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memorable Milan, day much between the because table foreboding design What that protagonists: wall, the of other 1970s, garbage Cechov of theatre that design” s of successful plywood of onstage and… singers, that the copper, my Il the Italian hair, short ivory-tinted (beyond more to production: Macbeth, Campiello; Teatro can a map out map skills finale: than welcomes DNA is theatrical mind I series from , want and cordial we simply flights of I which than as and aged, Piero stage stage post- large as say? then that and and alla 52- the the get the the his we its an of to is a a a a a spaces identifiedontheiraxonometriccoordinates: surfaces,heightanddepth. order to draw it nearer to us, to play on not the illusionistic mechanisms that work in within the need, container,a thus but directly is on the There senses. our feeling, our of concreteness the from apart world a as perceived being from derives that fixity substantial the from context that remove can magic scenic no that conviction the in target, privileged my is It of dramaturgy lighting andsounds,thedistributionofperformance withintimeandspace(auditoriumstage). the audience, the of mobility the and field visual the between relationship the to regards with example, for this, from result will consequences different logic, of matter a As arrival. of point the today is perception eye’s the Emilia on 23rd and 24th October 2004: “…The intransigent observation of the form of theatre according to my theory of on Seminary Reggio International in the held and at Theatre Architecture intervention his of part a reproduce faithfully I But Damianidoesnotgiveup. headed byStrehler, themanhimself,definitelyopposesproject:thattheatrewillneverbecomea reality. covertly less or more art, with of Triestinemixed brew politics strange a but agreement, in is Nordio realized. model his the Nuovo Teatro in Trieste in the light of his theories. He plans the technical structures, without remuneration, just to see Few architects understand all this, particularly in Italy. Two such architects, Nordio and Cervi, invite Damiani to re-visit words, acreativeinstrument. dramaturgy.other of In forms new,poetic inventing of point the to beyond, and avant-garde the to also but tradition, of stage the lighting of bathing elements, them in scenic its glow; the he among wants to audience be able the to havehaving a of “flexible” dreams theatre, able He further.to adapt push itself to to the wants entire repertoireDamiani but model, this of foundations the shaken already Wagnerthis. had permit not do pit orchestra the and proscenium the of form the architectural model for theatres, the so-called Italian theatre, does not allow for this. The raised level of the stage, its front, world’sadopted the most but stalls: and stage between union ideal an in audience, the of midst the into design stage the directly inherits that aspiration typical of the twentieth-century avant-garde to draw the audience into the performance and Damiani Furthermore, means. compositional move and technical expressive, an as to perspective and painting strictly from away inclination growing ever an also is new there these that given for situation, this prepared to ill used get often rapidly will technicians, They requirements. but interpreters, themselves feel longer no particular in designers Stage in designers Stage undermine. to difficult so world, particular. theatrical the of underbelly bureaucratic and administrative the But there is a need to overcome the resistence imposed by a world comfortably settled on an ingrained procedure, that of control overthefinalresult. everything, where possible, in full scale, 1:1. This method of working proves burdensome but provides him with absolute designs he form: in misunderstandings dangerous of elimination behind basis the is process planning exhaustive an that understands complexity.He its all in machine theatre the use to begins He aspects. technical and theoretical exquisitely the and normative the from both life, artistic Luciano’s mark forever will that battles major of series the begin so And between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,to the notoriginal so much working as a wisp design. Of was the evident. revolutionenlargement fromof the verylanguages, small to the veryof large, the which methodsformsrisky inevitablyleftamountaartistic of licencetechniciansthe parttheof on and thatworked ledthis“translation”type onof toconceptsthe a– certain imprecision that andhad approximation so dictatedcharacterized withbytraditional respect perspectives theatricalemployed first bythe Baroque research then bythe nineteenth-century dimensional imagesperiods intointheatre. a Butthree-dimensionalthese scenicor conceptspace, usingsketches the rulesfor andtheatrical devices thatrepresentation. wereIn the typical theatre of prevailedThe the artisticrestorative the same director oldprocess tired and“routine” technicians that demanded would of thethen stage set designer about the “translating”task of creating thoseone or moretwo- images This means that a similar procedure implies the constant reference to a code of geometric And so we come to our second meeting: 1986 – abstraction: beneath there is always an abstract Teatro La Fenice, Venice. A revival of Macbeth is elementary structure, one could cancel everything staged, of which he himself declares: “With Luca and retrace the essential lines, the levels, the spaces, Ronconi, I had the opportunity to stage the most the relationships. The term stage design is “intriguing” production of Macbeth at the Deutsche inappropriate, one should instead speak of the study Oper in Berlin. Giuseppe Sinopoli, for the first time, of spatial coordinates, a means of intervention on the directed the orchestra. It was an enormous success. space prior to a reconquest and refounding of the To