June - August, 2013
Lucca, Italy

The Lucca Opera festival

The UNESCO Club Vienna is a sponsor of the festival.
For more information on the festival, see here:  http://www.luccaoperafestival.com/

“There have always been strong and stable ties between Lucca and Vienna, mainly due to the noble ambassadors from Lucca who resided in the imperial capital and who maintained an amicable bond between the two states.

Lucca also felt daughter of the empire, since the small Republic in 1396 had been freed from the dominion of Pisa, thanks to the intervention of the Emperor. Even during the seventeenth century the presence of Lucca in Vienna is guaranteed by an important figure: The Cardinal Francesco Buonvisi, an ambassador from the apostolic church in Vienna. He demonstrated that he wasn't only a great diplomat, but also a strategist giving opportunities and advice to the government and the military. Maometto IV conducted the Turkish military in 1683 to prepare to invade the area of Danube and also Vienna, consequently putting Europe in danger also. His energetic work and well received suggestions proved effective and no one in Poland and Austria forgot this great prelate of Lucca.

Then, twice on the brink of the papacy, due to political intrigue, he forbade his name to be included on the list of "eligible candidates". Cardinal Buonvisi was born in 1626. After having been long side of Pope Clement X in the Vatican, then the bishop of Thessalonica in Greece and then apostolic nuncio in Cologne, Warsaw and Vienna, he was elected bishop of Lucca in 1691, returned to his hometown, where he stayed and where he was buried, in the chapel Buonvisi in the church of S. Frediano.

Both in Lucca and Vienna music flourished and was cultivated with great enthusiasm.

The most famous example of withholding a rapport between Lucca and Vienna could be Boccherini, who in several occasions resided in the Austrian capital when he was performing in theatres and composing.  Together with Boccherini there was his father, Leopoldo, double bass player of the cappella di Palazzo of Lucca and his brothers, dancers of the imperial theatres of Vienna.

Furthermore, we see an evident connection between the personal and artistic growth of Giacomo Puccini senior, Antonio Puccini, Joseph Haydn and W. A. Mozart, which demonstrate how their biographical events intersect in multiple points of view.

The artistic and productive events of the Lucchese Giacomo Puccini senior, in fact, unfolds more or less in parallel with that of the great Austrian composer Joseph Haydn. For about thirty years, under the Prince Esterházy, he wrote almost all of his works for the needs of the court. The Lucchese Puccini, for more than forty years was conductor of cappella di Palazzo and choirmaster of the Cathedral of San Martino and composed the music to cater for the needs of the Serenissima Repubblica di Lucca. During his studies in Bologna, Giacomo senior acquired a friendship with Father Martini, an important figure of composition of European fame. It was thanks to lessons with Father Martini that in 1770, the fourteen year old Mozart, was able to pass his entrance examination to be accepted among the members of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna (in which Giacomo senior was already admitted as a member in 1743). Once again, with the help of Father Martini, Antonio Puccini was also accepted into the Accademia during same months in which the young Mozart was present.” Mattia Campetti, Artistic Director and Founding Member of the Festival.