Michela Gerosa

HISTORY LESSONS 2026 Cultural capitals Third meeting Constantinople, the new Rome with Alessandra Bucossi Saturday, January 24, 2026 at the Donizetti Theatre Constantinople, the New Rome is the title of the next event in the third edition of Lessons in History, an event organized by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with Editori Laterza and with the support of BCC Oglio e Serio. Starting with Athens and continuing with Venice, the journey among the Cultural Capitals now makes a stop, Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Donizetti Theater (11 a.m.), in the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Alessandra Bucossi, professor of Byzantine Civilization at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, will trace its origins and development as the cradle of the Ottoman Empire. Founded as the "new Rome" by Emperor Constantine in 330 A.D. on the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, Constantinople inherited models and symbols from the Urbe, but reworked them profoundly in a confrontation that would unfold for centuries between imitation and conflict. In the Byzantine gaze, Rome is both mother and adversary: a tension between loyalty and rejection that marked the cultural and political history of Europe throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Alessandra Bucossi teaches Byzantine Civilization at Ca' Foscari University in Venice, where she has been working since 2014. A philologist by training, she works on Byzantine polemical literature (9th and 13th centuries), a still little-studied production that arose in the context of the rift between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople. She has published two landmark critical editions in the prestigious Corpus Christianorum series (Brepols), devoted to key texts of the 12th century: Andronicus Camatero's Sacred Arsenal, hitherto unpublished, and the Dialogues of Nicetas of Thessalonica, made available in complete form for the first time. She is the editor of three collections of essays on Byzantine history, philology and religious history, and the author of scholarly articles devoted to various aspects of Byzantine polemical literature. She devised the first systematic repertory of Greek, Latin and Slavic polemical literature. Lessons in History will continue on Feb. 7 with Maurizio Bettini and Rome, city of the gods, to conclude the journey among the Cultural Capitals on Feb. 14 with Paolo Nori who will shine the spotlight on St. Petersburg and the avant-garde. All meetings begin at 11 a.m. and are introduced by journalist Max Pavan, Bergamo TV news director. At the end of each meeting, the authors will stop with the audience for a firmacopie at the Theater's Ridotto Gavazzeni.

HISTORY LESSONS 2026 Cultural capitals Second meeting: Venice and the dawn of books with Alexander March the Great Saturday, January 17, 2026 at the Donizetti Theatre   Launched with great success - 1,190 attendees - by Laura Pepe and her Athens of Pericles, the journey through the Cultural Capitals of the third edition of the Lessons in History, an event organized by the Donizetti Theater Foundation in collaboration with Editori Laterza and with the support of BCC Oglio e Serio, now makes a stop in Venice, a city that in the midst of campi, campielli and calli was the cradle of publishing: on Saturday, January 17 (11 a.m.) at the Donizetti Theater, journalist, historian and writer Alessandro Marzo Magno will speak about it. Although it was invented in Germany, movable type printing developed in Italy, particularly in Venice precisely, which in the 16th century became the undisputed capital of publishing. Half of the European editions and three-quarters of the Italian ones were published in Venice: the first Greek book in history, the first Armenian book, the first Bible in the Italian vernacular, the first Talmud, the first Koran in Arabic, the first illustrated medical book and the first pornographic book were printed in the lagoon. Alessandro Marzo Magno, Venetian by birth and Milanese by work, graduated in history from the University of Venice "Ca' Foscari." His dissertation James Pattison, Venetian artillery and artillerymen in the 18th century was awarded in 1990 by the Italian Society of Military History. A journalist, after being the foreign editor of the weekly "Diario" for almost ten years, he collaborates with "Il Gazzettino." He has written books on historical subjects, some of which have been translated into many languages. For Laterza he is the author of. The splendid. Venice 1499-1509 (2019), The inventor of books. Aldo Manuzio, Venice and his time (2020), Venice. A history of sea and land (2022), Casanova (2023) and History of Venice in Ten Naval Battles (2025). History Lessons will continue on January 24 with Alessandra Bucossi who will address the topic. Constantinople, the New Rome, where the first city stands for the emblem of cosmopolitanism, unparalleled witness to the cultural transfers between East and West that are at the origin of the Byzantine world. Rome, city of the gods will instead be the focus of the Feb. 7 meeting with Maurizio Bettini: a still "pagan" Rome, creator of unprecedented religious suggestions mediated by the customs of the Italic peoples and the Greek tradition. Finally, on Feb. 14, the spotlight will be on. St. Petersburg and the avant-garde, with Paolo Nori who will go back with memory and words to the St. Petersburg of the October Revolution: a hotbed of novelty, an unrepeatable ferment that, in the mingling of the new socialist ideology and the artistic avant-gardes, will radiate throughout Europe. All meetings will begin at 11 a.m. and will be introduced by journalist Max Pavan, Bergamo TV news director. At the end of each meeting, the authors will stop with

BERGAMO JAZZ 2026 Artistic Direction by Joe Lovano Beginning Wednesday, Jan. 14 the sale of new subscriptions to the three evenings at the Donizetti Theater and tickets for the two concerts at the Teatro Sociale Tuesday, Jan. 20 presentation of all other events It's countdown time for the 47th edition of Bergamo Jazz, the third under the Artistic Direction of renowned American saxophonist Joe Lovano. And it's time for the season ticket campaign: in fact, from Wednesday, January 14, new season tickets can be purchased for the three evenings scheduled at the Donizetti Theater from March 20 to 22 and tickets for the two concerts hosted at the Teatro Sociale on the evening of Thursday 19 and in the afternoon of the 22nd. From Wednesday, January 28, tickets will then go on sale for the individual evenings in the city's main theater and for the other events that will spread the thousand sounds of jazz throughout the city for four days. Subscriptions and tickets can be purchased at the Donizetti Theater Box Office and online, on the Vivaticket circuit. Tuesday, Jan. 20, at 3 p.m. in the Music Room "Tremaglia" is scheduled to present to the press and the public the full program of the Festival, which will again this year enter prestigious museums and other theaters, also devoting attention to young people, with meetings curated by the Educational Center Music Production and the review "Sparks of Jazz." Unfailingly faithful to the Festival's natural international vision, the 2026 edition of Bergamo Jazz will be in the wake of an extraordinary anniversary: the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, pillars of African-American musical and cultural expressiveness, masters of an artistic thought that is more alive today than ever before. Jazz at Donizetti On Friday, March 20, the first of three subscription evenings at Teatro Donizetti, beginning at 8:30 p.m., beloved by both Bergamasks and those from all over Italy and beyond, will be opened by the duo formed by double bass ace Dave Holland and Lionel Loueke, one of the most innovative guitarists to appear on the jazz scene in recent decades. Holland and Loueke will serve as "openers" to the concert by Steve Coleman and his Five Elements: the Chicago saxophonist will return to the Donizetti stage exactly 20 years after his previous performance to offer his well-rehearsed blend of visionary funk in which the most imaginative improvisation is interpenetrated with rigorous compositional structures. The next evening, Bergamo Jazz will offer for listening one of the groups of the moment, Bad Plus, in a special edition that will feature its two founding members, double bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King, joined by saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Craig Taborn, or two other giants of contemporary jazz in their respective instrumental specificities. Central to the quartet's music will be compositions written by Keith Jarrett for his glorious American Quartet, the one in which the Allentown pianist dialogued with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian.

