in collaboration with Fundación Astor Piazzolla – Buenos Aires with the patronage of Embassy of Argentine Republic in Italy
The quintet formation always best expressed Piazzolla’s approach. In 1960, undaunted by the limited number of musicians, he put together his first ensemble: the five soloists could easily interpret the electric vitality of Buenos Aires, with a melodic and harmonic flexibility unknown to more imposing orchestras. Violin, guitar, double bass, piano and the main voice of the tango, the heart-wrenching bandoneón, is the line-up chosen by the Astor Piazzolla Foundation for its “Quinteto”, formed with the objective of bringing the composer’s legacy around the world. For over 20 years now, it has been offering original arrangements from his vast repertoire, in a permanent laboratory projecting into the future a musical legacy that seemed unrepeatable.
Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini Leōnidas Kavakos conductor and violin Antoine Tamestit viola
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra in E-flat major K. 364
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony no. 8 in G major, Op. 88
Masterpieces are usually born from personal and artistic tribulations. 1779 was a black year for Mozart: his mother died, the appointments he hoped to obtain in Mannheim and Paris came to nothing. He had to go back to the “prison” of Salzburg, where he “had to play for the chairs”. His transition to adulthood, however, came with the Sinfonia Concertante for two solo instruments, where hope for the future (the sparkling lines of the violin) dialogues with the dark, meditative tones of the viola. Dvořák, too, at almost 50, was trying to achieve his own identity, leaving the Germanic tradition behind to embrace the Bohemian folklore. “Don’t laugh at me. I am not only a musician, I am a poet”, he claimed in 1889 on publishing his Symphony no.8, composed through images, with an initial long, melancholy movement to open up his memory box.
music director Melvin Gibbs sound Milo Benericetti and Roberto Mandia lighting design Francesco Trambaioli production Ponderosa Music & Art
“Lectura Dantis” by Carmelo Bene, Bologna 31 July 1981 courtesy of Warner Music Italia srl Italian premiere
“I am mortally wounded, so I dedicate this evening not to the dead, but to those who were wounded in the horrible massacre.” Forty years ago, on the first commemoration of the Bologna train-station bombing, Carmelo Bene performed his memorable Lectura Dantis from the top of the Asinelli tower, to a city that was still licking its wounds, and to a massive crowd, akin to a rock-concert audience. It takes much courage to revive it today—the courage of Arto Lindsay, cultural stirrer and language disruptor, who outdid the punk culture from left, inventing a rigorously illiterate grammar for the guitar, through which he wreaks havoc on the slick lines of Brazilian samba, and breaths new life into a chapter of Italian history.
Giardini Pubblici |
Available from 27th June to 27th July
Towards Paradiso concept, artistic direction, and direction Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari with the actresses and the actors of Ravenna
musicLuigi Ceccarelli
with Vincenzo Core electric guitar
Giacomo Piermatti double bass
Gianni Trovalusci flutes
Andrea Veneri live electronics and with Mirella Mastronardi vocals
sound design Marco Olivieri lighting design Fabio Sajiz technical direction Enrico Isola
production Ravenna Festival/Teatro Alighieri in collaboration with Teatro delle Albe with the extraordinary contribution Comune di Ravenna and Viva Dante 700
Prima parte inizio ore 20.30 fine ore 23.00 (Canti 1 – 11)
intervallo 30’
Seconda parte inizio ore 23.30 fine ore 2.00 (Canti 12 – 22)
intervallo 30’
Terza parte inizio ore 2.30 fine ore 05.00 (Canti 23 – 33)
Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari have come up with an act of hope for 2021, the year of the seven hundredth anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death: their verso Paradiso is a one-night happening, from dusk to dawn, featuring the integral reading of the thirty-three Cantos of Paradiso by all the actors of their own company, Le Albe, and the actresses and the actors who work in Ravenna. verso Paradisopoints to their Cantiere Dante, to return in 2022 with a full staging of the Comedy,from the ‘dark wood’ to the dazzling light of Paradise, once again with all the citizens of the Public Call. Marco Martinelli will guide us through this project in a sort of diary, published online at doppiozero.com from April 25 to the end of June, with contributions by various scholars and artists. The Programme
Omaggio a Ennio Morricone
Tosca and Roma Sinfonietta
Lugo, Pavaglione |
17 July 2021 | at 9:30 PM
Tosca and Roma Sinfonietta:
Tribute to Ennio Morricone
with Javier Girotto sassofoni conductor Paolo Silvestri
Tosca and the Roma Sinfonietta pay homage to Ennio Morricone with a monographic concert on the first anniversary of his death. The programme is inspired by the album Focus, which Morricone composed for the Portuguese singer Dulce Pontes, featuring songs and new arrangements from his most famous soundtracks. The Roman composer also wrote for Tosca, contributing songs for her album Incontri e passaggi, and collaborated with the Roma Sinfonietta over the course of fifteen years, recording and conducting around the world. Paolo Silvestri, jazzman, multi-skilled musician and composer for film and stage, will be on the podium conducting such prominent soloists as saxophonist Javier Girotto.
