From the Stanze della Cultura,Italian Cultural Institute in New York, a tribute to Napoleon and Manzoni. Tribute starting from Cinisi, Palermo

A new space opens, the “Library”, in the “Stanze della Cultura”, Italian Rooms, the new web platform created by the director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York Fabio Finotti, a few weeks after setting up in the prestigious headquarters on Park Avenue. The occasion is given by the two hundred years since Napoleon’s death on 5 May 1821 and by the anniversary of the famous ode written in July of the same year by Alessandro Manzoni.The pianist Costantino Mastroprimiano and the harpsichord player Ugo Casiglia introduced the art of recovery and restoration of historical keyboards on which contemporary repertoires are performed. Pieces from the Napoleonic era played from two Napoleonic keyboards preserved in the atelier of Ugo Casiglia in Cinisi (Palermo): these are a Schanz fortepiano (Vienna c1825) and a Brodman fortepiano (Vienna c1805).