Music and Ballet in the National Museums of Pisa

Four cultural venues will serve as the stage for the second edition of the “Music and Dance in Pisa’s National Museums” festival. The Palazzo Reale Museum, the San Matteo Museum, the Museum of Ancient Ships and the Certosa Monumentale di Calci will host 18 performances, including concerts and dance shows, all scheduled during opening hours with the aim of immersing visitors in a fully immersive experience.From the chamber musicians of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino to the musical tribute to Pinocchio featuring the Tuscan comedian Paolo Hendel, from the augmented reality dance performance ‘Into the Echo’ to the tribute to St Francis by the choir of the Papal Basilica of Assisi.

PROGRAM SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER see below or on page

Thursday 10 September at 5.00 pm, Museum of San Matteo: ‘Into the Echo’, a dance show with augmented reality.
A journey that uses dance to celebrate the beauty of the museum’s collection of sacred artworks, beginning with the wooden crucifixes and depictions of the Virgin Mary and the saints.
‘Into the Echo’ is a poetic interweaving of body, sound and image that transforms the myth of the nymph into an immersive performance. A single dancer, the heart of the show, moves under the gaze of a webcam that captures their movements, translating them in real time into visual and auditory landscapes.

Friday 11 September at 10.30 am, Museum of Ancient Ships: ‘Utopia Nascosta di Francesco’, a play about the Saint of Assisi
This one-act play recounts the life story of Francis of Assisi, capturing his revolutionary spirit and its profound relevance today. Not the icon of the saint, but a man born in a Middle Ages marked by war, power and inequality – the son of a merchant, a dreamer of glory – who chose to overturn the system through a radical act: poverty as freedom.

Sunday 13 September at 10.30 am, Museum of San Matteo: ‘Armonie tra luce e sogno’ with Elisabetta Stanghellini on the harp

Saturday 19 September at 3.00 pm, Museum of San Matteo: the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in ‘Goldberg Variations’

Saturday 26 September at 10.30 am, Palazzo Reale Museum: ‘The Four Seasons’ with the Ferracci and De Nitto duo on violin and accordion

Tuesday 29 September at 10.30 am, San Matteo Museum: ‘The Soul of the Violin, the Voice of the Fret’, with Bruno Canino on piano and Alessio Bidoli on violin

Friday 2 October at 5 pm, San Matteo Museum: ‘When the Skies Speak’, with Francesco Nicolosi on piano and Arnaldo Colasanti narrating

Saturday 3 October at 11.00 am, Palazzo Reale Museum: ‘Le Donne di Puccini’, a dance performance inspired by the life of the famous composer

Wednesday 7 October at 10.30 am, Certosa di Calci: ‘Duo Saccone’, soprano Valentina Saccone and Chiara Saccone on piano

Saturday 10 October at 10.30 am, Palazzo Reale Museum: ‘Pinocchio. Masks, Dreams and Metamorphoses’, with Paolo Hendel and soloists from the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina

Saturday 17 October at 10.30 am, Palazzo Reale Museum: concert with the Orchestra of the Centro Produzione Musicale Toscana

Thursday 22 October at 5 pm, Church of the Certosa di Calci: ‘Stabat Mater’, sacred music and contemporary dance