Il Ponte di Leonardo

In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci drafted the plans for what would have been the largest bridge in the world, in Istanbul. However, the project never saw the light of day, as Sultan Bayezid II, who had commissioned the project, found the venture too ambitious. The plans were nevertheless preserved in the artist’s archives, which is why we still have access to them today.

Presented precisely 500 years after Da Vinci’s death, this concert gives musical expression to his unfinished architectural project and builds the bridge he envisioned between East and West. Musical works drawn from 16th- and 17th century manuscripts found in the national libraries of Istanbul and Florence will be revisited by the solo musicians of the Constantinople ensemble and the sublime Italian singer Marco Beasley. These works belong to the classical and popular repertoires of two important centres of musical culture of the time, which were Persia and the Ottoman Empire on the one hand, and Renaissance Italy on the other.

For this original program, Marco Beasley, a leading figure in Renaissance music, joins Constantinople’s soloists, under the direction of Kiya Tabassian, to immerse us in the imaginary and audacious world of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings.