UNDER THE PATRONAGE
of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism
Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo
Starting with this edition, The Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) has decided to send a strong signal to promote one of the most fascinating festivals that culture can offer: La Festa della Musica (The Festival of Music).
Like in other places throughout Europe, this festival will engage Italy in its entirety and, at the same time, divulge a message of culture, participation, integration, harmony and universality that only music can spread. A great event that will take all types of music – to all kinds of venue. Parks, museums, Italian Cultural Institutes, Embassies, hospitals, train stations, places of worship, prisons, metro stations and, above all, to the streets and squares of our beautiful country which will be in the limelight during “Our” Festa (festival).
This exciting event will bring together academies, conservatories, schools of music and universities. Soloists, choirs, orchestras, musical groups and bands – in other words, all those who create music at a professional or recreational level – will come together for our Festa, as will Italians, foreigners and “new” Italians. “In piazza è tutta un’altra musica! “On the streets, it’s a different tune entirely!” – whether one is alone, or in a group. The festival will cross Italy from top to bottom, not forgetting the islands, and explore those magical places that are our country’s pride and joy: the cultural assets that MiBACT will make available to music.
We will have a special preview of the Festa before Midsummer. We chose to open this fascinating festival with the passion, skill, and creativity of young people. The last Saturday before June 21, this year and in years to come, youths will take center stage in the Italian Capital of Culture of the year. This is why, on June 18 in Mantua, hundreds of young girls and boys from all over Italy will perform on eleven stages throughout the city.
THE ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE IN WASHINGTON, D.C. PARTICIPATES IN THIS FESTIVAL WITH THE MUSICAL PLAY:
“MOVING OUT”
World Première
June 21st and 22nd , 2016
A theatrical play with arias and duets composed by Riccardo Riccardi
Performed in English
Characters:
| Nora: a woman around fifty: | Elisa Prosperi – Soprano |
| Nadia: a 23 year-old woman: | Virginia Guidi – Mezzo-soprano |
| Riccardo Riccardi – Piano |
The play takes place in the living room of an apartment in America.
MOVING OUT, a theatrical play with arias and duets, is a work by Riccardo Riccardi composed exclusively for the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C.
Its general structure is an example of the Teatro della parola (Word Theater), but with interspersed arias and duets, following the tradition of Italian opera. The play brings Italy and United States together, both with its theme and music.
The texts are sung mainly in Italian – as with traditional opera – but also in English because Moving out takes musical ideas from America, filters them and turns them into opera – Italian opera.
On stage, two faces of emigration confront each other: a mature woman who moved to the U. S. from Italy many years ago, and her niece, who has big dreams – and the challenge of starting her future in the Big Apple. On the one hand, memories of the past and nostalgia for one’s roots; on the other, dreams of future opportunities in America – a land of possibilities, as envisioned by collective international imagination.
The innermost feelings of the two characters are described with lightness and irony, and the contrast between aunt and niece finds a common thread in their enduring love for Italian cuisine.
Moving out is Riccardo Riccardi’s second theatrical play in English. It follows Il testamento (The Will) written for the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin in 2014.
ADDRESS
Embassy of Italy – Auditorium
3000 Whitehaven St, NW
Washington, DC 20008
REGISTRATION REQUIRED
DOORS OPEN AT 6:00PM AND CLOSE AT 6:55PM
REGISTER FOR JUNE 21st PERFORMANCE:
REGISTER FOR JUNE 22nd PERFORMANCE:
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Riccardo Riccardi
Riccardo Riccardi’s first catalogued work dates back to 1973. Since then, he has composed chamber, orchestral and vocal music, and began focusing primarily on musical theater in the early 1990s.
One of today’s most representative composers of opera, Riccardi follows Italian traditions, but includes elements outside classical genres. His operas range from works sung throughout, as in historical opera, to Singspiel and theatrical texts with arias. These works are based on his own libretti, some original as in this piece, and others adapted from early 20th century writers.
As an academic, Riccardi has been collaborating with American institutions as a guest speaker, and visiting professor, since 1994. He has been invited to colleges and universities in California, Arizona, Indiana, and Maryland. He also taught composition in the New York University Florence Program from 2008 to 2012, and Music Appreciation in the Rome Program of Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame from 1998 to 2013. He was the Nancy Unobskey Visiting Artist in Modern and Contemporary Art at Goucher College, Towson, Maryland in 2014.
Riccardo Riccardi holds a Chair of Composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.
Elisa Prosperi
Soprano Elisa Prosperi, a former student of Monica Benvenuti, studied at the Istituto Superiore “P. Mascagni” in Livorno, Italy. She attended Master classes under Rosalind Plowright at the Royal College of Music in London and studied with Barbara Hannigan and Trevor Wishart at the Institute for Living Voice, Fondazione Cini, in Venice. In 2013 she moved to Leuven, Belgium, for an apprenticeship at the Lemmensinstituut. Throughout her career as a singer of chamber music and opera, she has always put particular emphasis on contemporary music and music of the 20th century. In 2015 she sang at the Venice Biennale where she met Virginia Guidi with whom she then started collaborating.
Virginia Guidi
Mezzo-soprano Virginia Guidi studied with Silvia Schiavoni at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, specializing in Vocal Chamber Music. In addition to music she has also had theatrical training and has collaborated with the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico in Rome. Among other activities, she has sung at the Beijing National Centre of the Performing Arts, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and at the Arena Flegrea in Naples. She collaborates in festivals of contemporary music and art, such as the International Electroacoustic Music Festival (EMUfest, Arte-Scienza), and the Venice Biennale, 2015. Since 2012 she has been part of the Lied-Duo Ferrandino-Guidi.