The 15th Edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World will be organized by the Embassy of Italy in Monaco under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco and the President of the Italian Republic and will offer, from October 2nd to 9th, a packed cultural program.
Six musical events will serve as the guiding thread indicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: “The Italian of music, the music of Italian.”
The six cultural events organized in Monaco will offer an “interactive” and participatory journey with the intention of providing insights and reflections to the public, who are therefore invited to participate widely.
The week will begin on Friday, October 2nd, with a lectio magistralis created and held by journalists Ernesto Assante and Gino Castaldo. Entitled “The Tale of the Italian Song,” it analyzes the lyrics and their different uses in songs from the ’50s to the ’80s, from Domenico Modugno to Mina. On stage, alongside the two journalists, will be singer Roberta Giallo and musician Valentino Corvino.
The cultural events will continue on Monday, October 5th, with the conference “The Castrati and the Excellence of Baroque Music: Words, Sounds, and Flavors to Relive an Era,” an opportunity to delve into the typical Italian musical phenomenon of the 17th century, featuring the figure of the castrato (nowadays referred to as “sopranista”). Interventions will include editor and producer Liana Marabini and Christophe Carré from the Nantes Opera, a French artist specialized in Italian baroque music, who will be accompanied by an original 17th-century harpsichord.
On Tuesday, October 6th, the importance of the Italian language in sacred music will be addressed during the concert “The Art of Italian Bel Canto of the 19th Century” with tenor Massimo La Guardia, who will be accompanied by Maestro Silvano Rodi on a historic Cavaillé-Coll organ.
Wednesday, October 7th, will focus on analyzing the relationship between music and cuisine—another important vehicle for the Italian language—through a themed evening by the Monaco Delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine, enlivened by the concert entitled “I Dreamed of Flying” (songs by Domenico Modugno) with performances by singer Andrea Sbriccoli Fontana, pianist Stefano Scartocci, and guitarist Luciano Ciccaglioni. Paintings dedicated to music by Italian painter Paolo Capitelli will be exhibited under the title “Color in Music.”
On Thursday, October 8th, we return to the “classroom” with the conference-concert entitled “The Century of Lights and Mysteries,” which will be delivered in French and Italian by art critic Philippe Daverio, accompanied by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra inaugurating the traditional musical “Happy Hours” season. This event invites the audience to witness the musical and artistic development of the Enlightenment Movement throughout its historical evolution.
The 15th edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World will conclude on Friday, October 9th, with opera, aptly noted as one of the main vehicles of Italian over the past two centuries, presented through the event entitled “Opera and the Italian Language, the Great Season of Melodrama,” a lecture-concert led by soprano Angela Papale and pianist and musicologist Fabio Marra.
