Michela Gerosa

The event that the Donizetti Theatre Foundation proposes on December 31 in the main city theater will be marked by the typical festive colors of the musical. And at the stroke of midnight, a toast in the historic halls of the same Donizetti Theatre, together with the artists of the BIT Company, who on this special occasion (at 10:00 PM) will present A Christmas Carol, adapted from the most famous novel by Charles Dickens, adapted by Melina Pellicano, with original music by Stefano Lori and Marco Caselle. On stage, a cast of over 20 members, with Fabrizio Rizzolo in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, and special effects curated by Alessandro Marrazzo, 150 costumes, and spectacular sets. Melina Pellicano, director and author of the musical's libretto, wanted to be as faithful as possible to the novel because Dickens' writing is already very theatrical: "Scrooge's loneliness and his economic wealth are in contrast with the serenity of the family and the modest social situation of the other characters. The richness of the soul and the courage to face a less fortunate situation are the true wealth. It's an old concept, but absolutely current," she says, "There are some differences in the story and the characters, but always in respect of the original story and in the spirit of Dickens. This was intentional and is a small personal way to pay homage to the writer." "I chose to open the show with the monologue and song of little Tim (the youngest son of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's employee), to entrust a child with the task of explaining 'how things really are,' to explain to the audience the point of view of a child who looks at the world with clear eyes and without judgment. Tiny Tim indeed tells that Scrooge 'is not able to smile and is always angry with anyone who speaks to him,' but that in reality 'he is just alone' and no one should be alone at Christmas," continues the director. Another unmissable event will be the New Year's Concert, scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, January 1 at the Teatro Sociale (11:00 AM). The Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Andrea Oddone, will guide the audience on an exciting musical journey through The Dances of Europe, reflecting various European musical traditions, from Vienna to Italy, passing through the heart of Central Europe. The concert program includes masterpieces by composers who have captured the soul of folk dances and transformed them into timeless works of art. The repertoire of Johann Strauss, "the King of the Waltz," with his famous polkas and Viennese waltzes, will evoke the elegance and energy of the Austrian capital during the golden age of dance music. Antonín Dvořák, on the other hand, with his Slavonic dances, will immerse the audience in the warm and evocative atmospheres of Central Europe: his melodies, rich in liveliness and sentiment, reflect the pride of the popular culture of his homeland, the Czech Republic. There will also be a tribute to Italy with

As is tradition, this year the Donizetti Theatre Foundation also presents the Christmas Concert, featuring the choir I Piccoli Musici directed by Mario Mora. The concert, scheduled for Saturday, December 21 at the Teatro Sociale (3:30 PM), will once again be a precious opportunity to savor the Christmas atmosphere through compositions that evoke its festive and spiritual climate. This year, a particularly suggestive and evocative title has been chosen: The Sound of the Voice. The absolute protagonist will indeed be the voice of the choir, with the inclusion of some soloists: Alberto Braghini on piano, Francesca Tirale on harp, Silvia Freti on violin, and Sebastiano Suardi on bagpipes. The concert will ideally be divided into two parts: the first will feature Folk Songs from various nations, pieces from musicals by Leonard Bernstein and Richard Rodgers, and opera songs, also commemorating the centenary of Giacomo Puccini's death. From Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, staged at the Donizetti Theatre in the 1995 season in which the choir participated, the “Choeur des Gamins” will be presented in a scenic form, with “Avec la garde montante”, a piece that the “Coro dei Monelli” sings in the first act. The second part will then give ample space to the most beautiful Christmas melodies, but there will also be new premieres, skillfully arranged for the choir by Mauro Zuccante, such as “The little drummer boy”, a famous American Christmas song written in 1941, and “Let it snow”, a true Christmas classic of the 20th century. Different styles but presented with a single characteristic: expressiveness and sound, which have always distinguished the choir I Piccoli Musici. Cultural Ambassador of Europe for the Federation of Choirs of the Union, the choir I Piccoli Musici, based in Casazza and directed since its foundation by Mario Mora, was established in 1986, an expression of the music school of the same name. In its intense artistic activity, the choir has been invited to perform concerts at important international choral festivals and has received numerous awards. It has participated in concerts broadcast by RAI, Mediaset, Swiss TV and Radio: "Christmas in the Vatican" in the presence of John Paul II, "Christmas Notes", "Christmas in the Milan Cathedral", "Christmas Time". From 2007 to 2023, it performed the Christmas Concert with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, broadcast in Eurovision from the Basilica of Assisi. It has recorded works by Mendelssohn and Britten and a collection of International Songs and Melodies titled Around the world, the Christmas Vespers by Willaert, and a collection of Christmas songs for Stradivarius in Milan (judged by the French magazine “Repertoire” as the best Christmas album of the year 2000). It has also recorded a collection of songs for children and young people titled Giro, Giro Canto 3.

Donizetti like Atalanta? According to Umberto Orsini, there is a connection between the successes of the football team and the city's most important theater: the actor, one of the masters of Italian theater, now happily ninety years old, shared the applause with Franco Branciaroli from over 7,000 spectators who attended the eight performances from Saturday, December 7 to Sunday, December 15. Even in the last matinee performance on Sunday, the two great actors were repeatedly called back on stage. And with them the rest of the cast - Flavio Francucci, Chiara Stoppa, Eros Pascale, and Emanuela Saccardi - who, under the prestigious direction of Massimo Popolizio, brought Neil Simon's brilliant comedy The Sunshine Boys to Bergamo, the opening show of the 2024/2025 Prose Season of the Donizetti Theater Foundation. "The new Prose Season has started in the best possible way, driven by the 5,770 subscribers, over 11% more than the previous season," comments Massimo Boffelli, General Director of the Donizetti Theater Foundation, "The increase from seven to eight performances was necessary to reach and satisfy our ever-growing audience, who responded with enthusiasm." For Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director of the Prose Season and Other Paths, "The Sunshine Boys was the right show to start a new adventure. We are happy that the audience appreciated this proposal, and we are confident they will also enjoy the upcoming ones: the emotions have just begun." "There has always been a great audience in Bergamo, which has also increased in recent years. Today, in relation to the population, it is the most theatrical city in Italy," observes Umberto Orsini, who had been absent from Donizetti for about ten years, "In Bergamo, there are two important realities: Atalanta and Donizetti. I don't know if the two are related, but when a theater works, the football team also achieves success. Maybe because husbands go to the stadium while wives prefer to go to the theater... Jokes aside, today Atalanta is at the top of the league, and so is Donizetti. It's a wonderful record!" Franco Branciaroli, who had to wait only a few months to return to the Donizetti Theater after the success of " The Merchant of Venice last spring, expresses satisfaction: "It is a great pleasure to return to Donizetti: there is no other theater in Italy that can boast such a high number of subscribers. Here is one of the best audiences in all of Italy. In Rome, we do two weeks of performances, in Bergamo a little less. And this means that there is extraordinary work behind those who choose the shows and those who work within the theater itself. Thank you, Bergamo: we hope to see you again soon!"

Successfully inaugurated the Prose Season with The Irresistible Boys, the Donizetti Theatre Foundation now launches the Altri Percorsi series, as always a showcase of new theatrical realities in the name of experimenting with various languages. It begins on Thursday, December 19 at the Teatro Sociale (8:30 PM) with Re Lear is Dead in Moscow, winner of the “Theatrical Mass 2023” award, featuring the dramaturgy and direction of the Argentine César Brie, a prominent figure in research theatre, well known and appreciated by the Bergamo audience. On this occasion, César Brie himself will take the stage at the Sociale along with a group of young actors: Leonardo Ceccanti, co-author of the dramaturgy, Davide De Togni, Anna Vittoria Ferri, Michelangelo Nervosi, a former student of the Young Project of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation, Tommaso Pioli, Annalesi Secco, Laura Taddeo and Alessandro Treccani. Bodywork by Vera Dalla Pasqua. Costumes by Matteo Corsi. Lighting by César Brie and the ensemble. Music by Pablo Brie and the Yiddish tradition. Historical consultancy by Antonio Attisani. Co-production Isola del Teatro, Campo Teatrale and Teatro Dell’Elfo. Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes without intermission. At the end of the show, there will be a meeting with César Brie and the company coordinated by Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director of the Prose and Altri Percorsi Season. Re Lear is Dead in Moscow is also at the center of a series of thematic meetings, the last of which is scheduled for Wednesday, December 18 at the “M. Tremaglia” Music Hall of the Donizetti Theatre at 6:00 PM: Maria Grazia Recanati from the Polytechnic of the Arts of Bergamo - Accademia Carrara of Fine Arts will scrutinize the delicate relationships between figurative art and power, in terms of compromise, dissent, and collaboration. «Re Lear è morto a Mosca tells the story of the Jewish theater Goset, founded in Moscow in 1919 by director Aleksandr Granovsky and painter-scenographer Marc Chagall: the actor-directors who led it, Solomon Mikhoels and Veniamin Zuskin, were assassinated on Stalin's orders, thus decreeing the end of the Goset theater», says Maria Grazia Panigada, «It is a precious show from a theatrical point of view and of great civil reflection, and I am very pleased to emphasize that among the actors is Michelangelo Nervosi, one of the students of the past edition of the Young Project, whose show Vorrei che fosse amore was directed by César Brie. This is one of the many testimonies of the importance of the educational work carried out for Progetto Young together with Fabio Comana». The story of King Lear Died in Moscow takes place in a specific year, 1948. On January 13, in Minsk, a van hits and kills Solomon Michoels: all that remains of him is a wristwatch stopped at 10 PM, two daughters, and a wife. On the night between December 23 and 24, in Moscow, Venjamin Zuskin is kidnapped in his sleep, interrogated, tortured, and four years later executed by firing squad. The great Jewish Theater of Moscow, the Goset,

Thursday, December 12 at the Teatro Sociale in collaboration with Fondazione Polli Stoppani After the inauguration with Alessandro Quarta and his Five Elements, the Opera section of the 2024/2025 Theater Season of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti continues on Thursday, December 12, 2024, at the Teatro Sociale (8:30 PM) with another notable event. The protagonists will be two pianists of absolute value, Monica Leone and Michele Campanella, engaged in the interpretation, in the legendary transcription for two pianos by Franz Liszt, of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which this year marks the bicentennial of its first performance. The concert is organized in collaboration with the Fondazione Polli Stoppani, concluding its concert season promoted together with the Biblioteca Musicale de Sabata Ceccato. "The collaboration with the Fondazione Polli Stoppani gives a significant boost to our musical programming within the Theater Season," comments Massimo Boffelli, General Director of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, "and testifies to our openness towards those realities that, like us, contribute significantly to the cultural life of the city." Giovanni Gavazzeni, Artistic Director of the Fondazione Polli Stoppani series, emphasizes: "Events like the concert of the Leone - Campanella duo aim to strengthen the role of classical music as an element of cultural and social growth, involving both enthusiasts and those approaching this art form for the first time. The collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti is central to this vision: thanks to the synergy with such a prestigious institution, it is possible to create events capable of hosting internationally renowned artists." The piano duo formed by Monica Leone and Michele Campanella does not have an official birth date, but it is the natural development of the habit of playing together first as teacher and student, then as partners in music and life. It is the result of a shared mentality and approach to the piano from the beginning, as both grew up, at different times, in the school of Vincenzo Vitale. The ever-expanding repertoire includes music for four hands and two pianos, ranging from Bach to Bartok. Among the most performed pieces, in addition to a wide anthology of Schubert's four-hand music, are Ferruccio Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica, Beethoven/Liszt's Ninth Symphony, Stravinsky's Concerto for Two Pianos, Liszt's Dante Symphony, and Poulenc's Sonata. The duo's numerous and significant appearances and collaborations include: the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Sydney Opera House, the Coliseum in Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the Settimana Musicale Senese, the Sagra Umbra in Perugia, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence, the Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto, the Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti in Rome, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Rossini Opera Festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, Auckland in New Zealand, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia.

The board of directors of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, chaired by Giorgio Berta and composed of Emilio Bellingardi, Enrico Fusi, Elisabetta Ricchiuti, Roberta Sestini, Giovanni Thiella, and Alessandro Valoti, met today in Bergamo. On the agenda was the appointment of the new artistic director of the Donizetti Opera festival following Francesco Micheli's unavailability for renewal. The board unanimously appointed conductor Riccardo Frizza – musical director of the same festival since 2017 – as the new head of the opera festival dedicated to the Bergamo composer for the next three years. «It is a thoughtful and shared choice – declares President Berta – based on the history and successes of the festival, two indispensable values that see in the appointment of the Brescia maestro an element of continuity and continuous investment in the “cultural heritage” built over these ten years. I therefore renew my thanks to the outgoing director Micheli and congratulate Frizza on behalf of the entire Foundation, confident that he will further enhance the legacy of the Donizetti Opera». «I am honored to take on the artistic direction of the Donizetti Opera – underlines Riccardo Frizza. The last eight years as musical director of the festival have been an extraordinary experience, made possible by the trust of the entire Foundation – from the stage, to the offices, to the scientific section – as well as by a fruitful collaboration with Francesco Micheli, to whom I extend my thanks for marking a significant period for the city and its festival. Today, in the dual role of artistic and musical director, I embrace this new challenge with enthusiasm, aiming to project the Donizetti Opera into an increasingly broad international dimension. To achieve this, I am certain I can count on the renewed support of all those who have accompanied my activity as musical director over these years». A press conference will be convened shortly to outline the new artistic and musical direction guidelines. Riccardo Frizza (Brescia, 1971), musical director of the Donizetti Opera in Bergamo since 2017, is among the most acclaimed conductors of his generation, a regular guest at national and international theaters and festivals such as the Opéra de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera of New York, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Real, Rossini Opera Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Festival Verdi di Parma, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. Among the commitments of recent years stand out the 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 inaugurations of the Donizetti Opera festival with L’elisir d’amore, La favorite (Abbiati Award for Best Show of the Year), Il diluvio universale e Roberto Devereux, the Homage to Caruso with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, La clemenza di Tito at the Bilbao Opera, Le tre regine at the Teatro San Carlo, L’amico Fritz at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Maria Stuarda at the Teatro San Carlo, Simon

Si avvia alla conclusione la decima edizione del festival Donizetti Opera, realizzato a Bergamo dalla Fondazione Teatro Donizetti presieduta da Giorgio Berta, con la direzione generale di Massimo Boffelli, la direzione artistica di Francesco Micheli e quella musicale di Riccardo Frizza: grande festa al Teatro Donizetti venerdì 29 novembre per il dies natalis di Donizetti con una speciale edizione di “Citofonare Gaetano Amarcord”, una serata di parole, musica e immagini per ricordare i momenti e i temi fondamentali che hanno sostenuto le dieci edizioni, guidata dal direttore artistico Micheli e con tanti ospiti come Corrado Rovaris, Valentina Carrasco, Javier Camarena, Carmela Remigio, Roberto de Candia, Raffaella Lupinacci e Omar Mancini, oltre alle testimonianze di tanti collaboratori della manifestazione, del dramaturg Alberto Mattioli e del direttore musicale Riccardo Frizza. La decima edizione del Donizetti Opera ottiene nuovi importanti risultati in termini di presenze, incassi di pubblico, stampa e qualità artistica. Crescono quindi gli spettatori che, nel 2024 – quando ancora non sono chiuse le vendite per gli spettacoli di sabato e domenica – superano le 14.000 presenze, staccando il successo del 2023 (13.120) e i precedenti 2022 (12.484), 2021 (10.788), 2019 (10.293) e 2018 (8.491) e confermando l’attrattività del festival e la qualità della proposta artistica. A questi spettatori paganti se ne possono aggiungere altri 3.000 che hanno frequentato in queste settimane gli eventi gratuiti del festival. Anche gli incassi registrano un aumento superiore al 40% rispetto al 2023. «Sono commosso – sottolinea Francesco Micheli che lascia la