Carnegie Hall has organized a festival dedicated to the music and arts of the Venetian Republic – La Serenissima, or “Most Serene Republic.” The Republic grew from Byzantine settlements in a lagoon to a great maritime power and commercial center that was essentially a crossroads between East and West. It flourished for over one thousand years until it fell to Napoleon in 1797. The festival traces the cultural evolution of the Republic with a series of Venetian-themed events of concerts, opera, theater, art and lectures that are taking place at Carnegie Hall but also in other venues.
Tag: art (page 2 of 7)
A lovely exhibition at the Frick showcases the drawings of Andrea del Sarto, the Florentine sixteenth century artist. The show highlights the creative process and the role of drawing in the Renaissance workshop. The drawings on view at the Frick span del Sarto’s career. They are amazingly nuanced and mostly in red and black chalk. Possibly the most striking drawings are the various head studies, amongst which are the Study for the Head of Julius Caesar – most elegant – and the expressive Study for the Head of Saint John the Baptist. Also in the exhibition are three finished paintings, including a masterful (the draping of the sleeve – wow!) Portrait of a Young Man and an innocent yet sensuous Saint John the Baptist from Palazzo Pitti.
Glassblowing as a technical breakthrough in the making of glass occurred in the first century BC. Glass vessels could thus be made more easily and new shapes and decorations were produced. Inflating glass in molds that were carved with designs created vessels of varying shapes with complex decorations in relief on their surfaces. Ennion, probably from Sidon in today’s Lebanon, was a master craftsman in one of the earliest glass workshops in the first century AD. He was among the first glassmakers to incorporate his name into the inscription in the mold’s design and his pieces were well-known and popular. His vessels have been found all over the ancient Roman world leading to the conclusion that they were traded throughout the Mediterranean. Today there are just over 50 known pieces by Ennion in collections. A small exhibition at the Metropolitan museum gathers 24 of them, many still intact, and highlights their delicacy, sophistication and timelessness. The show includes pieces by other makers of the period and is all together informative and beautiful.
The composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was born into a musical family: his father was a musician and his mother an opera singer. He enrolled in music school in 1806 and was already composing operas as a very young man. He is probably best-known for his comic operas such as Il barbiere di Siviglia – despite its opening night in 1816 being a famous fiasco. Most of his later compositions, however, were in the opera seria tradition. He wrote many of these for Naples’ Teatro San Carlo and La donna del lago (1819) was among them. The story is based on a poem written by Sir Walter Scott in 1810. The setting is Scotland during a rebellion by highland clans against King James V who is wandering the countryside disguised as Hubert. He meets Ellen, the daughter of one of his enemies. She’s in love with one man, her father has promised her to another, the disguised king seems to be making advances on her, there’s a battle and, strangely enough, it all ends happily. It’s a romantic story and the music is lush and melodious. The Metropolitan Opera is now staging its first production of this opera starring (the fabulous) Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez. You can see it on various dates through the next few weeks at the opera house itself or at a movie theater: the March 14th matinee will be simulcast.
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