Thursday, August 20, 2020 – 9:30 pm (Italian time)
Piazza Duomo – Spoleto
Accademia Bizantina
Ottavio Dantone artistic director
Coro Costanzo Porta
Antonio Greco choir director
Pier Luigi Pizzi director, scenes and costumes
Gino Potente choreography
Massimo Gasparon lighting designer and assistant director
Lorena Marin costume assistant
“Claudio Monteverdi´s Orpheus is considered the first accomplished expression of melodrama, an attempt to bring together and merge different forms of representation. After more than four centuries, this work is still a point of reference for those of us who continue to believe in the cultural and spiritual value of this musical genre.
In this belief, I seem to understand, lies the reason of Director Giorgio Ferrara’s choice and invitation for the Festival opening, in addition to its unquestionable topicality. […] The fable of Orpheus, as told by Poliziano, touches universal themes, gifted by Monteverdi of an inner musical unity. It soars through death so swiftly that one does not have the time to actually perceive it – from absolute happiness to the excruciating pain of detachment and loneliness, the morality being that every hard test can only make us stronger. This is what we have just experienced, and has severely affected and marked so much of humanity.
We shall relive this dramatic experience through theater, trying to understand its mystery, while collecting a teaching that can only make us better human beings.”
Pier Luigi Pizzi
For further information: www.festivaldispoleto.com
The show is available for free streaming and on-demand for 48 hours, upon registration, on www.italiafestival.tv