The exhibition Opera: Passion, Power and Politics, in collaboration with The Royal Opera House, will open on 30 September 2017 and will run until 25 February 2018 at The Victoria and Albert Museum. It will immerse visitors in some key moments of the history of European opera from its roots in Renaissance Italy to its present-day form, by focusing on seven operatic premieres in seven cities. It will reveal how opera brings together multiple art forms to create a multi-sensory work of art, and show how social, political, artistic and economic factors interact with great moments in the history of opera to tell a story of Europe over hundreds of years.
The exhibition is curated by the V&A’s Kate Bailey, Senior Curator of Design and Scenography.
Kate Bailey will talk to the BIS about the creation of the exhibition with particular focus on two Italian cities:
– Venice with Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, 1642. The narrative of the exhibition will begin in Venice, a Renaissance centre of entertainment, gambling and disguise, with a sumptuous painting of composer Barbara Strozzi depicted as a courtesan. The original surviving manuscript score of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea – an opera exploring scandal and ambition, which premiered in Venice’s Carnival season in 1642-3 – represents opera’s transition from private court entertainment to the public realm.
– Milan with Verdi’s Nabucco, 1842. The growing importance of the chorus is explored through Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco which premiered in Milan in 1842. The opera’s ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’ (Va pensiero) became an unofficial national anthem for Italy after the events of the Risorgimento led to the country’s unification.
A glass of wine will be offered after the talk
Villa Wolkonsky is not an obviously Roman name. The story of how it came to be there and of how and why it became the Residence of the British Ambassador to Italy is not widely known. With its Roman aqueduct and extensive gardens behind high walls it has an air of romance, deliberately fostered by its creator, the emigrée Russian princess Zenaïde Wolkonsky, who bought it in 1830. Assumptions have been made, but little has been known about the construction and extension of the main house. The mystery hanging over it was deepened by the unsavoury reputation it acquired during the German occupation of Rome in 1943/4. Such as it is, the conventional wisdom on this, as on many other aspects of the Villa’s story, is unreliable, as research into official and legal archives in Rome, Berlin and London is showing.
John Shepherd lived for much of his formative years in Rome, though he was educated in the UK and the USA. He spent over 38 years in the UK Diplomatic Service, mainly in Europe and the Middle East, including two spells in Rome: 1970-1973 as a junior Commercial Officer, and 2000-2003 as Ambassador. After “retiring” he became the first Secretary-General of the Global Leadership Foundation, established by F W de Klerk, of which he remains a board member, and has served on the boards of several charities involved in music and the arts. He is not a trained historian, but is greatly enjoying this foray into historical research.
In conjunction with the Exhibition WAR IN THE SUNSHINE: THE BRITISH IN ITALY 1917-18
A guided tour and talk by Dr Jonathan Black, Curator
The Estorick Collection, one of the world’s greatest collections of 20th Century Italian art, has reopened after extensive refurbishment with a major exhibition of paintings and photographs, which were rediscovered by Jonathan Black in the archives of the Imperial War Museum. The images by official British war artists and photographers highlight a forgotten aspect of Britain’s involvement in the Austro-Italian conflict during World War 1. With shimmering Alpine landscapes and intimate portraits of Italian peasant women, the images show the powerful impact Italy, and the Veneto, made on the artists and on the British troops fighting there. The exhibition has received outstanding reviews.
Sydney Carline (1888-1929) was born in north London into a highly artistic family – both his parents were accomplished painters. Sydney displayed a precocious talent for working in watercolour while studying at Repton School and at the Slade School of Art. He emerged as a talented landscape artist, a gifted topographical etcher and a skilled designer of medals. Deeply torn as to whether he should volunteer for war service – his family was inclined to pacifism – Sydney finally volunteered in 1916 to become a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps, and was posted to a fighter-bomber squadron in France. He was shot down and seriously wounded on his third mission, and had to spend nearly a year recuperating. In February 1918 he was posted to a Sopwith Camel Squadron based near Vicenza. This was part of the British Expeditionary Force to Italy, which had arrived in the Veneto in November 1917. Sydney served as a fighter pilot for five months, during which he shot down three Austro-Hungarian aircraft and twice crashed after being hit by anti-aircraft fire. In July 1918 he was appointed as an official British war artist with a brief to record the exploits of the RAF squadrons based in Italy. He sketched from the cockpit of his Sopwith Camel and from the rear cockpit of a Bristol fighter-bomber. He also drove over the battlefields of the Piave and the Asiago Plateau in 1918 in his motorcycle and sidecar.
Dr Jonathan Black will give a guided tour and a talk on Carline’s works in the exhibition, focusing on the artist’s experiences as a fighter pilot in the Italian skies, his images of dramatic Italian landscapes below, his perception of the Italian people (as combatants and refugees) and of the Austro-Hungarian enemy, whom the British regarded as a mysterious, unknown quantity. Sydney fell in love with Italy. He took his first post-war holiday in 1920 in central/southern Italy (his father George actually died in Assisi during that trip), and visited Italy almost every year in the 1920’s. He was planning a trip to Tuscany, when he fell ill and died in 1929.
