Author Talks
Frances Mayes: a reading from 'Every Day in Tuscany, Seasons of an Italian Life'
Saturday 31 July 2010
5.00pm - 6.00pm
Sant'Agostino
Free event
Frances Mayes, one of the founders of the Tuscan Sun Festival, treats us to a reading from her new newly released book, Every Day in Tuscany, Seasons of an Italian Life. In this sequel to her New York Times bestsellers Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany, the celebrated “bard of Tuscany” (New York Times) lyrically chronicles her continuing, two-decades-long love affair with Tuscany’s people, art, cuisine, and lifestyle. Throughout, she reveals the joys of life in her adopted hill town, with particular attention to life in the piazza, the art of Luca Signorelli, and the pastoral pleasures of feasting from her garden. Moving always toward a deeper engagement, Mayes writes of Tuscan icons that have become for her storehouses of memory, of crucible moments from which bigger ideas emerged, and of the writing life she has enjoyed in the room where Under the Tuscan Sun began.
Frances’ reading will be accompanied by a musical performance and wine will be served.
The wine consortium of Cortona will provide local wines to be enjoyed at this event.
Art and Poetry
Exhibition: Painting the Poem, Poeming the Painting
Opening event
Friday 30 July 2010
5.00pm - 6.00pm
Nocchia Gallery, Via Guelfa 16
Free event
Open daily
Saturday 31 to Friday 6 August 2010
10.00am - 7.00pm
Poet Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes and Artist/Architect Alberto Enrique Alfonso have made a one year committment to daily jointly collaborate on a poem a day/ painting a day commencing 1 January 2010, and ending 1 January 2011.
The work is an investigation into the fusion of the high arts of poetry and painting, attempting a simultaneous creation of a constructive duality to create a unifed singular work. The artists will exhibit 60 pairings, that track 60 calendar days.
The writer Frances Mayes will give an introduction and commentary on the work, followed by brief statements by the artists. A reception will follow.
Lecture Series
Lecture: Foreigners in Tuscany
Sunday 1 August 2010
6.00pm - 8.00pm
Sant'Agostino
Free event
From the 18th Century Grand Tour and the Romantic Writers to the late 20th Century's Peaceful ‘Invasion’ of the Tuscan Countryside
A joint illustrated lecture by professor John Wilton-Ely and author Valerie Thornhill
Travelling to the Mediterranean from the north, what were they seeking, these 18th Century milord inglesi, the Romantic poets, Victorian authors and the post World War II writers, artists and enthusiasts who bought the derelict houses that Italians were abandoning and restored them to create an imagined Arcadia? In conclusion Valerie will introduce her novel In Restoration (in which Montesasso is really Cortona), relate its creation to her own house restoration and garden, near Cortona, and explore how such experiences have become transformed into a whole new literary genre. For more information see www.in-restoration.com.
The lecture will be followed by an informal discussion and a chance to meet the presenters over a glass of wine.
Lecture in English only
The wine consortium of Cortona will provide local wines to be enjoyed at this event.
Lecture: Verdi and Shakespeare
Tuesday 3 August 2010
3.00pm - 4.00pm
Sant'Agostino
Free event
The lecture led by Professor Guido Paduano will focus on the Verdi operas based on three of Shakespeare’s plays. Attention will be paid to Verdi’s musical ability to faithfully convey, by musical means, the big tragic core themes of power, as in Macbeth, and love, as in Othello. The third opera, Falstaff, presents an extraordinary combination of different Shakespearian texts (2 parts from Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor) which, through Verdi’s composition, brings weight to the thin comic plot leading it to an universal realisation. A question and answer session will follow after the lecture.
Lecture in Italian only
The wine consortium of Cortona will provide local wines to be enjoyed at this event.
Lunch and Lecture with Matthew Gurewitsch 
Thursday 5 August 2010
1.00pm - 3.00pm
Osteria del Teatro Restaurant
Music as Medicine: Science or Folklore?
Each year journalist and essayist Matthew Gurewitsch hosts a fascinating and often humorous lecture over a superb lunch in a private dining room of one of Cortona's best restaurants. €45
Matthew Gurewitsch writes and lectures on culture. His features, profiles, and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, Vogue, The Atlantic Monthly and other leading publications. Subjects have included the actors Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Day-Lewis, the complete recordings of Maria Callas, the New York City Waterfalls of Olafur Eliasson. He has lectured at Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall. His interview series "Conductors in Conversation" for the Metropolitan Museum of Art - with guests Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, and Sir Georg Solti, was also broadcast on US radio.
Menu
Appetizer: Aubergine, buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes with casentino arista (pork)
Main courses: Tagliolini with a duck and wild fennel sauce and Ravioli with zucchini flowers and courgettes
Dessert: Rasberry meringue
Wines: San Gimignano Vernaccia “Cesani” 09 DOC and Cortona Merlot “Poggio Stella” 08 DOC
Conversation with an Artist
This popular free event takes place a number of times throughout the festival, outdoors in the courtyard of Sant'Agostino.
Meet the Artist: DAZE
Sunday 1 August 2010
5.00pm - 6.00pm
Palazzo Casali
An opportunity to meet Daze and have the chance to participate in a conversation between him and the journalist Matthew Gurewitsch. Learn about his technique, how he has developed as an artist, background knowledge on some of his pieces, and ask him your own questions about his art and life.
English only
Conversation with an Artist: Maxim and Irina
Tuesday 3 August 2010
6.00pm-7.00pm
Sant'Agostino
Free event
Maxim and Irina, Principal Dancers of the American Ballet Theater partners off stage and on, will be talking with Matthew Gurewitsch about their lives as dancers, from their training in Russia to their career peak with ABT, what following the dance discipline means and how they manage to bond personal and professional life. A fascinating glimpse inside a dancer's life.
English only
