Prior to the COVID pandemic, the Italian Cultural Institute (Istituto Italiano de Cultura, IIC) would regularly host an annual visit by Céline Ricci, Artistic Director of Ars Minerva. Ricci would use the occasion to discuss future projects, the most important of which would be the production of a full-length opera during the coming fall season. Due to the pandemic, the event scheduled for the spring of 2020 was cancelled.
Next month these preview events will resume. Annual performances returned this past November with the performance of the seventeenth-century opera from Venice entitled Messalina with music composed by Carlo Pallavicino. At that time I described the opera as “a joyous romp through sexual infidelities and dalliances among at least half a dozen different characters,” making it the perfect complement to the San Francisco Opera production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 72 opera Fidelio, which had taken place a month earlier.
The next opera to be presented will be Astianatte, composed by Leonardo Vinci with a libretto by Antonio Salvi. This was the first of Vinci’s three operas to be given premiere performances over the course of three successive months. It was created and first performed at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in December of 1725 in Naples. (The other two operas were first performed in the following January in Rome and the following February in Venice. These two were the first in a series of successful collaborations with the librettist Metastasio.)
As in the past, the discussion about the opera will be supplemented with performances. The vocalists will be mezzo Nikola Printz and mezzo Deborah Rosengaus Martinez. Piano accompaniment will be provided by Lindsay Rader. The selections will be by George Frideric Handel and Riccardo Broschi. Broschi had a brother named Carlo, who was also known as Farinelli.
This preview event will take place on Wednesday, July 6, beginning at 6:30 p.m. IIC is located at 710 Sansome Street, not far from the Financial District and the Embarcadero. As in the past, there will be no charge for admission.
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