An Imperial Festival in Music and Vision 11 giugno

An Imperial Festival

GIUSEPPE PENNISI visits Ravenna to hear
Pierre Boulez, Adriano Guarnieri and Nicola Piovani

Ravenna was the capital of the Roman Empire for almost a century (from 402 AD to 476 AD) as witnessed by magnificent Byzantine churches and palaces. Since 1990, it has gradually begun to be the setting for one of the most important European music festivals. Indeed, like Salzburg in terms of resident population (nearly 150,000), Ravenna features a series of festivals, almost all the year around: an opera and play 'season' in the Winter and Spring, a long summer festival (this year from 22 May to 27 July), and an opera and ballet 'trilogy' (three operas or three ballets during three weekends) in the Autumn. These activities are mostly supported by local authorities and businesses rather than by central government. They show how performing arts and music can be an important development lever.

The summer festival is a multidisciplinary 'theme' affair where operas, concerts, plays, ballets and sacred music during Sunday services converge toward a central subject. This year the theme is the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who was born in Florence, seven-hundred-and-fifty years ago. According to plans, over the next seven Summer festivals, Dante will alternate every other year with other central themes, until 2021, when the festival will revolve around the anniversary of the poet's death in Ravenna on 14 September 1321.

A distinctive feature of this Summer festival is the world premiere of new works (generally in co-production with other festivals and theatres). I visited the festival during 5-7 June 2015 and was also at a very special concert featuring all Pierre Boulez's works for piano solo, on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday.

The two one act operas (co-produced with the Spoleto Festival and other theatres) are very different. The first, L'Amor che move il sole e le altre stelle, was composed by Adriano Guarnieri. In common with Guarnieri's other works (Darkness to Light, 21 June 2010), it is a video opera with almost no action on stage but fourteen very short 'sequences' supported by video, projections and live electronics. The subject is highly spiritual: the libretto is built around a few verses from the very beginning and the very end of Dante's Paradise. There are three main singers: two sopranos and a countertenor (all young but quite skilled), a quintet of sopranos, altos and a countertenor and a small chorus (all of high quality). The singers do not act but sing at the stage set's different levels with the idea of providing a sense of what Paradise looks like; the sole action is, at the very end, the appearance of a very intense light at the vision of the Virgin Mary.

A scene from 'L'Amor che move il sole e le altre stelle' at the Ravenna Festival. Photo © 2015 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution

The music, played by a small ensemble conducted by Pietro Borgonovo and supported by live electronics, is based on polyphony reaching an intense diatonic scale in the final 'sequence', giving the effect of a circular staircase leading to Heaven. Of course, in a spiritual religious work like this, the stage direction (Cristina Mazzavillani Muti), the set and visual design (Enzo Antonelli), the lighting design (Vincent Longuemare) and the set programming (Davide Broccoli) have a crucial role. The audience in the elegant Teatro Alighieri seemed enthusiastic, but it is important to see what the reaction will be when L'Amor che move il sole e le altre stelle reaches Spoleto and other theatres.

It is easy to foresee a great box office return for La Vita Nuova by Oscar prizewinner Nicola Piovani. Based on a work by young Dante, on his falling in love with Beatrice, it is a cantata for an actor, a soprano and small orchestra. It was premiered on 6 June in the huge Mauro de André Auditorium, filled in each tier: buses had been chartered by Piovani's fans for the event. The music is melodic and easy to listen to. The soprano (Rosa Feola) has a few difficult arias and an enthralling ballad. The actor (Elio Germano) is a well known television and movie star. It was tremendously successful and there was an encore of the ballad.

A scene from 'La Vita Nuova' at the Ravenna Festival. Photo © 2015 Silvia Lelli. Click on the image for higher resolution

Back in the Teatro Alighieri on 7 June, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich offered a three hour marathon of Pierre Boulez's entire piano music, from the Douze Notations and the first two Sonatas of the nineteen forties to Une page d'éphéméride and Structures from the first few years of the twenty-first century.

Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Photo © 2015 Luigi Tazzari. Click on the image for higher resolution

This was a real jewel which, I hope, will be recorded to be enjoyed by many more listeners than those in the Teatro Alighieri.

Copyright © 11 June 2015 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy