Poland – Accademia Bizantina at the Opera Rara festival
Accademia Bizantina is guest of the Opera Rara festival, organized by Capella Cracoviensis and the City of Kraków under the artistic direction by Jan Tomasz Adamus.
The Festival takes place during the carnival and since its inception has premiered operas never staged in Poland and rarely performed titles, hosting prominent directors and performers.
The perfect context for Accademia Bizantina’s musical programme, a real rarity that was premiered in 1735 during the carnival season: Il Tamerlano ovvero la morte di Bajazet by Antonio Vivaldi, presented in the critical edition by musicologist Bernardo Ticci with the variations introduced by Ottavio Dantone.
The ‘tragedia per musica’ composed by Vivaldi to a libretto by Agostino Piovena is a “pastiche”, a work combining not only some of the author’s pre-existing pages but also those by other composers –a well-established practice at the time. “The score is obviously characterized by a marked stylistic variety, but the irresistible incisiveness of Vivaldi’s writing is easily recognizable compared to the style of the authors involved, namely Broschi, Hasse and Giacomelli”, underlines Ottavio Dantone, conductor of Accademia Bizantina.
Il Tamerlano will be performed in Kraków in its concert version on February 26 (6pm, at Stary Teatr), featuring the same artists of the opera that was recently successfully staged in the theatre of Ravenna, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Lucca.
The concert has the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Kraków, in co-operation with ATER Fondazione.
- more info
- interview with Ottavio Dantone on “Il Tamerlano”
- listen to the playlist on Accademia Bizantina website
- watch the full opera on OperaStreaming