On Tuesday July 12th Montecatini Opera Festival presents an extraordinary event dedicated to contemporary music. The cultural association "Il Parnaso" is delighted and proud to be the first to invite another great protagonist of the most innovative contemporary Italian music: ROBERTO CACCIAPAGLIA, who has composed sound tracks for films, plays and important TV commercials. His music is half-way between classical and electronic experimentation and shows a " powerful sound effect" able to evoke natural emotions. In Montecatini the artist is performing in a Trio plus a voice with songs taken from both "Ten directions" his latest successful CD and his previous albums: "Canone degli spazi " and "Quarto tempo" recorded with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra.

A proper tribute to one of the greatest opera composers of history: Giacomo Puccini, beloved composer by audiences all around the world, who concludes the golden age of the opera, an all Italian invention that helped us to be known in the whole world. The evening's program includes arias that illustrate the entire production of the Master, from La Bohème, to Tosca, to the uncomplete Turandot, music that still resonates everywhere always causing new heartbeats in whom is listening ...

‘La Traviata’ is one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular works. The opera tells the tragic love story between courtesan Violetta Valéry and romantic Alfredo Germont. During the premiere of “La Traviata” on 6 May 1853 at La Fenice opera house the audience booed and jeered throughout most of the performance. The next day, Verdi wrote to his friend Emanuele Muzio, in perhaps his most famous letter, “La Traviata, last night a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers’? Time will tell.” Verdi made a few revisions to the score, between 1853 and 1854, and the revised version was a great success. “La Traviata” is currently the most performed opera in the world.

Two great interpreters, Patrizia Cigna e Leonardo Melani, will recreate the light, charming atmosphere of the Operetta where, though the singing is not so demanding as in the Opera, its extraordinary liveliness and immediate enjoyment involve the audience in a total emotional experience. A fantastic show presenting the most famous arias from Operettas, a sort of imaginary journey, leading the audience from Holland “Il Paese dei Campanelli” to the sparkling night clubs in Paris, from the exotic atmospheres of Cin-Cin-Là to the country where everything is merry, lovely and smiling, to follow the story of the most famous, unchangeable, attractive “Widow” in the world.

The true protagonist of this concert are film soundtracks, ranging from "Over the rainbow" to "Moon river", performed by the Klassik Swing Italian Quartet led by Gunther Sanin, concertmaster of the orchestra of the Arena in Verona, and the amazing soprano Cristina Baggio.
Film has always been inextricably linked with music since the very beginning, even at the time of silent movies. Music is often the necessary element able to manipulate the attention of the audience, and, at the hand of great composers, soundtracks are not restricted to commenting the action but become memorable themes which leave an indelible mark in the memory of the spectators.

Tosca, one of the most beautiful and famous operas by Giacomo Puccini.
Tragic opera of love and betrayal, set in Rome in 1800. The press initially criticized the opera, which seemed to deviate from previous Puccini operas, and critics also contested an excessive melodic ease. But the success of the audience was immediate. Puccini’s "Tosca" was performed in the most important opera houses in the world. The music is among the most beautiful of Puccini’s repertoire.

Turandot is Puccini’s final opera (unfinished at his death) and perhaps as a result, it is by far and away his most musically adventurous. It was completed by Franco Alfano in 1926.

A journey through the real masterpieces of the Neapolitan classical song, attractive and alive even after 500 years’ life, still regarded as the symbol of Italian great music all over the world. This concert will be like a walk along the gulf of Naples, through the narrow lanes “abbascio ‘o porto” touching Marechiaro, Santa Lucia and going up the Vesuvio by funicular, accompanied by unforgettable melodies, still so popular and well known. Their success is also due to great singers, like Enrico Caruso, Placido Domingo, Josè Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti, who have given extraordinary performances of Neapolitan songs, keeping them so famous and loved by everybody.

Two great interpreters, Letizia Calandra e Romolo Tisano, will recreate the light, charming atmosphere of the Operetta where, though the singing is not so demanding as in the Opera, its extraordinary liveliness and immediate enjoyment involve the audience in a total emotional experience. A fantastic show presenting the most famous arias from Operettas, a sort of imaginary journey, leading the audience from Holland “Il Paese dei Campanelli” to the sparkling night clubs in Paris, from the exotic atmospheres of Cin-Cin-Là to the country where everything is merry, lovely and smiling, to follow the story of the most famous, unchangeable, attractive “Widow” in the world.

The concert presents such an attractive programme to involve and enchant even those who don’t not usually go to concert halls. It is an anthology of evergreen pieces of music taken from the most famous Musicals. This sort of show, intentionally created for the mass of the people, fluent and easy to be understood, originated in New York and Broadway, among the lower middle class of American society, very soon it spread beyond the United States. From “Memory” to “Over the rainbow” “Summertime” pieces of everlasting freshness and modernity, mixed, in the second part, with the homage to one of the greatest singers of 20th century: the great Frank Sinatra ”the voice”.

Wednesday October 10th, the second last appointment of the season presents a real jewel of Italian baroque music: THE FOUR SEASONS by Antonio Vivaldi . It is considered an authentic “sound film” on the natural sequence of the seasons. Its refinement and elegance make it one of the most renowned pieces of music, where very melodious parts alternate with parts of great virtuosity. The concert is performed by Pistoia Promusica Orchestra and the charismatic Russian violinist Marianna Vasileva, gifted with real extraordinary talent.