The concert “Venice – The gondola, the regatta, the barcarole” has been chosen as one of the main cultural events of “Venice to Expo 2015”. Beautiful songs and piano works related to the theme of water by famous composers will be performed.

The concert will begin with the Venetian Boat Songs, anonymous songs written by gondoliers from the collection A Seventeenth Century Venetian Songbook in Venetian dialect. These will be followed by songs written by G. Rossini. After the culmination of his success in the opera world and while he was still young, he retired for the rest of his life to Paris, where he dedicated himself to the composition of small vocal works, which include “La Pesca” and “La Regata Veneziana” from Soirée musicales.

Another type of piece chosen for its theme of water is the Venetian song reinterpreted by foreign composers, who in this way expressed their love for Venice.This is true of the Barcarolle by J. Offenbach from Les Contes di Hoffmann, the “Venetianisches Gondellied” from Lieder ohne Worte, op 19 no. 8 by F. Mendelssohn, the “Zwei Venetianische Lieder” from the cycle Myrthenlieder, op. 25 by R. Schumann and four of the lovely “Chanson' in dialetto veneziano by R. Hahn.

Although we usually remember F. Liszt for his theatrical virtuoso pieces written in his youth, he spent the last years of his life in Rome, where he became very religious. There he met the cardinal Hohenlohe, who invited him to his splendid residence in Tivoli. Liszt, sad and troubled, found peace and serenity at last, which he was able to communicate in many of his pieces written at this time such as “Jeux d’eux à la Ville d’Este” from the third collection of Les années de pèlegrinage.

The concert will end with works on the general theme of water, 'Au bord de l’eau” by G. Fauré, “Le Jet d’eau” by C. Debussy, and “Jeux d’eau” by M. Ravel, which demonstrate the strong fascination for water of French Musical Impressionism between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

The concert will take place in Palazzo Labia in the Salone da Ballo in which Giambattista Tiepolo painted one of his masterpieces, the cycle of frescos dedicated to the story of Anthony and Cleopatra. The works will be performed by soprano Elena Bertuzzi, the contralto Giovanna Bragadin and the pianist Gianluca Sfriso, as accompanist and soloist.