Italy's Summer Festivals Highlight Respighi Music and Chaplin Silent Film

The fifth edition of the Festival Respighi took place in Bologna, marking UNESCO's 20‑year celebration of the city as a Creative City of Music, the 90th anniversary of composer Ottorino Respighi’s death and the 30th anniversary of his wife Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo’s passing. The opening concert was held in Piazza Maggiore, featuring the Orchestra of the Conservatory Giovan Battista Martini under conductor Aldo Sisillo, with cellist Luigi Piovani performing Respighi’s Adagio alongside works by Mozart, Rossini, Martucci and Verdi.

On 1 August, the Pergolesi Spontini Festival in Jesi presented a cine‑concert of Charlie Chaplin’s 1923 short film “The Pilgrim”. The silent film was screened in the courtyard of the former Appannaggio with live accompaniment by the Senzaspine Orchestra, directed by founder Tommaso Ussardi. The score, originally composed by Chaplin in 1959, was restored and orchestrated by Timothy Brock, offering audiences a combined visual and musical experience of Chaplin’s work.