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_Proserpine _is a dramatic poem by Mary Shelley, written with the collaboration of Percy Shelley. It is a kind of "pastoral tragedy," with the mythological characters of Proserpine and her mother Ceres at the center. It recounts the abduction of Proserpine by from Pluto and the intervention of Jupiter, Proserpine's father, who dictates to Pluto to let her return to earth in the spring and summer, and to lie with her infernal husband in the fall and winter. The myth was precisely intended to to clarify the alternation of the seasons. Mary Shelley uses this myth to develop her thoughts on the ambiguity of feelings (particularly maternal and filial) and the ambivalence of human beings: she wrote it right after Frankenstein. Like so many women after her, she exploited the myth of Proserpine (or Persephone or Corè) to also talk about the mother-daughter relationship, a theme that was obsessive for her. Mary Shelley was the daughter of Mary Wolstonecraft considered the first English "feminist," who died when Mary Shelley was only eleven days old. The writer therefore did not know her mother, and her own relationship with motherhood was very troubled: she lost the first three children she had from Percy (a girl and two boys), while only the fourth survived. Proserpine is thus rich in unconscious and autobiographical memories transfigured by the reinterpreted myth. We have adapted and reduced the poem, to make it more effective dramaturgically, but without adding anything to the original. We have eliminated the numerous references to other myths that do not directly intervene in the story, but we have retained the characters indicated by the author: in addition to to Proserpine and Ceres, the two nymphs Ino and Eunoe, Arethusa naiad of a Fountain, the messenger of the gods Iris, and the demon Ascampheus.
The action takes place in two acts. During the first, in spring, Ceres entrusts her daughter Proserpine to the watchful care of the nymphs Ino and Eunoe and is advised never to leave her from alone. She might be kidnapped by the infernal deities. She, Ceres, must go up to Olympus to serve the banquet of the gods. But the nymphs are careless and Proserpine is kidnapped. When Ceres returns to earth, she does not find Proserpine and despairs. In Act II, everyone is shocked by Proserpina's disappearance. The sadness of Ceres, maternal deity of the earth and fertility, causes famine to break out and the earth becomes bare, barren, sterile. Flowers wither, leaves die. Iris arrives, announcing the return of Proserpine, and reports Jupiter's verdict. Proserpina has eaten pomegranate seeds, a forbidden fruit, and is not allowed to spend the entire year on earth. Proserpine then reappears and is reunited with her mother. Ascampheus the demon attempts to take her back to the underworld, but in vain. The alternation of seasons and presence/absence beside her mother thus become a true source of happiness, for they represent the best way to appreciate more intensely each moment of joy and pleasure.
The whole is a poetic retelling of the myth through the voices of the nymphs, the demon, the gods and the protagonists. The myth of Proserpine has inspired many poetic versions since Mary Shelley: we mention Oscar Wilde, Edith Wharton, Hilda Doolittle, André Gide, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morisson. Lully made an 'opera opera from it and Stravinsky a ballet, inspired by André Gide's play.
The originality, however, of Mary Shelley's text lies in its melancholy tone, of positive resignation, with respect to the hellish rapture. Mary Shelley, in fact, had a tragic life of escapes, deaths, and bereavements, but also of faith in the poetic power and visions of her fantastic imagination. After Percy Shelley's dramatic death in a shipwreck, she devoted herself entirely to literature and to kept the memory of her brilliant husband alive.
from almost everyone is remembered, above all, as the author of Frankenstein. We felt it was fitting to recall her splendid Proserpine, which is an important part of her full-bodied literary opera . We conceived this adaptation of Shelley's poem for composer Silvia Colasanti. After our Minotaur, from from Dürrenmatt, theopera is part of a project for a trilogy of revisiting ancient myths as an approach to the unconscious and human relationships, in a relatively abstract way, with Colasanti's aerial, expressive and neoclassical music, with unusual rhythms and a very rich palette of musical colors.
_René de Ceccatty, Giorgio Ferrara _
OPERA OPERA IN TWO ACTS
taken from the drama
_Proserpine _by Mary Shelley
publisher Casa Ricordi Ltd.
music Silvia Colasanti
adaptation René de Ceccatty, Giorgio Ferrara
director Pierre-André Valade
directed by Giorgio Ferrara
scenes Sandro Chia
costumes Vincent Darré
lights Fiammetta Baldiserri
_Ceres _SharonCarty
Proserpine **Dísella Lárusdóttir **
_Ino _AnnaPatalong
Eunoe Silvia Regazzo
_Iris _GaiaPetrone
Arethusa **Katarzyna Otczyk **.
_Ascalaphus _LorenzoGrante
Shades of Hell Caterina Bonanni, Eugenia Faustini, Giulia Gallone, Cecilia Guzzardi, Elisabetta Misasi, Eleonora Pace graduated actors of the Academy of Dramatic Art "Silvio d´Amico" in Rome
**Italian Youth Orchestra**
production Spoleto62 Festival dei 2Mondi
assistant director** Patrizia Frini**
director of stage settings Ottorino Neri
production coordination Davide Ienco
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 machinist Massimiliano Marotta
machinists **Leonardo Bellini, Fabio Pibiri **
moving light console operator** Roberto Gelmetti**
chief electrician** Simone De Angelis**
electricians** Davide Baldoni, Marco Mosca**
lighting equipment manager Graziano Albertella for Spanensemble
sound engineer Andrea Bisaccioni for Opera26 Group
chief toolmaker** Patrizia Valentini**
toolmaker** Marta Tazza**
seamstresses Marian Osman Mohamed, Serenella Orti, Francesca Persichini, Giuliana Rossi
scenic elements Mekane srl Rome, Scenotechnical and Painting Laboratory of Festival dei Due Mondi Spoleto
E.Rancati tooling factory Ltd.
Festival set design manager Claudio Balducci
audio service** Opera26 Group**
lights **Light is - Florence **
surtitles** Prescott**
facilities and services for entertainment Atmo Division Gioform 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 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.
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.