Florence could never
lose her reputation as a city of culture. Florence was positioned
at the very centre of the Renaissance and home
to some of the greatest artists and thinkers who ever lived, and
the beauty of the art, architecture and ideas that came from this
city live on.
The biggest cultural event in Florence is the international Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino, which welcomes top names from the
music and ballet worlds. Visitors should keep an eye open for one-off
recitations played in churches and piazzas throughout the city.
Posters are pinned up outside various and tickets are available
at the door.
The entertainment publication, Firenze Spettacolo,
and free-listings publication Florence Today and
is distributed twice a month, both provide listings on entertainment
throughout the city.
Agenzia
Box Office, Via Luigi Alamanni (telephone number: (055) 210
804), Via Porta Rossa 82r (telephone number: (055) 219 402), or
Viale Giannotti 13r (telephone number: (055) 680 362), sells most
other tickets.
Music
Florence can claim a couple of musical firsts. Not only was the
first piano invented in the city, by Bartolomeo Crostoferi, but
also the first ever opera, Daphne, was performed
here during 1598, at the home of Jacopo Corsi. Unfortunately the
score does not survive and Florence has not maintained its early
influence on the operatic form.
Today’s opera season opens in September and is held chiefly
at the Teatro
Comunale, Corso Italia 16 (telephone number: (055) 211 158 or
(0577) 223 806 or (800) 112 211), on the banks of the Arno.
L’Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) is the city’s
main orchestra, which plays at the Teatro Communale.
Chamber music can be heard most weekends at the Teatro
della Pergola, Via della Pergola (telephone number: (055) 22641
or (055) 226 4316), an ornate 17th-century theatre that also stages
opera and classical concerts.
Theatre
The Teatro
della Pergola (see above) and the Teatro
Verdi, Via Ghibellina 99 (telephone number: (055) 212 320),
are the two chief venues for drama in Florence. Most performances
are conducted in Italian, so a good understanding of the language
is vital. Performances are typically productions of classic Italian
dramas or foreign plays in translation, interspersed with the occasional
contemporary production. Tickets are available at the theatre box
offices.
Other city theatres include Teatro
Puccini, Piazza Puccini (telephone number: (055) 362 067), home
to Off Theatre, for a variety of performances from opera to new
plays.
There are new Italian dramas at Teatro
di Rifredi, Via V. Emanuele 303 (telephone number: (055) 422
0361), and experimental theatre at Teatro
Studio di Scandicci, Via Donizetti 58 (telephone number: (055)
757 348).
Dance
The annual Florence
Dance Festival (telephone number: (055) 289 276) was first conceived
during 1990, although its future remains under threat, due to the
lack of funding. The festival aims to bring some of the best names
in contemporary and classical dance to Florence, with an annual
contest for emerging choreographers. Performances usually run for
a month in July and are held in outdoor venues, such as
Piazzale Michelangelo and the Teatro Romano
in Fiesole.
Ballet performances also take place during the Maggio Fiorentino
festival, at various venues, throughout the year. Information and
tickets are available from the Teatro
del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Corso Italia 16 (telephone number:
(055) 211 158 or 213 535; fax number: (055) 277 9410; e-mail: tickets@maggiofiorentino.com).
Film
Florence has been the setting for a number of films, most memorably
Merchant Ivory’s adaptation of E
M Forster’s Room With A View (1988) and more recently
Zeffirelli’s Tea with Mussolini (1999) and
Up At The Villa (2000), starring Kristin
Scott Thomas. Such is the demand for picturesque Tuscan
locations that the region has recently set up its own film commission
to capitalise on promotional opportunities.
The cinema is heavily patronised throughout the city and for those
who speak Italian, there is a real treat in store at the Odeon
Cinehall (telephone number: (055) 214 068), a stunning Art Nouveau
theatre in Piazza Strozzi. Original language films are shown on
Monday and Tuesday, with tickets costing around €7.
English speakers can take a trip to the Astao,
Piazza San Simone, near Santa Croce, or Goldoni,
Via Serragli 109 (telephone numberl: (055) 222 437), where original-language
films are shown on Thursday. Cinema tickets cost around €6,
often dropping to €4 on Wednesday. More original language films
are shown on Thursday at Cinema Fulgor, Via Maso
Finiguerra (telephone number: (055) 238 1881).
Cultural
Events
The Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino (telephone number: 800 112 211), which takes
place from May to early July each year, forms the crux of Florence’s
cultural calendar. The festival has been going for over 60 years
and is presided over by its homegrown orchestra and dance company.
L’Orchestra del Maggio Musical Fiorentino has achieved international
recognition under the watchful eye of conductor Zubin Mehta which
is famous for his performances with the Three Tenors.
Most of the performances are held at the Teatro Comunale (see above),
also the central booking point for the festival. Some events are
held outdoors in cloisters, piazzas and Boboli Gardens. Tickets
for standing room only are available for purchase one hour before
the performance begins for €11, while pre-booked tickets start
at around €15.50.
Literary
Notes
Writers, poets and bored aristocrats have poured into Florence,
eager to discover its mythical reputation. Romantics like Byron
and Shelley were enraptured by the abundance of beauty,
sighing almost as much over the picturesque peasants as they did
over the architecture. As citizens of Florence, Dante (1265-1321)
and Machiavelli (1469-1527) were less dewy-eyed.
Dante called it a ‘city of self-made men and fast-got gain’
and consigned most of his contemporaries to hell in his masterwork,
the Divine Comedy (1306-1321). Machiavelli, who
like Dante was exiled from the city, is best known for his study
of devious politics in The Prince (1513), learnt
first-hand in the service of the Medici. Boccaccio (1313-75),
who wrote the Decameron (1353), added little to
the city, except a reputation for bawdy humour. But it was the court
painter, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), who really opened
the door to life in Renaissance Florence, with his artistic biography,
Lives of the Artists (1550).
Henry
James’ laconic insight came much later, drawing back
the romantic conceit and presenting an altogether darker vision
of Italy, in such novels as The Portrait of A Lady (1881).
A collection of essays written while travelling in Italy between
1872 and 1909 can be found in his book Italian Hours (1909).
E M Forster’s tale of knotted passions in A Room With
A View (1908) has also carried Florence onto the silver
screen. |
