Michela Gerosa

DONIZETTI SUMMER CAMP 2025 I AM NOT AFRAID. The saga of the indomitable From June 9 to 13, June 16 to 20, June 30 to July 4, and July 7 to 11 The Donizetti Summer Camp is back, an opportunity to experience all the spaces of the Donizetti Theater, from the rehearsal room to the dressing rooms to the stage, as true protagonists, getting to know and develop their talents in a tight-knit group of children/young people, who will have the courage to stage a reduction of an opera in just one week. ____________________________________ Summer is approaching, and the Teatro Donizetti Foundation is once again offering, following the success of past editions, four different weeks of Donizetti Summer Camp 2025, which this year is titled I AM NOT AFRAID - The saga of the indomitable: children and teenagers between 8 and 14 years old will be able to experience the spaces of Teatro Donizetti in an unusual way, from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (with the possibility of early drop-off at 8:00 AM and late pick-up at 5:30 PM). Registrations will open on April 2, 2025 at 12:00 PM. Further registration details here Registration form to be completed here The Donizetti Summer Camp returns for 2025, a unique experience that will lead you to discover the works of Gaetano Donizetti and their fascinating reinterpretations, immersed in the wonder of Teatro Donizetti, from the stage to the rehearsal room to the scenography workshop. In a creative and stimulating atmosphere, you will have the opportunity to work on four operas in four weeks, each characterized by an original interpretation that opens new perspectives on opera and theater through play and singing. This year, a title by Rossini is added, La Cenerentola, the fairy tale of fairy tales, with unpredictable twists and a wiser Cinderella than ever. Singing and music will be languages to discover to get in touch with the ancient stories of Lucia, Cardenio, Noah, and Angelina, through music and theater. Each week ends with the production of an opera, a show in which each participant will have an important role and in which every stage element will have been created in dedicated sessions. The titles: 1. Il furioso all'isola di Santo Domingo, by Gaetano Donizetti A semi-serious reinterpretation of Donizetti's opera, focused on the fear of diversity. The opera becomes a whirlwind of misunderstandings and misconceptions that will transform the staging into a tragicomic game, full of surprises and reflections on our relationship with others. 2. Lucia di Lammermoor, by Gaetano Donizetti A masterpiece that we will explore as a powerful metaphor for the fight against bullying and violence on one's identity. Lucia becomes a heroine who represents all of us when we find ourselves defending our choices in a world that often tramples them. An encounter between poignant music and a pop aesthetic to tell a timeless story. 3. Diluvio Universale, by Gaetano Donizetti In this reinterpretation, the dark atmosphere of Donizetti's opera is transformed

Many shows and more: the Prose Season and Other Paths of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation also cares about introducing young people to the multiple activities revolving around staging a show. This year too, based on the positive feedback from past years, the Foundation is launching a selection process to participate in the lighting and sound design courses included in the Theatre Workshop project and conducted by expert staff from the Foundation itself. The courses are aimed at young people aged 17 or older (including those who will turn 17 by the end of 2025). To participate, candidates must submit their curriculum vitae containing any previous experiences and studies, along with a motivational letter, by completing the appropriate form included in the announcement no later than 12 noon on Friday, April 18. Following the selection based on the submitted documents and letters, the results of the application process will be announced on Wednesday, May 7. The courses do not require any registration fees and will begin on Tuesday, June 3. Both courses, at the end of which a certificate of attendance will be issued, will provide theoretical elements of the basic criteria, methodology, and terminology, followed by practical tests with the chief electrician and chief sound engineer of the Donizetti Theater. There will be a common introductory meeting for both courses; afterwards, each course will take place over four intensive days where the theoretical and practical foundations of the disciplines will be laid. Participants in the lighting design course will also have the opportunity to gain direct experience at Claypaky, an internationally renowned brand in the professional lighting systems sector: the day includes a visit to the company's museum and production