Symbols, rituals, autobiographical actions of Joseph Beuys Titus-Iphigenia's powerful 1969 performance were inspirational for this second chapter of the diptych dedicated to the myth of Iphigenia. Lenz's original dramaturgy of Iphigenia in Tauris is taken from Goethe's drama Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787) and Gluck's play Iphigénie en Tauride (1779).
2018 IPHIGENIA IN AULIDE
Ah! Qu’il est doux, mais qu’il est difficile
Ah! È dolce, ma difficile
From Euripide and Gluck < Creation M.F. Maestri e F. Pititto
2019 IPHIGENIA IN TAURIDE
Ich bin stumm
Io sono muta
From Goethe and Gluck < Creation M.F. Maestri e F. Pititto
with the patronage of the Goethe-Institut Mailand
The visual picture on which the waters of the Black Sea that bathe the shores of Tauride break - present-day Crimea - defines the horizon line that separates Iphigenia from her homeland and her loved ones. Alone, exiled in a foreign land where inhuman customs apply, the sacrifice of foreigners who land on the coasts of Tauris lives like a shadow in a sacred forest, silent guardian of the sanctuary dedicated to Diana, the merciful goddess who in Aulis had saved her from her tragic fate of death.
In the center of the scenic area, suspended between the metal branches of mechanical plants, the horns of the sacrificed doe stand out in place of Iphigenia, the day on which her father Agamemnon, to propitiate the departure of the ships towards Troy, had decided to slaughter his daughter.
At the bottom, also suspended on a metal tripod, a column broken into two sections, a memory and omen of the ruin of the paternal house; a chain of violent deaths has in fact bloodied the Atrid lineage: Clytemnestra, mother of Iphigenia, killed her husband to avenge her daughter's death, her son Orestes killed his mother to avenge his father's death and, driven mad by the Furies, he wanders desperately in search of his own soul. In expiation for the crime, pushed by Apollo he will arrive in Tauris with his friend Pilade to steal the statue of Diana kept in the sanctuary and bring it back to Greece to pacify the gods.
To the side in Iphigenia's room a turntable plays Gluck's work, a version recorded on vinyl recorded in the fifties. The change of album marks the narrative path and poetic time of Iphigenia's life.
On a small altar, a cold steel cutting board, there is a wash to carry out purification rituals: on that altar Iphigenia, disobeying laws that she considers unjust and inhuman, will not sacrifice any victim, will not perform any human sacrifice, but with an intimate and secret rite he will implore the gods to return free and be happy.
Faced with their silence, confused and anguished, Iphigenia decides to dare bold action and conquer a new homeland-body free from social and religious constraints.
To play Iphigenia in Tauris. I am silent is Monica Barone, a dancer with great performative sensitivity developed in the relationship with her physical specificity. Despite the numerous facial surgeries she has had to undergo since early childhood, Monica passionately cultivates and practices the languages of contemporary dance and photography. She recently starred as Beatrice in the large site-specific installation of Lenz's Paradiso (2017).
From Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Christoph Willibald Gluck
Translation, imagoturgy Francesco Pititto
Installation, direction, costumes Maria Federica Maestri
Performer Monica Barone
Choreographic notations Davide Rocchi
Technical care Alice Scartapacchio
Curating Elena Sorbi
Organization Ilaria Stocchi, Loredana Scianna
Press office, communication Michele Pascarella
Media video Stefano Cattini
Assistant Marco Cavellini
Production Lenz Fondazione
Giuseppe Distefano
Iphigenia in Tauris and Oresteia: with two shows Lenz Fondazione continues the visionary scenic investigation into the saga of the Atrides
With an ignition of vigorous gaze, Maestri and Pititto trace in a single interpreter a geography of absolute passions, not determinable in a historical time, restoring to an essential dance of gestures its ritual dimension.
Franco Acquaviva
If the energy of the actor, and of the actor-shaman, has to do with non-daily psychophysical states, here we have the epiphany of bodies that that energy spontaneously embodies and are therefore able to theatrically shake the spectator with the pure force of presence alone, naturally disciplined and shaped on stage by the relationship with the director Maria Federica Maestri.
Emanuela Zanon
Iphigenia in Tauris. I am silent
It welcomes the viewer a minimalist scenography based on a suggestive conceptual and visual synecdoche that creates a hybrid setting between dream and obsession. The horns of the doe sacrificed in place of the woman oscillate like a warning attached to a thin mechanical easel and the temple of Artemis is also evoked by two columns suspended from a similar mechanism. In one corner a mysterious altar flashes over which stands a transparent wash, a sacred premonition of the post-modern ritual that will take place in the following 45 minutes.
Maria Dolores Pesce
Action search testimonials diary - 5
The dancer Monica Barone, whose singularity in diversity is capable of becoming a metaphor for the singularity that establishes our existence of Heideggerian-marked paths in the forest, faces self-recovery in the places that have seen the fracture and break with the world. It is a return to a new world but which, within her, has always existed, unaware perhaps, has always knocked on the conscience. A path that makes us companions, rather than guides, so that his steps, overlapping, become ours.
Enrico Piergiacomi
Imagoturgy and imagot (e) urgia. On the theme of rebirth in "Iphigenia in Tauride" and "Nidi" by Lenz Teatro.
The Iphigenia of Lenz Foundation has a quality that is perhaps definable as “metaphysics”. Transformations of woman do not take place by the real and concrete means of speech or action. Iphigenia always transforms by sinking into an image and embodying the vision on her sensitive body, which thus suddenly becomes poetic and free.