After opening in December with a tribute to the comic art of Gilberto Govi's Pignasecca and Pignaverde, the Donizetti Theatre Foundation's Prose Season 2025-2026 gets into full swing: from Saturday, January 17 to Sunday, January 25, with the exception of Monday, January 19, the main city theater will stage Crisis of nerves. Three one-acts by Anton Čechov signed by German Peter Stein, one of the most distinguished protagonists of contemporary theater who won the Le Maschere 2024 Prize and the Flaiano 2025 International Prize for directing this play. The adaptation of the original text is by Peter Stein himself and Carlo Bellamio. Performers: Maddalena Crippa, Alessandro Sampaoli and Sergio Basile(The Bear), Gianluigi Fogacci(The Tobacco Damage), Alessandro Averone, Sergio Basile and Emilia Scatigno(The Marriage Question). Renowned German director Peter Stein directs an extraordinary company by staging Crisis of Nerves. Three One-Acts by Anton Čechov and returns to one of his landmark authors by creating an unconventional artistic mode of production around a group of actors who take turns in the various plays, which Čechov himself not yet 30 years old called "stage jokes." Written between 1884 and 1891, these one-act plays were inspired by French comedy and vaudeville, genres that were very much in vogue in France at the time of Chekhov. Over time, they have captivated audiences around the world and have become a valuable source of inspiration for actors, writers and directors, as well as irresistible entertainment for entire generations of spectators. Peter Stein himself writes in the director's notes, "After the failure of his first two plays, the young Chekhov vowed never to write for dramatic theater again and decided to devote himself exclusively to vaudeville. This circumstance gave us a series of one-act plays, full of sarcasm, paradoxical comedy, extravagant absurdity and mad cruelty, and which in turn became the fertile ground for the experience and preparation of the great works of the author's maturity. In the three exemplary works we present, the characters from time to time get into fits of nerves, fall ill, fall prey to hysterical attacks, or quarrel with each other constantly. InThe Bear, the protagonist nearly dies of rage over a debt he is not repaid by a woman, whom he goes so far as to challenge to a duel, only to end up on his knees asking her to be his wife. InThe Harm of Tobacco, a supposed speaker is to give a lecture on the negative effects of tobacco, but amid sneezing and asthma attacks, he actually confesses that he wants to end the disastrous life he leads as his wife's husband. InThe Marriage Question, the groom-to-be, due to shyness and other physical difficulties, fails to ask the bride-to-be the fateful question, and instead gets into an argument with her, who in turn retorts to him with a sour face and is prey to a hysterical attack when he falls unconscious from hypochondria. The extreme comedy, exasperation and excesses of cruelty used by the author can only work if accompanied

Carrozzeria Orfeo returns to Bergamo, again for the Donizetti Theatre Foundation's Altri Percorsi series: after Miracoli Metropolitani, set in an old auto body shop adapted as a kitchen and presented at the Teatro Sociale in 2023, the Upper City theater hosts Thursday, Jan. 15 (8:30 p.m.) We will save the world before dawn, a show that unfailingly reflects the company's unprejudiced and brilliant spirit. The show is not suitable for audiences under the age of 14. We'll Save the World Before Sunrise is an account of the lives of some of the guests in a luxury rehabilitation clinic located on a satellite in space, a new tourist destination for the super-rich, specializing in the treatment of contemporary addictions-sexual, emotional, work, psychotropic drugs. They are all victims of these and their own selfishness, products of a world where words like community and kindness are almost entirely banished except to be exploited for propaganda and commercial purposes. What is left is a confused and frightened humanity, overwhelmed by the obsession with this constant having to sell yourself, with the terror that no one will ever want to buy you. "After having explored in several shows the world of the last, the outcasts, the excluded and the losers, in this new production we intend to investigate the world of affluence and apparent success, through the narrative of the first, the winners, the ruling class, the rich, paradoxically, however, imprisoned in the same vortex of asphyxiating responsibilities, castrating duties, guilt and unhappiness that belong to everyone and, therefore, shattered by everything that the capitalist mentality cannot buy: self-love, purity of feelings, sincere affections, the search for authentic meaning in existence," Gabriele Di Luca specifies in the dramaturgy notes. All of this is explored in full Carrozzeria Orfeo style, "thanks to an eye that is always lucid and, perhaps, disillusioned, which intends to capture, with irony and even extreme fun, the paradoxes, contradictions and grotesque deformations of reality through characters overflowing with humanity, irony and pain. The show, after all, wants to tell about a society that is increasingly sad, yet, saturated with happy pictures in which there no longer seems to be a place where we can recognize ourselves as authentic subjects, let alone in social projects that require our dedication and loyalty." Carrozzeria Orfeo, formed in Mantua in 2007, has since its inception expressed its creative urgency inspired by a strongly "Pop" artistic ideal, popular, in the highest sense of the term; that is, a theater that thinks of the spectator from its conception and writing, with stories that wish to trigger reflections on the present in order to investigate, not without depth and fun, the crucial nodes of human existence. The company's primary need is to offer theater that is adherent to the themes of reality precisely in order to problematize anthropologically foundational nodes and intercept the most fragile intimacy of the spectators. The goal is to bring more and more audiences to the theater, demonstrating that civic and social engagement can

Operetta Season 2026 The Merry Widow with the Corrado Abbati Company Sunday, January 11 at the Donizetti Theatre The Operette Season 2026 of the Donizetti Theater Foundation is just around the corner: on Sunday, January 11 (3:30 p.m.) the first of three titles on the bill is scheduled at the city's main theater, The Merry Widow, a classic of the operetta repertoire brought to the stage on this occasion by the Compagnia Corrado Abbati. An operetta in three parts by Franz Lehár to a libretto by Victor Léon and Leo Stein based on the play L'Attaché d'ambassade by Henri Meilhac, The Merry Widow is still one of the most performed shows in the world. And if it still fills theaters today and audiences enjoy it and applaud warmly, something special must be wrong with it. The Merry Widow is, in fact, a myth that despite its age shows no wrinkles. Built on fertile musical inventiveness, with iconic songs such as the march "Women, women eternal gods...," the operetta rests on the sympathy of a text steeped in themes that are still relevant today: power, money, jealousies, love. Compagnia Corrado Abbati's edition makes the most of the innate theatrical sense and dynamic narrative that distinguish the performances of the director and actor who directs it, as well as a colorful staging that highlights the elegance of Lehár's music with its iridescent, romantic hues and frenzied rhythmic jubilation. Starting from the term "lightness" given by Italo Calvino in the first chapter of the American Lectures, namely "lightness as a reaction to the weight of living," and aware that in the collective imagination the term "operetta" is combined with the term "smile," the director's intention in this edition of The Merry Widow is not to deny what is the typical characteristic of operetta: the desire for reassuring emotions. The work was, therefore, to create a show capable of arousing cheerfulness, as, moreover, was the intention of the author who scattered The Merry Widow with many cues on a diplomatic plot, where secret desires and erotic or political interests are not hidden and are resolved to the rhythm of a waltz but also of a can-can. A rhythmic sweep that the director has taken into account, recreating a sense of elegance and balance of the theatrical machine, capable of capturing the jubilant and irrational momentum of joyous escapism. Also capable of arousing enthusiasm and desire to party together, breaking down the fourth wall to foster exchange and empathy between hall and stage.   Plot At the Pontevedro embassy in Paris, there is great excitement. Mrs. Anna Glavari, the young widow of the very rich court banker, is arriving. The ambassador, Baron Zeta, has been instructed to find a Pontevedrian husband for the widow, and this is to keep the lady's millions in dowry, back home. For if Mrs. Glavari were to pass into a second marriage with a Frenchman, her capital would leave the Pontevedrian National Bank and it would be economic ruin for

HISTORY LESSONS 2026 Cultural capitals First encounter The Athens of Pericles with Laura Pepe Saturday, January 10, 2026 at the Donizetti Theater   The Lessons in History at the Donizetti Theater: a now traditional event, conceived by Editori Laterza and produced in co-production with the Donizetti Theater Foundation of Bergamo and with the support of BCC Oglio e Serio, the lecture series is entitled, in its third edition, Cultural Capitals. Five meetings are planned, dedicated to as many cities that over the centuries have made their mark on history, contributing to the birth and development of important cultural movements, whose influence later proved fundamental. It begins on Saturday, Jan. 10 (11 a.m.) with Laura Pepe, already the protagonist of the first edition of History Lessons, and with The Athens of Pericles, the cradle of democracy and political management of public affairs. To say "Athens of Pericles" is to think of the golden age of democracy, the time when literature, poetry, philosophy, theater, and the figurative