to Spoleto Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice according to Damiano Michieletto
There is great anticipation to Spoleto for the debut of Christoph Willibald Gluck'sopera Orfeo ed Euridice, to a libretto in Italian by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, one of the most beloved and performed titles in the history of music, on stage at Festival dei Due Mondi in director Damiano Michieletto's personal reinterpretation. The new production, produced in collaboration with the Komische Oper in Berlin where it was staged in January 2022, is scheduled friday 5 and Saturday, July 6 (at 20:30, at 18) at the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti, with sets by Paolo Fantin, costumes by Klaus Bruns and dramaturgy by Simon Berger. The musical performance is entrusted to theOrchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Vocalconsort Berlin Chorus, led from Antonello Manacorda and joined from by an international cast. Raffaele Pe plays Orfeo, Nadja Mchantaf is on stage as Eurydice, Josefine Mindus as Amore. They are joined by dancers Alessandra Bizzarri, Ana Dordevic and Claudia Greco, led by choreographer Thomas Wilhelm. David Cavelius is chorus director. Lighting is by Alessandro Carletti. The performance is being filmed from Rai Cultura, and will be broadcast on Rai 5 deferred friday Sept. 6 in prime time at at 21:15.
On the occasion of his presence to Spoleto, Saturday, July 6 at at 11 a.m. at the Festival Garden Damiano Michieletto presents his first book Total Theater, published by Saggiatore, for which he is editor and author of the preface. The book collects the writings and interviews of Walter Felsenstein, among the most importantopera directors of the 20th century and founder of the Komische Oper Berlin. Completely unpublished for Italy, these texts deal not only with the staging of classical works and directing techniques, but also with other aspects such as dramaturgy, its economic sustainability and the importance and centrality that theaters can and should have in the planning of cities and the exercise of democracy. Theater, writes Felsenstein, "must always be something total." In addition to the author, the meeting features editor Luca Formenton. friday July 5, at the end of the first performance ofopera, Damiano Michieletto receives the Fondazione Carispo Prize, awarded by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto.
Confirming the focus on sustainability that guides the Festival's organizational choices, the transportation of the sets was carried out with a view to reducing CO2 emissions. Seven FERCAM fleet trucks traveled 16,000 km (round trip) fueled exclusively with HVO biofuel, saving 80.54 percent (17,875 KG) in CO2 emissions compared to the often traveled with regular Euro 6 trucks powered by fossil diesel.
According to Damiano Michieletto, the myth, the common thread of this edition of the Festival, is made of the reality of men. Orpheus and Eurydice are first of all a couple in crisis, they have become two strangers to each other. Love has disappeared. Misfortune strikes Eurydice and snatches Orpheus from his daily life. He weeps and wanders the world. What has he lost? Love appears to him and offers him a solution: he can bring Eurydice back to life, to condition of not looking at her all the way back. For the director, "Love's triumph in the end comes from experiencing the finiteness of life. This thought is difficult from to bear. The mythological story of Orpheus rescuing Eurydice is not about the reality of a man rescuing a woman from the Underworld. [...] The meaning of the journey that numerous myths speak of is, to in my opinion, an attempt to show, through artistic means, a truly meaningful life experience. It is about the possibility of change, of meeting again, of loving again and perhaps even in a different way. " to unlike the myth, Michieletto chooses to show the couple on stage from the very beginning. Orpheus' journey to the underworld is metaphorical, it is a path along which he finds himself. That of Orpheus and Eurydice is among the stories that most intensely evoke the link between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and it has its roots in very ancient, preclassical myths. It is no to coincidence that it was among the subjects chosen for 'opera opera at its very beginnings, with versions by Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini and in 1607 with Claudio Monteverdi's masterpiece. Until the 20th century, the figure of the cantor Orpheus appeared on the stage in nearly a hundred settings, operettas, ballets, cantatas, symphonic poems and soundtracks. Perhaps the enchantment of this myth lies in the tension of the lovers, in the choice between looking at each other one last time and saving themselves.