parabola spirituale per cinque voci soliste, tre attrici, coro misto e ensemble strumentale
Basilica di San Vitale |
from 16 June to 31 December 2023
Stabant Matres
a spiritual parable for five voices, three actresses, mixed choir, and ensemble
music Paolo Marzocchi libretto Guido Barbieri
Maria Valentina Coladonato soprano Tamar Manuela Rasori soprano* Rahab Simona Mastropasqua mezzo* Betsabea Clara La Licata soprano* Rut Benedetta Gaggioli soprano*
Actresses of the Scuola di Teatro di Bologna “Alessandra Galante Garrone”
conductor Paolo Marzocchi
Coro Ecce Novum choirmaster Silvia Biasini LaCorelli Ensemble
*female voices of the Master in canto “Musica Vocale e Teatro Musicale del ’900 e contemporaneo” of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Ravenna
commissioned by Ravenna Festival premiere
The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, in which the names of four women stand out in the line that links him to King David: Tamar, the wife of Judah; Rahab, who married Salmon and was the mother of Boaz; Ruth, the wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed, who became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of King David; and Bathsheba, who married David and became the mother of Solomon. To this list of women who never met the Saviour, another name must be added: Mary.
A new, completely original production combines song, drama and music to evoke these ancient mothers, who were not Jewish and who, with the exception of Bathsheba, came from the lowest classes of society and were sometimes prostitutes. Biblical commentators have no doubts: Christ is the descendant of the chosen people of Israel, but through matrilineal descent he represents all humanity, without distinction of wealth, affiliation or identity.
Kristjan Järvi, Stefano Bollani
Filarmonica Toscanini
Palazzo Mauro De André |
from 1 to 31 July 2023
Filarmonica Toscanini Kristjan Järvi conductor Stefano Bollani piano
John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony
Stefano Bollani & Kristjan Järvi 50/50
for piano and orchestra Premiere
Stefano Bollani
Concerto azzurro
for piano and orchestra
When Charles Schulz had Lucy van Pelt say, “I thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that making the sky blue was a good idea,” he was unaware that he had provided a title for Stefano Bollani’s Concerto azzurro, a tribute to the colour of the sky, but also to the fifth or throat chakra, associated with self-expression and creative communication. Kristjan Järvi will be on stage with the eclectic pianist: it was Järvi himself who commissioned Bollani in 2017 to write this work, pleasantly suspended between composition and improvisation, between classical and jazz. Instead, the Doctor Atomic Symphony, in its Italian premiere, looks to a different kind of sky. Adapted from John Adams’ opera, the composer’s take on the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, it combines continuous pulsating beats and fierce rhythmic waves charged with energy.
Teatro Alighieri |
From 25 June to 31 December 2023
The best of English choirs The King’s Singers Songbirds
from Schubert to The Beatles
Patrick Dunachie countertenor
Edward Button countertenor
Julian Gregory tenor
Christopher Bruerton baritone
Nick Ashby baritone
Jonathan Howard bass
Christine McVie, lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, revealed that Songbird came to her in just half an hour in the middle of the night, in 1976. As she had nothing to record it on, she had to stay up all night playing it until she managed to get it onto tape the next day.
The King’s Singers, an all-male choir founded in Cambridge in 1968 by singers trained at King’s College, dedicate their programme to the ephemeral beauty of bird flight and song. Rooted in the prestigious English tradition of a cappella singing, they offer a journey through a repertoire inspired by birdsong, ranging from the early XIX century to popular music. They have no instruments to enrich their tonal, dynamic and harmonic palette: the sounds and rhythms of two centuries of music are entrusted to their voices alone.
