The city of Cremona, known throughout the world for its musical history and for the art of "Saper Fare liutario", celebrates the Monteverdi Festival with an event organised at the Unesco headquarters in Paris entitled "Avant tout, l'opéra!". A precious occasion to pay tribute to the father of opera Claudio Monteverdi, on the occasion of the first year of the recognition of "The practice of opera singing in Italy", inscribed on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2023.
Organised in collaboration with the Italian Permanent Representation to UNESCO, the Municipality of Cremona and the Ponchielli Theatre Foundation, Cremona once again played a leading role in Paris, confirming its international vocation as a city of music.
The evening was attended by the Director General of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, the Ambassador of Italy to France, Emanuela D'Alessandro, and Ambassador Luca Sabbatucci, Permanent Representative of Italy to the International Organisations based in Paris.
"It is with great emotion," said Ambassador Liborio Stellino, Permanent Representative of Italy to Unesco, at the opening of the event, "that I welcome you to Unesco to celebrate together two Italian excellences recognised by this organisation as elements of intangible cultural heritage. Opera singing and the tradition of Cremonese violin makers form a union that is part of our collective imagination." "Italy," he continued, "is associated worldwide with the most famous opera arias and is recognised for its outstanding contribution to the pursuit of vocal perfection. But it is also universally known for the art of building stringed string instruments, which for centuries have taken shape from the hands of Cremonese masters. Instruments that accompanied the first performances of the baroque operas that are the protagonists of this evening, and that from the UNESCO stage offer us the opportunity to relive together the emotions born of a magical encounter between music and word."
"We have returned to Paris to keep alive the existing relationship between our city and the prestigious institutions that host us and continue to show interest in the underlying themes linked to Cremona's identity," said the mayor of Cremona, Andrea Virgilio.
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