LIFE IS DREAM
LIFE IS DREAM and part of THE IMMINENT PAST
Four-year project 2018-2021 > site-specific performative installations, choreographic, visual and sound created and directed by Maria Federica Maestri and Francesco Pititto in collaboration with the musician Claudio Rocchetti.
2018 THE GREAT THEATER IN THE WORLD
The first part of the three-year project was carried out in the large rooms of the neoclassical Gallery and in the Farnese Theatre; over twenty artists, between performers of the Lenz ensemble and the harpsichordists of the Arrigo Boito Conservatory of Parma, they gave substance to the scenic rewriting of the visions of the Great Theater of the World.
2019 THE LIFE IS DREAM
The second chapter was set up in the new North Wing of the National Gallery, where the precious baroque collection is preserved. An imposing installation of hospital beds dialogued with the functional structures designed in the seventies by the architect Canali and the sacred representations by Lanfranco, Schedoni, Belongs, Ribera, Murillo, van Dyck.
2020 CALDERÓN TRILOGY < VIOLENT HIPPOGRIPH | FLOWERS LIKE STARS? | OTHER STATE
The third chapter of the Imminent Past consists of three solos inspired by Calderón's works: Life is a dream and The constant prince. Set in the magnificent industrial spaces of Lenz Teatro, they are played by the historical actresses of the ensemble.
2021 LIFE IS DREAM
The fourth part of the project will be installed by 19 al 25 June 2021 in the historical-rural landscape of the Valserena Abbey, or Abbey of San Martino dei Bocci, commonly known as Certosa di Paradigna, a former Cistercian abbey with Gothic and Baroque shapes located in Paradigna, hamlet on the northern outskirts of Parma. Founded in 1298 and deconsecrated in 1810, has been based since 2007 del CSAC – Communication study center and archive of the University of Parma.
In the new exhibition at the Valserena Abbey, as already in the two autos sacramentales The great theater of the world e The life is dream in site-specific at the Pilotta Monumental Complex in Parma, the sensitive actor - together with teenage and elderly performers - becomes a central figure of the dramaturgy, from the setting up, of the profound meaning of the theological-philosophical drama. Already in the cars, the poetic presence of the figures of the Poor Man and the Man prefigured the protagonist Sigismondo in the dual role of man/child. In the drama, again, the themes of illusion, of mortal time "from the cradle to the grave" and of "free will" are developed according to the privileged vision of innocent sensitivity, of the unmediated act, of the word that presents itself as a sound even before being defined in meaning.
The spatial transposition of multiple conceptual fields, emotional, morals manifested in the monumental building of the Valserena Abbey will give plastic volume to the dramaturgical oscillation between reality and dream, between freedom and constraint, between self-determination and destiny, between sacrifice and redemption, between truth and fiction. Sensitive actors are called to interpret the complexity of the work, the historical actresses of Lenz and the child performers, guardians of an aesthetic perimeter that claims the cold beauty of the margin, the languid power of loss, the dry physics of suffering. Together with them, witnesses of the symmetrical vicissitudes of the Via Crucis, the singers engaged vocally in the chorales and arias of the Passion according to Matthew on Johann Sebastian Bach, in dialogue with the soundscape created by electronic composer Claudio Rocchetti. Through multiple artistic forms – installation, performance, video projection, baroque musical dramaturgy, modern and contemporary – this disturbing dimension, noisy, disorganica, disheveled, it expands beyond the boundaries of the subject and transfuses into a new common time free from conventions and social norms, necessary to imagine, or to dream, a possible poetic transformation of reality.
Yes Life is a dream The protagonist – Prince Sigismund – he lives locked up in a tower, excluded from human society from birth since destined by an astral design to be evil. The father-king decides to put the young prince to the test of the world and to be sure that his son is capable of pursuing good, and therefore to succeed him to the throne, gives his son his freedom back. Temporarily reinserted into the social game, through artificial sleep, the prince will have to demonstrate that he knows how to overturn his own destiny. Woke up in the palace, Sigismondo proves incapable of controlling instincts and desires, to maintain appropriate behavior towards authority, to comply with the regulations, of rules and laws, to perceive the difference between good and evil. Thus confirming the astral omen, he will be sentenced again to imprisonment in the tower and social marginalization. Only the people, in open conflict with the king's decisions, he will sense the subversive nature of the prince and will take him to the head of the army to overthrow the old power. Experienced the bloody violence of reality and the danger of chaos, the prince chooses to absolve his father's sins, and human and political conflict dissolved, decides to restore the ancient hierarchies by putting an end to the dream of revolution.
