Donizetti Education
SCHOOL OF HIGH SCHOOL.

The cultural heritage constituted by the music of the past and of a great composer such as Gaetano Donizetti must be enhanced by continuing to dialogue with the present. A privileged place for this dialogue can only be the school, a fundamental junction between the past and the future.
For the 2024/2025 school year, we have thought of an even more varied and articulated proposal for compulsory schools.
First and foremost are the participatory performances, which include moments of audience interaction with singing and small objects made at school. The shows with puppets by Daniele Cortesi, for first and second grade, and participatory opera for everyone.
There is no shortage of workshops and guided tours of all the Foundation’s evocative places: the Donizetti Theater, the Teatro Sociale and the house where our Gaetano was born in the upper city.
There will be two unmissable events:
on November 29, 2024, Donizetti’s birthday, but also the centenary of Puccini’s death, we will do a flashmob in Piazza Vecchia with all secondary school students who want to. The biggest surprise is Don Pasquale, the participatory opera will be staged at the Donizetti Theater and no longer at the Teatro Sociale, to allow all the boys and girls to get to know our larger theater as well and to facilitate travel around the city. There will also be no shortage of performances for families, to allow parents to enjoy the magic of theater through their sons and daughters and especially following a school experience.

We are also expecting all teachers on October 19 for an intensive training day at the Donizetti Theater. The course is conducted in collaboration with the Bergamo Territorial School Office.

Educational projects for preschools, primary and secondary schools

Opera can be a dual resource being an opportunity both for knowledge in the most didactic sense of the term and for personal education and experience. Its didactic value, which makes it unique and unparalleled, is that of being the result of the interaction between different linguistic and communicative codes (musical, iconic, literary), lending itself, therefore, for interdisciplinary confrontation with school didactics. The educational value, then, lies in its subject matter: the work stages human stories and events and with them the joys, sorrows, achievements and desires of man, told through the words and gestures of the protagonists of the works. From time to time their emotions, their thoughts are narrated and, in this sense, opera is at the service of that emotional education of children, which is promoted in the school environment today. This is the new direction that moves the proposals of Donizetti Educational: emphasizing the figure of Donizetti as a Master of Emotions and enhancing the multidisciplinary nature intrinsic in opera itself.

Donizetti Educational. Digital Experience

Educational project for Primary and Secondary Schools in Bergamo and Province.

Donizetti educational. Digital experience is the new digital initiative dedicated to Gaetano Donizetti and intended for the world of schooling. It will be for the first time free of charge and entirely in digital format, to provide support and a concrete contribution at such difficult stages in the educational journey of the youngest. Donizetti’s theater and music are intended to be a resource for schools. Thus, fundamental tools will be made available for an original and age-appropriate itinerary to discover the new Donizetti Theater , which, as soon as possible, will reopen its doors to welcome the public: such a fundamental moment for the Foundation and the City must be prepared and shared with the youngest. This is a way to introduce students to the city theater, its history, innovations and changes brought about by the restoration.

The course, from April 6, 2021 until the end of the school year, is differentiated according to school cycle and includes a three-part documentary video at the restored Donizetti Theater, combined with a package of educational activities that will provide a true educational experience to learn about Donizetti and the world of theater.

Meetings can be run independently by teachers with full digital support delivered through Gsuite_Classroom platform.

Each meeting includes:
– video documentary of the restored Donizetti Theater;
– video comprehension quiz;
– in-depth material (Video for elementary / .ppt for middle and high school);
– an activity sheet based on listening to songs and sound tracks. Topics:
1) The theater (when it was born, where it is located, how it is made, the parts of which it is composed…)
2)The house of opera (What is opera, the artists, the libretto…)
3) Gaetano and his trustees (Who is Gaetano, Donizetti in Bergamo, the operas…) Donizetti ON
For high school students, through their teachers, a 50% discount coupon for the visit can be activated at the end of the course.

The proposal is for all primary and secondary schools in Bergamo and Province. Each registered contact teacher can register their class group for the digital visit experience by filling out the form below. To access the activity Donizetti Educational. Digital Experience : – iscrizione attraverso il form;
– attivazione di un account didattica;
– accesso a Classroom.

