Notturno Italiano - un ballo a palazzo. At the court of Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina Asburgo-Lorena
(Letizia Dradi)

In Naples at the court of Ferdinand IV Bourbon, known as "il re nasone", the King Big Nose, Giacomo Casanova was passed, resides Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton, an actress and dancer who becomes a great friend of Maria Caroline Asburgo, the Austrian queen. A cosmopolitan court, but the king prefers the common people to the nobility and he prefers to hunt rather than going to the theater or to the sumptuous gala. During the balls at the royal palace the guests gamble, eat and drink. The contredanses and minuets are the prerogative of the queen. In charge of the dances composition is the great Gennaro Magri, name-called Gennariello. Left Naples young to go to dance in the great court of Vienna, after having danced all over Italy returns home where he published his precious treatise in 1779. His Contraddanze not resemble anything, like a rich rococo frieze, agile and intricate at the same time. On Saturday evening we will dance together with the fashion of the court of Naples, contredanses in Italian, English and French style, with a hint of Austrian character.

Letizia Dradi, Mailand, Italien:

Dancer and choreographer she began studying ancient dance in 1992. She studied Musical Paleography and Philology at the University of Cremona. She choreographed and danced in Europe, Asia and America with severals early music groups as La Petite Bande S. Kujiken, Le Concert des Nations J. Savall, Dowland Consort of J. Lindberg and Norsk Barokkorkester Oslo. She has presented his researchs at the Society of Dance History Scholars (United States), Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society (London), Vaganova Academy (Russia). She is very active in teaching dance from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century in the Conservatives and Music Schools.