10 events not to miss this week in Florence

What to do in and around Florence July 11-17

Art, concerts, shows and good food. Here are the events not to be missed this week in and around Florence.

PIZZA & ROSÈ AT VILLA LA MASSA

July becomes special in the magical setting of Villa La Massa. L'Oliveto, the space adjacent to the new swimming pool, hosts a food pairing event every Wednesday, featuring Marco Manzi's gourmet pizza paired with wines, drinks and live music. Wednesday, July 13, gourmet pizza & Cap Rosè edition F. Z. of Caccia al Piano Bolgheri, all accompanied by an intriguing guitar duo.

MUSART FESTIVAL 2022: ROBERTO BOLLE, LP, GORAN BREGOVIC AND ROCK THE OPERA IN SS ANNUNZIATA

Music, dance, exhibitions and visits to art venues in the heart of downtown Florence, just steps from the Duomo. Roberto Bolle, LP, Achille Lauro, Vinicio Capossela, Goran Bregovic, Rock The Opera, Steve Hackett and Dado Moroni are the main guests of Musart Festival, an event that combines big names in entertainment with the centuries-old charm of Florence, July 16-26, 2022 in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, one of the city's most iconic venues. It will be Roberto Bolle and his extraordinary Dance Gala that will inaugurate the Festival on Saturday, July 16.

PIANONOVECENTO 2022, MUSIC REVIEW CURATED BY PIANIST RICCARDO SANDIFORD CONTINUES

The programming of the fourth edition of PianoNovecento, the musical review conceived and curated by pianist Riccardo Sandiford and dedicated to 20th-century piano music, hosted in the cloister of the Novecento Museum in Florence, continues. On Thursday, July 14, 2022, at 9:15 p.m., it will be the turn of pianist Riccardo Sandiford, who will offer a program of classical composers (Brahms, Chopin, Scriabin, Debussy). The evening will be dedicated to four great musicians who, although closely linked with musical romanticism, through their works laid the foundation for the evolution toward modernity and new compositional techniques that characterize twentieth-century production.

ZUBIN MEHTA AT MAGGIO MUSICALE

On July 13, the concert conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta is a tribute to Florence with a symbolic appointment offered to the City: the Maggio Chorus and Orchestra and soloists Mandy Fredrich, Marie Claude Chappuis, AJ Glücklert, and Florian Boesch, will tackle the monumental Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 for solo chorus and orchestra, the non plus ultra of Beethoven's art, in the Cavea. Admission is free, subject to availability, with ticket request at the May Ticket Office or through the Courtesy Service (+39 055 2001278 - cortesia@maggiofiorentino.com; operating during the following hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Mondays and Thursdays: 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.). On July 14, the concert conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta features Beethoven again and again a hero of myth with a program that will open with the Overture and excerpts from Beethoven's Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus ("The Creatures of Prometheus") and then Pyotr Il'ič Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello (soloist Antonio Meneses) and Orchestra, Op. 33, composed just a few months before Symphony No. 4 in F minor, op. 36, which closes the concert. The last title of the 84th Maggio Festival is scheduled for July 15 with a concert by the Florence Philharmonic Gioacchino Rossini conducted by Giampiero Lazzeri with an interesting program of contemporary symphonic pages. Single seat in the Cavea at 15 euros.

DA VINCI EXPERIENCE AT THE CHURCH OF SANTO STEFANO AL PONTE

Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpieces and inventions come to life at Florence's Cathedral of the Image, inside the church of Santo Stefano al Ponte with the Da Vinci Experience production. The journey through Leonardo's life and works is addressed in 35 minutes of immersive video divided into six thematic blocks: biography, color, painting, engineering/anatomy, water and air. A narrative that starts with a chronological account of the genius' life and then branches out among the visual effects of generative videos that address the many themes related to Leonardo. Through Nov. 1, open daily from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (last admission 5:30 p.m.). Tickets cost 14 euros full price (reductions are available).

