Italy Culture Minister To Visit Concert In St.Petersburg November 15- Theater Art Director

ST. PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2018) Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities Alberto Bonisoli is expected to attend a concert in St. Petersburg's Hermitage Theater on November 15, which will be part of the upcoming international cultural forum annually hosted by the Russian city, the theater's artistic director, Fabio Mastrangelo, who will conduct the orchestra at the concert, told Sputnik.

The St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum is an annual event that attracts thousands of experts in the field of culture from all over the world. Italy is an honorary guest country at this year's forum, slated for November 15-17.

"The music and exhibition event 'Prodigious Movement. The magic of ancient pianos. Paisiello and Cimarosa at the Court of Catherine II,' to be held at the Hermitage Museum during the 7th edition of the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, will introduce the public to a little-known aspect of the origins of the cultural relationship between Russia and Italy. The concert will be accompanied by an exhibition that will be opened by Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities Alberto Bonisoli in the foyer of the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg on November 15," Mastrangelo, the artistic director of the St. Petersburg State Music Hall Theater, said.

According to the event organizers, the project is aimed to highlight the close artistic and musical exchanges that took place between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the reign of Russian Empress Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great.

The symphony orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Music Hall Theater will perform excerpts from the works by Italian composers, Giovanni Paisiello and Domenico Cimarosa, of the XVIII century on the musical instruments that were gifted to the composers by Catherine the Great.

"The two 'square pianos,' gifted to the composers by the Empress, today owned by the Museum of Musical Instruments of the 'San Pietro a Majella' Music Conservatory, have been brought back to the Hermitage Theater in Russia for an exceptional concert performed by the Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Music Hall Theater, directed by maestro Fabio Mastrangelo and featuring the participation of some Italian musicians," Marc Inaro, one of the project's organizers, said.

He recalled that the extraordinary music event had two acclaimed previews in Italy earlier in October as a part of the Russian Seasons International project, when the Northern Sinfonia orchestra along with singers from both Italy and Russia thrilled the Italian audience with two performances in the Court Theater of the Royal Palace of Caserta and in the Naples Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella, which had restored and carefully preserved the instruments.

The unique bilateral project was prepared in cooperation with the Italian Cultural Association MetaMorfosi, the Italian Embassy in Moscow, the Italian Institute of Culture in St. Petersburg, the Naples Conservatory, the Music Hall Theater and the Hermitage Museum.