This year’s Blenheim Festival, attended for the first time by the Italian ambassador, offered a wide range of Italian-themed cultural events.
Every year Blenheim Palace, a monumental country house in Oxfordshire recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, hosts the Blenheim Festival of Literature, Film & Music. This prestigious event, dedicated to literature, cinema and music, takes place over several days and receives the patronage of the Duke of Gloucester, representing the royal family.
This year the festival was held from 12 to 15 October and for the first time it was attended by the Italian ambassador, Pasquale Terracciano. A significant portion of the cultural programme was dedicated to Italy, including a talk on Monteverdi by Michael Collins, accompanied by a performance by the New College Oxford choir; the presentation of Caroline Moorehead’s book on the resistance against Fascism; a talk by gastronomy expert Eleonora Galasso on the role of women in the culinary field in recent centuries; and a talk by Professor Martin Kemp, a world-renowned expert on Leonardo Da Vinci, on new discoveries relating to the Mona Lisa.
On 13 October a gala banquet was held, attended by Ambassador Terracciano and Mrs Terracciano as well as the Duke of Gloucester and Sally Dunmore, the festival director. Guests were treated to a presentation by Bettany Hughes, who told the fascinating story of the cosmopolitan city by the Bosphorus, which over the centuries became the capital first of the Roman empire, and subsequently of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. The menu, created for the occasion by Danilo Cortellini, the head chef of the embassy, featured Venetian dishes with an Ottoman influence. Wines were provided by Cantine del Notaio, a winery in the Basilicata region.
The festival also included a fascinating programme of presentations by experts in various cultural sectors, who spoke on literature, music, history, theatre, cinema, and health and wellbeing.
– Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature
