VersoVerdi

An unusual journey to the discovery of the great composer

(App for I-Phone downloadable from app store)

Verdi’s universe is rich, complex, multiethnic.
Verdi was great composer, but also a man of his time, cautious landowner, musical interpreter of the Italian Risorgimento, discreet philanthropist, reluctant politician, farmer of Roncole.

IBC and Bologna University IT Department inspired by Verdi’s versatile nature, on the occasion of the anniversary in 2013, planned VersoVerdi a free iPhone app anybody can download for App Store.

VersoVerdi is a journey inside Verdi’s universe constituted by 24 planets/Emilia-Romagna Museums recomposing Verdi’s world according to unpublished crossed-references and sense-related connections.

For example, in the application together with Verdi’s places par excellence – the unpretentious birth house in Roncole di Busseto, Villa Verdi in Sant’Agata and Barezzi House Museum in Busseto – appear other two museums dedicated to the Arts of the nineteenth century: the Ricci Oddi Gallery in Piacenza with his collection of Italian artists carefully divided by regions and schools, and the Boldini Museum in Ferrara dedicated to the author of the most famous portrait of the Maestro.

The interest in political events involving Verdi leads us to the Risorgimento Museum in Bologna which keeps the poster of the extraordinary performance of “The Lombards at the First Crusade” and to Villa Saffi in Forlì, site of secret meetings of the carbonari and later on residence of the Mazzinian Leader Aurelio Saffi and his wife Giorgina Craufurd.

Again, the exploration of the connection between Verdi and his homeland addresses us from Villa Verdi to the Museum of the Agriculture and the rural world in San Martino in Rio with its collections of objects witnessing both the peasant farmers’ work and the landowners’ life and the Cervi Museum to tell, in another historical context, the story of an extraordinary peasant family.

VersoVerdi obviously at the same time constitutes an eminently musical universe telling about Padre Martini, Mozart in Bologna, Rossini, Toscanini, and Mascagni, who – even if born in Leghorn- in our region, specifically in Bagnara di Romagna, left his heart and an extensive correspondence and many objects.

Each of the 24 museums is briefly introduced by videos, music, readings and photo slideshows.

VersoVerdi is an original and innovative interactive experience making use of sophisticated forms of emotional browsing for the recognition of emotions through facial expressions.