Homage to Giacomo Puccini at the Italian Embassy in Madrid

(ANSA) - MADRID, 21 OTT - One of the leading events organised by the Italian diplomatic-consular network in Spain as part of the 24th Week of the Italian Language in the World (Slim) was held at the residence of the Italian ambassador in Madrid, Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi.
    The homage to our language started with a lectio magistralis, 'L'Italiano e il libro - or rather, the libretto: l'Italia tra le righe', held by Prof. Paolo Balboni, a renowned glottologist and professor emeritus of Educational Linguistics at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, who provided an analysis of the Italian language in the verses of Giacomo Puccini's operas used by his librettists, on the occasion of the centenary of the death of the great master from Lucca.
    The evening was enhanced by the performance by pianist María Ángeles Ayala and singers from the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid of famous Puccini arias from some of his major operas, such as 'La Bohème', 'Tosca', 'Manon Lescaut' and 'Gianni Schicchi', and was attended by a large audience, including journalist Enrica Roddolo and some readers of the Corriere della Sera.
    The event also marked the opening of the International Conference on Theatre Glottodidactics. Now in its fifth edition and organised with the patronage and contribution of the Italian Embassy Madrid in the framework of Slim 2024, the conference, entitled 'Language Learning through Theatre in Music. A Homage to Giacomo Puccini', explored the role of the dramaturgical text and the opera libretto as a vehicle of the Italian cultural heritage, values and identity within the theatrical glottodidactics.
    Numerous valuable and illustrious collaborations have taken place: from the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid itself to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, from the Accademia Verdiana of the Teatro Regio in Parma to the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, from the Fabbrica - Teatro dell'Opera in Rome to the Puccini Festival Foundation at the Complutense University in Madrid.