The Donizetti connection is for Bergamo what Gaudí was for the Barcelona of the tourist boom, with the exception that the surroundings of the birthplace of the composer of L'elisir d'amore, in the walled Città Alta, declared a world heritage site in 2017 , could under no circumstances be filled with small-time souvenir shops, as happens in the streets surrounding the Sagrada Família.
In Gaetano Donizetti's paradise, passers-by do not find Milan t-shirts hanging from the lintel of shops (the team that attracts the greatest fans in Bergamo along with Atalanta itself) nor do they find hardware with the portrait of the mythical bel canto creator who together with Rossini and Bellini dominated the opera scene until the emergence of Verdi. Emblematic establishments do not disappear so easily to be replaced by franchise businesses. Unlike the Barcelona that was once “of design”, good taste does not seem to be at odds with the infinite potential that Bergamo has as a hub for cultural tourism, quality tourism.
Every autumn, the Donizetti Festival, which for five years has been artistically directed by maestro Riccardo Frizza – a great reference in Italian opera and a regular in the Liceu pit – attracts for almost a month a visitor interested above all in opera. , but also in the Bergamasca experience.
“It's not just Donizetti fans who join, it's something more global. Walking through Bergamo you feel that fascination that the artist himself must have had who, unlike other composers (then nomadic figures who no longer returned to their place of origin), decided to return to die here, to a town that, even though it is small, has that majestic aura. of a large city, with two important theaters, the monumentality of the walls and those palaces... in one of which he died sick with syphilis, welcomed by the Scotti family.
This is how the Barcelona singer's agent Aleix Palau describes the experience in situ under a sun that softens the cold of the nearby Alps. The music journalist has also been faithfully attending this event with Donizetti's operas for the last twelve years. This time he has seen three productions with peculiar titles such as this Il delvio universale that the author of the Tudor Trilogy composed in 1930. The production begins at the entrance of the Donizetti theater, in the busy and most cosmopolitan Città Bassa, with a performance that gives welcoming the public evoking the biblical episode while appealing to the health of the planet.
The staging will be unsuccessful, but Frizza, who musically has taken the festival to a higher stage and is a draw for singers, will shine in the pit. And the cast will receive the warmth of a militant audience. Then, under the exposed beams of that 1808 Teatro Sociale with lush acoustics, a French version, Lucie de Lammermoor, takes place in the Città Alta...
And like every autumn, the title that the maestro composed 200 years ago is staged, on this occasion Alfredo il Grande, about the king of Wessex, whose autograph manuscript score lies in the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella, in Naples. The montage is not so forgettable this time but the singers are especially celebrated. The audience, crazy, throws bouquets of flowers at them like a torpedo: the stronger, the more successful the artist has been.
The Bergamo of today, with a strong musical tradition, has not changed much compared to that of Donizetti, who lived its evolution and heart. To begin with, it has that special light of elevated cities, which those that kiss the sea also have. Whether there is sun, clouds or that fog that you wake up to every day, in Bergamo the fascination of that unique light remains. And at a heritage level it has remained faithful to its essence, with the six kilometers of medieval Venetian walls, the impressive Cathedral of San Alejandro, inside which lie the remains of the composer, or the Accademia Carrara. Even the Donizetti museum, a room with objects and manuscripts, manages to transport you to a time and a context.
The balance of the Bergamo-Breschia 2023 cultural capital in the first half of the year was very promising: the Regional Observatory recorded a growth in the number of visitors, 4.8 million in total, 49% more than in the period of the previous year . National ones predominate but there is a European flow and also from the United States and Asia. That it is an increasingly sought-after destination can be felt in how hard it is to navigate the streets of the Città Alta on a Sunday morning. How will it withstand possible gentrification? What lessons could Barcelona draw?
“Whether you like Donizetti or not, you come out in love –concludes Cicerone from La Vanguardia–, and the environment embraces you: the gastronomic offer is brilliant, the city is pristine, it is impressive to walk around at Christmas, it is like a fantasy, a story with a Donizettian background ”.
