2024 – 17. Dilegua, o notte!
Como – Arena Teatro Sociale and other locations in town
27.6 – 14.7.2024
Festival Como Città della Musica
17. Dilegua, o notte!
Opera, music and dance
downtown, framed in the magic atmosphere at the Arena
surrounded by the historical Teatro Sociale and the Duomo…
And more… musical events in the most charming and unusual places
all around the town centre, from dawn to dusk…
Festival Como City of Music reaches its seventeenth edition, always directed and organized by Teatro Sociale Como-AsLiCo, in collaboration with Società dei Palchettisti and with the contribution of the Municipality of Como, with the shared idea that the culture has a fundamental role in the development of the city, both for citizens and tourists.
The title this year, as tradition, is taken from the participative opera of the Teatro Sociale that will inaugurate the Festival: Dilegua o notte! are in fact words from Calaf during the Nessun dorma.
In occasion of the celebrations for the centenary of the death of the composer, Turandot by Giacomo Puccini is in fact the chosen opera for 200.com a project for the city.
After the projects by Opera Education, AsLiCo chooses to dedicate the 2024 to this big and famous title, this time declining it with the X edition of the project which has become a distinctive element and distinguishing of the Festival.
The opera will take place in the Arena of the Teatro Sociale Como, Thursday 27th, Saturday 29th June and Monday 1st July at 21:30.
To take care of the direction will be Valentina Carrasco, an established Argentine director with her first work for AsLiCo, who just debuted with a big success in the Teatro Regio of Torino with the new setup La fanciulla del West by Puccini, and the last year winner of the Abbiati Award for musics’ critic for La favorite by Donizetti. Mauro Tinti will design the sets and costumes alongside him, who the audience has already had the opportunity to know during Nabucco with Jacopo Spirei in the Arena of Sociale in 2017. Next to the director, the other fundamental figure is the conductor: to conduct Turandot will be M° Jacopo Brusa, seen in December during the Opera Season in Don Carlo by Verdi.
Together with the creative team and professional singers, obviously there will be no lack of the Choir 200.com with more than 200 amateur singers, the heart of the participative project by AsLiCo, directed by M° Massimo Fiocchi Malaspina.
As with the Night Season, the opera performances will be preceded by PrimaGiovani, a preview on Tuesday 25th June, reserved for the under30s.
There is also plenty of space for dance, musicals, and music, from jazz to songwriters.
The Arena will change shape to accommodate a frontal view of the stage, set up in front of the southern facade of the theatre.
On Friday 5th July, the Italian company of contemporary dance and physical theatre very loved by the public, Kataklò, will be back. The dancers will perform an Italian exclusive in the show Suite, a tribute to Italian culture and music. Confronting the most famous operatic arias, but also the most irreverent pop music, ranging from Rossini to Celentano, winking at contemporary electronics as well as retro jazz, the company immerses itself in solos, duets and choral moments, all united by the taste, athleticism and energy that characterise Kataklò’s work.
We continue Saturday 6th July with the duo composed of Paolo Fresu and Omar Sosa, one of the most popular and loved formations, both in Italy and abroad, capable to create sound and conceptual bridges between two different worlds. They will bring to Como the new project Food, which goes through the food topic and a world narrated with music and addresses the topic from the perspective of taste, aesthetic, and ethic.
Sunday 7th July an evening dedicated to a great American songwriter, with the show Un uomo chiamato Bob Dylan, produced by MyNina Spettacoli and Ponderosa Music and Art, written and interpreted by the journalist, writer, and musician Ezio Guaitamacchi, and with the local songwriter Davide Van De Sfroos in the new triple role of musician, actor and painter, taking on the role of Bob Neuwirth, songwriter friend of Dylan. While Andrea Mirò interprets the figure of Joan Baezcon, the great vocalist Brunella Boschetti to complete the cast.
Tuesday 9th July let’s move on to “the King of Rock’n’Roll”: Elvis the Musical a show that will be fast paced and rhythmic, in the name of success by Presley from the 50s ‘till 1977, on stage with 18 performers and a live band, accompanied by a rich scenography, video and obviously, the unforgettable Elvis songs.
