Palazzo Zabarella in Padua is host to an exhibition devoted to the artist Giuseppe De Nittis (1846 -1884). On loan from public collections in Italy and France, 120 masterpieces are on view.  Curated by Emanuela Angiuli and Fernando Mazzocca, the event organised by the Bano Foundation of Padua and the Antonveneta Foundation constitutes a further stage in the ten-year programme of exhibitions about nineteenth-century Italian art whose previous milestones have included Hayez, Boldini, Signorini, the Macchiaioli painters and Symbolism in Italy, among others.

Arranged in chronological sections, the exhibition also features a closer look at the period when De Nittis underwent his training, which in his case was in Naples. It was here that he found himself identifying with nature, transposing onto his canvas what he called “atmosphere”, whose character changed as the seasons matured and the hours of the day passed by. As the artist himself wrote in his Taccuino, or book of memoires: “I was sometimes happy to get caught in an unexpected rainstorm. Because, believe me, I know the atmosphere very well and I’ve painted it many times. I know all its colours and all the most intimate secrets of the nature of the air and the sky”.

The exhibition highlights the style of an artist who reflected the spirit of his age, which he captured from the exceptionally favourable vantage point of Paris in the period whens the Second Empire was drawing to a close and the Third Republic was embarking on a new fin-de-siècle high society. The Paris and the London we find depicted by De Nittis are radically different from the ones familiar to us from other painters of the day. Between 1864 and 1884, the artist painted a series of masterpieces, on show in Padua, depicting locations identifiable with the legend of modernity.

Furnishing a detailed reconstruction of the artist’s critical fortunes, based on such exceptional evidence as De Nittis’ own memories and his friend Edmond de Goncourt’s celebrated Journal, the exhibition catalogue – published by Marsilio – sets out to explain the reasons for his success in the international art market and among major collectors, but also on the scene of the exclusive high society that responded to his charm as a host and to his ability to entertain, by making his Parisian home a rendezvous for artists and intellectuals of the calibre of Zola, Oscar Wilde, Daudet, Dumas fils, the Goncourt brothers, Manet and Degas.

Manet: Return to Venice is the name of the exhibition  in the monumental rooms of the Doge’s Palace. Curated by Stéphane Guégan, with the scientific direction of Guy Cogeval and Gabriella Belli, the show includes some 80 paintings, drawings and prints, and has been planned with the special collaboration of the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, which possesses the largest number of masterpieces by this extraordinary painter.

According to its curatorial proposition, the exhibition arises from a need to undertake a critical survey of the cultural models that inspired the young Manet when he embarked on a career as painter early in life. These models, which have hitherto referred almost exclusively to the influence of Spanish painting on his art, actually included much Italian Renaissance art, as the Venetian exhibition will show: alongside his masterpieces, there will also be a series of exceptional studies inspired by great 16th-century Venetian paintings, from Titian to Tintoretto and Lotto in particular.

The exhibition layout, which guides the visitor past great masterpieces, such as Le fifre (1866), La lecture (1865-73), Le balcon (1869), Portrait de Mallarmé (ca. 1876) drawn from his entire artistic life, opens with a series of free interpretations of Old Masters, frescos and sculptures, which Manet saw during his first two journeys to Italy in 1853 and 1857.

The catalogue is published by Skira-Milan with texts by: Roberto Calasso, Guy Cogeval, Stéphane Guégan, Gabriella Belli, Flavio Fergonzi and Cesare De Seta.

Curated by the artist himself in collaboration with Elena Geuna, the exhibition Rudolf Stingel unfolds over the atrium and both upper floors of Palazzo Grassi, a space of over 5,000 square meters. For the first time, Palazzo Grassi is devoting the entirety of its space to the work of a single artist. It includes a site-specific installation as well as recent creations and previously unseen paintings. This is Stingel’s largest ever monographic presentation in Europe.