Tribute to Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) for the 100th anniversary of his birth
Rocca Brancaleone |
Available from 20th December 2021 to 19th January 2022
Tribute to Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) for the 100th anniversary of his birth María de Buenos Aires
Opera Tango music Astor Piazzolla text Horacio Ferrer
Martina Belli mezzosoprano Ruben Peloni baritone Daniel Bonilla-Torres El Duende
with the Orchestra Arcangelo Corelli Davide Vendramin bandoneon Jacopo Rivani conductor
Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballettodance production coordination MM Contemporary Dance Companyperformers Michele Merola choreographer
directionCarlos Branca assistant director Rosanna Pavarini lighting designer Marco Cazzola set designer Giulio Scutellari and Carlos Branca sketches of costumes Carla Mellini costumes realization Nuvia Valestri head tailor Isabella Franzoni makeup Tobias Tran stage assistant Chiara Cattani light designer Mattia Mazzini stage manager Turchese Sartori technical directionandproduction Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara and Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazioni
new coproduction Ravenna Festival and Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara Italian premiere
with the patronage of Embassy of Argentine Republic in Italy
In the sordid slums of Buenos Aires, Maria, a factory worker, is seduced by the music of the tango and lured into an evil trap that makes her first a tango singer and then a sex worker. She dies, but her spirit walks the city among wastrels, thieves and criminals until she is miraculously reborn to give birth to a daughter, also named Maria, who could be herself in a new life, condemned to the perpetual cycle of things. Latin-American magical realism, ruthless and poetic, infuses Piazzolla’s tango operitamasterpiece, premièred in Buenos Aires in 1968. The wok combines the sacred, the profane and the fantastic in a world where the ill-omened are “born on a day when God was drunk”. And where the tango, hypnotic and irresistible, marks the pace of life and death like a strict judge.
music composed and conducted by Timothy Brock live music performed by Orchestra Arcangelo Corelli
in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna
Restaurato nel 2020 dalla Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna e Cohen Films presso il laboratorio L’immagine Ritrovata nell’ambito del Progetto Keaton
From South to North, from North to South, using the same track both ways: in a frantic search for his beloved, a young man, heedless of the battle raging around him, stages two long chases back to back in the midst of the American Civil War. For this comic epic of the silent screen, Buster Keaton arranged exact replicas of period locomotives, as well as 4,000 military uniforms: “It’s got to be so authentic it hurts”, he told his staff. Timothy Brock’s score was inspired by the songs of the American civil war, by their lyrics, rhythm and bite, drawn directly from 1860s sheet music. And if the current health restrictions make it impossible to perform the original 2005 score for a large orchestra, the reduced orchestration helps keep the momentum going and provides a framework for several solos.
