Cultural delights await this summer as NYU Florence hosts the 19th edition of its annual artistic/creative festival known as The Season. Staged at the gorgeous 37-acre Villa La Pietra campus home of NYU, nestled in the hills above Florence, this year’s Season includes original theater productions from Hong Kong and New York, musical delights both classical and jazzy, engaging book talks on topics ranging from St. Augustine’s politics of hope to the beneficial aspects of anxiety, and an award-winning film.
The Season begins May 20, with the enchanting Accademia degli Assetati orchestra, famous for spirited interpretations of composers from Brahms and Boccherini to David Bowie and Bruno Mars. On May 29, renowned scholar Michael Lamb will discuss his vital book A Commonwealth of Hope, a reinterpretation of St. Augustine’s political views that received rave reviews in everything from The Wall Street Journal to the Review of Metaphysics.
A second Season book talk on June 17 features leading neuroscientist (and NYU’s dean of arts & sciences) Wendy Suzuki discussing her path-breaking Good Anxiety, which the New York Journal of Books described as “erudite, practical, reader-friendly, deeply personal, and sure to help even the most anxious among us.” On June 18, The Season features a première screening of The Quantum Leapers, filmmaker and NYU Tisch Grad Film Department professor Yemane Demissie’s deeply moving multimedia work-in-progress anthology re-examination of the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-41.
On June 19, jazz-guitar sensation Sam Farthing, with an all-star band assembled for the occasion, will bring his lively, haunting evocations of Django Reinhardt-style music to the La Pietra grounds. The performance celebrates the release of Farthing’s debut CD, Swing 25.
An annual Season highlight is the student-organized variation on the traditional Commedia dell’Arte: the June 25 production is based on the Molière comedy The Doctor In Spite of Himself. On June 27, the New York-based Continuum Company will preview a new Rajiv Joseph play, Annunciation, featuring Maggie Siff (SAG Award nominee for Mad Men) and Stephen Stocking, fresh from his acclaimed Broadway turn in Death of a Salesman. On July 1, The Season closes with a landmark production of Candide, performed by the Hong Kong-based Ima Collab Company.
