“Quality, professionalism, seriousness”. He doesn’t use Andrea Castello’s words to describe ‘Vicenza in Lirica’, the festival he has been directing for 10 years, scheduled until 10 September at the Olympic Theater. An anniversary dedicated to great art, with a full program of events. After the preview in June, the festival kicked off last Saturday with the ‘Mass in C minor, K427’ composed by Mozart between 1782 and 1783 in a new performing version by the conductor Luca Guglielmi. Interpreters: Nina Solodovnikova, Paola Leoci, Giuseppe Di Giacinto and Giacomo Nanni while another masterpiece of the Mozart genius, ‘Don Giovanni’, will be staged on 8 and 10 September. “Mozart is a very useful composer for young artists who have to debut – explains Castello to the Adnkronos -. Of course you need a good technique, a lot of study, a voice suited to the repertoire. Mozart for us is a parenthesis from the ‘pure’ Baroque and how all brackets open, close and…. they can be reopened “. Castello recalls the path of ‘Vicenza in Lirica’ and of these ten years, spent with the aim of constantly increasing the artistic quality of the festival: “The balance is certainly positive – he admits – despite the two years of Covid, which in any case they stopped although with a very small audience. We had great names in opera who returned to Vicenza after years of absence, young artists who made their debut, an audience from all over Italy and also from abroad … I would say a success that motivates me to work again. more”. After all, the numbers speak for themselves, with a positive balance, especially as regards new talents: “We made their debut about 150 young artists at the Olympic Theater, many of whom are singing in the largest theaters in Europe or are in the Academies of the Teatro alla Scala, of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Teatro Carlo Felice of Naples – recalls Castello -. An important result that confirms our desire to concretely help the young stars of tomorrow, giving them a chance to deal directly with the reality of the stage and highlighting their qualities “. Young artists are the fil rouge in the bill this year:” We constantly insert the Baroque repertoire, which was the cornerstone of the June bill and with the official start of the festival we move slightly into a neo-classicism with Mozart – underlines Castello – The leitmotif are the young artists, above all I would say a repertoire suitable for them, which does not put them in difficulty or, in any case, which does not cause irreversible damage to their health and vocal freshness. The young artist must be very careful in choosing the repertoire, it is something that we consider fundamental “. The title of the edition? ‘The music that unites’.” Music unites young artists to the great names of opera, capable of’ accompany them to their debut – observes Castello -. Music unites young artists with the public, creating the live theater that in these two years they have tried to replace with streaming but, fortunately, failing … Music unites various countries on stage, music unites theater to the city and vice versa . We need to share, social detachment does not educate. Live theater, on the other hand, is sharing and life experience “.