OPERAS AND PERFORMANCES

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL

Don Pasquale, the great game of love

Participatory opera, reduced and adapted for compulsory schools based on Don Pasquale by G. Donizetti.
Adapted and directed by Manuel Renga
Musical reduction Alberto Zanardi
THE SHOW.
Starting from Donizetti’s inspiration, we structured the project from the masks of the commedia dell’arte in order to ride the playful soul of this opera and delve into the theme of play as the driving force behind all the action.
The show will be a reduction of the original opera to which Harlequin (Don Pasquale’s servant) and Colombina (Norina’s servant) will be added. The two masks, together with Ernesto and Norina will construct a grand prank on old Don Pasquale, who is guilty of obstructing their love. As in the Goldonian tradition, the servants will be narrators of the events that the audience will not see directly.
TEACHER TRAINING
Free training course led by the director and teaching office, during which all teachers (not just those in music subjects) will be introduced to the work and the activities that will make students the protagonists of the performance, through sung songs, disguises and objects built in the classroom.
  • PLACE: Donizetti Theater
  • DATES:
    primary:     Nov. 22, 2024 – 9:30 a.m. // Nov. 25, 2024 – 9:30 a.m. // Nov. 26, 2024 – 11 a.m.
    secondary: Nov. 22, 2024 – 11:30 a.m. // Nov. 25, 2024 – 11:30 a.m. // Nov. 26, 2024 – 9 a.m.
  • TEACHER TRAINING: October 19, 2024 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Donizetti Theater
  • SHOW LENGTH: 1 hour
  • COST: € 11 including ticket and educational materials

PRIMARY SCHOOL (1st and 2nd grades)

Gaetano, Gioppino e l’Elisir d’amore

Dramaturgy, texts and puppets by Daniele Cortesi
With Daniele Cortesi and his puppets
Tenor Giovanni Dragano
Accordionist Gino Zambelli
Verse by Felice Romani
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
THE SHOW.
Daniele Cortesi’s play tries to explain, with freedom and imagination, how the inspiration for composing L’elisir d’amore might have originated in Gaetano Donizetti, and it ventures the not impossible friendship between the composer Gaetano Donizetti and the character of Gioppino Zuccalunga, both from Bergamo and both born in the late 18th century. The story takes place in Bergamo, in places dear to his fellow citizens: the charming Piazza Vecchia and the beautiful theater that, many years later, was dedicated to the Bergamasque musician himself. To comment live on the scenes, the most famous arias from L’Elisir, played live and sung by a tenor, provide an evocative accompaniment. A truly choral comedy, in which the characters of Gaetano Donizetti and his future wife Virginia play the roles of Nemorino and Adina, respectively, the protagonists of the melodramma giocoso L’elisir d’amore. Gaetano Donizetti, a young and very shy composer, falls in love with the beautiful Virginia who, like him, adores music. His friend Gioppino incites the composer to declare his love, perhaps dedicating a sweet serenade to the girl, but…
CLASSROOM WORKSHOP
The very young audience participates in a 90-minute in-school workshop in preparation for the opera to learn the choruses.
  • PLACE: Ridotto Gavazzeni – Donizetti Theater
  • DATE: April 2, 2025 – 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
  • DURATION: 90 minutes – workshop // 1 hour – performance
  • COST: € 11 including workshop, ticket and teaching materials

PRIMARY SCHOOL (1st and 2nd grades)

Tano di Lammermoor

A project by Manuel Renga and Simone Dini Gandini
Dramaturgy by Simone Dini Gandini
Directed by Manuel Renga
With Daniele Cortesi and his puppets
And with Leonardo Moroni, Roberto Dibitonto, Francesca Longa
Musical supervision by Alberto Zanardi
THE SHOW.
Little Tano (a very young Gaetano Donizetti) is 7 years old and has a stormy temper. A quarrel with his parents is just around the corner: this time the cause of his anger is his refusal to eat spinach and his demand to eat only and exclusively cake. So what? To bed without dinner.
So far nothing new in the Donizetti household, but what’s going on in Tano’s bedroom?
The young musician vents all his anger on his toys: he puts on his daddy’s jacket, draws a mustache and starts giving orders left and right. He forces the beautiful Lucia (a beautiful puppet) to marry the villainous Lord Bucklaw (a puppet with a wicked grin), forces the Colonel (a Scottish puppet with a multi-decorated grin) to guard Lammermoor Castle, and finally charges his musician puppet, forcing him to play continuously.
But the toys have a secret: they are alive! Until now, the Rule of Rules had never been violated; it dictates that no toy can be seen alive by human children.
After a series of vicissitudes and anguish, the rule is broken and Gaetano finds himself talking, reasoning and arguing with his toys: together with them he will go on a journey of growth that will lead him to understand that obligations and deception are never a good idea and that everyone has rights but also duties.
So while eating (not without effort) spinach, he will allow Lucia to meet and marry her lover Edgardo. Who knows if, impressed by the magical events of that night, Tano will decide to devote himself to music and write a beautiful opera dedicated precisely to Lucia di Lammermoor.
CLASSROOM WORKSHOP
The very young audience participates in a 90-minute classroom workshop in preparation for the opera to learn the choruses.
  • PLACE: Ridotto Gavazzeni – Donizetti Theater
  • DATE: April 20 and 21, 2025 – 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
  • DURATION: 90 minutes – workshop // 1 hour – performance
  • COST: € 11 including workshop, ticket and teaching materials

SECONDARY SCHOOL

Love in the time of Gaetano

An actress-singer and an accordion, between storytelling and reinterpreted Donizetti arias
Text and voice Silvia Lorenzi
Accordion Fausto Beccalossi
Costumes Francesco Tagliarini
Historical-biographical advice Clelia Epis
THE SHOW.
“I was born a farmer and I will die a farmer, I feel like a farmer, I am proud of that, but in my life there is so much more than the land, I have done so many things, met so many people. Among them I remember well Gaetano, who could give his thoughts, his hopes, his dreams. I loved him right away, because what he was telling me was the future, what I thought I could not have…”
This is just the incipit of a narrative moment that talks about Gaetano Donizetti through the voice of a woman of the time, willing to do anything to survive, a woman who does not give up love, who looks for it in every corner, a woman who does not have Gaetano’s talent, but who has an emotional talent, a great emotional intelligence, which helps her survive never losing her dignity. A woman who is all of Donizetti’s heroines, whom she playfully plays out of love for her composer. A woman who survived also thanks to her encounter with Gaetano, a man not only to be loved, but a master of life: a man who was able to redeem himself from his humble birth, and who then conquered the whole world and forever.
  • PLACE: Ridotto Gavazzeni – Donizetti Theater
  • DATES: April 1, 2025 – 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
  • COST: € 11 including ticket and educational materials

VISITING AND LABORATORY ACTIVITIES

November 29: Happy birthday Gaetano!

To celebrate Gaetano Donizetti’s 227th birthday, the Donizetti Theater Foundation is organizing many activities to bring more and more boys and girls closer to the artistic and human figure of our great composer from Bergamo.
  • A BERGAMASQUE IN EUROPE: NOMADIC LIFE OF GAETANO DONIZETTI, A 19TH CENTURY COMPOSER.
A workshop to discover Donizetti, which takes place between Casa Natale and the Donizetti Museum.
The activity alternates narrative and workshop moments, to allow children and young people to learn about the life of our composer, the historical context in which he worked and facilitate a reflection on the theme of travel, thanks to the many testimonies that the museum offers.
The workshop is available on Nov. 29, 2024 at 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. departing from Donizetti’s birthplace and ending at the Donizetti Museum (duration 2 hours) with a cost of €100 per class.
  • VISIT TO THE BIRTHPLACE OF GAETANO DONIZETTI
Visit by reservation only. Cost per student is € 3 – without guided tour.
  • BASILICA OF SAINT MARY MAJOR
Those who visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and Donizetti’s tomb can leave a message of good wishes for Gaetano.
  • L‘MUSICAL ELEVATION IN THE BASILICA OF SAINT MARY MAJOR
An official celebration that, like every year, dedicates an institutional moment to the man who carried Bergamo’s name around the world through his eternal and universal music. The conservatory ensemble will play a dedicated program and high school students will read their letters to Gaetano.
The elevation is scheduled for November 29, 2024 at 11:15 a.m. (tentative time). Participation is free of charge.
  • DONIZETTI AND PUCCINI
On November 29, 1924 Giacomo Puccini died, we cannot fail to remember two great protagonists of our country’s musical history. That’s why all the boys and girls from music-oriented secondary schools are invited to a festive moment in Piazza Vecchia, with a flash mob in which we will sing some choruses of our Gaetano and Puccini.

