2010 Galuppi Festival - The places of Baldassarre

From 9.12.2010 to 10.23.2010

During his life Baldassarre Galuppi da Burano, also called Il Buranello, from the name of his birth place, received many honours that made him famous well beyond the confines of Venice. He began his first studies under the direction of his father who was an amateur violin player and worked as a barber. His enthusiasm and persona were fully represented in the notes he instinctively wrote on the music paper and this genuine vitality always remained his main characteristic even after he completed the most advanced studies of counterpoint and technique.
Galuppi’s work received everywhere a high level of attention, so much as to be asked to cover positions of primary importance in the most important courts around Europe, a fact that made him gain honours and high esteem. Venice always remained his warm harbour to which he returned whenever he became homesick. Despite the unique character of his entire production and the innovative “dramatic finale” he introduced in the comic opera genre (adopted even by Haydn, Mozart and Rossini), Baldassare Galuppi was slowly neglected in the following centuries and did not receive the just recognition he deserved for his musical merits.
For this reason the Galuppi Festival Association was created, a celebrating event held every year to perform Buranello’s rich catalogue, most of which is still unpublished. Overt the last 13 years the festival has changed from a brief cycle of concerts held in Buranello’s birth place to a more structured and ample music event that traces the life and places where the composer lived: “The places of Baldassare - Galuppi and Music Festival” is indeed a re-discovery of the places where this composer worked - Venice and the surrounding islands – with the aim of performing not only Baldassare’s work, which nevertheless constitutes the fulcrum of the festival, but also additional material from a rich programme that ranges through the centuries and various musical genres.
The 14th edition of the Galuppi Festival will be held from September 12th to October 23rd and will be, as in the past editions, divided into two sections: concerts and operas.
The opening concert will be take place on the 12th of September at the Church of San Peter Martyr in Murano. On the 17th of October, in the restored church of San Michele in Isola, there will be a tribute concert to Igor Stravinski, the talented composer who was fond of Venice and buried here. The Sale Apolinee of the La Fenice Theatre and the Sala Superiore of the Scuola Grande of San Rocco will host important events with the Ensemble the “Arte dell’Arco” (18th September), the Quartet Auryn (26th September), the Venice Quartet and the Barocca Orchestra of Bologna (directed by Paolo Faldi) which will perform the unpublished Caluppi’s piece “The sacrifice of Jepthe” (8th October). The festival will be wrapped up with a show on the famous castrato Farinelli performed by the renowned sopranista Angelo Manzotti (23rd October).