The 45th edition of the Festival della Valle d’Itria will be entirely dedicated to Paolo Grassi in the centenary year of his birth (with a series of initiatives for the occasion) and it is heralded as amongst the most lavish and interesting ever. The musical programme is entitled “Albori e bagliori. Napoli e Europa: il secolo d’oro”, or “Brilliant Dawns. Naples and Europe: the golden century“, and outlines an homage to Naples, to its school of music and to its international prestige.

Domenico Cimarosa‘s masterpiece, Il matrimonio segreto, will be performed at the Palazzo Ducale, as well as the lesser known Ecuba by Nicola Antonio Manfroce. This last with the Festival musical director Fabio Luisi at the podium. The staging for both pieces will be entrusted to one of the great masters of Italian theatre, Pier Luigi Pizzi, whose signature style is deeply allied to the ideal of “beautiful simplicity” which both distinguishes Classicism and draws from that most precious heritage. At the same scenario which is to welcome the two works at the Palazzo Ducale, a third work – in semi-scène format –  will be staged – Orfeo, a pastiche by the Neapolitan Nicola Porpora.

The Neapolitan context also entertains due to the most valued initiative of the “Opera in Masseria“, with as “intermezzo napoletano” by Leonardo Vinci, which will be staged in various locations for 5 evenings.

The students of the Academy of Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti” on the other hand, will be players in an arts project completely devised by themselves. Also confirmed, the Junior Festival initiative, an appointment with sacred music in the Basilica di San Martino, and the “Rodolfo Celletti” prize award, now in its tenth edition.