THE PIANO UPSTAIRS

The Piano Upstairs is the story of a failed marriage. The Wife is gone. The jilted Husband tries to put the pieces back together to understand what happened. The questions he asks himself evoke the vision of memories that generate more questions, which awaken to in turn a vortex of images and emotions that eventually, inevitably, lead him to the truth. That process, his inner journey from bewilderment to understanding, could be told in the form of dialogue or dance. To tell it most effectively, we decided to use both.Giorgio Ferrara, Alessandra Ferri, John Weidman‍

music

Arvo Pärt, Moderato Variation 1, 2, 3

Arvo Pärt, Für Alina

Fabrizio Ferri, Clouds

John Cage, In to Landscape

Arvo Pärt, Für Anna Maria

Philip Glass, Suite II Orphée's Bedroom

John Cage, to Room

Morton Feldman, Nature Pieces - 4

Arvo Pärt, Fragile

Giovanni Allevi, Jazzmatic

George Crumb, Dream Images (Love-Death Music) - Gemini

Fabrizio Ferri, TV

Fabrizio Ferri, Luna

Arvo Pärt, Spiegel Im Spiegel (Mirror In Mirror)

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ALEXANDRA FERRI

Alessandra Ferri is considered one of the most important dramatic dancers of our time. Born to Milan, she attended the Teatro alla Scala school and then the Royal Ballet School in London. In 1980 she won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne and joined to the Royal Ballet; in 1983, at the age of 19, Sir Kenneth MacMillan chose her to be a part of his ballets Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Mayerling , thus becoming prima ballerina in the company. He later choreographed various roles especially for her.

In 1985 Mikhail Baryshnikov invited her to join the American Ballet Theatre where she danced as prima ballerina until 2007. From 1992 to 2007 she was the ètoile of La Scala. She has also performed with major international ballet companies including the Ballet National de l'Opéra de Paris and the Royal Ballet, in the most important theaters of the world's capitals. She has worked alongside the greatest choreographers of our time-Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Jerome Robbins, Roland Petit, Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, Billy Forsythe, and Twyla Tharp. Her best-known roles include Giselle, Juliet, Manon and Carmen.

Alessandra Ferri has received numerous prestigious international awards, including the Sir Lawrence Olivier Award, the Dance Magazine Award, the Benois de la Danse Prix, and the honorary title of Cavaliere della Repubblica, which was bestowed on her by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. She has appeared in numerous short films including Carmen and Prelude; in the latter she collaborated with Sting. Beyond dance, she acted to theater, in the production of Jean Cocteau'sopera The Human Voice at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. She retired from the stage in 2007 and since 2008 has curated the program of the dance section of the Spoleto Festival, presenting major dance companies such as the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, the Hamburg Ballett_John Neumeier and the Mark Morris Dance Company. The Piano Upstairs marks Alessandra Ferri's return to the stage.

JOHN WEIDMAN

John Weidman has written libretti for a substantial series of Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, including: Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, all with music by Stephen Sondheim; Contact, done with director/choreographer Susan Stroman; Happiness, with music by Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, directed and choreographed from Susan Stroman; Take Flight and Big, with music by Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire; and the new libretto, co-written to Timothy Crouse, for the Lincoln Center Theatre and Roundabout Theater revivals of Cole Porter's Anything Goes, which with a new production won the 2012 Tony Award for best revival of a musical. From 1999 to 2009 he was president of the Dramatists Guild of America.

BOYD GAINES.

Boyd Gaines recently co-starred in the Australian production of to walking with Daisy, opposite Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones. Previously, he performed to Broadway in the Manhattan Theatre Club productions of An Enemy of the People and The Columnist, with John Lithgow. He also performed alongside James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway and West End performances of to walking with Daisy. Other appearances include The Grand Manner (Drama Desk Award nomination) and the Broadway show with Patti LuPone Gypsy, for which he received his fourth Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. Other: Broadway: Pygmalion, Gypsy (Encores!), Journey's End (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), The Word to the Jurors, Contact (Tony Award, Lucille Lortel Award), Cabaret, The Show Off, She Loves Me (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Company, The Heidi Chronicles (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Bach at Leipzig, Major Barbara, The Shawl, The Comedy of Errors, The Extra Man, The Maderati, The Winter's Tale, The Barbarians, A Month in the Country (Theatre World Award). Regional productions: George Street, Williamstown, Westport Playhouse, Yale Repertory, Center Stage, Long Wharf, Guthrie, Kennedy Center. Cinema: Funny Games, Lovely by Surprise, Second Best, I'm Not Rappaport, Gunny, Sacco to pelo to three squares, Porky's - These crazy piggies, They'll be famous. Television: The Good Wife, Angela's Eyes, The Confession, Piece of Cake, Day by Day, Lawyers to Los Angeles, Frasier, Law & Order. Education: Juilliard School.

GIORGIO FERRARA

A film and theater director, he was born to Rome. He was assistant director to Luca Ronconi and Luchino Visconti, with whom he collaborated intensively. For the cinema he directed: Un cuore semplice, screenplay by Cesare Zavattini from Gustave Flaubert's short story, which won 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 by Franca Valeri, 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 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto he staged Hans Werner Henze'sopera Gogono eiko in 2010, Gian Carlo Menotti'sopera buffa Amelia al ballo in 2011, and Benjamin Britten'sopera The Turn of the Screw in 2012. In 2012 he staged Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. He was Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris and President of the Forum des Instituts Culturels Etrangers à Paris (2003-2007). From 2008 to 2012 he was President and Artistic Director of the Foundation Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. He now serves as its Artistic Director.

