Night lights
City lights between Europe and America

The artistic project

Night lights contribute to the uniqueness of a city's skyline.
White, colored, soft, or blinking neon: night lights fade almost randomly into the darkness, leaving behind an infinite number of questions and suppositions. Who is behind that light? Where is that ship out there heading? What are those people doing sitting by their fireplace? These are the moments that stay in our minds when remembering a city, its life, and its residents.
This year's artistic concept stems from that idea: the relationship between city and light, explicit and direct or implied and evocative. In fact, light represents the intelligence, inspiration and ingenuity of just one person. Yet the concept of "city" evokes the words "social", "meeting place", "exchange".
We also chose to honor the 20th century because both light and city experienced their most rapid development during this century, which gave rise to such extraordinary metropolitan artistic and social phenomena as cinema, jazz music, "street" poetry and popular music.
Europe and America played a decisive role in this process: the migratory flows to and from these two continents created increasingly multi-racial societies and, as a result, new artistic movements born of the meetings/clashes between different cultures.
The artistic theme of this year's Notti di Luce was inspired by these movements. We can't say that we were able to cover everything; it's far too vast of a theme! But the event provides a significant view of the last century through a few of its key figures.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti represents one of the highest expressions of 20th century poetry. Born the son of Italian parents, Ferlinghetti took part in the Normandy Invasion. He fought in the name of liberty, a conviction that later led him to protest against the post-war McCarthy witch hunts and the Vietnam War, and to open City Lights Publishers in San Francisco, through which he published Allen Ginsberg's Howl, the famous manifest of the beat generation.
Marlene Dietrich was the first true diva of American and European cinema. She chose to abandon her native land, Germany, to chase after a dream of fame and success. She returned to Europe in the Sixties, where she was initially met with hostility, but was later worshipped as the great Hollywood star she was.
In Italy, Gino Paoli and his "friends" contributed to the popularization of music. Pop music was a revolutionary musical expression that expressed feelings and real life facts through non-conventional language. This movement paved the way for a number of successful song writers and singers, including Luigi Tenco, Lucio Dalla, Mina, Ornella Vanoni, and Fabrizio de Andrè.
In keeping with the theme of music, we couldn't possibly forget a journey into the phenomenon of Latin music, featuring a genuine virtuoso violinist from Cuba, Alfredo de la Fè.
As in the past, this year's event includes some outstanding shows that serve only to increase the prestige of this initiative.
In fact, Ferlinghetti's performance has been conceived as a poetry reading/interview/concert featuring the participation of writer Fernanda Pivano, one of the world's major interpreters and experts of American culture, and noted trumpeter Enrico Rava.
Il Sogno di Marlene (The Dream of Marlene) is a unique theatrical performance written for the occasion by Mario Bertasa, featuring Paola Quattrini, with music by Kurt Weill, arranged by Bruno Tommaso for the E. Salmeggia Chamber Orchestra (soloist Gianluigi Trovesi), and directed by Oreste Castagna.
As usual, there will be a concert of classical music at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore featuring the music of Giovanni Legrenzi, a famous composer who divided his time between Bergamo and Venice during the 17th century.
Each evening will commence with a performance of lights and sounds produced especially for this occasion by Martin Professional. A few of Bergamo's largest companies (ODL, Le Soprano, McLore, Fort Fibre Ottiche) will be handling the technical side of the shows.

Claudio Angeleri
Artistic Director