FRANCESCA BERTAZZO HART: tribute to Emily Dickinson

For the fourth event of the  Women For Freedom in Jazz festival, on Wednesday, September 9 at 7 PM, another undisputed talent of international jazz, Francesca Bertazzo Hart, will perform at Hotel Aquarius in Venice with a musical project inspired by Emily Dickinson—a journey into the inner universe of one of the most mysterious voices in American literature through music, words, and dance.

Joining Francesca on stage are musician Francesco Carta, producer of the show, and narrator (as well as dancer) Giovanna Denaro. Giovanna’s narration guides the audience through the pivotal stages of Emily’s life and poetry: childhood, the discovery of writing, her friendship with Susan Gilbert, her love for words and silence, and her voluntary withdrawal from the world. In the finale, the narrator’s body transforms through dance, becoming pure visual poetry.

Original songs and vocal improvisations by Francesca, accompanied by guitar and piano, weave together the lyrical dimension of poetry and music, creating a dialogue between voice and word. The piano played by Francesco, who also composed the score, guides the story and heightens its emotional intensity: a soundscape evoking the poet’s moods, at times transforming into the voices of the men who crossed her path.

A singer and guitarist active on the national and international jazz scene for thirty years, Francesca Bertazzo Hart, Chair of Jazz Vocal Performance at the Steffani Conservatory in Castelfranco Veneto, is admired in Italy and abroad for effortlessly balancing “brilliant guitar technique and a warm, enveloping voice that delivers remarkable, never self-referential scat solos” (F. Favano), as well as for her versatility, mastery of improvisation, and compositional talent.