Momenti Musicali

Music and literature have always been related to each other. Many composers have been inspired by literary works for their compositions. With Momenti Musicali musicians and actors work together to accompany you on a fantastic journey through notes and words. The musicians will play the pieces linked to the literary passages that will be read in Italian and in English.

The protagonists of this first event on February 21st are the Calabrian composer Alfonso Rendano,  the Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro, and  the French writer George Sand, pseudonym of Amantine (or Amandine) Aurore Lucile Dupin. Rendano and Alvaro talk to us, one through music, the other through writing, of their beloved land Calabria. Moreover, Alfonso Rendano wrote the Opera Consuelo, based on George Sand’s homonymous novel that speaks about the life of an 18th century Italian singer. With pianist Daniela Roma and baritone Antonio Fratto accompanied by pianist Andrea Bauleo. Actors: Emanuele Capoano and Marco Zanelli.

Registration is now closed. Please watch the live streaming on our YouTube channel, just click on this link:

https://youtu.be/kbvbQWPKkgM

Sponsored by the Società Dante Alighieri - Roma. In collaboration with Dante Alighieri Society - Michigan and under the Auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in Boston and the Consulate General of Italy in Detroit.

Daniela Roma graduated in piano with highest honors from the Conservatory "F.Torrefranca" in Vibo Valentia, Italy. She attended master classes with Aquiles Delle Vigne at the Internationale Sommerakademie Universitat Mozarteum, in Salzburg, Austria and with teachers including Daniel Rivera, Gabriel Kwok, and Choon-Mo Kang. Ms. Roma also obtained a Master Degree with highest honors in Piano Performance at the Hogeschool voor Muziek, University of Professional Education, Rotterdam, Netherlands and a Bachelor Degree at DAMS (Department of Arts, Music and Performance) at the University of Calabria, Italy, with a thesis on "The Synesthesia in Aleksandr Skrjabin and Vasilij Kandinskij". She has an intense concert activity in the US and in Europe, with performances that include the music of the Calabrian composer Alfonso Rendano, of whom she is the world-leading performer. For more information please visit: www.danielaroma.com

Emanuele Capoano is one of the co-founders of the Commedia dell’Arte troupe Pazzi Lazzi, directing and performing for the company since 2013. He is also a playwright and podcaster. He is originally from Calabria, Italy, and has over 10 years of theatre experience. Mr. Capoano studied theatre at Officina Teatrale ‘O in Florence, Italy and has attended several acting workshops including one taught by Yves Lebreton. He now lives in New York City where he works at the Istituto di Cultura.

Antonio Fratto is a professor of Voice, Head of Musical Theater Studies, State Conservatory of Music “S. Giacomantonio” in Cosenza, Italy. Mr. Fratto, as a baritone soloist, has performed in many of the most prestigious opera houses in Europe, US, Canada and China, singing several principal roles in operas as well as Sacred Music productions.. He appeared in worldwide live broadcast of La Traviata  in Paris conducted by Zubin Metha. Also, he performed in The Godfather Part IIIby F. F. Coppola and recorded several complete operas and songs for Warner Classic, Bongiovanni, RAI, Cineplot. As a Supervisor of Musical Productions for Armonie D'Arte Foundation International Festival, he has coordinated the performances of artists and orchestras like Marta Argerich and Berliner Philarmoniker.

Marco Zanelli works as both and actor-director, as well as a translator of Italian texts. He has appeared as Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Bottom in A Midsummers Night Dream, Parolles in All’s Well That Ends Well, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Alonso in The Tempest, and Solyony in The Three Sisters, among other works. He has studied acting in Los Angeles with Diane Salinger and Gina Gallego, and in Boston with Spiro Veloudos and Ingrid Sonnichsen. Marco holds a B.A. from Emerson College in TV Production and an M.A. in Italian from Middlebury College.

Alfonso Rendano ( Carolei April 5, 1853 – Roma September 10, 1931)

A leading figure on the European music scene of the late nineteenth century, Alfonso Rendano was a very successful pianist and a composer. He was born in Carolei, a small village on the outskirts of Cosenza on April 5, 1853, and immediately displayed a great love for music. An enfant prodige.!), when he was 10 he left Calabria to land at the "San Pietro a Majella" Conservatory in Naples.   Thanks to Rossini’s interest that the young Calabrian pianist was able to attend the classes taught by George Mathias, Chopin's favorite pupil, thus deeply absorbing the musical expression of the great Polish composer. Queen Victoria remained so enthralled by his perfect art as a performer that, in his honor, she reopened the Royal Palace of Windsor for the first time since the death of the Prince Consort, for him to perform his Quintet for strings and piano, together with the already famous violinist Joachim. He entertained a sincere and affectionate friendship with Franz Liszt who, on his part, admired and esteemed the young Calabrian musician. Liszt invited Rendano to Weimar, where he arranged for the Quintet to be performed at the Court of the Grand Duchy, during the Court Quartet contest, with Liszt himself turning the pages for Rendano during his performance. And not only that: at the Belvedere, the summer residence of the Grand Ducal family, his Concerto was performed, transcribed in the rare version for two pianos.. He died in Rome on 10 September 1931. In addition to his wonderful piano production, he left us other works that deserve to be remembered: his quintet for piano and strings, the concert for piano and orchestra and Consuelo, an opera inspired by French writer George Sand’s novel. The opera was performed in Italy for the first time at Turin’s Regio Theater in 1902 and critics described it as "masterly work with top-class musical content".

Corrado Alvaro, (April 15, 1895, San Luca, Italy— June 11, 1956, Rome)

Corrado Alvaro was an Italian novelist and journalist whose works investigated the social and political pressures of life in the 20th century. His works were often set in Calabria, Southern Italy.

Alvaro began his career as a writer in 1916, working on daily newspapers in Bologna and Milano. Military service in World War I temporarily interrupted his studies at the University of Milan. After graduation he worked for several journals—including the antifascist weekly Il Mondo (1920–30; “The World”)—and traveled throughout Europe. Indicative of his own work, he described Italian writing after World War II  as “a literature of tensions.”

In 1951 he won the prestigious literary prize Strega with Quasi una vita.