Iphigenia in Aulis
Lenz Foundation
Maria Federica Maestri | Francesco Pititto
IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
Ah! quʼil est doux, mais quʼil est difficile (Ah! Sweet, yet how difficult it is)
From Euripides and Christoph Willibald Gluck
Site-specific creation for ND’T018
VENUE < Saint Quirino Oratory
2nd -3rd –4th –5th –6th July h22.30
IPHIGENIA
Two-year Project 2018-2019
Theater music diptych on the sacrifice of innocent females
2018 IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
Ah! quʼil est doux, mais quʼil est difficile (Ah! Sweet, yet how difficult it is) from Euripides and Gluck
2019 IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS
Ich bin stumm (I am mute) from Goethe and Gluck
IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
Ah! quʼil est doux, mais quʼil est difficile is a contemporary opera that reveals the mechanisms of power, by showing the kind of violence male figures can perpetrate in order to exercise their dominance on the female body. Countering this patriarchal violence young Iphigenia’s feeble strength holds the highest moral function: her fragility makes her a terrified prey facing the horror of the sacrifice and at the same time a heroine conscious of her own inevitable destiny of death, though with Gluck’s and de Roulet’s radically different ending, so far from the Myth.
The décor of the scene will be a materic altar, “tender and cruel”, inspired by the organic works of Joseph Beuys. No ceremonies, no father to hate, no mother to desire, no past and no future, only an anonymous and bloody ‘this side’.
The work is interpreted by actress Valentina Barbarini, acclaimed by critics for her powerful theatrical performances, by Debora Tresanini, a young soprano student at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory of Parma and by bass Eugenio Degiacomi.
Ah! quʼil est doux, mais quʼil est difficile is a contemporary opera that reveals the mechanisms of power, by showing the kind of violence male figures can perpetrate in order to exercise their dominance on the female body. Countering this patriarchal violence young Iphigenia’s feeble strength holds the highest moral function: her fragility makes her a terrified prey facing the horror of the sacrifice and at the same time a heroine conscious of her own inevitable destiny of death, though with Gluck’s and de Roulet’s radically different ending, so far from the Myth.
The décor of the scene will be a materic altar, “tender and cruel”, inspired by the organic works of Joseph Beuys. No ceremonies, no father to hate, no mother to desire, no past and no future, only an anonymous and bloody ‘this side’.
The work is interpreted by actress Valentina Barbarini, acclaimed by critics for her powerful theatrical performances, by Debora Tresanini, a young soprano student at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory of Parma and by bass Eugenio Degiacomi.
IPHIGENIA IN AULIS
Ah! How sweet, yet how difficult it is (Ah! quʼil est doux, mais quʼil est difficile)
From Euripides and Christoph Willibald Gluck
Text and imagoturgy | Francesco PitittoInstallation, costumes and direction | Maria Federica Maestri
Performers | Valentina Barbarini, Debora Tresanini (soprano), Eugenio Degiacomi (bass)
Music and electronics | Andrea Azzali
in collaboration with A. Boito Music Conservatory
