This lecture/recital is a presentation of the English translation of a book entitled: Il mandolino a Napoli nel Settecento—The Mandolin in Naples in the 18th century. The volume consolidates the recollection of the themes and reflections that were the content of a meeting between scholars, musicians, and researchers on the occasion of the international Study Days Il mandolino a Napoli nel Settecento, conducted in 2018 in Naples, dedicated to the mandolin, an instrument that is the symbol of Neapolitan music. The convention had as its objective the promotion of discussion among some of the major experts on the mandolin and eighteenth-century Neapolitan music. The initiative was a stage of a multi-year project on a European scale coordinated by Professor Anna Rita Addessi, of the University of Bologna, which envisioned the collaboration of scholars, musicians and experts on the mandolin and on this music. The Italian book was published in 2018, and the English translation is being published by Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
The aspiration of this collection of studies and essays is above all to restore to this instrument—most popular in Neapolitan music—a dignity which overrides its demeaning folkloric stereotype. They provide a documented and original account of the role that the instrument played in the spread of music from Naples into Europe. The mandolin and its diffusion from Naples in the eighteenth century are a testament to an incredibly lively and widespread musical culture through social and cultural networks that the essays in this volume attempt to recount—restoring a voice to the many lives both high and low that the instrument has assumed.
The presentation will include a performance of Emanuele Barbella’s Sonata a due Mandolini, Gimo 13, on replicas of historic instruments.
Anna Rita Addessi is a full professor of Musicology at the University of Bologna. She is a leading international figure in the fields of the music education, psychology of music, and systematic musicology. She obtained her degree in Musicology, her PhD in Systematic Musicology, and completed postdoctoral research in the Psychology of music at the University of Bologna. She mainly teaches Methodology of Music Education and is the author of important reference texts for teacher training. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) and was vice-president of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM). Her academic work focuses on the intersection between educational innovation, music pedagogy, and historical-musicological research. She studies the cognitive and emotional processes linked to the musical experience in children, focusing on reflexive interaction and new technologies applied to creativity (such as the European MIROR Platform project). She published about Debussy and Manuel de Falla relationship by means of the intertextual Topics theory approach.
She is a scholar and performer of historical mandolins: she has promoted and coordinates the research project ‘The Mandolin in Naples in the 18th Century’ and is co-founder of the Ensemble Galanterie a Plettri. Her most recent publications: Innovating University Curricula in Music and the Arts: Support for Teachers, Educators, and Learners (Barcelona Publishers, USA, 2026), and The Mandolin in Naples in the 18th Century (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, forthcoming). The complete list, with articles from international journals (such as Frontiers in Psychology, Psychomusicology, or the British Journal of Music Education), can be viewed directly in the Publications Catalogue of Anna Rita Addessi – University of Bologna or via her Google Scholar profile.
Lawrence Mays is affiliated with the Australian National University School of Music as a PhD Graduate of Recent Years. Prior to completing his Doctorate of Philosophy in 2018, he was awarded a Bachelor of Music in voice performance (Australian National University, 2009) and a Master of Philosophy in Music (Australian National University, 2013). His research interests centre on eighteenth-century Italian comic opera, in particular the works of Niccolò Piccinni. In 2019, he published a critical edition of Piccinni’s Il regno della Luna and subsequently wrote a book chapter on the historiographic aspects of this opera. He published a critical edition of Piccinni’s 1792 opera buffa La serva onorata in collaboration with Lucio Tufano in 2025. In 2024, he published a book chapter on this opera, showing how socio-political factors affected the agency of its Neapolitan creatives. In 2025, he gave a lecture in Italian about this opera and related subjects at a masterclass in Italy. Currently, he is working on a third critical edition of a Piccinni comic opera.
He is a member of the Comitato Scientifico delle Celebrazioni Piccinni 300—Piccinni 300 Celebrations Scientific Committee, a committee organised by the City of Bari and the Petruzzelli Theatre, which will celebrate the tercentenary of Piccinni's birth in 1728. A student of baroque mandolin, he has organised and performed in a concert of eighteenth-century Neapolitan mandolin music with an ensemble entitled "La Cappella Galante" and is currently composing for the instrument and planning concerts with early music performers. He is collaborating with Italian colleagues on a project about the history of the Neapolitan mandolin in the eighteenth century and has contributed an English translation of an Italian book related to the project. He performs regularly with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra chorus and on occasion with the National Opera Company. Prior to studying music, he practiced medicine for many years in various capacities, and he has published in the field of health services research.