05 June 2017, La Stravaganza

"Everything is perfectly organic, well-constructed, delightful and flawless." Novye Izvestiya

Soqquadro Italiano, one of today's most distinctive and successful early music ensembles, adds a new chapter to interdisciplinary art events—the contemporary approach to art—with Stravaganza, its new project dedicated to the music of Antonio Vivaldi. La Stravaganza goes beyond music by reconceiving the Baroque concert format and, encompassing all stage elements, creates new relationships between sound, music and image in a grand journey spanning Italy from end to end. While Vivaldi's music has been the subject of numerous adaptations ranging from jazz to electronic, pop and metal, Soqquadro Italiano is an ensemble that has made it its goal to render invisible the rigid boundaries between different musical genres, while integrating dance and theatrical elements into its work. Since its founding in 2011, this remarkable ensemble has performed at leading festivals such as Gent Festival, Rotterdam Operadagen, Yaroslavl International Bashmet Festival and Halle Handel Festival, drawing on a broad repertoire spanning from Baroque music to jazz, from traditional Italian music to pop. Its creators Claudio Borgianni and Vincenzo Capezzuto also draw attention with their unconventional careers. Vincenzo Capezzuto, who pursues both dance and singing careers in parallel, has recorded numerous albums with L'Arpeggiata, the ensemble where he is a frequent guest artist, and has performed at major concert halls and festivals including Carnegie Hall, BBC Proms and London's Wigmore Hall. He collaborated with the Baroque Orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro, led by Cecilia Bartoli and Riccardo Minasi, on the project Gondola, devised by American author Donna Leon. In this concert, which will be accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of the City of Prato—established in 1998 under the direction of renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti and noted for the breadth of its vocal repertoire—festival audiences can expect a thoroughly musical and visual feast.