LE TRE PIETÀ DI MICHELANGELO: LA MOSTRA PROROGATA FINO AL 3 OTTOBRE

Given the great success of the exhibition THE THREE PIECES OF MICHELANGELO. You Don't Think How Much Blood Costs You at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, it has been decided to extend it until October 3, 2022. This is a truly unique opportunity to discover the works of the great Michelnagelo, as for the first time the original of the Pieta Bandini, whose restoration has recently been completed, and the casts of the Vatican Pieta and the Pieta Rondanini from the Vatican Museums are being compared in the Museum's Michelangelo Tribune room.

MASCHERE E VOLTI NASCOSTI, ALMAVIVA THEATER'S PERFORMANCE IN THE CLOISTER OF VILLA VOGEL

On Thursday, July 14, 2022, at 9:15 p.m., in the Cloister of Villa Vogel, Teatro d'Almaviva presents the show Masks and Hidden Faces as part of the Florentine Summer. The Mask is a planetary symbol, an instrument of transformation par excellence, which has always been able to arouse an instinctive fascination, and is still present in ritual, on stage and in celebration. The show, which includes a performance with special staging, will be a puzzle of original Characters, scenes and texts, in a weaving of various atmospheres, with humor, poetry, sensitive thoughts, to which the masks give an alienating magic.

ORCHESTRA TOSCANA CLASSICA AND FABRIZIO MELONI IN CONCERT IN THE COURTYARD OF PALAZZO MEDICI RICCARDI

First clarinet of the Orchestra del Teatro e della Filarmonica della Scala, Fabrizio Meloni is soloist of the Orchestra Toscana Classica in the two concerts scheduled for Monday, July 11 and Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at 9 p.m. in the Cortile di Michelozzo of Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence. Conductor Giuseppe Lanzetta will be on the podium. The centerpiece of the evenings is the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra KV 622 that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a few weeks before he passed away: a terse, ethereal, soft work, perfect in formal and timbral balance. Adding a late Romantic touch will be the Romanza Op. 42 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and Edward Elgar's Serenade for Strings in E minor Op. 20.

MICHAEL KIWANUKA IN CONCERT AT THE ANFITEATRO DELLE CASCINE

Taking place at the Ernesto De Pascale Cascine Amphitheater and not at the Teatro Romano in Fiesole, as previously announced, is Michael Kiwanuka's long-awaited Florentine concert scheduled for Friday, July 15, 2022, at 9:15 p.m. Praised by critics and revered by audiences, Michael Kiwanuka is among the world's most influential soul voices, with a unique style capable of embracing funk, jazz and rock as well. Last October Michael Kiwanuka released the single Beautiful Life, which anticipates the new album he is working on. The track is part of the soundtrack to the documentary Convergence: Courage In A Crisis, directed by Oscar winner Orlando von Einsiedel.

META – MEETING OF EUROPEAN THEATRE ACADEMIES AT TEATRO DELLA PERGOLA

Debuting in Florence is the sixth edition of META - Meeting of European Theatre Academies, Meeting on Methods for Teaching Drama in collaboration with the City of Florence and the Region of Tuscany: a series of performances, seminars, conferences, and workshops on the methods of theatrical pedagogies applied in leading theater academies. The opening night on July 11 is entrusted to the young actors of the Florence Theatre Academy and will feature a new production of Thomas Middleton's play Donne attenti alle donne. Subsequent evenings will feature staged performances, "Trois actrices, trois acteur, un drame?" on Tuesday, July 12. A collective direction by young student actors and playwrights from the Conservatoire royal in Brussels based on the text by Michel de Ghelderode (in French) and, on Wednesday, July 13, the famous training musical-drama "Querido Evan Hansen" (in Spanish) directed by Cristina Bernal with thirteen young performers from the Real Escuela de Arte Dramatico de Madrid Resad.

MERCANTIA 2022

Mercantia, the 34th edition of the street theater festival that combines lavish masks, flying dancers and circles of fire returns to the streets and squares of Certaldo from Wednesday, July 13 to Saturday, July 16, 2022. Every day for four days many artists from all over the world will take turns on stages formed by the courtyards of the palaces, the gardens in the shadow of the towers, and in the subterranean areas of the village. Tickets also can be bought at the ticket office in Boccaccio Square on event days from 5 p.m. to midnight; at TicketOne outlets; on the portal of http://www.mercantiacertaldo.it and on that of the municipality www.comune.certaldo.fi.it/it.