The Minotaur: the myth of a terrifying monster is transformed, in thisopera, into a "human" drama, the drama of a being that has to to do with itself, indeed with the infinity of selves reflected in the mirrors of the labyrinth.
to him is contrasted by man as the real executioner - capable of deception and false friendship - represented here from Theseus and Ariadne.
The three vocal protagonists of 'opera are joined by the Chorus of Birds, omen or witnesses of death, who comment on the action, like a kind of modern Greek chorus and a small orchestra that embeds the vocal lines of the protagonists and becomes a protagonist itself in some formal junctures of the action. The Moon and the Sun accompany the relentless fate of the monster.
The loneliness of the Minotaur is contrasted by the young victims to destined for him, who encircle him menacingly before being killed, one after the other, in a battle all percussive and abstract.
The finale is given to the Chorus of Birds: a long, intimate and pained prayer over somber bell chimes.
Silvia Colasanti
opera opera in 10 pictures
music Silvia Colasanti
libretto René de Ceccatty and Giorgio Ferrara
director** Jonathan Webb**
direction and scenography Giorgio Ferrara
costumes **Vincent Darré **
lights Fiammetta Baldiserri
Minotaur Gianluca Margheri baritone
Arianna Benedetta Torre soprano
Theseus **Matteo Falcier **tenor
Athenian victims
**Federico Benvenuto, Irene Ciani, Renato Civello, Serena De Siena, Eugenia Faustini, Angelo Galdi, Alessia Genua, Cecilia Guzzardi, Francesco Iaia, Paolo Marconi, Eugenio Mastrandrea, Eleonora Pace, Giulia Tomaselli, Carlo Zanotti **actors graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art "Silvio d´Amico" in Rome
**Italian Youth Orchestra**
International Opera Choir
choirmaster Gea Garatti
production Spoleto 61 Festival dei 2Mondi, Fondazione Teatro Coccia di Novara
based on the ballad Minotaurus
by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
copyright © Diogenes Verlag AG Zürich
all rights reserved
assistant director Patrizia Frini
director of stage settings Ottorino Neri
production coordination Silvia Stoppani
stage director Fabrizio Pisaneschi
costume assistant Marta Rinaldi
master collaborator** Daniela Pellegrino**
stage masters Edina Bak, Meri Piersanti
lighting master Carmine Diodoro
machinist sector manager Paolo Zappelli
chief machinists Michele Colella, Massimiliano Marotta
Machinists Andrea Becchetti, Leonardo Bellini, Enrico Calabresi, Alessio Lodovichetti, Fabio Pibiri, Alessandro Gobbi
moving light console operator Roberto Gelmetti
chief electrician Simone De Angelis
electricians Davide Baldoni, Marco Mosca
lighting equipment manager Graziano Albertella for** Spanensemble**
phonics manager** Emanuele Carlucci**
chief toolmaker Patrizia Valentini
toolmaker Marta Tazza
tailoring manager Chiara Crisolini Malatesta
seamstresses Marian Osman Mohamed, Serenella Orti, Francesca Persichini, Giuliana Rossi
costumes Farani Theatrical Tailoring
head of makeup and hairstyling Roberto Maria Paglialunga
masks Handicraft Laboratory Laboracuoio
scenic elements Mekane srl Rome, Arte Idea srl Rome, Scenotechnical and Painting Laboratory of Festival dei Due Mondi Spoleto
festival scenography manager Claudio Balducci
Arcadia Digital srl audio service - Rome
lights Arcadia Digital srl - Rome
surtitles Prescott
show facilities and services** Atmo Gioform Division Ltd.
pianos **Angelo Fabbrini **
tuner Luigi Fusco
transport S.I.C.to.F. Spoleto
computer light adjustment **E.T.C. Italy www.etcconnect.com **
Silvia Colasanti is present with her own compositions in major international musical institutions. Of fundamental importance for the construction of her poetics, between "material" taste of sound, strong lyricism and richness of registers, the collaboration with soloists and conductors of international caliber, such as Vladimir Yurovski, Yuri Bashmet, Salvatore Accardo, David Geringas, Nathalie Dessay, Massimo Quarta, Enrico Bronzi. He has written for the theater the melologue Orpheus. Flebile queritur lyra, performed from Maddalena Crippa, L'angelo del Liponard, an amorous delirium performed from Sandro Lombardi, Faust, a subjective tragedy in music on a text by F. Pessoa, commissioned and performed at the Accademia Chigiana from Ferdinando Bruni directed by Francesco Frongia, La Metamorfosi, on a libretto from Franz Kafka's short story of the same name and directed by Pier Luigi Pier'Alli, commissioned by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. On Remembrance Day, January 27, 2017, he performed Le imperdonabili, inspired by the figure of Etty Hillesum on a text by Guido Barbieri and directed by Alessio Pizzech. In 2016 it premiered at Spoleto's Festival dei 2Mondi Tre Risvegli, on a text by Patrizia Cavalli, directed by Mario Martone, starring Alba Rohrwacher. In 2017 he returns to Spoleto with Requiem. Stringeranno nei pugni una cometa, Oratorio per Soli, Coro e Orchestra, in memory of the victims of the earthquake in Central Italy, commissioned by the Spoleto Festival, on texts by Mariangela Gualtieri. The work was revived in several institutions and a CD from was released by Dynamic. In October 2017 he presented a new work for cello and strings written for David Geringas at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In 2018 he inaugurated the Spoleto Festival withopera Minotauro, on a text by René De Ceccatty and Giorgio Ferrara, based on Dürrenmatt's short story of the same name, directed by Giorgio Ferrara. from this work was adapted into a melologue touring France and will conclude at the Philharmonie in Paris in 2020. In 2019, again for the Spoleto Festival, he will compose Proserpine, opera opera in two acts from Mary Shelley's play of the same name, directed by Giorgio Ferrara. A CD with his String Quartets from part of the Nous Quartet, will be released in August 2020 by Brilliant Classics. to November 2020 in Florence Cathedral is scheduled to perform Oltre l'azzurro, il sogno di Brunelleschi. Drama in Music for Actor, Chorus and Orchestra, on a text by Maria Grazia Calandrone, commissioned byOpera del Duomo - Santa Maria del Fiore. In 2013 she won the European Composer Award (Berlin) and was appointed by President of the Republic Napolitano Cavaliere della Repubblica; in 2017 she was appointed by President of the Republic Mattarella Ufficiale della Repubblica. Her works are published from Casa Ricordi.