direzione artistica – nel constatare che questo decennale, folle, rivoluzionario e pieno d’amore per Gaetano Donizetti, si chiude con un’edizione memorabile. Tre titoli diversi che declinano i tanti talenti del compositore di borgo Canale con spettacoli artisti animati dalla disperata vitalità del nostro maestro. Saluto la mia città, col cuore colmo e la testa alta». «Con questo decennio concludiamo un primo percorso che resterà nella storia del Festival Donizetti fondato da Francesco Micheli – dichiara il presidente della Fondazione Teatro Donizetti Giorgio Berta –. Decennio nel quale abbiamo costruito la base finanziaria per un'iniziativa che oggi conta su più del doppio delle risorse di dieci anni fa, una struttura organizzativa solida e una storia artistica costellata di successi importanti e di riconoscimenti unanimi. La decima edizione è stata il coronamento di una visione che vogliamo portare avanti: rigore economico, eccellenza artistica, partecipazione, ricerca scientifica. Siamo grati a Francesco Micheli per questo percorso indimenticabile, per il suo spirito indomito e per la sua competenza e lo aspettiamo a casa sua in veste di regista nella prossima produzione 2025 di Caterina Cornaro. A fine festival, i miei ringraziamenti vanno anche a tutti gli artisti, i tecnici, i professionisti e i tanti fornitori che, a vario livello, hanno collaborato con noi e che, in queste settimane, hanno profuso il loro impegno per ottenere i risultati che vi presentiamo e per far apprezzare ancora una volta le opere di Donizetti nel mondo». Nel corso di poco più di tre weekend, dal 14 novembre all’1 dicembre 2024, si è snodato quindi un programma di circa

The Prose Season of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti is about to start. From Saturday, December 7 to Sunday, December 15, The Sunshine Boys, the first of seven titles on the bill, will be staged, with eight performances each, until May 2025. The famous comedy by American Neil Simon will feature on stage, directed by Massimo Popolizio, two great masters of Italian theater, Umberto Orsini and Franco Branciaroli, alongside Flavio Francucci, Chiara Stoppa, Eros Pascale, and Emanuela Saccardi. Translation by Masolino D’Amico. Sets by Maurizio Balò. Costumes by Gianluca Sbicca. Lighting by Carlo Pediani. Sound by Alessandro Saviozzi. Produced by Teatro de Gli Incamminati, Compagnia Orsini, Teatro Biondo Palermo, in collaboration with CTB Centro Teatrale Bresciano and AMAT Associazione Marchigiana Attività Teatrali and Comune di Fabriano. Duration 2 hours including intermission. Showtimes: evening at 8:30 PM, except Monday 9; Sunday, December 8 and 15 at 3:30 PM. Inspired by the life of a famous vaudeville duo, Joe Smith and Charles Dale, The Sunshine Boys (original title The Sunshine Boys) debuted on Broadway in 1972 directed by Alan Arkin. Numerous and highly successful theatrical productions followed worldwide in the subsequent decades, and the 1975 film adaptation, with a screenplay by the same author, directed by Herbert Ross, starring Walter Matthau and George Burns, won multiple awards. In 1995, a television adaptation featured two major stars: Woody Allen and Peter Falk. The two main characters in Neil Simon’s comedy, rightly considered one of the greatest American writers of the last fifty years, are two elderly variety actors who worked together their entire lives, forming a duo known as “The Sunshine Boys.” After separating due to irreconcilable differences, they are called to reunite eleven years later for a television show that wants them together for one night to celebrate the history of American vaudeville. The two, with their different personalities, try to mend the rift that separated them for so many years in an attempt to revive a comedy act that made them famous. Old misunderstandings resurface more deeply rooted, and this difficult chemistry serves as a pretext for a game of brilliant comedy and profound melancholy. Certain exchanges and hilarious situations are not only sources of comedy but also offer a deeply tender look at the world of theater, which, when its creators are on the decline, shows all its human fragility. Umberto Orsini and Franco Branciaroli come together in The Sunshine Boys to bring this text, now a classic, back to life, attempting to capture everything that brings it closer to the theater of Beckett (Endgame) or even Chekhov (The Swan Song), rather than a work of pure entertainment. In this tribute to the world of actors, with their little delightful quirks and tragic miseries, they are joined by the direction of Massimo Popolizio, who finds in the two protagonists those companions with whom he has shared many of the most intense and significant experiences in Italian theater.

