Isabella Canali Andreini was the one who really started the profession of actress, ennobling this often discredited and opposed profession. Besides, her name, Isabella, coincides with a specific character of the Commedia dell’Arte, that of the “Innamorata” or “l’Amorosa”, such was her skill in giving depth and credibility to the characters she played on stage.
Will we be able to see soon a new Baroque theatre here in Venice according to the wonderful project presented by Paul Atkin last year? It would be superb. In the meanwhile we are happy about the reopening of the Malibran theatre after the recent lockdown. Its name used to be a different one a long time ago.
On this occasion, I would like to take you on a brief trip across the history of the Malibran Theatre and of the extraordinary singer who gave it its name in 19th century, Maria de la Felicidad Malibran
Do you like music? Do you like to see how it is miraculously produced? The Museum of Musical Instruments of the Venice Conservatory displays a number of musical instruments, nice to look at yet more or less mysterious to the non-expert eye. Observing them, though, might open a glimmer of light and, maybe… pierce through darkness…
Music almost dates back to the time men and women first appeared on Earth, but it is only in Medieval times that paintings started suggesting Heaven was even more beautiful with angel musicians playing music. At the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, we can see how ancient instruments (for which paintings often provide rare testimonies) were originally only played by angels, followed by brothers during processions and religious festivities and later also by poets or simple musicians.
Pietà is a truly moving institution that has existed ever since it was first established in 1346 to help those children – initially exclusively from poor families – who were abandoned in the streets of Venice, a city that suffered from this plague like many others.
But it is also touching for its extraordinary developments, both involving or not involving music, connected to private and public generosity and, at the same time, for teaching its “daughters” a lot thanks to the work of composers and musicians such as Vivaldi who dedicated almost forty years of his life to them.
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