area, as well as a technical session. The sound design course students will instead visit the 1901 Factory recording studio in Alzano Lombardo, a creative space dedicated to music and performing arts and a meeting place for artists and professionals. Both courses will conclude with the experience of recording a live band on the stage of the Donizetti Theater. "The lighting and sound design courses, along with those of the Young Project, represent a fundamental part of our activity, integrating with all our performance offerings," specifies Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director of the Prose Season and Other Paths of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation, "They constitute the educational component and are important to us because we feel the duty to give young people the opportunity to learn about theatre professions and to approach this world so that they can be part of it in the future. Personally, I am grateful to all those who make this project possible by engaging their professionalism and showing an educational focus." For more information: email: info@fondazioneteatrodonizetti.org

Over 8,500 total attendees in just four days 18% from abroad 11 sold-out shows out of 12 ticketed concerts Audience from 16 regions and 17 other countries   Sounds of Joy: Joe Lovano's "sounds of joy", in his second year as Artistic Director of the Festival, overwhelmed the entire city and captivated the audience coming from a wide part of Italy and also from abroad: over 8,500 total attendees in just four days; 3,544 spectators at the three evenings at Teatro Donizetti, 783 of whom were subscribers (15 more than last year); 11 sold-out shows out of 12 ticketed events. 16 Italian regions represented from North to South, from East to West. 17 foreign countries, accounting for 18% of the audience: Austria, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, United States. The Teatro Donizetti website was highly visited: over 17,000 active users. Bergamo Jazz's Facebook and Instagram pages, during the Festival week, totaled a reach of 472,660 users, exceeding 15,000 interactions and approaching 25,000 organic followers. These are the first significant data that attest to the tremendous success of Bergamo Jazz 2025. The edition that ended Sunday evening is one to be recorded in the Festival's annals also from an artistic point of view, marked by a very wide range of offerings: from the "old-school" jazz of The Cookers to Marc Ribot's noise alchemy, with a finale on the notes of "Bella Ciao" in English version, from the dynamic textures of another master like Enrico Rava to the singing of a sophisticated lady like Dianne Reeves, who put the final seal on the Festival, greeted by a standing ovation. But there would be many other memorable moments to recall, starting with the stage incursions, as a highly requested special guest, of Joe Lovano himself, to the more intimate concerts in evocative settings such as the Accademia Carrara or Sala Piatti. "Once again, we can't help but be happy with the results achieved by Bergamo Jazz, one of our two international festivals, along with Donizetti Opera," comments Massimo Boffelli, General Director of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, "We can therefore affirm that Bergamo's is one of the most beloved Italian jazz festivals overall, also by the audience coming in increasing numbers from abroad, with consequent positive effects on city tourism. A great result achieved thanks to impeccable teamwork, from the artistic direction to the entire staff of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti. My heartfelt thanks go to all those who have worked to ensure that the organizational machine functioned at its best, as well as to the institutions and sponsors who support us." Now thoughts are already turning to the upcoming Bergamo Jazz events, first in chronological order the International Jazz Day on April 30, with the free concert by pianist Claudio Vignali scheduled in the PwC Gardens of the Accademia Carrara at 6:30 PM. And then the three extraordinary concerts at the Lazzaretto with the Mare Nostrum trio of Paolo Fresu,