Wednesday 10th July, in collaboration with MyNina Spettacoli, the Italian music will be protagonist with a great comeback, after fifteen years away from the stage, from the band La Crus.
Friday 12th July dance again with A midsummer night’s dream, the new choreographic project by COB Company Opus Ballet that celebrates one of the main exponents of the world´s culture, William Shakespeare, in a production that blends classic music dramaturgy and contemporary dance, in a national preview. The choreography is entrusted to Davide Bombana: a new artistic collaboration that understands to explore the relationship between the classic and the contemporary with a language that can speak directly to the public´s heart.
Saturday 13th July is the yearly comeback for the great celebration organized by SFM srl dedicated to the youngsters: A-real, a “one day festival” where from late evening ‘till night the arena will come to life thanks to street food, merchants, activities and music non-stop.
The closing evening, Sunday 14th July, will be dedicated to tango. Piazzolla Passion was born from the great music of the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, a show with a typically tango and seductive flavour with the ensemble of the Romae Capital Ballet company and the extraordinary participation of Amilcar Moret Gonzalez, known from the big public from the program Amici in the Italian TV, and live music. After a dance and music show, there will be a milonga open to the public, so it will be possible to dance the tango until late at night.
INTORNO AL FESTIVAL
The Festival is not limited to the Arena, though.
There are numerous and unmissable events in the Intorno al Festival review, all with a free admission, dotted around the city in beautiful and renowned locations, but also in others that are less well known but of great social importance.
Not to be missed, the unforgettable concerts at sunset (with a walk) at the Torre del Baradello and at dawn at the Villa del Grumello, where Simone Rubino will take care of awakening the audience from the topor of the night, a famous percussionist who boasts collaborations with important orchestras, directors, soloists, and surprises audiences around the world thank to his programs based on experiments and bold combinations of classical and contemporary.
The music will spread throughout the city with various genres, from the musical shows for the kids by Opera Education in the parks and in neighbourhoods, like in Tavernola and Rebbio, to music of ballroom dancing in the homes of Cooperativa Edificatrice in Via Viganò, from Argentinian rhythms in the Casa Vincenziana in via Primo Tatti to MusicAccessibile in Cometa, and many more.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Municipality of Como, the new lakefront will be the perfect location for an explosive concert with the Japanese drums taiko.
Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi and Marco Carusino from La Crus will participate in the presentation of Maurizio Pratelli’s novel La fattoria del pop.
Not to forget, Sheraton Lake Como, Hilton Lake Como and Villa Flori will open their hotels to our audiences for concerts and show with lake view and poolside.
COLLABORAZIONI/ COLLABORATIONS
As always, the Festival Como Città della Musica wants to be a festival with great quality and broad international scope, highly touristic, but well linked to the territory, thanks to the choice of the places, inside and outside the borders of the city centre and the high collaborations with various Associations and Institutions, involving commercial and tourist activities of the zone. After last year´s success, the synergy with Confcommercio Como is renewed with the common objective to see a city “dressed for the Festival“, thanks to the shops and restaurants themed in order to create an unicum, to be part of a perspective of the city that aims for a cultural tourism, creating accordingly a network of museums and activities to participate in the large touristic fairs.
FESTIVAL OFF
Thanks to the support of the Cariplo Foundation, in the weeks of the Festival, Opera Education will debut with the II edition of Opera white, the educational-musical path for institutionalized elderly people, inspired by the experience of other AsLiCo formats for kids and youngsters, with the objective to overcome the loneliness in the health care residencies and create socialization activities among the elderly and inclusion with the community where they live.
After the success in the I edition dedicated to Flauto Magico by W.A. Mozart in which where involved 4 structures of Como and province, this year will expand with Turandot by G.Puccini involving 12 health care residencies between Como and Milano.
The preliminary path to the show, composed by the formation of the operators and meetings with a music therapist and an opera singer for the residents, will start in the month of June and the participative shows will be held in July inside the residencies.
Festival Como City of Music, directed and organized by the Teatro Sociale Como-AsLiCo, in collaboration with the Società dei Palchettisti, is promoted with the contribution of the Municipality of Como, Lombardy Region, Ministry of Culture, Cariplo Foundation.
Tickets on sale online at www.comofestival.org and at the theatre ticket office from Friday 3rd May, 10.00.
