Michela Gerosa

The fifth edition of Il Centro della Musica, an event promoted by the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti in collaboration with the Assessorato alle Politiche Sociali del Comune di Bergamo, is drawing to a close, not before offering two more appointments, the first of which will take place on Saturday, July 4, in the Ridotto "Gavazzeni" of the Teatro Donizetti (5 p.m.), starring Ensemble Locatelli. On the occasion, the Bergamo-based baroque music ensemble conducted by Thomas Chigioni will host the Dutch flutist Teun Wisse, a virtuoso of the recorder, an instrument that will be the main theme of the same concert, entitled Flautissimo. In a program devoted to recorder concertos, the name of Antonio Vivaldi is an inescapable reference: the author of an impressive number of concertos, far beyond the famous Four Seasons, Vivaldi shaped a language that profoundly marked eighteenth-century Europe. Vivaldi's "La Notte" recorder concerto in G minor RV 439 and recorder concerto in C minor RV 441 will be heard. In addition to the "Red Priest," composers such as Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Friedrich Fasch and Giovanni Battista Sammartini were able to offer original and refined interpretations of the concerto form, in an extraordinary variety of styles and formal solutions. It is perhaps surprising that it is precisely the recorder, often considered an instrument with a limited repertoire, that has been the vehicle for such a rich and international production, capable of reflecting diverse national identities and at the same time an authentically European spirit, even verging on the galante style. Ensemble Locatelli's concert thus aims to highlight, together, the concerto as a musical form and the recorder as a solo instrument, revealing its expressive breadth and vitality. Also central to the project is the theme of cultural exchange between Italy and the Netherlands: many of Vivaldi's works were published in Amsterdam in the early eighteenth century by the famous publisher Estienne Roger, spreading rapidly throughout Europe and profoundly influencing the musical taste of the time. More than three hundred years later, this ideal dialogue is renewed in the encounter between flutist Teun Wisse and Ensemble Locatelli, an artistic partnership born from a shared passion for this repertoire and matured through concerts in several European countries, culminating in a program designed to celebrate Vivaldi and the immediate and communicative pleasure of a music that, then as now, lives on energy, exchange and shared joy.

The fifth edition of Il Centro della Musica, an event promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with the Department of Social Policies of the City of Bergamo, continues on Saturday, June 27, in the "Gavazzeni" Ridotto of the Donizetti Theater (5 p.m.) with an appointment dedicated to the encounter between jazz and Italian songwriting entitled From Be To Pops. Offering it will be a sextet led by pianist Claudio Angeleri, one of the most representative exponents of Bergamasque jazz and heart and soul of the Centro Didattico Produzione Musica, and including vocalist Paola Milzani, saxophonist Gabriele Comeglio, guitarist Michele Gentilini, bassist Marco Esposito and drummer Matteo Milesi. An auteur concert could be called From Be To Pops: in fact, on the program are famous songs written by some of Italy's great songwriters, from Gino Paoli ("Una lunga storia d'amore") to Fabio Concato ("Se non fosse per la musica"), from Bruno Martino ("Estate") to Pino Donaggio ("Io che non vivo"), and made famous over the years by national and international performers such as Mina, Ornella Vanoni, Joao Gilberto Gil, and Elvis Presley. Extraordinary melodies that have become evergreens that have crossed styles and oceans, thanks to versions by Michel Petrucciani, Toots Thielemans, Mike Stern, Chet Baker. The trait d ' union is improvisation, through which jazz has been able to metabolize music and cultures from all over the world. With this spirit Claudio Angeleri has created an original project, involving his longest-running group, formed in 2001 for a record that was favorably received by industry critics. The arrangements keep faith with the recognizability of the melodic lines, while introducing original elements characteristic of Claudio Angeleri's pen, now more pop and funk, now more bebop and bluesy. From Be To Pops is a crossover project that years ago, during the "Notti di Luce" festival, had involved, thanks to Gabriele Comeglio's big band, the same authors themselves: Fabio Concato, Gino Paoli, Ron, Lucio Dalla and Roby Facchinetti.

