Music for a trip to Costantinople

Stefano Albarello, cetra, qānūn, baroque guitar and musical direction
Giovanni De Zorzi,  ney flute
Gianfranco Russo, viola d’amore (sine keman)
Peppe Frana, long neck lute, tanbūr

Music by A. Vivaldi, G.B. Martini, D. Cantemir and Ottomas anonymous

Tickets € 10
Reduced up to 30 years of age € 5

When the young Giacomo Casanova, overcome with despair and in tears, revealed the destination of his forced exile from Rome to Cardinal Acquaviva, he said nothing more than: “Constantinople!” He would later admit that he did not know why he had chosen that destination, nor can we say for certain whether he fully grasped where he was going or what awaited him. Yet we can certainly affirm that Constantinople was not an obscure or unknown place—especially to Venetians; for many, it was a place to seek a better fortune, particularly after suffering a premature fall from grace, as was the case with Casanova.
This evening’s program is conceived as a soundtrack accompanying Giacomo Casanova as he sets sail, with the nostalgic echoes of a Vivaldi composition resonating in his mind; we imagine him, throughout the journey, immersing himself in the sounds of Ottoman Greece until he arrives in great Constantinople, with its court music.