This is a full overview of Bacon's artistic career, ranging from the earliest paintings dating back to the ‘30s, revealing how the British artist (Dublin 1909 – Madrid 1992) was still in search of his personal language, but was already attracted by the deformation and ambiguity of shapes, up to the last great triptychs, especially those dedicated to his partner John Edwards, through which the artist’s existential suffering appears to be in sight of a hard-fought serenity.

From the 1940s to his death Francis Bacon worked consistently as a painter, ignoring other passing, fashionable trends in art. Throughout his career, the human figure was the dominant subject in his work: his paintings of men and women go far beyond a simple likeness and instead are portraits of complex psychological states. 

The core of the exhibition at the Palazzo Reale comprises over one hundred works, including eighty-two paintings and about fifteen drawings, plus a number of objects which are part of the archive material carrying the artist’s mark.

In an exhibition with an installation designed by the fashion designer Romeo Gigli, over 200 masterpieces illustrate the splendour and the cosmopolitanism of the Chinese Imperial courts from the Eastern Han Period (25-220) to the Tang Empire (617-907).

The period of the Tang dynasty is considered to be the Chinese renaissance when art and culture was at its zenith - comparable to the Florentine Renaissance three centuries later. Both have their roots in the fortunate combination of linguistic unification, great journeys and an openness to ideas from outside. This exhibition introduces the visitor to the “Emperors’ Court” in Chang’an (today Xi’an), which at that time was considered to be the largest city in the world with more than two million residents. It was also the Eastern end of the Silk Road, the commercial route that connected the Far East to the Mediterranean through Central Asia and Persia.

The Tang culture, beside being refined, was cosmopolitan. The China of that period was fascinated by what came from abroad and this attraction was fueled by the importation of goods from the rest of the world through the Silk Road and the maritime routes, making the Tang empire the central point for commercial and cultural exchanges from Arabia to Japan. People from different countries, races, and religions influenced the Chinese culture with their beliefs, practices and traditions. These all combined to create a language which is considered the most innovative and important in the history of China. Splendid frescoes, spectacular stone statues, exquisite gold and silver objects, glittering jewels, earthenware statues and exotic glassware show the discovery of this new expression.

This is the second in a series of three shows, the first being China. The birth of an Empire, September 2006 to February 2007, held in Rome at the Scuderie del Quirinale. The Rome exhibition presented the evolution of Chinese civilisation in a period of great complexity and splendour from the Zhou period (1045-256/221 BC), the last pre-imperial dynasty, to the two imperial dynasties of the Qin (221-206 BC) and the Western Han (206 BC– 24 AD). During those 1,000 years, the first great empire was shaped and consolidated with an administrative structure that lasted for the next twenty-one centuries. The Palazzo Strozzi exhibition examines the period of great change from the Eastern Han (25-220 AD) to the Tang dynasty (618-907). In 220 the great Han empire, when Chinese civilisation had undergone great changes, was destroyed by domestic and external pressures. During the following centuries (the Chinese equivalent of the Middle Ages), China was politically divided: the south had native dynasties and the north had foreign populations until 589, when the Sui Dynasty (581-618) reunified the Chinese territory and laid the foundations for a great and renewed empire. This was inherited by the Tang dynasty (618-907) which ushered in the ‘Golden Age’, during which China became the cultural centre of western Asia whose influences spread as far as the Mediterranean.

The exhibition opens with some important works from the Eastern Han period (25-220 AD) including a procession of bronze chariots and horses found in the tomb of Levitai in Wuwei in Gangsu, and a powerful mythical stone creature which used to watch over the eternal sleep of a nobleman from Luoyang (Henan).

A very important section is dedicated to the arrival of Buddhism in China. Initially seen as one of the many Taoist cults, Buddhism spread in China after the fall of the Han empire, deeply affecting cultural values. The 27 sculptures in the exhibition (some are more than 2 metres high and have never left China before) date from the end of the 5th to the 9th century and come from important sites, such as the Maijishan caves in the Gansu provence, the Longmen cave temples, the Dahai temple in the Henan or from the temple of Anguo in Shaanxi, and together illustrate the evolution of Chinese Buddhist sculpture.