arts reached their zenith, the reconstruction of the acropolis. In reality, as is often the case, there are deep cracks behind this image of perfection: internal strife, contestation of power, and a foreign policy marked by much abuse. Laura Pepe Teaches Institutions of Roman Law and Ancient Greek Law at the University of Milan. In addition to books and academic essays on criminal law and family law in antiquity, he has written several textbooks on ancient history and Latin grammar for upper secondary school. He has published Athens on trial. Athenian law through judicial orations. (Bologna 2019), The sinews of Zeus. Body, soul and immortality in Greek myth. (Milan 2023), A day with the giants. Ancient Greece in six lessons (Milan, 2023) and edited the series "Life of the Ancients" (35 volumes, 2020) and "Mythical Loves" (20 volumes, 2024) for Corriere della Sera. She collaborates as a science popularizer with the television channel Focus. For Laterza, she is the author of Gli eroi bevono vino. The ancient world in a glass (2018), The Voice of the Sirens. The Greeks and the art of persuasion. (2020), Wonderful Stories of Young Greeks (2022) and Sparta (2024). History Lessons will continue on Jan. 17 with Alexander March the Great, who will talk about Venice and the dawn of books: it is in fact on the lagoon that everything changes and that the book publisher begins to have that valuable role of cultural mediator preserved to this day. For the third event, scheduled for January 24, Alessandra Bucossi will address the theme. Constantinople, the new Rome, where the first city stands for the emblem of cosmopolitanism, unparalleled witness of those cultural transfers between East and West at the origin of the Byzantine world. Rome, city of the gods will instead be the focus of the Feb. 7 meeting with Maurizio Bettini: a still "pagan" Rome, creator of unprecedented religious suggestions mediated by the customs of the Italic peoples and the Greek tradition. Finally, on Feb. 14, the spotlight will

The year 2026 is approaching and the Donizetti Theater Foundation is preparing to welcome it in the best possible way with two now traditional events. On the evening of Dec. 31 (10 p.m.) at the Donizetti Theater, the singers and dancers of the BIT Company will present the musical The Dream Factory, a journey into the world of Alice, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast in the company of Oniricus, the Merchant of Dreams. At the stroke of midnight, toasts in the historic halls of the city's main theater. Tickets: 40 to 80 euros. On the morning of the first day of 2026, the Social Theater (11 a.m.) will instead host the traditional New Year's Concert with theItalian Philharmonic Orchestra. The Dream Factory is a show designed for the whole family, with enchanting costume changes, danced, acted and sung live. Viewers will be taken to faraway lands, enchanted castles and through stormy seas, where raging waves crash on reefs of wondrous mermaids. The Dream Factory is the factory everyone has always dreamed of. It is the factory where all our imagination is produced, to bring to life what has always been alive within us but which we often forget. The dreams left behind, which are believed to belong only to childhood, are actually the key to access the deepest truths and give space to the intensity of emotions. In the dream factory, building dreams costs nothing; in this magical place people work to give dreams to those who have stopped dreaming. And so one can get on Aladin's flying carpet to the East, or ride through enchanted forests and kingdoms, enter the forest of the Lion King or fly with Mary Poppins. In the BIT company's show all the magic of theater occurs: the dream comes true on stage, in the lights and colors of the costumes; the dreamers are the spectators, but also the performers who represent all those fairy tale characters so dear to minds that for a moment, just a moment, can once again become free to fantasize. Direction and choreography by Melina Pellicano. Music adaptations by Marco Caselle. Costumes by Marco Caudera. Starring Mario Levis as Oniricus. The New Year's Concert will be a journey through the masterpieces of Johann Strauss II and Johann Strauss I. The waltzes, polkas and marches that made the Strauss dynasty famous will be performed by the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, creating an atmosphere of pure magic and elegance. The Strauss family has left an indelible mark on the history of Viennese music, giving the world some of the most famous waltzes and polkas of all time. Johann Strauss II, known as the "Waltz King," composed masterpieces such as "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" and "Voices of Spring," which evoke images of elegance and festivity. His father, Johann Strauss I, created the famous "Radetzky-Marsch," a piece that embodies the martial and patriotic spirit of the era. The Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana features a vast repertoire that includes not only