Conceived by Rudolf Stingel expressly for Palazzo Grassi, the project spreads over all the rooms of the building, where carpeting based on an oriental rug covers the entire surface of the walls and floors. The installation is part of Stingel’s artistic research, which has always analysed the relationship between exhibition space and artistic intervention: for the artist, the carpet is a medium through which painting relates to its architectural context. The exhibition presents a selection of over thirty paintings from collections around the world, including the artist’s collection and that of French billionaire François Pinault (born 1936, in Champs-Geraux, France).

Many of these works were created in the studios of Merano and New York specifically for this project.

Born in 1956, Rudolf Stingel lives and works between New York and Merano, his hometown. His work has been at the centre of several exhibitions in numerous international institutions, including the Secession, Vienna (2012); the Neue National Galerie, Berlin (2010); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007); the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2004); the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento (2001). He took part in the Venice Biennial in 1993 and 2003.

At Palazzo Grassi, his work has been presented in the exhibitions Where Are We Going? (2006), Sequence 1 (2007), Mapping the Studio (2009-2010) and The World Belongs to You (2011).

Elena Geuna, born in 1960, is an independent curator and contemporary art advisor. Her main curatorial museum projects include exhibitions Jeff Koons (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, 2003; Château de Versailles, 2008); Fontana: Luce e Colore (Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 2008); Zhang Huan: Ashman (PAC, Milan, 2010); Arte Povera in Moscow (Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, 2011). In 2012, she curated the exhibitions Quilling and Freedom not Genius. Works from Damien Hirst’s Murderme collection at Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Turin.

Curated by Marco De Michelis, lecturer at the IUAV University of Architecture in Venice, and organised by the City of Como Department of Culture, The New City: Beyond Sant' Elia features 100 works, some of which have never been shown before, including paintings, drawings, films and installations by artists, architects and film directors, including Antonio Sant'Elia, Umberto Boccioni, Fernand Léger, Mario Sironi, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Fritz Lang, Yona Friedman, Archizoom, Superstudio, Chris Burden, Carsten Hőller and others.

A section hosted in the Civic Gallery will show 50 drawings by Antonio Sant'Elia belonging to the City of Como, which have been inaccessible to the general public for many years.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Silvana editoriale, featuring essays by the curator and by Esther da Costa Meyer, Antonello Negri, Antonio Costa, Anna Rosellini, Jean-Louis Cohen, Aya Lurie, Mark Wigley, Manuel Orazi, Simon Sadler, Roberto Gargiani, Gabriele Mastrigli, Peter Pakesch, Paola Nicolin and Joseph Grima.

Wagner: Siegfried "Idyll"
Haydn: Symphony N. 96
Schumann Symphony No. 3"Rhenish"

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Parco Della Musica
Viale Pietro de Coubertin 30
00196 Roma

Two sets: 21h, 23h

Benjamin Britten:  The Rape of Lucretia

Jonathan Webb, conductor

Stage director: Daniele Abbado
Sets, costumes and lighting: Gianni Carluccio
Video: Luca Scarzella
 
Male Chorus: Gordon Gietz
John Bellemer (22*, 24, 25)
Female Chorus: Susannah Glanville
Cristina Zavalloni (22*, 24, 25)

Cast

Collatinus: Thomas Tatzl
Roberto Abbondanza (22*, 24, 25)

Junius: Philip Smith
Prince Tarquinius: Jacques Imbrailo
Miljenko Turk (22*, 24, 25)
Lucretia: Julianne Young
Kerstin Chavez (22*, 24, 25)

Bianca: Gabriella Sborgi
Lucia: Laura Catrani
 
Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Giuseppe Verdi:  Un ballo in maschera
Sung in Italian

Antonio Pappano, conductor

Cast

Liudmyla Monastryrska: Amelia
Francesco Meli: Riccardo
Dmitri Hvorostovsky: Renato
Laura Giordano: Oscar
Dolora Zajick: Ulrica
Riccardo Zanellato: Samuel
Carlo Cigni: Tom
Massimo Simeoli: Silvano
Carlo Napoletani: Giudice
Maurizio Trementini: Servo