Launch of “Cucina all’Opera. Musica e cibo in Emilia-Romagna” by Giancarlo Fre
Within the Week of the Italian Language in the World
Cucina all’Opera. Musica e cibo in Emilia-Romagna was commissioned by the Department of Agriculture and by the Institute of Cultural heritage (IBC) of the Emilia-Romagna Region, to pay homage to the music world celebrating Giuseppe Verdi’s bicentenary. The book focuses on the unusual aspect of the relationship between music and food. The approach has proved to be so successful that the paperback was translated into English The Operatic Kitchen. Music and Food in Emilia-Romagna and into Turkish Opera ve İtalyan Mutfağı: Emilya-Romanya Bölgesinde Müzik ve Yemek. Its spin-off, the digital exhibition “Il Gusto della Musica/The Taste of Music”, is presented at the Italian Cultural Institute in Malta by the co-author Margherita Spinazzola.
The book by Giancarlo Fre, who was an architect, passionate gastronome and blogger, is a trip down two of the most important traditions of Emilia-Romagna – the musical and the gastronomic ones – with the professional and private lives of musicians, composers and performers criss-crossing their best-loved recipes or other significant preparations.
The itinerary develops in four movements: the first one is devoted to the Golden Age of Melodrama, with protagonists such as Giuseppe Verdi, Gioachino Rossini, Pietro Mascagni and Arturo Toscanini. The second movement delves into music and cookery in the 17th and 18th centuries, describing Girolamo Frescobaldi and Arcangelo Corelli; the third one recalls the food passions and their opposites of a few grand names en–route in Emilia-Romagna, such as Mozart, Wagner, Bellini and Puccini, while the last chapter is devoted to two internationally acclaimed great performers – Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas – who were both food-lovers.
The exhibition “Il Gusto della Musica/The Taste of Music” focuses on four protagonists of the book – Verdi, Rossini, Mozart, Toscanini – with excerpts, new texts and unpublished pictures.
Ingresso ad inviti per l’inaugurazione ed ingresso libero per le visite successive