“Along with Peppe Barra, Pino De Vittorio is the last heir to the ancient tradition of singer-actors who for centuries staged the utopian union between high and low-brow: a characteristic that made the history of Neapolitan theatre unique. Like Peppe and Concetta Barra, De Vittorio was discovered
by Roberto De Simone for the first edition of his Gatta Cenerentola, and from then on, continued along the dual path of ethnomusicological research and baroque interpretation with worldwide success” (La Repubblica, 24.11.2017). Nothing to be added to these words of Dinko Fabris, one
of the most internationally renowned Italian musicologists and Scientific Director of the San Carlo Theatre in Naples. The Early Music Seminars, in this particular edition, aim to pay tribute
at the same time to the great singer-actor and promote the precious repertoire
of Neapolitan comic cantatas that he so masterfully interpreted.
Corrado Bologna, a distinguished philologist and academic who will accompany him, will comment on the ambivalent tradition – and especially the sacrificial dimension – of Neapolitan and Italian comic characters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The collaboration of two specialists,
a musicologist and a theatre historian, is also foreseen. Singers and/or actors selected through an international contest will participate in the seminar, accompanied by a basso continuo ensemble.
The event is organised with the contribution of the Swiss foundations Concordance, Irma Merk and L.+Th. La Roche.

On 12 October, the traditional final concert will take place in the Auditorium “Lo Squero”.