Meet Gaetano

Taking a cue from Gaetano’s life, the places and habits of the young musician, we are immersed in a musical, historical, visual, vocal and bodily experience all to be experienced in the first person.
Ti presento Gaetano is a project that links the discovery of Donizetti’s Città Alta and the places where he grew up to a musical and vocal workshop. A double journey to discover Gaetano as a master of emotions.
The interactive visit to Casa Natale and Teatro Sociale, exclusively open, comes alive with narrative moments both about the figure of the composer and the world of opera. A real journey possible thanks to the urban layout of the Upper Town still identical to that of Gaetano’s time.
The workshop starting with vocal and body tuning leads participants to sing and stage short pieces of famous Operas by Gaetano Donizetti. The proposals are structured to accommodate children of different age groups from kindergarten to Primary and Secondary school.
The experience includes access to Casa Natale and Teatro Sociale based on space availability and at the discretion of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation.
  • PLACE: Birthplace and/or Social Theater (depending on space availability)
  • DATES: January to May 2025 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
  • DURATION: 3 hours
  • COST: € 100 per class (up to 2 classes at a time)

Meet the Donizetti

For more than two centuries, the Donizetti Theater has not only been a container for performances, or a building in Lower Bergamo, but it is part of the city’s identity, it is the space of a collective history. A story to be told and to feel part of. I’ll introduce you to the Donizetti is a journey into the history and environments of the renovated Donizetti Theater, but also into the varied world of the Theater as a whole. The tour includes access to the Historic Foyer, the Theatre Hall, the Ridotto Gavazzeni, the boxes and the Sale Nobili. In the background is the figure of Gaetano Donizetti and the events that led to the city’s most important theater being named after him. The history of the theater is interwoven with the many stories of those who stand behind the scenes or on stage: singers, orchestral players, stagehands, electricians, hairdressers, tailors and many others. In the tour, not only the ability to listen is stimulated, but also the ability to observe with a special focus directed toward the beauty of the decorations and environments. Space is reserved for the illustration of the recent restoration and some of the most significant innovations: useful information to convey the idea of the Theater as something alive and constantly being updated. A place, then, where not only to attend as spectators to performances and concerts but a space for relationships and encounters, as it has always been from the boxes to the Ridotto. It is a spatial journey, but not only, it can in fact touch emotions because the Theater itself is emotion.
  • PLACE: Tetro Donizetti (1 class at a time)
  • DATES: January to May 2025
  • DURATION: 1 hour and 20 minutes
  • COST: € 100 per class (up to 2 classes at a time)

Lucia here

From an idea of Clelia Epis
The Foundation’s iconographic archive opens to educational projects. Of particular quality and breadth is the one on Lucia di Lammermoor…in short, Lucia is special here! The wide endowment of iconographic material makes it possible to reconstruct the visual world related to such an iconic performance, between iconographic comparisons and other insights. A proposed visit to the theater spaces related to Lucia di Lammeroor and the great protagonists who brought her to the stage is planned, with an interactive workshop. During the workshop, original materials will be shown: a real plus for children and audiences now accustomed only to digital reproduction. Certainly exciting will be the contact with unique pieces to be appreciated in their size, in the specificity of the materials, in the history that they carry appreciate marked by time.

  • ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WORKSHOP
After a brief presentation of the opera, during the workshop participants (in gaming form) are invited to reconstruct the plot of Lucia di Lammermoor and recognize its characters through the use of archival images. This is followed by a reworking part through the choice of key words and the production of an original commentary on the large book dedicated to collecting Le voci di Lucia.
  • SECONDARY SCHOOL LABORATORY
After a brief presentation of the opera, during the workshop participants (in the form of timed gaming ) are invited to reconstruct the plot (through sketches and scene photos) of Lucia di Lammermoor and recognize the characters through the use of archival images. Gaming continues with questions about the character’s kinship, ties, family, role. Also interesting is the exercise on the stagings that have given life to Lucia di Lammermoor over time; through them the children will be stimulated to notice how over the decades sets, staging, acting have changed. This is followed by a reworking part through the choice of key words and the production of an original commentary on the large book dedicated to collecting The Voices of Lucia.
  • PLACE: Donizetti Theater
  • DURATION: 3 hours
  • DATES: January to May 2025
  • COST: € 100 per class (up to 2 classes at a time)

Il gufo investigatore

Donizetti you can with get to know all year round. The detective owl, part treasure hunt, part outdoor escape room, is an activity in Città Alta with the aim of learning about Donizetti’s places, discovering four key words to create a new story to set to music.
The activity can be carried out completely independently at the discretion of teachers or even families.
More information
  • PLACE: Upper Town
  • DURATION: 1 to 2 hours
  • DATES: at the discretion of the group
  • COST: free of charge

TEACHER TRAINING

“Donizetti Education” training day 2024|2025

Project carried out in collaboration with Territorial School Office

For many years, the Donizetti Theater Foundation has offered training sessions for teachers of schools of all levels, from kindergarten to high school.
Educational meetings have always been held in extracurricular hours, using in-person and online workshops and lectures, and often making use of particle sessions in singing and music, as well as manual skills for the lower school orders and in collaboration with ATS and psychological operators and educators for adolescents, aiming for multidisciplinarity and fluency of skills. Participation has always been very high, especially among compulsory school teachers who numbered 150 in the current school year. The training sessions have always been designed in preparation for students’ participation in the performances offered by the Donizetti Theater Foundation, with the aim of providing teachers with the teaching tools and notions to then be able to personally work in the classroom with their students. In recent years, however, the need has arisen to expand the educational offerings for teachers, creating an opportunity for them as potential users of the Foundation’s artistic proposals, but also as protagonists in the education of young audiences.

For this reason, for the 2024/2025 school year, the Donizetti Theater Foundation has decided to offer an intensive day of unified training, aimed at all teachers of all grade levels, with the purpose of providing notions and teaching tools to all teachers who intend to broaden their interest in opera and Gaetano Donizetti. At the same time, the course will provide suggestions for being able to pass on some skills to students.
The course will be a single day, for the total duration of 8 hours in which there will be moments dedicated to all, and specific moments for each school order.
Participation will be totally free, and printed and digital educational materials will be provided.
Attendance at the course does not include compulsory class enrollment in the Donizetti Theater Foundation’s performances and educational projects; it is intended to be an opportunity for teachers to study and deepen their knowledge regardless of the actual impact on their classes. This decision stems from the desire to involve teachers first and foremost as privileged interlocutors and bearers of culture to the new generations, in accordance with the guidelines of the Foundation’s statute.
  • PLACE: Music Hall “M. Tremaglia” – Donizetti Theater
  • DATE: October 19, 2024 – 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  • DURATION: full day
  • COST: free of charge

PLANNING

Opera Tomorrow

Opera Domani is AsLiCo ‘s Italian platform that promotes passion for opera in young audiences. The Donizetti Theatre Foundation hosts annual performances for the musical and opera education of children and young people, fun educational paths between school and theater.

SHOW

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL

Acquaprofonda is a contemporary opera with original music by Giovanni Sollima to a libretto by Giancarlo De Cataldo, which the Teatro Sociale di Como – AsLiCo commissioned, in co-production with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. This opera for children and young people in primary and secondary schools addresses the highly topical issue of water pollution.

A beach, a humble cottage, a massive factory: the everyday life of our paladin Serena, her father, the Guardian, and Master Buu, the factory owner, is disrupted by the arrival of a giant sea creature. Thanks to the help of the Old Sailor, Serena will be able to convince her father to act correctly, and will help the whale get rid of the much plastic in its belly, remitting to Master Buu the polluting waste from his business.

Watch the trailer for the show

  • PLACE: Social Theater
  • DATES: April 3 and 4 – 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (4 performances)
  • COST:
    – € 12 (€ 7 booklet + € 5 show ticket)
    – € 15 (€ 7 booklet + € 5 show ticket + € 3 extra meeting with singer).
  • MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION

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