Reruns of Il furioso nell’isola di S. Domingo and Caterina Cornaro continue at Teatro Donizetti, and at Teatro Sociale of the diptych Il campanello and Deux hommes et une femme.

For the Donizetti Off review, the appointments A colazione con Gaetano and The Donizetti Brunch return, and the family show Piccolo Signor Rumore debuts..
Double appointment with Opera Stories: the presentation of Alberto Mario Banti’s book dedicated to the Beatles in Feltrinelli and the meeting with Valerio Massimo Minale and Paolo Fabbri on Caterina Corner at the Donizetti Theater.

After the success of the first weekend, from tomorrow the operas return to the stage: opening will be Il furioso nell’isola di S. Domingo on Friday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. at the Donizetti Theater; followed by Caterina Cornaro on Saturday, Nov. 22, also at the Donizetti Theater at 8 p.m., and completed with Il campanello and Deux hommes et une femme at the Teatro Sociale on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 3:30 p.m. Donizetti Off, the calendar of meetings, events, presentations and performances for families that enriches the artistic offerings of the Donizetti Opera festival by involving different audiences in the name of Donizetti, also continues.

Opening the off programming of the second weekend, on Friday, November 21 at 6 p.m., at Libreria Feltrinelli Bergamo (Via XX Settembre 55), historian Alberto Mario Banti will present his book The Beatles. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Carocci, 2024). The book tells how the Beatles’ album was able to capture the most important fruits of the coeval countercultural communities and at the same time stimulate unexpected creative developments: progressive rock, world music, and experimentation in the recording studio. This is why Sgt. Pepper still deserves to be regarded as one of the absolute pinnacles of 20th-century Western musical culture, just as the works of the great 19th-century composers were able to capture and bring to the stage the issues of the society of the time. Participation is free with reservations at donizettiopera.org.

Donizetti Opera’s Saturday afternoons are dedicated to families, and on Nov. 22, at 4 p.m. at the Ridotto Gavazzeni of the Donizetti Theater, the musical performance Piccolo Signor Rumore, conceived by Enrico Gabrielli and aimed at children ages 3 and up, will be staged as part of Opera Family. Performed by the ensemble Esecutori di Metallo su Carta with Gabrielli himself on piano, Sebastiano De Gennaro on percussion and noises, and Marcello Corti on brass and narrator, the concert-game tells the story of a curious wad in search of a home; it will be the audience that guides him through drawings, sounds and noises, challenges and riddles. Preceding the performance is a creative workshop at 3 p.m. Tickets (Full €10.00, Under 14 €5.00) are on sale online and at the Donizetti Theater box office.

The Opera Stories review doubles this weekend, and at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22 in the Riccardi Room of the Donizetti Theater, there will be a conversation Caterina Corner. Cyprus between Byzantium and Venice between legal historian Valerio Massimo Minale and the scientific director of the Centro Studi donizettiani Paolo Fabbri. Starting from the suggestions of the widespread Caterina Cornaro experience exhibition, the meeting will offer a space for reflection on law and opera, to reflect on the new constitutional order imposed on Cyprus by Venice, reading between the lines of Sacchero’s pages and Donizetti’s score. Admission is free with reservations at donizettiopera.org.

On Sunday, Nov. 23 at 10 a.m., the much-appreciated event A colazione con Gaetano: musica, latte e fantasia! is back at Gaetano Donizetti’s Birthplace on Borgo Canale Street: a singing workshop for families with children ages 6 and up, curated by Mariagrazia Mercaldo, with a small breakfast catered by the social cooperative Nuna, which has been involved in food&beverage for years under the banner of environmental sustainability, as well as facilitating the entry of people with disabilities into the workplace. The workshop will end with a guided tour of the house where the composer was born, curated by Clelia Epis (admission with breakfast €12.00).


There was also great success for another of the novelties of Donizetti Opera 2025: The Donizetti Brunch, already one of the festival’s unmissable events that combines listening to Donizetti rarities, and more, with the possibility of an exclusive brunch in the scenic Sala Allianz after the concert, curated by Tassino Eventi (single seat with brunch € 28.00, concert only € 15.00). The concert on Sunday, November 23, scheduled at 11 a.m. at the Ridotto Gavazzeni of the Donizetti Theater, will feature Enrico Casazza’s violin and Andrea Bacchetti’s piano, engaged in a program centered on music by Gaetano Donizetti, Johann Simon Mayr, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.