On Sunday, March 30 (3:30 PM), the Operetta Season of the Donizetti Theater Foundation concludes: the main city theater will stage Scugnizza, an operetta in three acts by Carlo Lombardo and Mario Costa that fully embodies typical Neapolitan lyricism. It will be performed by the Elena D'Angelo Operetta Company, which returns to the Donizetti after last year's success with The Duchess of the Bar Tabarin. On stage: Elena D'Angelo, who also directs, Matteo Mazzoli, Paolo Cauteruccio, Merita Dileo, Gianni Versino, Maresa Pagura, Carlo Randazzo, Paola Scapolan. Orchestra conductor Marcella Tessarin. Choreography by Martina Ronca. Set and costumes by Grandi Spettacoli. Duration 2 hours without intermission. Tickets from 15 to 45 Euros, reduced from 12 to 36 Euros. "When Carlo Lombardo went to the station to wait for Mario Costa's arrival, he didn't even know precisely the real reason for their meeting. It was known that Costa needed a lot of money, given the debts accumulated from gambling at the Monte Carlo Casino, so it was ideal for him to work for Lombardo, a wealthy impresario from Milan. As soon as he got off the train, Costa was taken to the prestigious Lombardo music house and was ordered to write an operetta on the spot. After two weeks, Scugnizza was ready with an effective libretto and a series of well-crafted and often inspired pieces, first among them 'Napoletana' and 'Salomè, 'Una rondine non fa primavera'," recounts Elena D'Angelo, "Scugnizza premiered at the Alfieri Theater in Turin on the evening of December 16, 1922, with the protagonist Salomè played by Nella Regini who, as a true and somewhat capricious diva, set as a condition for her participation in the event to be able to wear lavish toilettes even in this new operetta. Great success with audience and critics, except for Regini's inappropriate dresses. Scugnizza is certainly the Italian operetta par excellence, full of typically Neapolitan lyricism. The story, at times moving and at times comical, is absolutely plausible and reflects the canons of the 'Italian-style' operetta, with those regional traits that distinguish our operetta production. The direction is absolutely philological, as is the intent of the Elena D'Angelo operetta company, with the addition of a feature that enhances the story: The song 'Era de Maggio', also by Costa, which is not present in the 1922 score, is entrusted to the character of Totò, but with modified lyrics. This novelty was desired by the author and added in subsequent editions."

After Pippo Delbono's touching Amore hosted at the Donizetti, the Altri Percorsi series by Fondazione Teatro Donizetti returns to its usual venue, Teatro Sociale in Città Alta, where on Thursday, March 27 (8:30 PM) and Friday, March 28 (10:30 AM), Anfitrione is scheduled, a reinterpretation of Plautus' text by Teatro Kismet from Bari, with dramaturgy and direction by Teresa Ludovico. Originally programmed in 2020 and then cancelled due to the pandemic, Anfitrione revolves around the theme of duality, fundamental in Plautus' text and placed by director Teresa Ludovico in a criminal environment where six actors and a musician, in continuous motion, sketch dual worlds: divine and human, above and below, light and shadow. In the show, truth and fiction alternate and blend in a game of mirrors through the actors' bodies and voices. "Who am I if I am not myself? When I look at my double, I see my appearance, exactly the same, there's nothing more similar to me! Am I still who I've always been? Where did I die? Where did I lose my person? Could I have left my self behind? Did I forget myself? Who is more unfortunate than me? No one recognizes me anymore and everyone mocks me at will. I no longer know who I am! These are some of the questions that torment both the protagonists of Anfitrione, written by Plautus more than 2000 years ago, and many of us today," says director Teresa Ludovico, "The double, the construction of a fictitious identity, the theft of the self, the loss of being guaranteed by a social role, are the themes that Plautus delivers to us in a new form, which he defines as tragicomedy, because the events involve gods, masters, and slaves. In it, the supreme Jupiter, after transforming into various animal, plant, and natural forms, decides, for the first time, to disguise himself as a man. He takes on the appearance of Anfitrione, away from home, to be able to mate with his wife, the beautiful Alcmena, and generate the demigod Hercules with her. Jupiter-Anfitrione, during the night of love, as long as three nights, tells Alcmena, as if he had personally experienced them, episodes from Anfitrione's journey. During the story, the god experienced, for the first time, a hilarity that he then took care to leave as a gift to men. After Plautus, many have rewritten Anfitrione, and each has done so trying to listen to the stimuli and concerns of their own time. I tried to do it too." Teresa Ludovico is a director, author, and actress. After graduating, she undertook a long artistic journey under the guidance of various masters, in Italy and abroad. Since 1993, she has been part of Teatro Kismet OperA in Bari and has been a resident director since 1998. Among others, she writes and directs the shows Ecuba e i suoi figli, Bella e Bestia (ETI Stregagatto Award 2002), La regina delle nevi, Il malato immaginario presented at festivals and theaters in Europe, Asia,