It is entitled, with a touch of charm, Un siècle en rose the fifth concert of the new edition of Il Centro della Musica, an event promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with the Department of Social Policies of the City of Bergamo. The concert, scheduled for Saturday, June 20, in the Ridotto "Gavazzeni" of the Donizetti Theater (5 p.m.) and organized in partnership with the Bergamo Quartet Society, will in fact be in the groove of female musicality and will feature violinist Agnese Ferraro and pianist Monica Cattarossi, the creators of a musical dialogue marked by rigor and interpretative sensitivity. Un siècle en rose promises a journey through French music between the 19th and 20th centuries, built around the voices of some of Europe's most significant female composers, who have long remained on the margins of the repertoire and are now increasingly recognized in their originality and expressive force. The program juxtaposes pages written between 1850 and 1951, restoring the variety of languages and sensibilities that spanned a century of profound change. From the formal and luminous solidity of Louise Farrenc's Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 39, to the brilliance of Cécile Chaminade's Capriccio Op. 18, to the evocative and iridescent writing of Lili Boulanger, with its soundscapes suspended between impression and movement. The course finds a synthesis in the Second Sonata for Violin and Piano by Germaine Tailleferre, the sole composer of the Groupe des Six, in which elegance, clarity and a modern spirit come together in essential and lively writing. A concert that is both rediscovery and restitution: not an "alternative" repertoire, but an indispensable part of European musical history, capable of speaking with freshness and intensity to the present.   Agnese Ferraro graduated with Piero Toso from the "C. Pollini" Conservatory in Padua, specializing at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg with Yair Kless and later at the Hochschule fur Musik "H. Eisler" in Berlin. Winner of several national and international competitions, she began her valuable relationship with the international music world at the age of sixteen, winning auditions to be part of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchesterakademie, the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester and the European Union Youth Orchestra, playing under the direction of Lorin Maazel, Semyon Bychkov, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, Daniele Gatti, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa and Vladimir Ashkenazy. She was first violinist at the Academy of the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra working under Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Yuri Temirkanov, among others, and, at the invitation of Claudio Abbado, she participated in the Academy of the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester as concertmaster. For several years he served as First violin soloist of the Strawinsky Chamber Orchestra. In 2005, she won the competition to join the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra on a permanent basis, for which in 2014's Don Quixote she was First violin backing violin and in 2015's Cinderella solo violin onstage. She routinely performs at major festivals in Italy and abroad as solo violinist or together with chamber ensembles. Monica Cattarossi

On Saturday, June 13, in the "Gavazzeni" Ridotto of the Donizetti Theater (5 p.m.), the fifth edition of Il Centro della Musica, an event promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with the Bergamo City Council's Social Policies Department, reaches its halfway point. The star of the concert will be the Mascoulisse Quartet, a trombone-only quartet emanating from the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra that fields Stefano Belotti (bass trombone), Alberto Pedretti (tenor trombone and arrangements), Fabio De Cataldo (alto and tenor trombone), and Antonio Mascherpa (alto and tenor trombone). To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Mascoulisse Quartet presents on this occasion a project entirely dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi, entitled "Verdi 1901," approached with a historical and deeply musical gaze. Indeed, the quartet plays original instruments from Verdi's time, restoring to the audience the Italian sound of the 19th century: warm, enveloping, textural. A sound that does not push, but tells. That does not overpower, but supports. A sound that comes from the natural breath of the instruments and their ability to sing. It is a journey inside a fascinating timbral palette of balance, depth and song. A plunge into a world of sound where every note has weight, color and soul; where music is never pure surface, but living matter that vibrates and is transmitted naturally. The "Verdi 1901" project starts with a simple and powerful question: what remained of Verdi's sound after his passing? The answer lies in the music itself, which has never remained silent. It just kept breathing, transforming, crossing time, but keeping its narrative and emotional power intact. The program runs through some of the most celebrated pages of Verdi's theater, reinterpreted through the chamber language and historical sensibility of the quartet, Rigoletto, Nabucco, La Traviata.