Milano Marittima, Arena dello Stadio dei Pini |
25 July 2021 | at 9:30 PM
Ravenna Festival in Cervia – Milano Marittima
Il Trebbo in musica 2.1 Convivio. Dante and the Folk Singers with Ambrogio Sparagna and Peppe Servillo
Ambrogio Sparagna portative organ and vocals
Peppe Servillo vocals
Erasmo Treglia hurdy-gurdy, trumpet violin and shawm
Clara Graziano portative organ
Raffaello Simeoni vocals, guitar, and folk winds
Marco Iamele zampogna and shawm
Alessia Salvucci tambourines
Anna Rita Colaianni vocals
Mario Incudine vocals and guitar and with the children choir Libere Note led by Catia Gori with the participation of Marco Pierfederici keyboard
with the contribution of
It is known that Dante’s greatness extends well beyond the bounds of the “educated” élite to reach into the “popular” world. It is also well known that, over the centuries, his verses have influenced and entered the oral tradition of poetic production, inspiring, for example, the meters and themes of the precious practice of improvised poetry in ottava rima, which still survives in central Italy. And thus, a seven-century-long thread connects the songs and music of this Dante-inspired Convivio: Ambrogio Sparagna, along with some valiant travelling companions and an expert, multifaceted ensemble, will orchestrate the narrative, from the episode of Paolo and Francesca to the stories of Ulysses and Count Ugolino, punctuated by music “in the old way”.
Teodora
scalata al cielo in cinque movimenti
Basilica di San Vitale |
Available until December 31, 2021
Teodora climb to the sky in five movements
Chamber opera for soprano, actress, dancer, choir, and instruments (Edizioni Curci, Milan)
music by Mauro Montalbetti libretto and direction by Barbara Roganti
Roberta Mameli soprano
Matilde Vigna actress
Barbara Martinini dancer
Altrevoci Ensemble
Andrea Berardi organ
Choir of the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “Giuseppe Verdi” choirmaster Antonio Greco
Ravenna Festival’s commission for the performance in the Basilica of S. Vitale in coproduction with the 30th International Sacred Music Festival of Pordenone
world premiere
For almost fifteen hundred years, Empress Theodora has stared sternly at the faithful and visitors of the Basilica of San Vitale, her purple chlamys embroidered with the Magi, a jewelled chalice in her hands. Now, at last, the Basilissa that Frank Thiess described as “revered as a saint and cursed as demon”, leaves her wall of mosaics to take shape, body and life as the protagonist of Mauro Montalbetti’s Teodora.Una scalata al cielo in cinque movimenti. This new chamber opera, based on a libretto by Barbara Roganti, will be premièred right under the golden vaults of the basilica and the glittering mosaic of the Empress and her retinue. Not a mere biography—the authors explain—but rather a musical itinerary through the labyrinth of her existence.
Lights from the Divina Commedia before and after Dante
Luci dalla Divina Commedia prima e dopo Dante
Teatro Alighieri |
27 July 2021 | at 9:30 PM
Lumina in tenebris
Lights from the Divina Commedia before and after Dante
by and with Elena Bucci and Chiara Muti
based on the Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri
lighting design Vincent Longuemare sound design and dramaturgy Raffaele Bassetti
production Ravenna Festival in collaboration with Compagnia Le belle bandiere
In the dark backstage, in the wings, behind the backdrops, cracks, openings and gaps are disclosed and hidden… A light flashes, disappears, is transformed: apparitions are evoked by the voices of two white figures mirroring each other. Guardians, ghosts, souls. Two actresses who have already and repeatedly crossed paths. Now, again, they meet in the grandiose theatre of Dante’s Comedy, a map of lights designed to guide us through the darkness caused by discord and ignorance, arrogance and greed. Big lights, small lights: useful tools to push our way through the “forest dark”.
Lights that inspired Dante, and were inspired by him: they invite us to listen to the spirit of hope that dwells in each of us, a spirit that creates but does not destroy, welcomes but never rejects.