Hossein Pishkar, Leonidas Kavakos
Dedicated to the Iranian women and those who died for freedom in their country
Teatro Alighieri |
from 18 June to 18 July 2023
Dedicated to the Iranian women and those who died for freedom in their country Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini Hossein Pishkar conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin
Witold Lutosławski
Musique funèbre for string orchestra (in memory of Béla Bartók)
Benjamin Britten
Sinfonia da Requiem Op. 20
Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D major Op. 77
Dazzling light and deep darkness alternate in a programme that sees the return of Leonidas Kavakos with the Brahms Violin Concerto, a masterpiece of irrepressible melodic exuberance whose luminous vision of the world is dramatically counterbalanced by two rarely performed twentieth-century works, now dedicated to the plight of Iranian women: Witold Lutosławski’s Funeral Music, composed in 1954 in memory of Béla Bartók, and Benjamin Britten’s Requiem Symphony, submitted in 1940 for the Japanese government’s competition to mark the 2,600thanniversary of the founding of the empire. Rejected as inappropriate, the work was a revelation in New York, where it launched the theatrical career of the greatest English composer of the 20thcentury.
Milano Marittima, Arena dello Stadio dei Pini |
from 18 June to 30 June 2023
Il Trebbo in musica 2.3
Qualche estate fa Life, poetry and music of Franco Califano
with Claudia Gerini and Solis String Quartet
script and text Stefano Valanzuolo songs by Franco Califano rearranged by Antonio Di Francia direction Massimiliano Vado
production IMARTS – International Music and Arts
with the contribution of Cooperativa Bagnini Cervia
The artistic story of Franco Califano has always been deliberately intertwined with his human story, so much so that his personality has often overshadowed the author of so many hits. Qualche estate fa is now attempting to rebalance these two dimensions, using some of his hits as the starting point for the narrative of the author’s life. In order to avoid the temptation of reproducing the stereotype of the womaniser, and to prevent a risky comparison with the original, the narrative is presented from the female point of view. Thus, nine scenes are narrated by different women, mostly fictional characters, who tell stories related to the reality of Califano, the man and the artist.
Each scene culminates in a song, making music the caption of the story.
Milano Marittima, Palazzo dei Congressi |
14 June 2023 | at 9:30 PM
Il Trebbo in musica 2.3
Tribute to Italo Calvino on the centenary of his birth (1923-1985) Le città invisibili with Sergio Rubini
Michele Fazio piano
concept and artistic coordination Elena Marazzita adaptation Cosimo Damiano Damato
AidaStudioProduzioni
with the contribution of Cooperativa Bagnini Cervia
We will never know exactly what the relationship is between Kublai Khan’s maps and the cities bearing women’s names described by Marco Polo: the narrative unfolds precisely in the impossible reconciliation of the secret reasons of the narrator’s voice and the inscrutable ones of the listener. And what we learn about these cities always brings us back to the labyrinthine essence of each place and the ambiguity of each story. Thus, among the “invisible cities” there are some where it is not clear whether an object is a thing or a sign, some where the enthusiasm for novelty is threatened by dangerous piles of rubbish from a past life, some that were left unfinished and some that are already in ruins. Sergio Rubini takes on the task of unravelling this dialogue, carving a path through Calvino’s cities, supported by the jazzy echoes of Michele Fazio’s piano.
Teatro Alighieri |
from 14 June to 31 December 2023
150 years after the death of Angelo Mariani (Ravenna 11 October 1821- Genua 13 June 1873)
Orchestra dell’Accademia del Teatro alla Scala Solisti dell’Accademia del Teatro alla Scala Donato Renzetti conductor
Giuseppe Verdi from Aroldo Overture
from Giovanna D’Arco “O fatidica foresta” soprano Greta Doveri
from Attila Preludio “Mentre gonfiarsi l’anima“ bass Livio Li Huanhong
from La traviata “È strano!… Sempre libera” soprano Zhou Fan
from Don Carlos Preludio, ballabili from act III
Gaetano Donizetti from Lucia di Lammermoor “Tombe degli avi miei” tenor Andrea Tanzillo
Charles Gounod from Faust “Alerte, alerte, ou vous êtes perdus!” soprano Zhou Fan, tenor Andrea Tanzillo, bass Livio Li Huanhong
Richard Wagner from Lohengrin Prelude to act I
from Tannhäuser Overture
in collaboration with Associazione Musicale Angelo Mariani di Ravenna
It had to be Verdi and Wagner, the two undisputed giants of nineteenth-century opera and now the pillars of a concert commemorating the 150thanniversary of Angelo Mariani’s birth. If the former was a long-time personal friend and collaborator of Mariani’s (although they had a serious falling out due to misunderstandings and probably romantic jealousy), the latter owed the first Italian performances of his operas to Mariani, who conducted the premieres of both Lohengrinand Tannhäuser in Bologna. This further widened the rift with the great composer from Busseto, who perhaps also blamed the charismatic Ravenna-born musician for the liberties he took with other people’s scores. However, Mariani played an important role in the rise of the modern professional conductor, combining the roles of maestro concertatoreand direttore d’orchestra to achieve “a true unity of performance, conception and interpretation”.
