An evening exploring the influence of Italian Opera around the world.
While Italian opera swept across Europe during the seventeenth century, it was only at the beginning of the eighteenth century that it reached the London stage.
Handel’s Rinaldo (1711) was the first Italian opera written specifically for London, marking the beginning of a long and complex relationship between English audiences and what Samuel Johnson described as an “exotic and irrational” form of entertainment.
Drawing on works composed specifically for London, including Verdi’s I masnadieri, opera singer and director Barbara Diana will explore the influence of Italian opera on the cultural exchange between Italy and Great Britain.
Tuesday 25 August, 6.30 pm
At the new home of the Italian Cultural Institute London (4–5 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6JP)
Book your free place HERE
Barbara Diana is a British-Italian performer, writer and director. She holds a PhD from KCL London with a thesis on the dramaturgy of Benjamin Britten’s opera (published in London, 2011). She graduated from the Scuola di Filologia e Paleografia Musicale in Cremona with a thesis on Britten’s Death in Venice, published by De Sono as the first monograph in Italian on the British composer. She is an associated artist with Odd Eyes Theatre, a London based theatre company, and works as a coach in opera productions in the UK and in Europe. She has recently directed Verdi’s Falstaff at the Teatru Manoel in Valletta, Malta.