It lies at the intersection of classical and jazz in the third appointment with the fifth edition of Il Centro della Musica, an event promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with the Bergamo City Council's Social Policies Department. Saturday, June 6 (5 p.m.) is in fact scheduled in the "Gavazzeni" Ridotto of the Donizetti Theater a concert entitled Le mezze stagioni, in which excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi's famous Four Seasons will be juxtaposed with jazz standards, in a unique, fascinating mix of sounds and colors. It will feature theOFI Jazz Acoustic String, one of the many emanations of the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, a longtime partner of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti. Creator of the project is violinist Cesare Carretta, as well as arranger and solo violinist, joined on the occasion by Silvia Maffeis (violin), Matteo Del Soldà (viola), Nicolò Nigrelli (cello), Nicola Ziliani (double bass) and Federico Negri (drums). The narrative thread of the concert follows the cycle of the seasons, understood not only as a natural phenomenon but as a metaphor for loves and the human condition. A journey that reflects the parable of life: every end already contains a new beginning. In Spring , Afro rhythms accompany the birdsong evoked by Vivaldi, while the melancholy of I'll Remember April intertwines with the lightness and swinging joy of Smile, It's Spring. InSummer the sudden fury of Vivaldi's storm is joined by the tale of an African American singing about his plight in Caesar's Blues, finally finding refuge in Summertime. In Autumn , the harvest festival described by Vivaldi meets the colors and rhythms of a cosmopolitan city in Autumn in New York, to the sweet melancholy of a fading love in Autumn Leaves. Finally,Winter opens with the Adagio from Vivaldi'sWinter , then runs through a selection of Christmas carols reinterpreted in an engaging swing rhythm, between intimacy and celebration. Cesare Carretta has always ranged across musical genres, from classical to jazz to pop. He is First Shoulder Violin and Soloist in the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, as well as First of the Second Violins in the Fondazione Arena di Verona. In the field jazz is soloist and founder of the Jazz Acoustic String and First Shoulder Violin of the Italian Jazz Orchestra. He has collaborated with leading figures on the Italian jazz scene including Enrico Rava, Enrico Pieranunzi, Paolo Fresu and Fabrizio Bosso. In pop he has recorded records for the likes of Mina, Celentano, Dalla, Renato Zero, Zucchero and Vasco Rossi.

The Donizetti Theater Foundation, with the City of Bergamo, announces the Prose Season and Altri Percorsi 2026|2027, the backbone of the Theater Season, whose full playbill also includes Operetta, Opera&Concerts and other events: a rich and articulated program that will run at the Donizetti Theater and Teatro Sociale over six months, from December 2026 to May 2027. There are seven titles in the Prose Season, for eight performances per show, and as many in Other Paths. Sergio Gandi, Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture, brings greetings from the Municipal Administration of Bergamo: "The Season of Prose and Other Paths has always been one of the cornerstones of our city's cultural offerings. This is thanks to artistic choices of absolute quality, reflecting the complexity of national theater production and beyond. Bergamo is itself a city that explores different areas of expression - from music to cinema, from visual arts to dance to spoken word theater precisely - marrying an awareness of tradition with current events. The proposals of the upcoming Season also go in this direction and are confirmed as a vehicle for a dialogue between past, present and future." George Berta, President of the Donizetti Theater Foundation, stresses the importance of the Prose Season and Other Paths also with a view to the involvement of young people, and takes the opportunity to thank those who work for the success of all the activities of the same Foundation: "In reiterating the centrality among our proposals of the Prose Season and Other Paths, it is also relevant to emphasize our role in bringing young people closer to the theater and culture more generally. In this perspective, the work of the Artistic Direction, which aims to involve the world of youth with special initiatives, as well as to offer high quality performances to the public, fits fully into this perspective. Also for this aspect, thanks are due to all those, both public and private partners, who support us in order to make our activities more and more incisive." Massimo Boffelli, General Director of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation, takes his cue from the success of the 2025|2026 Season: "In presenting the upcoming Prose and Other Paths Season, we cannot but start from the data of the season that has just ended: 51,706 total admissions for Prose - 5,763 subscriptions - and over 7,000 for Other Paths. These are significant, important numbers that confirm the success of audiences and once again attest to our driving force involving spectators of various age groups. We do not want to err on the side of presumption, but these are figures that few other theaters nationwide can count today, even in cities with a numerically larger population than Bergamo. The Season of Prose and Other Paths therefore plays a prominent role in our programming, as well as in the hearts of the people of Bergamo, showing its identity in a composite framework that includes two festivals of international scope, Donizetti Opera and Bergamo Jazz, the review Lezioni di Storia,

