Name: Italy is Opera
Start: 2025-10-17T20:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-10-18T22:00:00+02:00
Location: malaga

Italy is Opera

Event details

Sala Fundación Unicaja María Cristina Calle Marqués de Valdecañas, 2, Málaga,, malaga, malaga

17 October 2025 until 18 October 2025

# Málaga

Italy's passion for its most globally recognized musical genre, the birthplace of scenic passions and great composers and singers who have given it universality, dates back to its early beginnings in Venice in the 17th century. Our passion is to continue our project of spreading Italian opera in our city. Following the successes of TUTTO PUCCINI, 100 ANNI DE PUCCINI, and last year's LA MUSA DE PUCCINI, we propose you enjoy an operatic challenge by experiencing a unique program that traverses the most brilliant history of Italian opera. We start with Bel Canto, the Italian vocal technique of the 18th century, emphasizing the beauty of sound and brilliance of performance over dramatic expression or romantic emotion. These operas often feature emotionally rich lyrical melodies that showcase the vocal abilities and dramatic expression of the singer.

We traverse its musical history up to Verismo, where it breaks with orthodox singing trends, including shouts or speeches when the narrative warranted it, introducing the recitative aspect within the operatic piece. All characters involved in a veristic piece have the same dramatic weight and an equal amount of sung intervention, as there are not one but many protagonists. The neutral position of the veristic narrator does not influence with opinions or morals, as the thoughts and feelings of the characters are given by the action and their speeches. Thus, opinions, prejudices, and conclusions represent a subsequent step that is left to the viewer.

What was intended to be the voice of the people was performed directly without pretensions or ornaments, so that the identification of the listener was fundamental in the popularization of a genre of singing that now people could feel much closer to. By endowing a histrionic character in the performance of singing, Italian verismo delicately and unintentionally fused bel canto with theater and marked a before and after in the history of opera. Once we know each style and its protagonists, the history, the music, and the technique, it was our turn to decide how to face a formidable challenge, such as uniting the two styles in a single concert, with as complete a program as possible. Verismo is a step further that Italian and subsequently universal opera demanded. From a style based solely on the voice, its technique, beauty, and brilliance (Bel Canto), it advances to take this as a fundamental basis to create a more theatrical style closer to the public. Our first step is to study the works of the most relevant composers of each style, determine who are essential in a unique concert, and which arias from those works must be included to find musical and operatic excellence.

The next step is to find a unique program with the most important protagonists, Donizetti, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Bellini, Verdi, and Puccini. And to perform it, we will make a selection of singers who meet our quality standards, and we will bring it to the public in a format closer to them, such as the piano. We believe that the ideal space on this occasion is the Sala María Cristina of the Fundación Unicaja, and our social commitment must be linked to that already carried out by the Brotherhood of the Bridge and the Dove.

Artistic Cast: