Artistic Projects
Discover artistic projects inspired by Pietro Querini
Querini Opera
Querini Opera by Røst Municipality is a prestigious opera production that tells the story of the ancient connection between Italy and Norway, born through the exchange of culinary delicacies such as stockfish and salt cod.
The Opera narrates the crucial event of the shipwreck of the Venetian Pietro Querini and his crew in 1432, an episode that marked the beginning of the journey of stockfish from the cold Norwegian waters to become an integral part of Italian and Norwegian gastronomic tradition.
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The Querina Expedition
A performance proposed by the Spanish partner ‘Associacion de Camino de Santiago de la Ria de Muros Noia’ reinterprets the history of the Querini and allows the audience to enjoy it through the art of dance.
Monologue by Pino Costalunga
A project proposed by Confraternità of Bacalà alla Vicentina and performed by Pino Costalunga.
This trilingual monologue retraces the adventures of Pietro Querini, offering the audience the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in a story rich in multicultural nuances.
The alternation of languages creates an immersive experience, allowing the narrated journey to be lived intensely.
A dinner with Pietro Querini
The project ‘A cena con Pietro Querini’ (At dinner with Pietro Querini) is the brainchild of Paolo Francis Quirini, who also serves as director. This unique show combines theatre and gastronomy, offering an immersive experience centred on the story of Pietro Querini and his epic journey, while guests enjoy a dinner of stockfish.
Director’s notes.
The story is told in the form of a dialogue between three of the survivors, the Doge and two of his advisors. In order to adapt it to an evening with dinner based on bacalà, the tale is divided into 5 episodes which are interspersed between one course and other. After all, as the main subject is the tasty dish derived from the dried cod, it was not kind to speak about it the whole evening without letting the guest smell and taste it.
To make the story more understandable, some images taken from pictures, paintings, drawings and photographs are projected, so they help to understand what is told. That’s because, having taken the dialogues from Pietro Querini’s and his scribe’s original writings, which have been kept till today, the language is very archaic and sometimes difficult to understand. For this reason, in the drawing up of the dialogues the way of speaking has been a bit sweetened and some words, which are not used today and therefore incomprehensible, have been translated, trying anyway to keep, where possible, the original linguistic and grammatical style.
Occhi di Mare - The Shipwreck of Querina
The projects “the eyes of the sea – the shipwrecked of Querina” is an exhibition and theatrical performance by the company ” I Balenieri del Cironda”
The story follows an elderly Pietro Querini as he recalls his past journey in a Venetian bar, blending reality and imagination through theater and music. The accompanying exhibition visually narrates his dramatic voyage—from the shipwreck of the Querina to the Lofoten Islands—depicting a journey from darkness to light, between history and dream.
The accompanying exhibition, From the Lofoten Islands in Norway to Venice, retraces Querini’s extraordinary voyage, where drama and comedy intertwine with the present. After setting sail from Crete to sell Malvasia wine, the Querina is wrecked and carried by the elements into the endless night of the Arctic Circle.
A journey from darkness to light, captured in a series of evocative illustrations that bring to life the captain’s real experiences and his dreamlike encounters with the sea, nature, and his rescuers.