LIFE IS DREAM
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Translation, playwriting, imagoturgy | Francesco Pititto
Installation, wrappers, regia | Maria Federica Masters
Musica | Claudius Rocchetti, Johann Sebastian Bach
Interpreters | Valentina Barbarini, Antonio Bocchi, Tiziana Chapel, Lorenzo Davini, Daniel Gianlupi, Paolo Maccini, Agatha Pelosi, Sandra Soncini, Carlotta Spaggiari, Barbara Voghera
Singers | Deborah Tresanini (soprano), Elena Maria Giovanna Pinna (soprano), Eva Maria Ruggieri (contralto), David Zaccherini (tenor)
Treatment Elena Sorbi Organization Ilaria Stocchi, Loredana Scianna
Press office, communication Michele Pascarella
Technique Alice Scartapacchio, Lucia Manghi, Giulia Mangini, Fabrizio Fini, Marco Cavellini, Elisabetta Zanardi, Fulvio Galvani, Luca Moncaleano
Production Lenz Foundation + Nature Gods Theater Festival
Project for Parma Italian Capital of Culture 2020+21
created with the patronage and contribution of Municipality of Parma
Classical theater in the 21st century: Calderón de la Barca – 29 March 2021
Organized by’Cervantes Institute, in collaboration with the State University of Milan.
Moderator:
Alessandro Cassol (University of Milan, Spanish theater teacher)
Con:
Francesco Pititto, playwright and co-Artistic Director of Lenz Teatro/Fondazione, Parma
Luis Homar, direttore of the National Classical Theater Company (CNTC). INAEM-Ministry of Culture and Sports
Xavier of God, director of the Documentation Center for the Performing Arts and Music (CDAEM). INAEM-Ministry of Culture and Sports
Ignacio Garcia, director of the Almagro International Classical Theater Festival
Extraordinary and illuminating overlap between dramaturgical plot, faithful even in the revision carried out, and stage experience, a fruitful overlap which is above all a fusion between lyrical narration and the acting perception of those who, with a profound term, Lenz calls his actors sensitive, those who, precisely through the confrontation with their own limits, draw upon a truth otherwise denied [more] Maria Dolores Pesce, Dramma.it
There is a powerful dramaturgy that shakes the vision. Because there are words and sounds and images and songs and positioning and settings that touch the senses. Which embrace the gaze, they contain it, they amplify it and open it to other horizons [more] Giuseppe Distefano, Exibart
An iridescent imagination that, moving from one side of the monumental perimeter of the abbey to the other, moves us along the thread of a narrative that has its roots in the expressive humus represented by the long work developed by Lenz on the text by Calderón de la Barca, to mix the results in new perspectives [more] Alessandro Rigolli, Music Journal
The design strength of Maestri and Pititto is total, implacable [more] Carlo Lei, Krapp's Last Post
A blaze of images and metaphors, of parallels and contrasts, always on the border between rigor and impetus, erudition and feeling, stasis and dynamism [more] Francesca Ferrari, Theaterpolis
Great theater. Unforgettable images.
Valeria Ottolenghi, Journal of Parma
A theatrical form of an almost liturgical nature.
Gianni Manzella, the poster
DATE
dal 19 al 25 June 2021 [break 21 June] ore 20
TICKETS
Entire € 15 (€ 5 + 5 + 5 for each side of the Abbey)
Reduced € 12 (€ 4 +4 + 4)
University Special (students and staff) € 9 (€ 3 + 3 + 3)
REDUCTIONS
Under 30 | Over 60 | Students | DOC card | AUSL employees | YoungER Card | Group min. 5 people | Cultural associations, dance and theater schools, educational institutions
INFO
The Abbey of Valserena is located in via Viazza di Paradigna 1, Paradigm (PR).
Numbered seats, distanced, mandatory mask.
The temperature will be measured before entering the space.
We recommend sealing country: flat and comfortable shoes, warm clothes.
In case of bad weather the show will be suspended.
duration: 1h40′
Info and booking [mandatory]: 0521 270141, 335 6096220, info@lenzfondazione.it