The opulence of the Tang court features prominently in the exhibition. The finest gold and silver archeological finds show the renewed contacts with the west, especially with Sasanid Persia. In this period, the Tang silversmiths and goldsmiths reached unequalled levels of refinement, as is shown in the splendid treasures found in the crypt of the Pagoda of Famensi, and at Dingmao bridge, near Zhenjiang (Jiangsu).

The same skills are evident in the earthenware sculptures created to accompany the dead on their last journey that have been found intact in the tomb of Tang nobility. Among these are sculptures representing men from different parts of the world with typical clothes and hair, big noses, long beards, often accompanied by magnificent horses and impressive camels. Religious tolerance is also illustrated in the image of a Zoroastrian fire ritual with a priest represented as half bird, half man, on the lintel of the tomb of Anjia, Sogdian official in the capital Changan.

The exhibition culminates with four frescoes of the Tang period and four paintings on stone.

This exhibtion marks the 550th anniversary of the birth of Pintoricchio - considered by some a protagonist of the Italian Renaissance and a symbol of the city of Perugia. Bernardino di Benedetto (Betto) di Biagio was born in Perugia around 1460 it was not until he was at least 20 years old that he finally enrolled in the guild of Artists and Painters.

His scornful contemporaries and colleagues were quick to give him the name ‘Pintoricchio’, considering him “small and unprepossessing”, but more significantly, a number two, a lesser, toned down version of the “divine painter” Perugino.  Today, he is recognised to have worked on the majestic tables that recount the stories of San Bernardino in 1473, while also working alongside Perugino on the scaffolding of the Sistina.

The monographic exhibition in Perugia and Spello features nearly all of the transportable works of Pintoricchio , together with an important selection of works from the same period; some of these pieces have not been seen in Italy for centuries. The dispaly in Perugia is at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, which has recently completed work to recuperate and enlarge its exhibition spaces. There is also a second section in Spello, in the Collegiata di Santa Maria Maggiore. The Capella Baglioni, better known as the Capella Bella, is the location of one of Pintoricchio’s most impressive masterpieces among works painted for the Baglioni family.

For the celebration of the 550th anniversary of Pintoricchio, a new illumination system and a temporary display has been installed in order to maximise the fruition of the frescoes and to protect the flooring (Deruta Majolica from 1516). In the nearby Pinacoteca, an exhibition is on view - Pintoricchio e le arti minori, with textiles, manuscripts, wooden carvings, gold work and ceramics that document the production of the period and its stylistic debt to the painter. Finally, the Pinacoteca Civica exhibits the Madonna col Bambino from Spello, attributed to Pintoricchio and only recently rediscovered.

The Capitoline Museums play host to the bronze head of Ptolemaic Queen Arsinoe III, on temporary loan from the Municipal Museum in the Palazzo Te in Mantua.

Arsinoe III, the daughter of Ptolemy III and Berenice II was born in either 246 or 245 BC and was Queen of Egypt between 220 and 204 BC. She married her brother, Ptolemy IV sometime between the end of October and early Novembere220 BC, sharing the reign with him for sixteen years and by whom she had a son, Ptolemy V. She was personally involved in the battle of Rafia, plaintively urging her troops to fight and she played a vital role in the clash with the Syrian troops of Antioch III. Courageous and full of energy, her proud and aristocratic character was particularly evident in her outspoken criticism of her husband’s behaviour and attitude; he was in fact described as being weak and disinterested in affairs of state, something which undoubtedly contributed to the decline of the Ptolemaic empire. In the summer of 204 B.C, not long after the death of her husband /brother, Arsinoe fell victim to the intrigues of court and was assassinated, although her death was quickly avenged by a desperate and ferocious mob that turned on and killed those responsible.

The Queen’s popularity is evident from the number of works in which she is featured: statues, coins, paintings and relief’s, most of which have been uncovered in Egypt, clearly made both during her lifetime and immediately following her death. It would seem that pieces produced posthumously were part of a deliberate propaganda campaign by Arsinoe’s son, King Ptolemy V, who wanted to use the cult status of his mother to legitimize and reinforce his own power as a means of safeguarding the continuation of the dynasty.