Four intense days marked by the thousand sounds of jazz spread throughout the city: from Thursday, March 20 to Sunday, March 23, the 46th edition of Bergamo Jazz takes place, a festival organized by Fondazione Teatro Donizetti with the support of the Municipality of Bergamo, the MIC-Ministry of Culture, and private sponsors. 'Sounds of Joy' is the title chosen by Joe Lovano, Artistic Director of Bergamo Jazz since last year, to showcase the great variety and vitality of sounds, rhythms, and colors that characterize a music that represents one of the cornerstones of contemporary artistic expression. Staying true to its nature, Bergamo Jazz 2025 will also be an international festival, a widespread festival: in addition to concerts at the Donizetti and the Sociale in Città Alta, significant events are planned in small theaters, museums, and venues transformed for the occasion into welcoming jazz clubs. There will be a strong representation of Italian musicians, including numerous new talents gathered in the 'Scintille di Jazz' section, and considerable space for jazz with a feminine touch, featuring established female singers and instrumentalists. Here is the day-by-day program.   Thursday, March 20 The first day of Bergamo Jazz 2025 will take place entirely in Città Alta, starting with a solo piano performance at Teatro Sant'Andrea in Via Porta Dipinta (5:00 PM) by Cuban Aruán Ortiz, whose fingers pour out a musicality where Afro-Caribbean tradition meets the most advanced jazz. Following this, a double appointment for 'Scintille di Jazz' at Circolino (6:00 PM and 7:15 PM) with the chamber-like Kairos Trio of saxophonist Gianluca Zanello. At 8:30 PM, we'll move to Teatro Sociale for an evening opened by pianist Antonio Faraò's trio, an experienced musician who, for his first participation in Bergamo Jazz, will be assisted by double bassist Ameen Saleem and drummer Jeff Ballard, former partners of Chick Corea and Brad Mehldau. The second set at Sociale will feature, in an Italian exclusive, Lizz Wright, one of today's most intense black voices who, thanks to a remarkable interpretive strength, best reflects the African American cultural humus, moving naturally between jazz, blues, gospel, and songwriting.   Friday, March 21 The second day of Bergamo Jazz 2025 will begin at 5:00 PM at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà with La Via del Ferro, a quartet highly appreciated by famous DJ and producer Gilles Peterson, including London saxophonist Alex Htchcock, New Zealand-born drummer Myele Manzanza, and two Italian musicians based in the British capital, Roman keyboardist Maria Chiara Argirò and Tuscan bassist Michelangelo Scandroglio. A lively group poised to be one of the revelations of the Festival. At 6:30 PM, for 'Scintille di Jazz', a concert is scheduled at the Legami Sushi restaurant, located in the heart of Sentierone, featuring the duo of saxophonist Lorenzo Simoni and trumpeter Iacopo Teolis, one of the groups selected for the Nuova Generazione Jazz 2025 project of the I-Jazz Association, to which Bergamo Jazz is a member. The main event of the day is certainly represented by the first of

BERGAMO FILM MEETING opens BERGAMO JAZZ Bergamo Jazz offers many concerts and more. The lead-up to the Festival, scheduled from March 20 to 23, is marked by several significant events that connect music with other arts, starting with cinema. This year again, there's the traditional handover from Bergamo Film Meeting, which on its final day offers two events at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà: the screening of the film Knife in the Water by Roman Polanski (2:15 PM) and the live musical accompaniment for Töchter (Two Sisters) by Ernst Lubitsch by multi-instrumentalist Danilo Gallo (5:30 PM). Knife in the Water is Roman Polanski's first feature film, made when he was not yet thirty, and one of the most successful directorial debuts in cinema history: it was presented at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize, and was the first Polish film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film (it lost to Fellini's 8½). The soundtrack is by Krzysztof Komeda, a Polish pianist and composer considered one of the most original exponents of European jazz in the 1960s. His sextet, which included trumpeter Tomasz Stanko among others, remains one of the most valuable and innovative formations of that period. Komeda, who passed away in 1969, also wrote the music for Innocent Sorcerers by Andrzej Wajda and Good Bye, Till Tomorrow by Janusz Morgenstern, as well as Cul-de-sac, The Fearless Vampire Killers and Rosemary's Baby by Polanski himself. Loosely inspired by Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Two Sisters is a 1920 film belonging to the romantic comedy genre but with surreal traits: Ernst Lubitsch, one of the masters of German cinema, set it in an unspecified village in Southern Bavaria, telling the love story, marked by a