Festival of Tuscany Celebrated with Music and Art

November 30: FESTA DELLA TOSCANA (Festival of Tuscany). Cinema La Compagnia, Via Cavour, 50/R; Bargello National Museum, the Medici Chapels Museum, and the Palazzo Davanzati Museum; Teatro Verdi, via Ghibellina, 99.

On November 30, 1786,  an unprecedented development in civil rights took place in Tuscany which became the first state in the world to abolish the death penalty. In honor of this landmark decision, the Festival of Tuscany has been a reoccurring commemoration since 2000. Events held this year in the city of Florence will include a solemn legislative convocation, a procession, an orchestra concert, and free museum visits.

Starting at 11 am at Cinema La Compagnia, the Tuscan Regional Council will hold a solemn session. At 12:30 pm there will be a historical pageant of the Republic of Florence will wind its way through the streets of city.

As per tradition during the Festival of Tuscany, the Orchestra della Toscana will also host an important debut during an evening at Teatro Verdi; this year Thomas Guggeis will conduct the musicians at 9 pm.  At age 29 Guggeis’s talent is often compared to the legendary Daniel Barenboim. The orchestra will play pieces by Renato Miani, Beethoven and Clara Schumann.

Guggeis worked under Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin Staatsoper as an assistant where he also became “Kapellmeister” or the position immediately below Barenboim. The position had never before been entrusted to such a young musician. Guggeis already held the same role in Stuttgart and is preparing to be promoted to the role of head of an opera house in Frankfurt.

He will his debut alongside pianist Claire Huangci, the American recipient of first prize and the Mozart award at the Geza Anda Competition in 2018. She has also received the German Record Critics Award and the Gramophon magazine Editor’s Choice for her double album of Scarlatti Sonatas.

Opening the evening is the world premiere of a new work by Friulian composer Renato Miani. Under Guggeis’s guidance, the Orchestra della Toscana will go on to play Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and pieces from Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which is considered a masterpiece of German romanticism.  Tickets are €17 full price and €15 reduced + €2 pre-sale.  For full program and tickets check here: https://www.teatroverdifirenze.it/programma/

Also on November 30 for the Festa della Toscana, the Bargello National Museum (open 8:15 am – 1:50 pm), the Medici Chapels (8:15 am – 6:50 pm), and the Palazzo Davanzati Museum (8:15 – 1:50) will be open free of charge to the public. The Bargello National Museum holds celebrated Italian artworks such as Donatello’s David, Michelangelo’s Bacchus and Brunelleschi and Ghiberti’s competition panels for the doors of the Baptistry. At the Medici Chapels Museum visitors can see both chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo dating from the 16th and 17th centuries including Michelangelo’s sculpted tombs for Medici family members in the New Sacristy. Finally, visitors can see a traditional Florentine residence at the Palazzo Davanzati, which contains furniture and household items dating from the 14th – 19th centuries. (Michela Tambasco)

For more information, visit the following website http://www.bargellomusei.beniculturali.it/