October 21, 2025 at 5 pm
The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington is glad to announce Music and Dance from Early Modern Naples, a presentation of “Naples, Capital of Dance: The feste di ballo Tradition in the Long Eighteenth Century” and of “The Orchestra of the Cappella Reale, Naples 1750-1800“, published by Cambridge University Press and written by Anthony R. DelDonna, Thomas E. Caestecker Professor of Music in the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University.
The event features a discussion between Guido Olivieri, Professor of Musicology, University of Texas at Austin, and the author, followed by a performance of newly recovered music presented by the acclaimed early-music ensemble Modern Musick (Risa Browder, violin; Caitlin Cribbs, violin, John Moran, cello and viola da gamba; Dongsok Shin; fortepiano).
The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Performing Arts, Department of Italian Studies, Georgetown Humanities Initiative, and Catholic Campus Ministry. The performance by Modern Musick includes the compositions of Emanuele Barbella, Aniello Santangelo, Carlo Camerino, Michele Nasci, Nicola Fiorenza, and Domenico Scarlatti.
Please view the program for the evening here: Music and Dance from Early Modern Naples Program
MORE INFO: click here
No registration required
LOCATION
Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart
Old N Way NW, Washington, DC 20057
ABOUT ANTHONY R. DELDONNA
Anthony DelDonna is Thomas E. Caestecker Professor of Music at Georgetown University. He is a specialist in eighteenth-century topics and in particular Italian music, musicians, and culture. His research has focused primarily on the dramatic stage (opera, oratorio, cantata), archival studies, instrumental music, and dance. Prof. DelDonna’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Acta Musicologica, Quaderni del Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella, The Journal of Musicology, Quaderni d’Italianistica, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Early Music, Eighteenth-Century Music, Recercare, Studi musicali and Civiltà musicale as well as numerous essays in scholarly volumes dedicated to the eighteenth century. DelDonna is the author of the monographs Naples, Capital of Dance: the feste di ballo tradition in the long eighteenth century (Cambridge University Press, 2025), Instrumental Music in Late Eighteenth- Century Naples: Politics, Patronage and Artistic Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and Opera, Theatrical Culture and Society in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples published by Ashgate Press (2012); co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); co-editor of Music as Cultural Mission: Explorations of Jesuit Practices in Italy and North America (St. Joseph University Press, 2014); and editor for Genre and Music in the 18th century (Ann Arbor: Steglein Press, 2008). Prof. DelDonna’s forthcoming publications include the critical edition of the opera La ballerina amante by Domenico Cimarosa (ETS, Rome), an article on Queen Maria Carolina as singer and patron, and a new monograph focused on the royal chapel of Naples.
ABOUT GUIDO OLIVIERI
Musicologist Guido Olivieri, teaches history of music and directs the University of Texas at Austin Early Music Ensemble “Austinato.” Before joining the faculty at the Butler School of Music, Olivieri has been a Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool (UK) and at The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, and a Mellon Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan. His articles in scholarly journals and collective volumes have focused on the developments of string sonata in the 18th century, investigating aspects of performance practice, musical patronage, and reconstructing the cultural relationships between Naples and other European capitals. His groundbreaking research – conducted mainly on unknown archival sources and overlooked repertory – has significantly contributed to the revival of interest on Neapolitan instrumental music and musicians. Olivieri has always championed the importance of making available musicological research to the general public. He has realized editions of the repertory he rediscovered and worked with international artists and ensembles specialized in early music. He has contributed to more than 10 CD projects and published the critical edition of a newly discovered manuscript sonatas by A. Corelli (Le sonate da camera di Assisi) and of two unknown cello sonatas by G. Bononcini (available at: http://www.sedm.it/sedm/en/instrumental-music/157-bononcini-olivieri.html). His current projects include the critical edition of Cimarosa’s masterwork Il matrimonio segreto (Bärenreiter).