whirlwind of misunderstandings, of a young man and two sisters, one beautiful, the other unapproachable due to her ugliness. Danilo Gallo is one of the most versatile and highly regarded Italian bassists, at ease in various stylistic contexts. He naturally ranges from jazz to rock, from improvised music to collaborations that see music interacting with other disciplines such as theater, dance, poetry, and cinema. He is the leader or co-leader of internationally renowned groups such as Dark Dry Tears, Gallo The Roosters, Guano Padano, The Last Coat of Pink, and the Lacy In The Sky with Diamonds project (with Roberto Ottaviano and Ferdinando Faraò). Exhibition FILIPPO SIEBANECK: A MAN OF CULTURE FOR BERGAMO On Wednesday, March 19 (6 PM; open to the public from 6:30 PM), the exhibition opens at Donizetti Studio, opposite the theater's ticket office, Filippo Siebaneck: A Man of Culture for Bergamo: through the display of photographs depicting him with great artists, posters, and documents, the Donizetti Theatre Foundation and Bergamo Jazz, together with the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo and the Friends of the Accademia Carrara Association, intend to commemorate, 25 years after his passing, Filippo Siebaneck, who for many decades was an extraordinary figure who marked the cultural

This year again, thanks to the collaboration with Centro Didattico Produzione Musica Europe, Bergamo Jazz offers the series of educational events 'Let's Meet Jazz': an important opportunity to introduce young people to a musical language rich in artistic content and bearer of universal messages of dialogue between different cultures, which are more necessary than ever today. 24 schools from the city and province have joined the initiative, which will take place at the Auditorium in Piazza della Libertà in the mornings from Tuesday 18 to Thursday 20 and then on Monday, March 24. 84 classes are involved, with approximately 1,900 students in total. Claudio Angeleri, President of CDpM, specifies in this regard: 'The educational section of Bergamo Jazz created by CDpM is one of the most important projects in the national jazz festival landscape. It is, first of all, the first in Italy. The first edition dates back to 1990, and over these years, more than 30,000 primary and secondary school students in the area have discovered jazz and improvisation this way. It's not just about concert-lessons, but choral and body percussion workshops that we conduct in schools throughout the year together with the Municipality of Bergamo. The Bergamo Jazz festival is the final stage where the same boys and girls join professional musicians, playing and explaining to their peers the characteristics and values of this music.' The first to be involved will be secondary school students, who in the first three mornings will be able to discover the secrets of the art of improvisation through the performance of pieces proposed by Giulio Visibelli (flute and soprano sax), Gabriele Comeglio (alto sax and clarinet), Claudio Angeleri (piano), Paola Milzani (voice), Marco Esposito (bass) and Matteo Milesi (drums), with contributions from musicologist Maurizio Franco. These meetings aim to introduce students to improvisation through various interactive examples that trace the evolution of jazz from its African-American origins to the present day. It's a journey in constant change, capable of capturing and developing in real-time the creative qualities of its protagonists (from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane and beyond), based on the different cultures that jazz has come into contact with. Improvisation, that is, the ability to autograph any musical material in real-time according to each musician's personality, is certainly one of the typical elements of jazz. It is what differentiates it most from music of European tradition, in which two distinct figures have crystallized: that of the composer and that of the performer. In jazz, on the contrary, both coexist in the same individual who invents, interprets, dialogues with other musicians in real-time, making the music unique and unrepeatable. However, improvisation is not improvised, but a rigorous discipline based on very precise rules to be followed, which at the same time are reinvented. The meetings designed by CDpM for Bergamo Jazz intend to highlight these through the direct experience of the young people. On Monday, March 24, it will be the turn of primary school students with 'Everybody Wants to Be a