Successfully inaugurated by pianist Costanza Principe, the fifth edition of Il Centro della Musica, an event promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with the Bergamo City Council's Social Policies Department, continues Saturday, May 30 (5 p.m.) with a concert by La Magnifica Quartet. On this occasion, the string quartet formed by Enrico Casazza and Isabella Longo on violins, Christian Serazzi on viola and Eugenio Solinas on cello, will perform a tribute to the Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák in the "Gavazzeni" Ridotto of the Donizetti Theater, the venue for all the events. The concert, which features the collaboration of the Association La Magnifica Comunità, is set to be a musical journey through epochs and geographies, offering a dialogue between Viennese classicism and the folk suggestions of Central Europe and the New World, highlighting the richness of tone and narrative of the string quartet. Opening it will be the celebrated Quartet op. 76 no. 2 by Franz Joseph Haydn, known as "of the fifths," an admirable example of formal balance and thematic invention. The heart of the program is precisely dedicated to Antonín Dvořák, the protagonist of an ideal "Bohemian globetrotter," with the Quartet No. 12 "American." born during the composer's stay in the United States, reflecting a fascinating encounter between European tradition and American folk suggestions, and with the Zwei Waltzes op. 54, which offer a more intimate and lighter look, where the elegance of the waltz is colored with freshness and liveliness. La Magnifica Quartet was born within the ensemble La Magnifica Comunità with the intention of pushing beyond philological and stylistic research and distinguishing itself by the evocative authenticity of its musical production. Winner of numerous awards, La Magnifica Comunità, in its various branches, is one of the most influential chamber ensembles devoted to repertoire from Baroque to Romanticism in the world. Its many awards include the "Choc de la Musique," for its recording of the 4th volume of Boccherini's Quintets on the Brilliant label, which also garnered the coveted 5 Diapasons from the well-known French magazine Diapason, as well as praiseworthy reviews from other specialized magazines. He has also recorded for other major record labels such as Sony, Harmonia Mundi, Amadeus, Tactus, and Tring International.

DONIZETTI ACADEMY 2026 Borderline One hundred girls and boys debuted today around the theme of safety on the stage of Bergamo's Donizetti Theater with a show entirely created by them, guided by the direction and dramaturgy of Silvia Briozzo, with sets by Alberto Allegretti and musical training by Mariagrazia Mercaldo 500 high school students from Bergamo and province were engaged in the morning in the 11 workshops on the performing arts professions and then warmly applauded their comrades on stage The project was designed and coordinated by the Donizetti Education sector of the Donizetti Theater Foundation, in collaboration with Dalmine ETS Foundation   Today, Thursday, May 21, 2026, was an extraordinary day for 600 high school students from Bergamo and province. Eleven experiential workshops on theater crafts and the debut of the collective show Boundary Line to reflect on issues of safety and relational awareness. The Donizetti Theater has thus become a great widespread laboratory for new generations thanks to the Donizetti Academy 2026, an innovative educational project that opens the theater's doors to local high schools and transforms it into a space for discovery, participation and growth. The initiative, born out of the synergy between the Donizetti Theater Foundation and the Dalmine ETS Foundation, aims to interweave theater culture, education and reflection on hot topics of the present, offering children a hands-on and engaging journey out of the ordinary. The morning was, therefore, kicked off with eleven workshops, 30 minutes each, divided into three categories - Opera and Theater, Thoughts and Words, and Safety - distributed in the most authentic and often hidden spaces of the Donizetti Theater, including understage, rehearsal rooms, Sale Nobili, Ridotto Gavazzeni and Donizetti Studio. The students each had the unique opportunity to choose and attend three workshop proposals, one in each category, led by industry professionals, to come into direct contact with artistic and technical disciplines, as well as paths dedicated to creativity, communication and organization, self-awareness and the topic of safety, also addressed later in the final performance. The "Opera and Theater" course offered to discover the secrets of voice in the choral field with pop music pills(Voice in Chapter!), try your hand at conducting(Try to be a conductor/leader), explore behind-the-scenes administrative and managerial work(Theater at the Desk) or get your hands dirty in the under-stage with props (Behind the scenes. Stage equipment and gilding technique. ). The "Safety" area offered workshops curated by Dalmine Foundation experts to reflect on the evolution of occupational safety through puzzles, between mathematics and programming(Safe in Time), graphics and effective communication(Eye on Safety) and a conscious comparison between yesterday and today(Safer!). "Thoughts and Words" opened up spaces for reflection dedicated to self-awareness, listening to the body and relational dynamics, from identifying "red flags" in relationships(Red flags in relationships: recognizing them to know each other) to body theater (Theatre is not a safe place. Theater workshop on the body ), to analyzing the language of the work to discover and understand our emotions, relationships, friendships and loves(Meloman Manifestos),

