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February 17, 2016
AGBU Lebanon Organizes Baroque Concert with the Italian Cultural Institute
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AGBU Lebanon celebrates the Baroque Ensemble's tribute to Venice and its popular tradition of carnival. -
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The Baroque Ensemble of Foggia: Gianna Fratta (piano), Dino De Palma (violin), Teresa Di Bari (soprano). -
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On Saturday, January 23, AGBU Lebanon, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute,brought on stage the Baroque Ensemble of Foggia, Italy.
On January 23, AGBU Lebanon, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, brought on stage the Baroque Ensemble of Foggia, Italy: Gianna Fratta (piano), Dino De Palma (violin), Teresa Di Bari (soprano). The performance was a tribute to Venice and its popular tradition of carnival.
Anita Lebiar, the Executive Director of AGBU Lebanon, welcomed the guests and thanked them for their continuous presence and appreciation of the cultural events organized by AGBU Lebanon. She then mentioned that this concert is the third collaboration between AGBU Lebanon and the Italian Embassy and its Italian Cultural Institute. Lebiar assured the audience that many more collaborative events are underway that will highlight both AGBU Lebanon and the Italian Cultural institute’s mutual objective of spreading and diffusing cultural values, heritage and arts to the Lebanese audience at large. She then invited Dr. Edoardo Crisafulli, the newly appointed director of the Italian Cultural Institute, who thanked AGBU for the collaboration.
The program included pieces by Vivladi, Albinoni, Rossini, Paganini, Chopin and many more. The first part of the concert included the famous “Adagio,” composed by the Venetian composer Albinoni, along with pieces by Antonio Vivaldi to whom the name of Venice is indissolubly linked. Besides Vivaldi’s most celebrated “Summer” from “The Four Seasons,” the audience listened to some of the most virtuosic arias for soprano, all examples of the Venetian baroque. The second part of the concert was a route which paid homage to Venice, its carnival and its barcarolles from the perspective of other Italian and European composers.
“It was a very original event, especially because the ensemble performed dressed in original Venetian costumes from the 18th-19th centuries, which brought the pieces into context,” said Annie Kassardjian, the wife of MP Hagop Kassardjian.
More than 200 guests attended the event among which were benefactors Avedis and Rita Demirdjian, members of the AGBU Lebanon District Committee; Levon and Sylva Libardian, Hovig and Maral Vartanian, Hagop and Annie Kassardjian; former chairman of the Antranik Youth Association Garo Djeghelian; as well as members of AGBU Lebanon Education Committee and cultural attachés of both the Embassy of Republic of Armenia and the Embassy of Italy.
The Baroque Ensemble of Foggia is a chamber group composed of musicians who have collaborated with internationally renowned artists, including Enrico Dindo, Uto Ughi, Josè Carreras, Raina Kabaivanska, Roberto Benigni, Jerry Lewis, Burt Bacharach, Sergio Castellitto, Mirella Freni, Liza Minelli, Charlie Haden, Carla Fracci, Andrea Bocelli, Michele Placido and many others. Their important musical career has spanned across the globe, where they have held performances Australia, Belgium, England, France, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Russia, the United States, and many other countries.
Acclaimed by audiences and critics for their original and refined performances, often premières, the ensemble has a wide repertoire, ranging from classical music to opera, from chamber versions of stage-designed operas to performances where music, narration, dance and other arts interact in a new and always different way.
For more information about AGBU Lebanon, please click here.
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