Three years after the performance of La Gioia, Pippo Delbono returns to Teatro Donizetti. The internationally renowned author, actor, and director, a poet of experimental theater, presents Amore, scheduled for Thursday, March 6 (8:30 PM) as part of the Altri Percorsi Season of the Teatro Donizetti Foundation. The performance will feature a large group of actors on the main city theater's stage: Dolly Albertin, Margherita Clemente, Ilaria Distante, Mario Intruglio, Pedro Jóia, Nelson Lariccia, Gianni Parenti, Miguel Ramos, Pepe Robledo, Grazia Spinella, and Selma Uamusse. Original music by Pedro Jóia and other composers. Amore originates from Pippo Delbono's encounter and friendship with Italian theater producer Renzo Barsotti, who has been active in Portugal for years, and their desire to create a show about Portugal together. From here begins the exploration of love as a feeling, a state of the soul. A true mechanism in the human organism that selects, shifts, shatters, and recomposes everything we see, feel, and desire. Amore is a musical and lyrical journey through an external geography – including Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde – and an internal one, that of the soul's strings vibrating at the slightest touch of life. The notes are those of the melancholic fado, which explode in energetic bursts through the voices of its singers, wide open to reach every corner of the hall; the rhythm is at times that of a parade, at times a tableau vivant, at times a slow procession; the image is a painting that changes in colors, warming and cooling. And then there is the poetic word, delivered in the warm register of the Ligurian artist through his usual, hypnotic chanting into the microphone. The words are those of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Eugénio De Andrade, Daniel Damásio Ascensão Filipe, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Jacques Prévert, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Florbela Espanca. “This show – Pippo Delbono himself recounts – presents a dual vision of love. On one hand – and it's the texts that give voice to this – we all search for that love, trying to escape the fear that grips us. In this journey, we try to avoid this love, even though we constantly recognize its urgency; I seek it, but I also want it, and that's precisely what's frightening. But the journey – made of music, voices, images – perhaps manages to lead us towards a reconciliation, a moment of peace where that love can manifest itself beyond any individual fear”. Holding together an emotional montage that is never fully pacified is a scenic grammar that alternates fullness with emptiness, singing with music, live voice with silence, in search of a dreamlike and elegiac representation of the cruel ebb and flow of detachment and reunion. The protagonist is absence, distance, nostalgia, a mapping of emotions that delves into the soul of the author, his performers, and the spectator, who is called to always search with their eyes for what is missing and which, inexorably, is slow to manifest. Amore is once again an

Jesus, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Robespierre, and now Fidel Castro: on Saturday, March 1st at Teatro Donizetti (11:00 AM), the last of The Rebels at the center of the second edition of History Lessons, an initiative conceived by Editori Laterza and co-produced with the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti with the support of Cassa Lombarda, will indeed be Cuba's líder máximo. The task of portraying him from an unusual perspective will fall to Loris Zanatta: Fidel Castro, in the eyes of the University of Bologna professor, appears as the last Catholic king, who, just like the Catholic kings, was the architect of a fusion between politics and religion, coming to conceive a 'political' religion. According to Loris Zanatta, Fidel Castro did not create a political community but a community of faith, inclusive towards believers, ruthless with heretics. And his enemies were the same as those of Catholic Spain: Protestant civilization and the Enlightenment, renamed 'capitalism' and 'liberalism'. The l "ast appointment of ‘History Lessons’, which is achieving considerable success with an average of over 900 attendees in the first four ‘lectures’, will be introduced by journalist Max Pavan, head of" information at Bergamo TV. At the end of the "meeting, t" he author will stay with the audience for book signing at the Ridotto Gavazzeni of the Donizetti. Loris Zanatta teaches History and Institutions of Latin America at the University of Bologna. He is a columnist for the Buenos Aires newspapers "La Nación" and "Clarín" and a member of the Academy of the History of the Argentine Republic. He has numerous historical publications to his credit, including: Eva Perón. A political biography. (Rubbettino, 2009); History of Contemporary Latin America (Laterza, 2010); Populism (Carocci, 2013); The Catholic Nation. Church and dictatorship in Bergoglio's Argentina. (Laterza, 2014, also published in Argentina), Fidel Castro. The last “Catholic King” (Salerno, 2019) and Jesuit populism. Perón, Fidel, Bergoglio (Laterza, 2020).