The 14th edition of the 'Monza Visionaria' festival kicks off
The 14th edition of the 'Monza Visionaria' festival; two festivals in Vicenza, of jazz and classical music
Key points
In Vicenza, town festivities on the 17th for the Settimane Musicali, with classical concerts throughout the day; while the Palladian Teatro Olimpico marks the start on the 16th of the 30th edition of New Conversations, the jazz festival.
Monza (MI)
Until the 17th 'Monza Visionaria'; the theme of the 2026 edition is 'Sing, Pray, Love'.
The spirituality and rituality of music are the pillars of the 14th edition of the festival. A dialogue between love and spiritual freedom through the discovery of beauty, the enchantment and seduction of music, visual art and prayer in a tribute to Bob Marley, 45 years after his death. Concerts, performances, guided tours, Nocturnes, light and sound installations, musical readings, shamanic prayers and much more. Among the many appointments, we would like to mention the "Notturni al Roseto" in the Reggia di Monza, on 16-17, from 9.30 p.m. to midnight
Vicenza
On the 17th, the city centre is pervaded from morning to afternoon by concerts at Palazzo Chiericati, Palazzo Thiene, Loggia del Capitaniato, and Gallerie d'Italia. They range from Chopin's Preludes to bossa nova classics, from Cole Porter to a concert supported by musicians for passion, who carry out a variety of professions in life, bringing to the stage personal stories and life paths that intertwine with music. This is the 'Musica.Vicenza', launched in 2016 as the cornerstone of the Settimane Musicali. "I imagine it as a happy sharing of beauty: an invitation to experience the city as a cultural workshop, where music and the arts dialogue with people and transform every urban corner into a living, participatory experience," says artistic director Sonig Tchakerian. The festival continues on the 24th at the Palladian Teatro Olimpico, a Unesco heritage site, with Canti rocciosi, for male choir and strings, by the contemporary composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima, an unconventional homage to the Dolomites on texts where the mountain takes on a voice and sings: a fragment from Dino Buzzati's Le montagne di vetro (The Glass Mountains), a Dante triplet, a Ladin legend dedicated to the myth of the Anguane (the nymphs of Alpine mythology).
Also on the 16th, the 16th-century hall hosts the opening of the 30th edition of New Conversations - Vicenza Jazz, with the voice of Barbara Hannigan and the piano of Bertrand Chamayou and the complex sounds of Jumalattaret, a song cycle by John Zorn. Among the numerous appointments up to 25 May, we would like to point out on the 21st at the Teatro Comunale the screening of Louis Malle's cult film Elevator to the Gallows, starring Jeanne Moreau, and the soundtrack - composed by Miles Davis - played live by the trumpet of Paolo Fresu with his Quintet. In addition to the concerts in the theatres, there are a series of appointments scattered throughout the urban spaces, from aperitif time until late at night, a myriad of smaller but very popular live performances, which come to life in bookshops, shops, restaurants, cafés and other places in the centre.
