Saturday, July 25, 4:00 PM

Value of the experience: 30 euros

Reduced: 20 euros

Guided Tour · Exhibitions · Concert

Music possesses a remarkable capacity to carry memory across time. Long after words have faded, a melody can summon places, emotions, and histories with extraordinary immediacy. It is through this relationship between sound and remembrance that pianist and composer Anthony Cardella approaches performance—not simply as interpretation, but as an act of discovery.

Before the concert, guests are invited to follow a guided tour through the park, the historic carriage collection, and the Fratelli Roda exhibition, continuing into the photographic show Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of Place, before concluding the experience with the musical performance. This progression through landscape, heritage, and visual memory prepares the ground for the listening that follows, allowing the entire afternoon to unfold as a single, continuous encounter with place.

Created within the landscape of Valle Cervo, Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of Place by Linda Zambolin and Francesco Tori is a meditation on place, memory, and our enduring relationship to the natural world. The artists work directly in the valley, among forests, stone houses, and pastoral paths, using photography not as mere documentation but as a way of distilling atmosphere. Each image is printed, then hand‑colored and finished with layers of wax, giving the surface a tactile, almost sculptural presence. This process softens contours, deepens tones, and creates a luminous veil, so that the photographs feel like objects of memory—fragile yet persistent, suspended between visibility and disappearance.

Rather than presenting a linear narrative, the series invites viewers into a slower rhythm of observation. Standing before these works, one is encouraged to pause, to notice small shifts of light and texture, and to sense the traces of human passage embedded in the landscape. The photographs become vessels of remembrance, holding both the intimacy of lived experience and the broader continuity of place.

Presented earlier this year at El Nido in Los Angeles, the exhibition resonated deeply with audiences despite the distance from its place of origin. Visitors were drawn into the stillness and mystery held within the images, responding to universal themes of dwelling, belonging, and the search for connection. Now, reunited with the landscape that inspired it, the series returns to Villa Magnani, where the surrounding hills, forests, and rural traces echo the scenes depicted in the work. Here, image and landscape meet once again, offering a meditation on memory, presence, and the enduring spirit of place.

On July 25, 2026, Cardella presents a program at Villa Magnani centered on Frédéric Chopin’s Ballades, with a special addition to the program for one night only that connects Chopin’s music to the ancient scores housed at Villa Magnani—works that transform memory, lyricism, drama, and imagination into deeply expressive musical journeys. Rather than telling a single story, they invite listeners into a space where personal reflection and emotional experience become part of the music itself.

Cardella’s approach is distinguished by thoughtful inquiry and careful attention to the architecture of each work. His performances seek not merely to reproduce the score but to reveal the relationships between structure, silence, gesture, and expression. Technical mastery serves a larger purpose: creating space for sustained listening and contemplation.

The program includes a selection of early Italian Mazurkas performed on one of Villa Magnani’s historic pianos. These pieces, performed alongside selected Chopin Mazurkas, can only be heard exclusively on July 25th at Villa Magnani. This rare opportunity creates a dialogue between performer, instrument, architecture, and history, allowing the villa itself to become an active participant in the musical experience.

Event conceived, curated, and organized by ©Victoria Chapman, Curator of Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of Place at El Nido, Los Angeles (2026), accompanied by her curatorial statement written for Once Upon a Time: Embodiment of a Place by Francesco Tori and Linda Zambolin, and for the musical performance by Anthony Cardella.

Limited capacity — reservations available through the link below.