The closing weekend's highlights include Friday night's Futurism, Popular Culture, and Technology, which addresses modernity's influence on turn of the century Italian composers such as Francesco Pratella and Luigi Russolo. The evening will conclude with a rare screening of the silent film Rapsodia Satanica, accompanied by a live version of composer Pietro Mascagni's original score.
The festival will conclude with programs showcasing the American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Bard President, music director and festival co-artistic director, Leon Botstein. Music and Fascism in Italy addresses the varying responses to Mussolini’s regime by various composers, whileThe Turandot Project pairs the East Coast premiere of Berio’s completion of the final act of Turandot with Busoni’s setting of the same story.
“From Futurism to Fascism, many of the most radical and disturbing trends in 20th-century culture and politics originated in Italy," said Arman Schwartz, one of Bard’s two Scholars-in-Residence. "Beyond Verismo, the second weekend of the Bard Music Festival, focuses on these developments. Countering cliches of Italy as a charming touristic backwater, it explores how actively its artists engaged with some of the central dilemmas of modernity.”
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