Casta Diva 2025

Alessandria | Musical

From 8 May 2025 to 18 September 2025

Description

The Casta Diva event of "Vivaldi" is the enactment of a two-year international project which sees the "Vivaldi" Conservatory at the head of another twelve Italian Institutes of Higher Education in Art and Music, financed by the European Union - NextGenerationEU with resources provided by the PNRR.

The six appointments will be held between May and September 2025 and will focus on enhancing the female figures of Italian music theater through shows and dedicated conferences.

The events will be held at the "Vivaldi" Conservatory (Palazzo Cuttica - via parma 1 - Alessandria) and mark the beginning of an artistic and cultural journey which crosses Italy and opens to the world.
Free admission until full capacity is reached.

PROGRAM

For more information and updates refer to the links below. The brochure of the event is attached.

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Thursday 8 May 2025, 5 p.m.

concert "Le Disubbidienti"

namely singing emancipation in patriarchal society. A series of opera duets featuring the most famous "disobedient daughters" (but also sisters, wives, women subject to patriarchal super powers....) will be presented and commented. Works by Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti.
(Speakers: Liana Puschel, Sopranos: Francesca Lanza, Baritone: Matteo Pietrapiana, Piano: Anna Barbero).

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Saturday 10 May at 5 p.m.

"L'altro trittico" produced by the "Franco Vittadini" Conservatory of Pavia, curated by Lorenzo M. Mucci, in which the students of song of the Conservatories
of Pavia, Alessandria and Piacenza will perform Il segreto di Susanna, Intermezzo in one act by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari; Il Telefono ou l'amour à trois, comic opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti and La scuola di Guida idillio by Nino Rota.

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Monday 12 May at 9 p.m.

"Mad for opera", therapeutic journey from Dido to Tosca, a show produced by the "Nicolini" Conservatory of Piacenza, curated by Patrizia Florio and Giovanni Recchia, with the participation of Pamela Villoresi, based on music by Bellini, Donizetti, Mozart, Puccini, Barbara Rettagliati, Rossini, Solci, Verdi.

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Tuesday 9 September at 5 p.m.

"Il Peccato!" a lecture - conversation in which Alberto Mattioli and Luca Valentino will present “Armida” by Rossini in the production of 1952 at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a production by Alberto Savinio, which starred Maria Callas.

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From Tuesday 16 to Thursday 18 September

the Conservatory of Alessandria will be the site of the International Study Conference entitled "Donne tra drammaturgia, gesto, musica e scene nell'opera Italiana tra barocco e illuminismo", an event designed in association with important international institutions such as the University of Vienna and with the scientific contribution of the project Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice of the University of Trondheim.

Following the conference, on the evening of Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 September at 9 p.m. it will be possible to attend the performance "Le femmine d'Italia" female seduction in Italian melodrama, produced by the "A. Vivaldi" Conservatory and directed by Luca Valentino.

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PRESENTATION OF THE "CASTA DIVA" PROJECT

Casta Diva is a two-year international project, launched in spring 2024 and continued with the performance of "Suor Angelica" by Puccini. It originates from the collaboration between twelve Italian institutions of higher education with the goal of promoting artistic research and cultural production in a shared and innovative perspective.
The project is coordinated by the “Antonio Vivaldi” Music Conservatory of Alessandria, (Scientific director: Giovanni Albini and Organization and coordination: Luca Valentino) which has set up a network of partners distributed nationwide which include the conservatories of Cesena-Rimini, Como, Gallarate, La Spezia, Palermo, Pavia, Piacenza, Terni, together with the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino and Sapienza Università of Rome.
Financed by the European Union within the scope of the NextGenerationEU project and by the resources provided by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Casta Diva is part of an initiative to innovate and strengthen the international dimension of the system of High Musical and Choreographic Artistic Education.

The goal of the project is to globally promote the female figures of Italian music theater enhancing their role as much on stage as protagonists, heroins and divas as behind the scenes in roles of composers, costume designers, impresarios and makers of the theatrical machine.

One of the main tools will be the creation of a multilingual digital hub (Scientific director Paola Bertolone, Department of Planning, Design, Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome), a website which will gather and present the results of the research conducted by the institutions
involved.

Project financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan Mission 4
"Istruzione e Ricerca" Component 1 "Strengthening the offer of educational services:
from kindergartens to University"
Title of the project Casta Diva:
An International Research and Production Digital Platform on Women in Italian Musical Theatre
CUP code: F31B23000450006

Key goals of the operation:
Promote Italian artistic, cultural and musical heritage overseas through the creation of a digital multilingual hub which compiles the scientific, hypertextual and multimedia results of the collaborative artistic production and research activities carried out by the partner institutions on the specific themes connected with female figures in Italian musical theater.