The tribute to the actress Iaia Forte to the poet Patricia Cavalli it is powerful. A page stretched out, crumpled, hidden and rediscovered in the depths. Also new are the emotions that are reborn when we meet someone in what left us and left the world. Words that become voice, expression, imagination. Also silence. It’s called “Wonderful Life” the show that opens the 37th edition of the theater on August 26 at the Municipal Theater Todi Festival. One of the most important cultural events in Umbria The Theatrical, musical, literary and visual arts events that are in dialogue with one another will take place here until September 3rd. Living elements of a path of contamination that favors unpublished works, national premieres and regional exclusives by presenting different dates every day.
“Whoever reads the Todi Festival program might think that it has once again been written by many hands, on several occasions. You can’t go wrong there,” explains the artistic director Eugene Guarducci. “This urgent rhythm of scenes, music, verses, colors, movements is the result of a planning that collects what art has been able to convey to us today with amazement and wonder.”
Once again, the compositional work of the festival has no common thread. It doesn’t exist because it hasn’t even been searched for. This openness to the contemporary without schematic genre separations is evident in the collaboration with Hugh LaPietra, Painter, designer, architect, sculptor and founder of magazines who have contributed to the critical debate on issues such as industrial production, design and the concept of habitability. There temporary exhibition “Random effect”, in the Sala delle Pietre, curated by Marco Tonelli and funded by the Beverly Pepper Project Foundation, shows about 40 of his works between art and sustainability, the individual and the urban context. And it captures the message and function of La Pietra’s work: the coexistence of culture and environment, the difficult relationship between architecture and nature.
Let’s return to the national debut of “Wonderful Life – Tribute to Patrizia Cavalli“ with Iaia Forte also as playwright and Diana Tejera. It comes from the actress’s personal memory, but flies into all the spaces that poetry appropriates: “I met Patrizia Cavalli many years ago, thanks to Carlo Cecchi, at the rehearsals of Shakespeare’s Dream of a Summer Night, which she translated,” says she . She enthusiastically adds: “The time together was always precious, fun and special. Since he left, I re-read his poetry almost every day.”
Another national debut on August 27th. But this time the stage is contemporary dance by Edoardo Guarducci with the Cornelia Dance Company. “What is your goal?” It is an invitation to reflect on the social dynamics that lead to confining one’s identity to a name. Often the result of compulsions, ambitions and demands of parental origin.
Room for Prose is on August 28 with another national debut: “Old times”, by Harold Pinter, directed by Pierpaolo Sepe with Lisa Galantini, Sara Bertelà, Roberto Biselli. The plot: Husband and wife Deeley and Kate are meeting a woman, Anna, at their home. Past and present, disturbing and altered, become a mix of elements difficult to interpret. Each character seems to carry their own equally reliable and believable truth system that makes it impossible for the viewer to take sides and take a stand against the protagonists.
Then we continue with the music. The 30 Aug, in Piazza del Popolo, the first live performance of Madame in Umbria, the youngest winner of the Targa Tenco for Best Debut Album and Best Song. Another regional exclusive, on August 31, the show “The present that some call the future”a dialogue with Marco Camisani Calzolari, pioneer of digital culture since 1995. University professor of communication, correspondent of Striscia La Notice, your format is the discussion with the public on issues of the digital world.
On September 1st, always regionally exclusive, the concert of the Bio-Blind International Orchestra, which welcomes blind and partially sighted musicians between the ages of 12 and 65. Founded by Alfredo Santoloci, saxophone teacher at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, the orchestra uses technology to combat the difficulties associated with poor eyesight. In fact, the visual relationship between the conductor and the musicians is replaced by an acoustic contact: “I translate the gestures – Santoloci explains – with words that are whispered through a microphone and received by the musicians through the headphones.”
And back to prose, with the national debut on September 2 de “The Foxes” by Lucia Franchi and Luca Ricci che also takes care of directing. The protagonist of the piece is the Italian province: a microcosm in which one can observe the dynamics of power that pass into a self-absolute mechanism. Is it legitimate to withhold a small personal gain after one’s dedication to the administration of public affairs? On the stage Antonella Attili, Giorgio Colangeli, Luisa Merloni.
Grand closing of the festival on September 3rd with the playwright and popularizer of pop Stefano Massini and the singer Luca Barbarossa. “Please the truth about love“Weaves storytelling and songwriting together. Love under the magnifying glass, love in the dock, love on the analyst’s couch, love in the orchestral score. The love that surrounds us always and everywhere. But that’s so hard to define. Sometimes even taken.