Dr Black is the Curator of, and originally conceived the idea for, this exhibition. He studied History at St John’s College, Cambridge, and History of Art at University College, London. His publications include: The Face of Courage: Eric Kennington, Portraiture and the Second World War (London 2011); Abstraction and Reality: The Sculpture of Ivor Roberts-Jones (with Sara Ayres, London 2013) and The Complete Prints of C R W Nevinson (London 2014). He has also contributed essays to the exhibition catalogue. His next book is The Titan with Many Faces: Winston Churchill in British Art c. 1900 to the Present Day (March 2017).
Dr Black is currently Senior Research Fellow in History of Art at Kingston University focusing on the period 1900 – the 1940’s and particularly on the work of official and informal war artists.
Drinks will be served
A talk by Ms Jill Morris CMG, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Italy
Jill Morris, British Ambassador to Italy, will speak to members and guests this month to give her view on the current state of British-Italian relations and prospects for the future. In the wake of the Brexit Referendum in the UK, and at a time of political and economic uncertainty throughout Europe, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from, and put our questions to, such an authoritative representative. From the Embassy at Porta Pia the Ambassador has a unique perspective on developments in Italy and emerging policy in London, as well as having an important role to play in developing the bilateral relationship and overcoming the challenges.
Jill Morris has been Ambassador to Italy and San Marino since July 2016. She had spent several months earlier in 2016 in Italy studying Italian and preparing for her appointment to Rome.
From 2012 to 2015, Jill served as Director for Europe in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. She had previously headed the Counter-Proliferation (2010-12) and Consular Strategy (2008-10) Departments. Earlier in her career she had served in Brussels (UK Representation to the EU) and Cyprus.
Jill was born at Chester and studied Modern Languages at Southampton (MA) and Warwick (MPhil) Universities. She joined the Diplomatic Service in 1999.
Elisabetta Dal Carlo and Barbara Rossi
A Joint Event with Venice in Peril
This lecture introduces the story and artistic heritage of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a lively cultural institution established in 1869 by the last descendant of the Querini Stampalia family, Count Giovanni Querini, and located in a 16th century Venetian palace whose interior is decorated with precious 18th century stuccoes and frescoes. It now hosts a general library, open, according to the Founder’s will, until late at night and during public holidays, a Museum and an area dedicated to temporary exhibitions. On the ground floor is a space restored by Carlo Scarpa in 1963 and a new service wing designed by Mario Botta.
The speakers will focus on the Library, which is considered the “Library of the Venetians” and on the Museum, acclaimed for being one the best preserved House-Museums in Europe, and on its collections.
The piano nobile of this magnificent Palace recreates the typical atmosphere of an 18th century aristocratic residence. Original Rococo and Neoclassical furniture, Meissen, Vezzi, Sèvres and Cozzi porcelain decorate the Museum. The ambience is enriched with mirrors and chandeliers from Murano, silk cloths, globes, Flemish tapestries, sculptures and paintings from the 14th to the 19th century. Amongst works on display, from the 400 paintings acquired and commissioned by the family over the centuries, there are paintings by the Neo Byzantine School, Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo di Credi, Jacopo Palma the Elder and Younger, Marco and Sebastiano Ricci, Pietro Longhi and Giambattista Tiepolo. Recent donations have also enhanced the Museum with 19th and 20th century art.
The talk will examine in detail Giovanni Bellini’s masterpiece, The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, and there will be a brief overview of the cycle of paintings depicting scenes of sumptuous public and private Venetian life by Pietro Longhi and Gabriel Bella.
The Foundation is held in high regard both locally and nationally for its commitment to culture. The support of its Institutional Partners and Main Donors is proof of the high esteem in which it is held while a major contribution towards preserving, improving and managing its artistic and library collections for future generations comes from the “Friends of Querini Stampalia”.
By joining the Foundation, each Friend becomes a member of a leading cultural institution which has been playing a lively role in Venetian cultural life for more than 150 years. It is a way not just of supporting an excellent cultural institution, but also an opportunity to make new discoveries and participate in a rich calendar of events.
Elisabetta Dal Carlo is an art historian, a scholar of baroque and neo-classical decorative arts and a specialist in eighteenth-century ceramics. A conservator at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia she graduated in History of Art at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice obtaining her Ph.D. in History of Art at Siena University. She lectures in Italy and abroad (London and Paris) on the art of porcelain and has edited catalogues on decorative art collections and various publications on Venetian and Veneto art history.
Barbara Rossi graduated in Economics with a Master’s in the Management of Cultural Heritage. At the Fondazione Querini Stampalia she works for the Development Office and is responsible for membership, sponsorship and public funding.
Wine and canapés will be offered after the talk
Since it was founded in 1941, the British-Italian Society has worked to promote knowledge and understanding in the UK of Italian culture, including Italy’s history, institutions, way of life, language and wider contribution to civilisation.
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