Characterised by its terse, sober realism, the bronze provides an objective record of the Queen’s face when fully mature although a few features, well-documented through the profiles of her that appeared on coins of the period, have been slightly softened. This elegantly modelled head was perhaps part of a statue produced to honour the sovereign after her death, and it echoes the Hellenistic bronze portraits done during the Alexandrine period produced by masterly Egyptian craftsmen between the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 2nd centuries BC.

Despite being the century in which Italy won its freedom and its national independence, in other words the era of the Risorgimento or national reawakening, the 19th century has always seemed to coincide with Italy's loss of its former leading role, after the country's culture and civilisation had dominated the world for centuries. While opera, with Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi and Puccini, was universally appreciated (and has remained so), only the sculptor Canova in the early part of the century and the painters Boldini and Segantini in the latter part have enjoyed anything like genuine international recognition.

The aim of this exhibition is to show how, in Rome and Milan, in Florence and Naples, a handful of excellent painters struggled, in an extremely tough historical environment, to realise works of art in keeping with the best Italian tradition---increasingly out of their reach.

Appiani, Palagi, Hayez and the members of the Romantic School in Milan, Macchiaioli such as Fattori, Lega and Signorini in Florence, "veduta" painters from the Posillipo school and Morelli in Naples are among the artists whose works are on view.

Beethoven: Coriolano, Ouverture in D Minor op. 62 (Mahler orchestration)

Mahler: 7 Lieder
Der Schildwache Nachtlied
Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?
Lied des Verfolgten im Turm
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen
Das irdische Leben
Der Tamboursg’sell
Urlicht

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major op. 92

The Tokyo Ballet

The Kabuki
Choreography: Maurice Béjart
Muisc: Toshiro Mayuzumi

Each year, in May, windsurf world champions gather on Mondello beach to take part in this festival, organized by the prestigious Albaria sailing club. The beach is an ideal stage for this event, which combines top-level sporting events and concerts with the natural environment of the province of Palermo. Music, notably jazz concerts are a historical part of Windsurf World Festival.

There will be a step back in time with fencing, and seaplanes, this is the second time that a fencing match will take place, fencing took place in Mondello as far back as the early 1900's.
The weekend will be dedicated to the classical tall ship race from Palermo to Mondello. There will also be the sailing/golf combination again this year, with a skin game contest on the green and a spectacular Driving Contest.

Mondello lies along the arch of a picturesque bay, between Mount Pellegrino and Mount Gallo, and is the most important seaside resort near Palermo.

Nicola Conte's mood is strictly connected to music across 1950s/60s quoting from afro-american folk to bossa nova. Latin rythm and dreamy voice are the core. His first album "Jet sounds" (2000) moves from brazilian music to sithar sounds.

Nicola Conte, guitar
Jose James, vocals
Fabrizio Bosso, trumpet
Gaetano Partipilo, sax
Pietro Lussu,  piano
Lorenzo Tucci, drums
Pietro Ciancaglini, double bass

Nnenna Freelo recently recorded her last album “Blueprint of a Lady”, her tribute to Billie Holiday. Her selection and interpretation of signature tunes are presented against the backdrop of Billie Holiday's time and ours.

Nnenna Freelon, vocals
Joel Holmes, piano
Wayne Batchelor, bass
Kinah Ayah, drums
Beverly Botsford, percussion

Sylvie Courvoisier Quintet

Sylvie Courvoisier, piano
Mark Feldman, violin
Vincent Courtois, cello
Ikue Mori, electronics
Gerald Cleaver, percussion

Luigi Dallapiccola: Il prigioniero

Cast
The mother: Paoletta Marrocu
Prisoner: Vito Priante
The gaoler/The Grand Inquisitor: Kim Begley
Two priests: Gregory Bonfatti, Davide Pelissero

Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
Daniel Harding, conductor

Staging: Peter Stein
Sets: Ferdinand Wögerbauer

Béla Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle

Cast:
Prologue: Eörs Kisfaludy
Bluebeard: Gabor Bretz
Judit: Elena Zhidkova

Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
Daniel Harding, conductor

Staging: Peter Stein
Sets: Gianni Dessì