JANNI FORTY

An Academy Award winner in 1986 for the set design of James Ivory's film Room with a View, Gianni Quaranta has a long and successful career in the world of theater, opera and prose, film, advertising and creative projects for exhibitions, events and advertising. Coming out with honors in Scenography from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, to Milan, his professional career seems like an unstoppable train. He signed the set design of major repertory operas for the most prestigious theaters in Italy and around the world, including: La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Politeama in Palermo, the Théâtre National de l'Opéra in Paris, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, The Dallas Opera House, the Philadelphia Opera Company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Royal Opera House in Muscat, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 2010 he curated the set design for the world premiere in stage form of theopera opera Gogo no eiko, set to music from Hans Werner Henze, for Festival dei Due Mondi Spoleto. 2012 sees him engaged in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly, for the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, as well as Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, again for the opening of Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. In film, for the set design of Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon, he received the first of three Oscar nominations. Esteemed in Europe and America, he works with the world's most distinguished directors. For the set design of the film Novecento, by Bertolucci, he is awarded the first of four "Quality Awards" received. With Zeffirelli's subsequent Jesus of Nazareth - where he signs both the set design and the decor - he wins the first of two Silver Ribbons. In 1995, France awarded him the Cesar for best set design for the film Farinelli voce regina, by Gerard Corbiau. Among the most prestigious awards, from England he also receives two Baftas. For the international luster given to our country in the field of the arts, he is awarded the title of Commendatore of the Italian Republic. In 2011 he received the Credo ad Astram award for his contribution to world culture.

LUISA SPINATELLI

Born to Milan, Luisa Spinatelli studied set design at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. In 1989 she received the "Léonide Massine" Positano Prize. In 1999 she was nominated for the "Benois de la Danse" for Tchaikovsky-Barenboim's Swan Lake with choreography by Patrice Bart for the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, 1997.

In ballet, Luisa Spinatelli designed the sets and costumes for: Orlando, choreography by R. North for the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, 1997; The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky-Barenboim, choreography by P. Bart, Berlin, 1998; Clavigo by R. Petit for the Opéra Garnier in Paris, 1999; Paquita by Lacotte for the Opéra Garnier in Paris, 2001; La Dame de Pique by R. Petit for the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, 2001; R. Petit's La chauve-souris, for the National Theatre in Tokyo, 2002; N. Makarova's La Bella Addormentata for the Royal Opera House in London, 2003; G. Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, for the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, 2003; Raymonda by to. Maki, 2004, for the New National Theatre, Tokyo, receiving the "Akiko Tachibana Award" for best set and costume designer, Tokyo 2005; to bientot by to. Maki-D. Walsh-K. Mitani for the Bunkamura; Proust, ou les intermittences du Coeur by R. Petit for the Opéra Garnier, 2007; Orpheus and Eurydice by D. Walsh for the New National Theatre, Tokyo, 2007; Coppelia by D. Dean for the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 2009; Shelley by Florio-Bart for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, 2009; Chopin, by P. Bart for the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa in Warsaw, 2010; Swan Lake, for the Novosibirsk Theatre of 'opera and Ballet, 2010; Giselle, by P. Bart for the National Theatre in Seoul, 2011; La Bayadere by Y. Grigorovic for the Seoul National Theater, 2013.

DANIELE NANNUZZI

Born to Born in Rome in 1949, he was soon fascinated by his father Armando's profession and in 1966 he began to working as his assistant in the film Incomprehended by Luigi Comencini. After collaborating with the greatest directors of the time, in 1972 he made his first film from machine operator, Passionate, product from Tonino Cervi. He worked alongside cinematographers such as Giuseppe Rotunno, Pasqualino De Santis, Ennio Guarnieri, Franco di Giacomo, David Watkins, Alex Thompson and in 1976 he signed the photography and direction of the second unit of Jesus of Nazareth by Franco Zeffirelli, with whom he collaborated on Il giovane Toscanini and Toscana, in the two films.opera Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, winners of two Emmy Awards, and in the very recent Homage to Rome. In a single day, for Italia '90 he filmed the Calcio Fiorentino commercial with Zeffirelli using ten cameras at the same time from outlet located in the historic center of Florence. In the 90s he directed and lit the haute couture fashion shows for the Maison Valentino in Piazza Mignanelli to Rome. In 1997 he enjoyed considerable success with the public, taking care of the artistic design, lighting and choice of music for the great festival of the Bakers of Rome to Piazza Navona, conducting a live sound and light show for seven consecutive days and telling the history of the square accompanied by the music of Respighi. He has collaborated with directors such as Lizzani, Brass, Jodorowski, Bondarciuck, Cervi, Bolognini, London, the Frazzi brothers, Oldoini, Negrin, up to the magical meeting with Monteleone, director of El Alamein; the film won the David di Donatello, the Globo d'Oro, the Gianni di Venanzo Award, and the nomination for the Nastro d'Argento 2003. In 2004 he signed the photography of Empire, a saga about Ancient Rome produced by Touchstone and Disney, working with the three American directors Kim Manners, John Gray, Greg Yaitanes and receiving much acclaim in the American press. With the Frazzi brothers he signed Giovanni Falcone, again with Monteleone he worked to Two games, The Tunnel of Freedom, The Boss of Bosses. to alongside the great Russian choreographer Boris Eifman in 2011 to San Pietroburgo the film version of the ballets Anna Karenina and Onegin, directing and cinematography. In 2012 the director Giorgio Ferrara entrusted him with the design of the lights for Madama Butterfly at the Teatro dell'Opera of Rome and for theopera Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw at theFestival dei Due Mondi of Spoleto. With Iranian director Babak Payami he has just finished shooting the film Manhattan Undying in Canada.

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