Vatican Museums

Piloted with great public success last summer, the Night Openings 2014 will present the second edition of "Il Bello da Sentire", a programme dedicated to art and music, the result of a collaboration between the Vatican Museums, the "La Venaria Reale", the Giuseppe Verdi State Conservatory of Turin, and, starting this year, the "Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia". The four prestigious institutions have fruitfully collaborated to produce a musical programme that makes excellence in Art its distinguishing feature.

The Vatican Museums and the "La Venaria Reale" guarantee a unique backdrop, offering their rooms rich in art and history; the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory and the "Accademia di Santa Cecilia" instead provide a varied and structured programme of concerts, offering their fine young talents.

The Director of the Vatican Museums, Professor Antonio Paolucci, comments: "Again this summer, while you listen to Mozart and Vivaldi, Chopin and Debussy, while you admire the Laocoön, Raphael or the "Venus Pudica" with the air of Rome above you, even if you are not archaeologists or art historians, you will understand, never to forget again, that Art, in all its forms, is wonder and consolation. It makes us happier and more alive".

The Vatican Museums, from 2 May to 31 October (with the exception of the month of August) will host – on the Friday evenings indicated on the programme, "Il Bello da Sentire" – more than twenty concerts held by the best young artists from the "Accademia di Santa Cecilia" and the Turin Conservatory. In addition, these latter, in a symbolic artistic-cultural twinning, will also perform in the "La Venaria Reale" during the evening openings of the Reggia.

Simply by purchasing a normal evening entry ticket for the Vatican Museums (online booking obligatory), the visitor may attend one of the concerts forming part of the musical programme without any additional cost. All the performances will begin at 8.30 p.m., and will take place in one of the historical locations of the Museums, from the Raphael Hall to the Gregoriano Profano Museum, from the Octagonal Courtyard to the Terraces of the Pinacoteca. The events will last for around 60 minutes, thereby also leaving time for visitors to continue their tour of the various sectors of the Museums, including the Sistine Chapel.

Additionally, for those who seek a truly unique experience, evening visitors this year will again be offered theme-based tours focusing on the musical iconography within the Pope’s Museums, as well as the normal guided tour service. The "Musical Visits", conceived and visited with the musical and musicological guidance of Professor Ala Botti Caselli, will be conducted according to three different itineraries, led by authorised Vatican City State guides, and will form an important formative experience also for all the students of the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory and the "Accademia di Santa Cecilia" who in turn offer a valuable demonstration of their creative talent.