NICCOLÒ PAGANINI
Introduction and variations in E-flat major «Non più mesta»
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
«Di tanti palpiti» from Tancredi
NICCOLÒ PAGANINI
Introduction and variations in A major «Di tanti palpiti» from Tancredi
GIOACHINO ROSSINI
«Assisa a’ pié d’un salice» from Otello
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
Concerto No. 3, Second Movement (Slow, Severe and Sad)
Mezzosoprano
Giuseppina Bridelli
Violin
Giuseppe Gibboni
(56th Paganini Prize winner)
Piano
Valentina Messa
Barbara Faedda (Italian Academy, Columbia University) introduces,
Fabrizio Di Michele (Consul General of Italy in New York)
Speakers include Giuseppe Gerbino (Columbia University),
Francesco Zimei (University of Trento), Claudio Orazi (Superintendent Opera Carlo Felice Genova).
A Bridge of Music is an international cultural project conceived by Superintendent Claudio Orazi in 2016 with the aim of enhancing music as a driver of cultural diplomacy between Italy and the United States. The year 2025 marks a key moment, as it marks the bicentennial of the first performance of an Italian opera in the United States (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Park Theatre in New York, November 1825).
The bicentennial celebrations opened on Wednesday, Jan. 29, with a meeting-concert at the Corriere della Sera Foundation in Milan, and continue with a new opportunity for meetings and insights at Columbia University in New York on Tuesday, Jan. 11.
The musical program features music by Gioachino Rossini-whose Il Barbiere di Siviglia was the first Italian opera to be performed in the United States; Niccolò Paganini, one of the greatest exponents of Genoese musical culture in the world; and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a Florentine composer who emigrated to the United States because of racial laws and a unique voice in the Italian scene of the 20th century.