A project of Fondazione Teatro Donizetti with Donizetti Opera Festival, Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani Foundation with Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library, and International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo A concert series, lecture series, scholarship and exhibition in memory of the great master from Bergamo on the 30th anniversary of his death Bergamo, January 31 to November 29, 2026   Bergamo, city of the Thousand, but also and above all the city of Gaetano Donizetti. And it is precisely in the city that gave him birth that we want to remember thirty years after his death the Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni (July 25, 1909 - Feb. 5, 1996), conductor, composer and writer, among the most dazzling protagonists of twentieth-century music, to whom much is owed in the rediscovery of Donizetti's legacy and the redefinition of Bergamo's role on the international musical map. That is why the Donizetti Theater Foundation with the Donizetti Opera Festival, the Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani Foundation with the Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library, and the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo intend to celebrate this legacy, paying tribute to the man and the artist through a rich program of events spanning the entire year 2026, from January 31 to November 29. The project, which networks institutions, archives, theaters, scholars, established performers and new promises, weaves music, critical reflection, exhibition activities, training and the development of young performers into a concert series, a lecture series, a scholarship and a documentary exhibition, to restore the multifaceted figure of Maestro Gavazzeni. The program aims to delineate both the figure of the artist, writer and intellectual, as well as that of the popularizer and pedagogue, who conceived of music-making as an opportunity to educate the public to listen, as well as a common heritage for the cultural growth of the individual and society. States Sergio Gandi, Councillor for Culture of the City of Bergamo: "Cultivating the memory of those who have carried the name of Bergamo outside its walls is one of the main duties of a public administration. It is all the more so for figures like Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni, whose dutiful homage is deeply intertwined with the memory and rediscovery of Donizetti. To him we owe an important action in consolidating the Bergamo composer's fame on the world opera scene, through the direction of little-known operas, the revival of forgotten titles and a tireless enhancement of Donizetti's heritage. I sincerely thank the Donizetti Theater Foundation, which has become the interpreter of a collective need, and the valuable network of collaborations created around it, which once again shows the richness of our city's musical landscape: the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo, the driving force behind so many prestigious musical initiatives, and the Polli Stoppani Foundation, which in recent years has been increasingly integrating itself into the city's cultural offerings. From this valuable participation has emerged an intense and varied program, which will animate the whole of 2026

For the Opera&Concerts section of the Donizetti Theater Foundation's Season of Theaters, Sunday, Dec. 21 at the Teatro Sociale (3:30 p.m.) is scheduled the usual Christmas Concert of the vocal ensemble I Piccoli Musici directed by Mario Mora. The concert has special significance this year, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the I Piccoli Musici Music School and Choir. Founded forty years ago as an educational and musical reality dedicated to the youngest children, the School has been able to grow over time, becoming a point of reference in the Italian choral scene. After the first years of training and comparison with other children's choirs, since the 1990s I Piccoli Musici have embarked on a path full of exciting experiences: participation in competitions, concerts, national and international festivals. To celebrate this important milestone, several commemorative events and concerts are planned. In particular, the Christmas Concert for the City of Bergamo will feature a choir composed of current treble voices and female voices: former choristers from the 1990s and 2000s, who, with enthusiasm and gratitude, will return to sing in the choir that made them grow, artistically and humanly. The choir will be accompanied by a string quintet and will perform the most beautiful Christmas melodies written for this ensemble. The concert will be enriched, moreover, by the presence of two talented pianists, Martina Mora and Elisa Arminio, graduates of the "Luca Marenzio" Conservatory of Brescia, who will perform a refined excerpt from the four-hand transcription for two pianos of Tchaikovsky's famous Nutcracker . The famous ballet, set precisely on Christmas night, has over the years become one of the musical symbols of the holidays thanks to its fairy-tale atmosphere and enchanting melodies that evoke magic, wonder and Christmas spirit.