Palazzo Fedrigotti in Rovereto at 5 p.m. One of the most eagerly awaited events in the Mozart Festival, being performed here for the very first time.

Written and scored by Fabrizio Festa (a celebrated composer and orchestral conductor), "The Conversation” is a reconstruction for a few hours of a lost world: the world of the late eighteenth century French salons seen through the eyes of a lady who was a great protagonist of the period.

As in all the other events in this Festival, the inspiration comes from Mozart. "The inspiration and the pretext”, explains Festa, "is a painting by Michel Barthélemy Ollivier, a French painter who immortalized the child Amadeus as he performed with a singer before a group of people who were chatting amiably among themselves. Barthélemy”, the composer goes on, "probably didn’t even realize that he had painted a portrait of one of the greatest figures in the history of music. What he achieved, however, was an extraordinary and very credible portrait of Mozart”.

If Barthélemy Ollivier created a snapshot of the period, Madame du Deffand (1696 – 1780) was a protagonist of that period. A friend of Voltaire, D'Alembert and Diderot, she reigned over a salon which was frequented by the cream of society. And she – a daughter of the Ancien Régime – tried to adapt to the changing times. In her old age she became blind; having lost the light of sight, Festa explains, "she had to appeal to the light of reason”.

This work by Fabrizio Festa relies, in the author’s words, on a voice that is "unique, one of very few of its kind” (Ivana Monti, a famous actress of the Strehler school, plays Madame du Deffand in her old age), and on music performed by the Aedon Trio. For this occasion, as in the painting, the musicians "will be arranged around the room as if they were marginal to the performance, almost as if to provide entertainment – which of course is not the case, because the balance of the work is based on a constant cross-play of exchanges between the music and the voice".

Entry: 16 € (full price), 12 € (reduced price), 5 € (students)
For information and bookings please call: 0464 439988