Annalisa D'Agosto and Luca Gaeta will present Italian Canzonetti in the Eropa Hall.
The Neapolitan song (Canzóne napoletána) is a song whose verses are in the Neapolitan dialect of the Italian language. It is traditionally performed solo and mostly by men. It can be seen both as a musical-poetic folk art of the Campania region and as a subgenre of light, fun music. Each Neapolitan song comes to life as an ode to joy. The verses and melodies praise the sun, the sea and beauty, the longing for happiness and love. Even when they are written in minor and evoke that sweet sadness that gently pierces the heart, they bring the joy of life. And, of course, they are an explanation in love of Naples. Strangely enough, Neapolitan songs are not in the familiar sense of the word "folk" but are the product of original music written in Neapolitan dialect.
The Neapolitan song experienced its genre emancipation as an independent phenomenon with its own specific genre features in Italian folk music quite late, almost in our modern times. This happened in the 1830s, when annual song contests began to be held in Naples to present newly written songs. The winner of the first such competition was the song Te voglio bene assaie, whose authorship is attributed to Gaetano Donizetti.
In 1952 Italian radio and television took over the organization of the Neapolitan song festivals and this contributed not only to the popularity of the festival and the songs that were born on its stage, but also to the penetration of the already distinct genre into the mass consciousness and the wide interest of the public.
The Festival of Neapolitan Song (Festival della Canzone Napoletana) in Italy is also known simply as the Festival di Napoli - the Naples Festival, with some interruptions to its run, lasted until its last edition in 2004.
It could be said that the so-called "classical" period ended around the 1970s, after which a broad repertoire of classical Neapolitan songs emerged, including several hundred titles, dozens of which are still actively performed today by many artists, not only in the popular music sphere, but also in classical music and opera circles.
The Neapolitan song has gained exceptional worldwide fame in recent decades, primarily due to the fact that selected examples of this genre have permanently entered the concert repertoire of the most famous operatic tenors. The truth is that this tradition was started in the first decades of the twentieth century by Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli, but in the last decades of the last century the tradition was supported by the three world tenors - Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo.
This programme has an innovative element. Italian soprano Annalisa D'Agosto lovingly presents in new arrangements some of the lesser-known Neapolitan songs, and her cavaliers in this beautiful undertaking have chosen to be Bulgarian tenors Mihail Mihailov and Petar Kostov. The concert programme has its world premiere on the concert stage of the Rousse Opera.
Annalisa D'Agosto
Opera singer Annalisa D'Agosto, soprano, graduated with excellent marks from the Salerno Conservatory of Music, where she currently lives.
She made her debut at the International Rossini Festival in Wildbad under the baton of Maestro Antonino Foliani as Madame Cortese in Rossini's opera Journey to Reims and as Clemenza in Francesco Morlacchi's opera Tebaldo e Isolina (first contemporary performance, Trincale, concert version).
In 2016, she made her debuts as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata and Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, as part of the Concerts of Villa Guariglia event conducted by Maestro Elio Orciullo and directed by Riccardo Canessa.
In the same year, she participated in the TV show "Sabato In", broadcast on Rai Uno, for the section dedicated to opera.
In 2017, D' Agosto made his stage debut as Cio-Cio-San in J. R. R. R. Tolstoy's Madame Butterfly. Puccini at the Umberto Giordano Municipal Theatre in Foggia and as Mimi from La Boheme, reprised in Lucca.
In 2017, she performed the role of Amelia in "Masked Ball" by J. Verdi under the direction of Maestro Traian Itchim and Maestro Luciano Alessandro Di Martino in the opera houses of Romania, Austria and Germany.
During the same period she also participated in various opera galas with chorus and orchestra, presenting repertoire from Verdi to Puccini in numerous theatres in Austria and Germany.
In 2019, she made her debut in the role of Micaela from J. Bizet at the State Opera of Brasov (Romania) and toured with her to various theatres in Germany and Austria, directed by Maestro Traian Ichim.
Between 2019 and 2020, she will perform on the stages of 10 different Chinese theatres, including the famous XIANG Concert Hall, presenting Italian opera repertoire and traditional Chinese music.
In 2020, the Di Jorio Archive selects her as the voice to record the world premiere of the album Le Periodiche with arias and music by the composer Antinio di Jorio, published in 2021 and followed by two concerts at the Teatro Comunale di Atri.
Between 2021 and 2022, she performed as soloist in concerts at Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, Renzo Piano Aiditorium in L'Aquila, Teatro Comunale di Atri and Teatro Garibaldi in Lucera.
Luca Gaeta
Luca Gaeta completed his musical studies with a specialization in violin at the G. Martucci - Salerno. He went on to specialise in orchestral conducting at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena under Maestro Gianluigi Gellmetti and at the Accademia Pescarese under Maestros Donato Renzetti and Dario Lucantoni. He holds a Master's degree in Marketing and Event Management from LUMSA University (Rome).
Luca Gaeta graduated with a degree in Modern Literature - Art, Music and Performance. He obtained his degree in Philology with a study on the Neapolitan School of Music and on Ottavio Rinuccini, entitled "Rinuccini's Lexicon, Euridice". He is currently part of the composition and conducting course at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples.
In 2005 he gave a series of concerts organized by the Salerno Conservatory of the University of Augsburg, Germany. In 2006, he won the F.I.D.A.P.A. Young Graduate Scholarship, and the following year he toured Spain with the University of Salerno Orchestra, where he also appeared as soloist. His incidental music for La Lupa by Giovanni Verga and for L'alba di un dream, a performance dedicated to the Italian Risorgimento, earned the applause of President Carlo Ciampi.
Author of the soundtrack to the film "Ombre di Luna" (Italy 2006) and the short film "I Giochi del Tempo". He wrote and performed the musical pieces of the poetry CD "Fendenti Fonici" and the music for the film dedicated to the life of Santo Januario "Corpore et mente pulcherrimus".
Over the years Luca Gaeta has participated in various highly prestigious events: Concerts at the Convent of Paradise (Amalfi), Church of Sant'Apollonia (Salerno), Air Force Concert Club (Rome), Crest Club (Salerno), Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Uto Ugi Festival, Rome), Ravello Festival with the Orizonti Quintet Ensemble, Maggio dei monumenti (Naples), San Giovanni dei Fiorentini Museum (Rome), Festival Irno (Baronissi), Opera Festival Montecorvino, Casino Sociale (Salerno), Senate Hall in the former Dominican Convent of Minerva (Rome), Arena Flegrea (Naples), Zaragoza Auditorium (Spain), Festival Beyond the Notes (Castel San Giorgio), Festival Encounter between the Arts (Maratea) .