Born to Rome, he attended La Sapienza University's Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Philosophy and the acting course at the "Silvio d'Amico" National Academy of Dramatic Art. He was assistant director to Luca Ronconi and Luchino Visconti, with whom he collaborated intensively. For RAI he directed the film_ L'uomo che ho ucciso_ from the novel 1912+1 by Leonardo Sciascia, screenplay by Domenico Rafele, Pierre Dumayet and the series Avvocati by Giancarlo de Cataldo. For the cinema he directed: Un cuore semplice, screenplay by Cesare Zavattini from the short story by Gustave Flaubert, awarded the David di Donatello, the Rizzoli Prize, the Saint Vincent Prize and the Nastro d'argento; Caccia alla Vedova, screenplay by Enrico Medioli from Goldoni's Vedova scaltra; Tosca e altre due from Franca Valeri's comedy of the same name, screenplay by Enrico Medioli. For the theater he has staged plays by classic and contemporary authors such as Pirandello, Strindberg, Goldoni, Carlo Bernari, Francesca Sanvitale, Enzo Siciliano, Franca Valeri, Cesare Musatti, Natalia Ginzburg and Corrado Augias. For the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome he staged Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. For Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto he staged _Gogo no eiko _by Hanz Werner Henze; _Amelia al ballo _by Gian Carlo Menotti; Il giro di vite by Benjanim Britten; The Piano Upstairs by John Weidman; _Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro _and Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; _Minotauro _by Silvia Colasanti. As an actor, he participated to: Measure for Measure and _Riccardo III _by Shakespeare, directed by Luca Ronconi; Nina by André Roussin, directed by Bernard Murat; Alcool written and directed from Adriana Asti; Testori's Maria Brasca, directed by Andrée Ruth Shammah; The Insertion by Natalia Ginzburg, directed by Giorgio Ferrara; _The Chairs _by Jonesco, directed by Tullio Pericoli; Danza macabra by August Strindberg, directed by Luca Ronconi. He was Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris and President of the Forum des Instituts Culturels Etrangers à Paris. From 2008 to 2012 he was President and Artistic Director of the Foundation Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, where he now serves as Artistic Director.
Born to Tunis in '52, René de Ceccatty lives to Paris; he has published some 20 novels (including La Sentinelle du rêve, L'Or et la poussière, l'Accompagnement, Aimer, L'Hôte invisible, Un renoncement, Objet d'amour, Enfance, dernier chapitre, Mes années japonaises).
He has translated many Italian authors (Petrarch, Dante, Leopardi, Casanova, Saba, Moravia, Pasolini, Bonaviri, Penna, Naldini) and Japanese authors (in collaboration with Ryôji Nakamura: Ôé, Abé, Sôseki, Tanizaki, Mishima). He won the 2008 Mondello Prize for his translations of Moravia, the 2018 Elsa Morante Prize for his biography of the writer, and the 2018 Dante-Ravenna Prize for his translation of The Divine Comedy. He has written biographies of Pasolini, Maria Callas, Sibilla Aleramo, Moravia, and Elsa Morante. Five of his books have been translated into Italian so far: La stella rubino (Costa and Nolan), Sibilla Aleramo (Mondadori), La parola amore (Archinto), Alberto Moravia (Bompiani), _Amicizia e passione _(Archinto). She also writes extensively for the theater. He has worked with Claudia Cardinale, Isabelle Adjani, Anouk Aimée, and Adriana Asti, who confided in him her memories(Ricordare e dimenticare Portaparole 2016) brought to the stage from Andrée-Ruth Shammah in _Memorie di Adriana _at the 60th Spoleto Festival. She often works with Argentine director Alfredo Arias. Their plays have been staged in Italy(Penis of the Heart of a French Cat, Concha Bonita, Pale Object of Desire, Madame Pink). His collaboration with Giorgio Ferrara began twelve years ago to Paris with Solus ad solam, followed from Heaven and Blood, Albert and Moravia, Zaide. to Spoleto has come several times to presenting shows, including Anouk Aimée reads Moravia. Also for the Spoleto Festival, in 2017 he collaborated with Giorgio Ferrara on the dramaturgy of the new production ofopera _Don Giovanni _by Mozart, in 2018, on the drafting of the libretto ofopera _Minotauro _by Silvia Colasanti. He wrote the additional words for an unpublished augmented version of Auber´s Fra Diavolo created later in the world premiere at the Teatro dell´Opera in Rome in October 2017. In 2019, as a playwright, he collaborated to two new productions at the Spoleto Festival: Proserpine by Silvia Colasanti on a poem by Mary Shelley, directed by Giorgio Ferrara and _La ballata della serva Zerlina _by Hermann Broch with Adriana Asti and directed by Lucinda Childs.