Our events listing keeps you up-to-date on the latest and greatest in culture, music and other English-friendly entertainment. This is a selection of the best of them.
POETRY/Shakespeare Week
April 15–18. British Institute, Lungarno Guicciardini 9, Florence
The Tempest takes centre stage at the British Institute during Shakespeare Week. This four-day event includes film screenings, lectures, a graduate conference, a public reading in which the audience is invited to participate, and an exhibit, called Virtue and Vengeance, a thematic exploration of the play by students from Florence University of the Arts’ fashion school.
All events are free and open to all; see www.britishinstitute.it for details.
DANCE/ Fabbrica Europa
April 16–June 19. Various places around Florence
This extravaganza of contemporary performance and visual arts is celebrating its twentieth birthday with a series of multimedia events, dance, music, theatre performances and more in the theatres and other venues around Florence and Tuscany. Look out for No More Excuses, ‘sound architecture’ at Stazione Leopolda, May 3-11, and Snakeskins. A fake solo, the Italian premier of a multimedia and multisensory dance project from Canadian choreographer Benoît Lachambre (May 11).
See www.fabbricaeuropa.net for more.
CINEMA/FilmSpray
April 18–20. Church of S. Jacopo in Corbolini, via Faenza 43, Florence
This festival, organised by the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute of Florence, aims to give filmmakers a second chance by showcasing some of the best Italian movies which, despite their quality or appeal, have so far failed to enter the large-distribution market. Four films will be shown, all in Italian with English subtitles, and at the end a winner will be announced. The festival will open with a section dedicated to dealing with social disadvantage. For details and tickets, visit the reception desk of the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute, on via Faenza 43, or call 055/287203.
CLASSICAL/A Night at the Opera
April 18–July 18, evenings. Odeon Cinehall, piazza Strozzi, Florence
Starting on April 18, with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, the historic Odeon cinema will fill with the soaring notes of operas by Verdi, Rossini and Puccini during this series of evening performances. In addition to semi-staged operas, there will be Baroque music evenings, featuring works such as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
See www.odeonfirenze.com for details.
ART/ Tano Pisano
April 20–June 2. Sala del Basolato, piazza Mino, Fiesole
This free exhibit features the soft, flowing watercolours of Sicilian artist Tano Pisano, who depicts flowers and nature as emotions, thoughts and colours. This charming show, entitled Flowers and Other Little Things, highlights ‘little things’ such as insects, vases, cherries and objects that are given vitality through the pictures.
See www.tanopisano.es for information.
TF WALK/Dante’s Florence
April 20, 10:30am. Meeting in front of the statue of Dante in piazza Santa Croce, Florence
Tower houses, warring factions, plagues, floods, intrigue, power, money and poetry: this is Dante’s Florence. Led by licensed guide and TF editor-at-large Alexandra Lawrence, this walk takes participants into his world, exploring some of the poet’s haunts throughout the city and reading parts of the Divine Comedy on some of the ‘Dante plaques’ around town.
By reservation only: e-mail a.lawrence@theflorentine.net or call 333/8689458 to reserve a place.
HOLIDAY/April 25
Across Italy
The Festa della Liberazione, a national holiday, celebrates Italy’s liberation from Nazi occupation on this date in 1945. Many people will also take the Friday off work, making it a long weekend, so watch out for closed businesses and shops.
BASKETBALL/Harlem Globetrotters
April 25, 5pm. Nelson Mandela Forum, viale Paoli 3, Florence
Combining top-quality basketball with physical comedy, the Harlem Globetrotters win an astonishing 98.5 percent of their games. The team began in Chicago in the 1920s, and since then has interspersed play with acts of incredible coordination and skill, such as juggling balls between players, spinning balls and making seemingly impossible shots.
To purchase tickets, go to www.mandelaforum.it
EXPAT/Violet Trefusis Festival
April 21–28. St Mark’s English Church, via Maggio 16-18, Florence
St. Mark’s Church is hosting an event-packed celebration of one of Florence’s most famous expats, entitled Violet Trefusis a Firenze/Violet in Florence. The writer, traveller and philanthropist will be commemorated with exhibits, book readings, concerts, a performance of the musical Hello Violet, which is based on her life, guided tours and a roaring 1920s party.
See www.stmarksitaly.com for more information.
PHOTOGRAPHY/Joel-Peter Witkin
Until June 24. Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia, piazza Santa Maria Novella 14a, Florence
Witkin merges photographs of the human body with themes of misery and spirituality, creating enigmatic and sometimes unsettling images of eroticism, suffering, pleasure, deterioration and death. Provocative and complex, Witkin’s artworks have been labelled exploitative and have sometimes shocked public opinion. This exhibit presents a selection of 55 of them.
See www.mnaf.it for hours and more.
