The Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, directed by Alberto Veronesi, is one of Italy’s most important opera festivals. It is held in the summer, between July and August, in a place much treasured by Puccini, who lived and worked there for extended periods, staying in the villa which is now a Museum.
As well as the open air theatre, the music park dedicated to Giacomo Puccini provides a foyer for the staging of various exhibitions. It is here that “Passatempo”, the exhibition by Valente Taddei, will be on show from 24 July to 27 August.
On show, a series of recent oil and Indian ink paintings on paper and canvas: synthetic works of a narrative character, which depict a small figure – the distinctive protagonist of Taddei’s work – who has a strange existence, suspended in time and space. The artist offers a metaphor of human limits, playing down, with subtle irony, the sense of emptiness and caducity that man can feel faced with his own destiny.
The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 10.00 – 13.30 / 15.00 – 18.00 and on occasion of the evening performances.
Details:
festival programme
24 and 31 July, 15, 21 and 30 August: Tosca
25 July, 7, 16, 23, 28 August: Turandot
1, 8, 14, 22, 29 August: Madame Butterfly
20 August: Il Trittico
by car: Genova -Livorno motorway exit Viareggio or Pisa Nord. From Viareggio take the highway southwards (Pisa direction); from Pisa Nord exit take the highway northwards (Viareggio direction). Leave the highway in Torre del Lago and follow the signs for “Festival Pucciniano”
by train: Viareggio or Pisa station
by plane: Pisa Galileo Galilei International Airport, Florence-Peretola Airport
Biglietteria Festival Puccini Viale Puccini 257/A 55048 Torre del Lago Puccini, Italia
+39 0584 359322/ 427201 Fax +39 0584 945059 / 350277
e-mail: info@puccinifestival.it ticketoffice@puccinifestival.it
The exhibition, organised by the Puccini Festival Foundation in partnership with the Mercurio Contemporary Art Gallery in Viareggio, is accompanied by a brochure with an introduction by Gianni Costa.
Fondazione Festival Pucciniano
a pagamento
In November 1924 while out walking in Torre del Lago, Giacomo Puccini expressed his wish to listen to one of his operas under the open skies to Giovacchino Forzano, director, comedy writer, and librettist for Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Six years later, after the disappearance of the musician, his wish came true thank to the hard work of the same Forzano and Pietro Mascagni, Puccini’s friend and appraiser.
On the 24th August of 1930, the opera La Boheme took place on a provisional stage supported by piles on the lake in front of the composer’s house. Forzano was the director while Mascagni was responsible for conducting the orchestra.
In 1966 the open-air theatre was moved to the drained land north of the little port in Torre del Lago, where the structure, known as the “Teatro dei Quattromila”,today hosts the festival.
This festival, over its seventy or more years history, has witnessed the most illustrious performers in the opera world as well as great dance displays including performers of an extremely high standard such as Rudolf Nurayev, Carla Fracci and George Iancu.
Recently, the Fondazione Festival Pucciniano, in collaboration with Regione Toscana, the Provincia di Lucca, the Comune di Viareggio, the Fondazione Carnevale di Viareggio, have commited themselves to building a technical set in the Cittadella Carnevale of Viareggio. Here, training and specialist courses concerning the technical professions involved in the theatre and show world will take place.
61