Italy Guest of Honour 2024 and music as literature of the heart
That’s why Italy, as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2024, wanted to offer on its route to “Destination Frankfurt” and during the Fair a series of magical concerts, across different genres, represent the nec plus ultra on the national music landscape.
If culture unites, music, in the minds of the great violinist Uto Ughi, “is a language of brotherhood and the orchestra is the embryo of society because everyone needs to listen to the voices of others too”. It will be a choral experience that represents the spirit of Italy Guest of Honour 2024, music made of words, notes and encounters to be experienced through a prestigious programme of events.
Appointments with “Destination Frankfurt”
12 June 2024 - 19:30
Concert:
Italian Passions, from Rossini to Puccini
Konzerthaus Dortmund, Brückstraße 21, 44135
A grand concert by the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti from Naples directed by Maestro Beatrice Venezi, an acclaimed interpreter of the Puccini repertoire, will be held in the Konzerthaus in Dortmund. The exceptional guest star is the tenor, Vittorio Grigolo, whose wonderful voice launched him on a brilliant international career at just 20 years old.
The Nuova Scarlatti Orchestra will offer a rich symphonic-vocal programme: the melodies, passions and colours of the great century of Italian melodrama, from Rossini to Puccini (to whom an extensive tribute is dedicated in his centennial year), through the works of Donizetti, Verdi and Mascagni, in an itinerary replete with multiple and evocative resonances.
The event will coincide with the opening of Casa Azzurri, the headquarters and meeting place of the Italian football team during the European Championship, which is taking place in Germany this year.
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29 August 2024 at 19:10
Concert:
La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly at the Berlin Musikfest.
Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin, Germany at 19:10
La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director Riccardo Chailly will arrive at Berlin Philharmonic Hall as part of the Berlin Musikfest, the most important event on the German music scene, with a tribute to the great music of the twentieth century.
An excellent exponent of Italian music and an institution of international cultural relevance, La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra is led by the baton of Maestro Riccardo Chailly, who adds a touch of magic to the standard repertoire and enriches it thanks to his sharp ear for new discoveries from the archive of musical history and present.
Luciano Berio and Wolfgang Rihm join Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé: masterpieces by three great twentieth-century composers who have shaped the course of music history, whose art is driven by an innovative force that always confronts the past in order to surpass it.
The concert opens with Quatre dédicaces by Luciano Berio, followed by Wolfgang Rihm's Dis-Kontur. The evening will conclude with the famous orchestral suites No. 1 and No. 2 of Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, which Igor Stravinsky described as "one of the most beautiful things ever produced in the entirety of French music". The event thus presents a kaleidoscope of colours and sound impressions in one of Musikfest Berlin's most anticipated concerts.
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/musikfest-berlin/programm/2024/kalender/filarmonica-della-scala
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Appointments during the Frankfurt International Book Fair: 15–20 October 2024
15 October 2024 at 20:00
Concert:
Arias of Giacomo Puccini with the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona.
Teatro Alte Oper, Operaplatz 1, 60313 Frankfurt
At the opening of the Book Fair, the prestigious Alte Oper theatre in Frankfurt will host an extraordinary event. In celebration of Giacomo Puccini’s centenary and Italy's appearance as Guest of Honour at the Book Fair after 36 years, the orchestra of the Arena di Verona will perform a tribute to the great composer together with some of the finest Italian voices.
This high-profile concert is a tribute not only to the mastery of Puccini but also to canto lirico in Italy, included on the official UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
The event, made even more memorable by the presence of the highest government officials, will also masterfully represent the combination of past and future, tradition and innovation that inspired the motto “Roots in the Future”.
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16 October 2024 at 20:00
Concert:
Taranta of Love and Italian Dances
With Maestro Ambrogio Sparagna, the Orchestra Popolare Italiana and the Corpo di Ballo Popolare of the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome
Teatro Alte Oper, Operaplatz 1, 60313 Frankfurt
Taranta of Love is a show that will make you dance to the rhythm of the pizzica and other Italian folk dances: gighe, altarelli, dancerelle, tammurriate and above all tarantelle, the matrix dance of many of our musical traditions. Taranta of Love will be a celebration that will also engage the audience thanks to the energy and passion of the orchestra’s musicians, who will play organettes, guitars, shawms and frame drums, while the soloists of the Corpo di Ballo Popolare of the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome will create surprising choreographies.
The show will also include some songs inspired by Franciscan laude and the Cantico delle Creature, on the occasion of St. Francesco’s 800th anniversary, and references to Dante’s Divina Commedia, in particular, a piece inspired by the last verse of the Paradiso: “Love that moves the Sun and the other stars”.
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18 October 2024 at 19:30
Opera:
Rigoletto
by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Hendrik Müller and conducted by Giuseppe Mentuccia
Teatro Oper Untermainanlage 11, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Work in three acts, booklet by Francesco Maria Piave, after a play by Victor Hugo (1851).
At the heart of the Book Fair's busiest days, Italy Guest of Honour 2024 could hardly fail to dedicate a major event to the magic of opera. In partnership with Teatro Oper, the curtain will rise on Verdi's masterpiece, under the masterful baton of Giuseppe Mentuccia, with a cast of German and Italian artists.
Building on the extreme colours of Victor Hugo’s original black romance, Le roi s'amuse, Verdi composed an
incredibly tense score and defined it as revolutionary. In his production, director Hendrik Müller is not afraid of strong images and flashy effects, without losing sight of the title character's tragic self-destruction. The work will be in Italian and German with subtitles in English.
The orchestra's conductor, Mentuccia, has performed at renowned venues such as the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the National Academy of Santa Cecilia. He has worked with many conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Christian Thielemann and Myung-Whun Chung.
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19 October 2024 at 20:00
Grand finale at the Festhalle:
Il Volo – Live in concert 2024
Festival Hall Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1, 60327 Frankfurt am Main
Grand finale of the Italian presence in Frankfurt at the 2024 edition of the Buchmesse with passion, romance and emotion.
Italy Guest of Honour 2024 will be bringing Il Volo into the Festhalle, the magnificent arena within the Frankfurt exhibition complex. This group, made up of Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone and Ignazio Boschetto, delights fans all over the world with bel canto.
Started in 2011, Il Volo has also become famous thanks to performances of international hits such as "Volare", "My way", "Nessun Dorma" and "O Sole Mio". The artists now have over 2.2 million social media fans, over 3.5 million albums sold and have been seen by over 2 million spectators in more than 300 concerts across 3 continents. The 13 albums released since 2011 and numerous platinum records testify to their talent, as do collaborations with major music names such as Quincy Jones, Plácido Domingo, Eros Ramazzotti and Barbra Streisand.
Further information or ticket purchase
Further information or ticket purchase available here: Events | ItalyFrankfurt Book Fair 2024 (italiafrancoforte2024.com)
Journalists can request accreditation at this email address:
eventi.italyfrankfurt2024@cultura.gov.it