Donizetti Theater Foundation Prose Season 2025/2026 concluded 51,706 total audience With the last of the performances of Richard III, with a magnetic Maria Paiato who literally won over the audience, the Prose Season of the Donizetti Theater Foundation ended on Sunday afternoon: 51,706 total admissions - 5,763 subscriptions - which together with the more than 7,000 recorded by the Other Paths review, which ended last March, attest to a full success. "Once again, we cannot but express great satisfaction with these results," comments Massimo Boffelli, General Director of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation, "The Prose Season confirms itself as one of our most qualified and qualifying proposals, and this is demonstrated precisely by the attention and affection of the audience, which is increasingly loyal. The now well-established eight performances for each of the seven titles on the playbill is a number that few other theaters nationwide can count on today, even in cities larger than Bergamo. So a heartfelt thank you goes out to our audience and to all those who contribute to the success of the Prose Season and Other Paths and all our other initiatives." Coming to the individual shows, the palm of the most-watched and applauded goes to Lysistrata with Lella Costa, which totaled 8,979 admissions, including the 1,000 students who enjoyed the extraordinary replica dedicated to them. Also on the podium were Pignasecca and Pignaverde, with Tullio Solenghi, and Crisi di Nervi, with Maddalena Crippa. Vivid satisfaction is also expressed by Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director Prose Season and Other Paths: "It is always nice to see so many people at the theater, to grasp the spirit of sharing an experience that goes far beyond the entertainment aspect. And it is wonderful to see the considerable number of young people: we have been dedicating specific educational projects related to certain shows to them for some time now, and this year we have involved more than 3,700 young people from 36 schools in Bergamo and its province." "And we cannot hide the great pleasure we feel every time our guest actors and directors express their appreciation for the warm welcome they receive from the audience and all the staff of the Donizetti Theater," Maria Grazia Panigada concludes. With one season archived, they are already looking to the future: in fact, the 2026/2027 Season of Prose and Other Pathways will be presented in the coming weeks.

THE CENTER OF MUSIC Concerts in the Ridotto Gavazzeni 5th edition Inaugural concert Saturday, May 23, 2026 with Constance Prince   On Saturday, May 23 (6 p.m.), it will be pianist Costanza Principe who will inaugurate the fifth edition of Il Centro della Musica, a series of eight concerts promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with the Bergamo City Council's Department of Social Policies and scheduled for Saturday afternoon in the Ridotto Gavazzeni of the Donizetti Theater. The concert, produced in collaboration with the Vittorio Polli and AnnaMaria Stoppani Foundation and Biblioteca Musicale Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato, will feature performances of some of Robert Schumann's most emblematic pages, the Kinderszenen, op. 15 and the Three Fantastic Pieces, op. 111, two collections that, despite their seemingly fragmentary dimensions, draw a coherent path between memory, imagination and restlessness. In the Childish Scenes, the composer's gaze rests on a childhood filtered through memory, suspended between simplicity and melancholy, while in the Fantastic Pieces, the writing becomes freer and more visionary, shot through with contrasts and emotional tensions. Schumann does not construct linear narratives, but suggests images, moods, flashes of thought. It is music that moves by allusion, asking the performer to become a sensitive medium rather than a protagonist. In this space fits the research of Costanza Principe, a pianist capable of combining rigor and imagination, attention to detail and poetic breath. The concert is also included in the cycle of events dedicated to Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzen, on the 30th anniversary of his death. Born into a family of musicians, Costanza Principe began performing in public when she was only seven years old, graduating in 2010 from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan under Vincenzo Balzani. In 2015 she received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors and in 2017 her Master of Music degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she has studied since 2011 with Christopher Elton. In 2020 she graduated with honors from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where she has studied since 2017 with Benedetto Lupo. Winner of prizes in international piano competitions, including the Lilian Davies Prize from the Royal Academy of Music in London, second prize at the Beethoven Society of Europe Intercollegiate Senior Competition (UK), the Concours International de Piano in Lagny-sur- Marne (France) and the International Competition "Premio Pecar" in Gorizia, Costanza Principe has performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. After debuting as a soloist with orchestra at the age of fifteen with three Mozart concertos under the direction of Aldo Ceccato, Costanza Principe later collaborated with numerous orchestras including Filarmonica "A. Toscanini" of Parma, Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto e Solisti Veneti, Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona, Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica Provincial de Santa Fe, Orquesta Classica da Madeira, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra, Turkish National Youth Orchestra, Royal