The Barga opera festival is a very important international cultural event which takes place in the medieval town of Barga, livening up the summer of the entire Serchio valley. The artistic project at the base of the festival’s programming, aims to recover and research less known operas from the baroque period and present them alongside modern and even contemporary operas. Such an approach aims at evaluating the artistic patrimony of operatic music before and after the classical repertoires of the 1800’s. Therefore there have been many contemporary pieces included in the Barga Opera Festivals that have been performed for the very first time on stage both nationally or internationally. In addition the festival has also often featured first contemporary performances of rediscovered works.
The central theme of the 2013 season is the (premiere) stage performance of “The Fall of Jerusalem” by Giovanni Paolo Colonna.
The opera for six voices was composed and first performed in 1688. It retells the biblical story of the triumph of the Assiri over Israel, heavily influenced by the Ottomans’ attempt to conquest Vienna in 1683. The moral of this work is a warning to the rulers of the time: power should never be detached from humility.
The performance will take place 13 and 14 July at the Theatre of the Differenti in Barga. Directed by Dagny Müller, costumes by Santo Costanzo, lighting by Riccardo Tonelli.
Details:
Friday 5 July
Concert Contempoartensemble
homage to Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna
21,15 S. Elisabetta Cloister, Barga
Luciano Berio
Modern music for flute, viola and basque drum
Les mots sont allée recitative for cello solo
Chanson pour Pierrre Boulez for cello solo
Quartet for bow instruments deicated to Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna
Quartet (Venice, 1945-46) for 2 violins, viola and cello
Music in two dimensions for flute, cymbal and magnetic tape
Piece for Ivry for violin solo
“Solo” for oboe, English horn, oboe d’amore and magnetic tape
Serenade for a satellite for flute and ottavino, oboe and oboe d’amore, clarinet,
marimba, harp, violin, mandolin and guitar
Saturday 6 July
Concert Ensemble le musiche
21,15 S. Elisabetta Cloister, Barga
Grazyna Bacewicz: Quartet for 4 violins
J.S.Bach: Suite n. 3 for cello
W. A. Mozart: Quintet KV174 for bows
Sunday 7 July
Concert Ensemble le Musiche
21,15 S. Elisabetta Cloister, Barga
J.S. Bach: Sonata n. 3 in BWM 1038
J.S. Bach: Suite n. 2 for cello solo
W.A. Mozart: Quartet for bows KV387
Tuesday 9 July
Concert Ensemble le Musiche
21,15 S. Elisabetta Cloister, Barga
D.Shostakovich: 2 pieces for bow quartet
G.F Haendel/Halvorsen: Passacaglia for violin solo
F. Schubert: Erlkoenig for violin solo
W. A. Mozart: Quartet for flute and bows KV 285b
Mercoledì 10 July
Concert Ensemble Le musiche by Simone Bernardini
21,15 Aia del Beniamino, Fornaci in Barga
L.Boccherini: Quintet for flute and bows op. 17 n. 1 e 3
J.Brahms: Sextet n. 1 op. 18
Saturday 13 July
“THE FALL OF JERUSALEM” by G.P Colonna
Opera in three acts by Alessandro Scarlatti .
Premiere performance in modern times.
Co-production by Opera Barga – AuserMusici
21,15 Theatre of the Differenti, Barga
Sunday 14 July
“THE FALL OF JERUSALEM” by G.P Colonna
Opera in three acts by Alessandro Scarlatti .
Premiere performance in modern times.
Co-production by Opera Barga – AuserMusici
21,15 Theatre of the Differenti, Barga
Wednesday 17 July
Concert Ensemble Le Musiche
21,15 Piazza S. Maria in Bagnone
Thursday 18 July
Concert Ensemble Le Musiche
21,15 Piazzetta Castiglione del Terziere, Bagnone
Saturday 20 July
Concert Ensemble Le Musiche
21,15 Quartieri Theatre, Bagnone
Sunday 21 July
Concert Ensemble Le musiche
21,15 Church of SS. Annunziata, Castiglione del Terziere
by car: From Lucca SS12 towards Abetone, then ss 445 road towards Castelnuovo Garfagnana, until Fornaci di Barga, there take the road to Barga.
busses from Lucca
Nicholas Hunt
Associazione Musicale Opera Barga
0583 723250
operabarga@tiscali.it
Associazione Culturale Teatro e Musica Opera Barga
The festival came about in 1967 thanks to the initiative of the actor Peter Hunt and scenographer Gillian Armitage, both English, who moved to Barga sometime before. The married couple thought of using the structure of the “Teatro dei Differenti” in Barga to found an operatic school which would offer young singers, orchestra players, orchestra directors and scenographers the possibility of working on a show that would then be performed.
Over its thirty years of activity, the festival has undergone changes in management, institutional partners and even address due to the long closure of the theatre for restoration work, however, always maintaining its primary aims. The Barga Opera has recently started collaborating with the “Ensemble Modo Antico” to work on a three year project about Antonio Vivaldi.
As a testimony to the peculiarity and vitality of this artistic project of Barga Opera, between philology and experimentation , we only have to remember that in the 1991 programme, “Histoire de Babar” by Poulenc appeared together with “Il Paratajo”, an intermezzo by Niccolò Iomelli, never shown in Italy and found in the Biblioteque Nationale de Paris. In this same way, “Arsilda, Regina di Ponto”, Vivaldi’s third operatic composition which has never been performed in modern times, along with “Ritratto
Di Luciano Berio” were shown in 2001, and in 2002 Vivaldi’s “Orlando Furioso” and “Play it again, Nino”, a tribute to Nino Rota.
Prezzi concerto: Contempoartensemble € 10,00 intero € 7,00 ridotto; Le Ensemble € 8,00 € intero € 5,00 ridotto. Prezzi Opera: primi posti € 30,00 intero € 22,00 ridotto; secondi posti € 22,00 intero € 15,00 ridotto;