On Thursday, December 5, 2024, at the Teatro Sociale (8:30 PM), the 2024/2025 Theater Season of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti will commence, running until May 2025 and featuring the Prose Season and Other Paths (from December 7), Operetta, and a series of musical events. The season kicks off with music and a concert that bridges different soundscapes: The Five Elements: Earth Air Water Fire Ether, a project by violinist Alessandro Quarta, accompanied on this occasion by pianist Giuseppe Magagnino and the strings of the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra. The Five Elements is music without spatial-temporal boundaries, without genre or style limits. From the first notes, one senses a cinematic, evocative score, rich with images that forcefully present themselves to the listener. It is music full of colors, in a continuous contrast of light and shadow, with strong suggestions that whirl around. The project was conceived by the imaginative violinist Alessandro Quarta as a succession of visions where notes replace words. Earth is imagined as a lady whose voice, represented by a melancholic waltz played by the solo violin, is that of an old lady carrying millions of years on her shoulders. Next is Water, born from an image tied to a place very dear to the Salento musician: "The most important Eastern Gate of the Mediterranean, Otranto is the easternmost city in Italy, the first to see the sunrise, and where at five in the morning you smell the sea and see a sky tinged with red, towards the East." Water begins with a Middle Eastern theme on cellos: "Everything starts in the African desert from a drop of water that, before becoming the sea, is a stream, then a river, finally a stormy sea, wonderful. Then, like a rewind, the tape rewinds to return to the origins." Air, an apparently invisible element, is breath, wind, hurricane. Three chords, three motifs: E minor, G major, B major. The "seventeenth-century" style of dense, complex writing is recognizable: a three-voice fugue, progressions in the manner of Vivaldi. Fire begins with a Cuban tango: it is the fire of eros that fuels life, sexuality, it is the most overwhelming moment of the entire work. Finally, Ether, considered by the Greeks as the fifth element, and in The Five Elements the concluding piece that evokes a cold land. It evokes peace, tranquility, but the calm lasts only a moment and the music takes off again until the end of the work. Violinist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, Alessandro Quarta has musically grown with the greatest conductors in the world such as Maazel, Inbal, Dutoit, Rostropovich, Chung, Pretre, Metha, Morricone. At the same time, he has approached the crossover world collaborating with world-renowned artists, including Carlos Santana, Lucio Dalla, Mark Knopfler, Boy George, Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, Liza Minnelli, Joe Cocker, Lenny Kravitz, Jovanotti. In 2017, he was awarded in Montecitorio as the "Best Italian Excellence in the World" for music. His piece "Dorian Gray," composed, arranged, and performed live in a world premiere with Roberto Bolle at

Culture in dictatorial regimes: between propaganda and free art is the title of the series of three meetings preceding the performance of King Lear Died in Moscow, the show by Argentine César Brie which on Thursday, December 19 at the Teatro Sociale will open the Altri Percorsi series of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation. «King Lear Died in Moscow is a precious show from a theatrical point of view and of great civil reflection. Eight young artists led by Argentine director César Brie, including Michelangelo Nervosi, one of the boys from our Progetto Young, narrate on stage the story of the Jewish theater Goset founded in Moscow in 1919 by director Aleksandr Granovsky and painter-scenographer Marc Chagall. A theater admired by Gordon Craig, which Stalin destroyed by assassinating the actor-directors who led it, Solomon Mikhoels and Veniamin Zuskin. In the show, historical truth intertwines with the imaginative ability to transform simple objects, rhythms, movements, dances, and choirs into a surprising fresco of humanity», says Maria Grazia Panigada, Artistic Director of the Prose Season and Altri Percorsi. «King Lear Died in Moscow shows how dictatorial regimes, in this case, Stalin's, fear freedom», continues Panigada, «In the meetings, curated by experts in the individual sectors, a reflection on artistic languages – cinema, music, and visual arts – during dictatorships will be proposed, with the aim of offering historical knowledge, but also providing tools for decoding and understanding the languages and messages they can convey». Organized in collaboration with ISREC - Bergamasque Institute for the History of the Resistance and Contemporary Age, the meetings will all take place at 6:00 PM in the “M. Tremaglia” Music Hall of the Donizetti Theatre with free admission by reservation at the EventBrite links provided on the theater's website. It starts on Wednesday, December 4 with “ Art at the service of the regime. The regime at the service of art. Continuity and discontinuity of cinema between fascist propaganda and the immediate post-war period”, a meeting curated by Isrec with the participation of Luciana Bramati (Isrec) and Giorgio Giovanetti (Ferruccio Parri National Institute). In this first meeting, it will be reconstructed - through period materials - how fascism bent cinematographic art into a powerful propaganda tool, but at the same time how cinema took its revenge by raising a generation of authors who gave shape to the neorealism revolution. Exemplary is the case of Roberto Rossellini, author between 1941 and 1943 of the so-called Trilogy of Fascist War and then of Rome, Open City in 1945, which will be presented and analyzed. Wednesday, December 11 will be dedicated to music, with On the notes of a song. The cases of the “Song of the Deported”, Frida Misul's “Sad Songs” and “The Wind Whistles” . Relatori: Elisabetta Ruffini e Angelo Bendotti di Isrec. Nel corso dell’incontro si considererà quanto la musica possa approfondire lo studio della vita all’interno dei lager nazisti, sia dalla prospettiva dei carcerieri che da quella delle vittime. Da una parte l’uso delle orchestre nei