voice and string orchestra starring Letizia Gorga which will take place in the evocative setting of the cloister of San Francesco. Evenings from the balconies of the historic center is the title of the itinerant itinerary curated by Giovanni Beretta which will take place on 3 July, at 9pm, with a meeting point in Piazza Matteotti. Appointment at the Santa Croce oratory, Thursday 4 July at 9pm, to attend the concert by maestro Bruno Canino (piano) and maestro Carlo Aonzo (mandolin).
To close the festival – which this year will also leave the city walls, stopping in Santo Stefano di Magra and bringing a selection of Opera del Trovatore to Ponzano Ceramica on 25 June – will be the evening scheduled for Friday 5 July in Piazza Matteotti , at 9.30pm. A show entirely dedicated to the greatest hits of Broadway musicals which will see Francesca Taverni perform together with soloists and dancers. “A huge thank you to Mayor Ponzanelli for supporting us – stated the president of the Amici del Loggiato association Maurizio Caporuscio –. We are happy to present this program characterized by innovation and tradition, which aims to help and enhance young opera singers but also to bring also prestige in Sarzana through consolidated names”. “Within the great program of Sarzana summer events, the Sarzana Lirica festival is a fundamental and indispensable event – concluded councilor Giorgio Borrini –. Opera is a great heritage of Italian culture and the fact that the Festival from Sarzana has also opened in La Spezia with the exhibition on the Navy vessel and in other realities makes us proud and convinced that we are on the right path”.
Elena Sacchelli