Ars Ludi:Antonio Caggiano, Rodolfo Rossi, Gianluca Ruggeri, Alessio Cavalierepercussioni
Steve Reich: Drumming (Part 1)
Francesco Filidei: I funerali dell’anarchico Serantini (versione per 3 esecutori)
Famodou Don Moyedrums e percussioni, Simon Siegerpianoforte e trombone e Christophe Leloil tromba con la partecipazione di Silvia Bolognesicontrabbasso
Alvin Curran live electronics
Carte da musica (estratti): Luigi Espositopianoforte e Monica Benvenuti voce musica di Luigi Esposito, testi di Roberto Masotti
Prima esecuzione assoluta
TAI No-Orchestra Massimo Falascone sax, Roberto Del Pianobasso elettrico e Filippo Monicodrums
con la partecipazione di Silvia Bolognesicontrabbasso,Martin Mayescorno e Gianluca Lo Prestilive visual immagini diRoberto Masotti
Per bussola, nell’esplorare le terre incognite della musica – là dove la musica accadeva o stava per accadere – aveva scelto la macchina fotografica; strumento fra gli strumenti, per mescolarsi ai nomadi del suono lungo un itinerario che era un continuo attraversamento di frontiere. E allora Terre incognite. Concerto per Roberto è un invito al viaggio: il Teatro Alighieri di Ravenna accoglie tanti di quei musicisti che Roberto Masotti, scomparso lo scorso maggio, ha incontrato, conosciuto, ascoltato, fotografato.
Oltre 30 artisti si alterneranno in scena nella città natale di Roberto, straordinario “fotografo della musica” e testimone di una meravigliosa stagione di creatività: sei ore di concerto, dal jazz d’avanguardia, soprattutto europeo ma anche d’oltreoceano, al sound ECM, etichetta discografica alla quale è stato legato da una collaborazione ultradecennale, alle tante altre musiche di oggi, incluse il minimalismo e la sperimentazione elettronica, passando per le contaminazioni fra suoni e l’evocazione dei paesaggi naturali al centro di tante sue fotografie. Né mancheranno testimonianze della sua attività nella videoarte e nella scrittura, anche poetica, quest’ultima poco nota al pubblico.
Milano Marittima, Arena dello Stadio dei Pini |
03 July 2022 | at 9:30 PM
Tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pierfrancesco Pisani presents Il sogno di una cosa
freely adapted from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s masterpiece by and with Elio Germano e Teho Teardo
with the contribution of Cooperativa Bagnini Cervia
In Friuli, the lives of three young men are cut short by the hardships of the world: the misery of the peasant milieu, the experience of migration, the political struggles, and then the integration into the middle-class of the booming economy. They yearn for happiness and a comfortable life abroad, develop a political consciousness, dream of revolution, then yield to the compromises of adulthood, likely to meet a work-related death.
In his first narrative experiment, Pasolini speaks in the voices of those who fled poverty-stricken post-war Italy to illegally enter Yugoslavia, attracted by the Communist utopia and by the promise of work and food for everyone. A counter-exodus on the Balkan route, across the same border that today’s refugees try to reach to enter Italy: we seem to have forgotten it, but just a short way back, we were the ones who resorted to passeurs.