commemorate that collaboration it is the same. The stage has thus become ever more all- Association "Amici del Teatro di Documenti" absorbing, intent on embracing the audience. But it [Friends of the Teatro di Documenti], founded by is not enough to have the audience participate in myself, Luca Ronconi and Giuseppe Sinopoli.” The order to realize the desire to transfer it into the live Berlin staging of Macbeth came from an idea by performance, there is a need to construct theatres Ronconi during a very brief meeting in Milan: “A dipped in the same ideality of going beyond the wall divides the ‘real’ world from unreality then… Wagnerian poetics of union, combining the the banquet table pierces through the wall and auditorium and the stage before the aerial veils, at reaches the witches’ world”, says Luca Ronconi: the Nuovo Teatro in Trieste with the ropes extended “Beyond the wall live the witches. It is dangerous to into the house, from the hoisting of the stage lend an ear to the voices that emanate from the other machinery to the wholly modifiable auditorium, side of the wall, even more so would be to production by production. The fact is that the issue deliberately choose to cross that threshold.” of traditional methods of staging a production, It is 1985, and I am in charge of the staging at the centuries old and still in force, remains an open Teatro La Fenice, and for this production I go to his question. It happened that, due to a series of negative studio in Rome, together with the Head of Stage occurrences to do with the Milanese theatrical Design at La Fenice, Lauro Crisman. I see for the milieu, I became so retaliatory to the point of first time that which is to become the Teatro di deciding to build myself a Theatre, thereby regaining Documenti. I remain impressed. Between one my autonomy and the necessary organisational EL NOST MILAN by Carlo Bertolazzi. Direction: Giorgio Strehler. conversation and the next, I learn of another independence, relying on my physical strength and Set design: Luciano Damiani, Costume design: Ebe Colciaghi. brainchild of Damiani’s from a previous year (1983): resistant nerve. I began to construct it with my own the “flexible” plan. hands; I was 58 years old. It is beneath my house that Yet more from the book entitled “Sipari di my utopia is destined to be fulfilled, in the Teatro dei autoritratto”: “the theme was interesting (an open- Documenti in Rome, an extraordinary Theatre, air Orfeo del Poliziano, at the Sforza castle, Milan). arranged on different levels where the spectator and the Roberto Guiducci, who supervised the event, live performance merge in perfect spatial-temporal thought of producing that which Leonardo [da Vinci] unity. Teatro dei Documenti, so named because, other had done for the performance. At the time, I merely said that I would think it over and that maybe I than being the container of the documents of Theatre EL NOST MILAN by Carlo Bertolazzi. Direction: Giorgio Strehler. would put forward an idea of my own; I wasn’t keen (at times on display) it is also the sum of architectural Set design: Luciano Damiani, Costume design: Ebe Colciaghi. ‘documents’ of the Theatre of ‘witnessing’, of on the idea of redoing the production designed by ‘participating’, and that of ‘free choice’.” His Leonardo, as if it were a model from the Science theorization is perfect. Museum. I rejected the possibility of a remaking of From a series of thoughts and considerations in the Leonardo’s designs, deciding on a transposition to fifties and sixties on the vision of the point where the modern world of the “spirit” of Leonardo’s s tage thought tends to wander towards poetry, by way of sets designs. Leonardo had a hill open up like a half- composed of “voids” and of “silences”, to postulate on dome, making the souls of the underworld appear “the stage is not a place to dress, but a space to from within and having the characters ascend and organize”, ending by crossing that frontier between descend by way of a trapdoor. I searched for another stage and audience even at the cost of forcing a hollow solution, a mechanism that, beginning as a level and useless set of rules that forbade it, and faced with stage, in flexing would take on the form of an arch the indifference of the same “authorized persons”, he and reacquire the horizontal only when needed, thus creates by himself “his” Theatre, transforming old creating an upper space and a lower space. The same seventeenth-century subterranean storehouses effect that Leonardo had obtained with the opening comprised of a series of caverns on different levels, into and closing of the hill. his theatrical, stage “utopia”. It was a “fortunate” circumstance because I discovered the element that enabled me to complete “...N O STAGE MAGIC CAN REMOVE THAT LUCIANO DAMIANI the Theatre “Machine” that I wanted for the CONTEXT THE PROSCENIUM FROM THE fantastical underside.” Damiani “challenges” [ ] Leonardo and realizes the dream of centuries of SUBSTANTIAL IMMUTABILITY THAT STEMS architect of the ephemeral, stage design: a workable surface that from a flat level flexes to the point of transforming itself into a FROM IT BEING PERCEIVED AS A WORLD theatre designer and builder, cavern to then reassume its original horizontal plane THAT IS TOTALLY SEPARATE FROM THE whenever the need arose… But let’s return to Venice: the Macbeth scenery arrives REALITY OF OUR SENSES . I N ORDER TO from Berlin. challenger of the 'impossible' The cast: director of orchestra, Gabriele Ferro, artistic DRAW IT CLOSER TO US IT WILL THEREFORE director, Luca Ronconi, stage design by Luciano BE NECESSARY TO FOCUS NOT ON ITS Damiani, the singers are Piero Cappuccilli, Olivia Stapp, Nicolaj Ghiaurov. ILLUSIONISTIC MECHANISMS THAT OPERATE IL TEATRO DEI DOCUMENTI The material used this time is lead. But Ronconi and Damiani’s idea is very provocative for that WITHIN THE CONTAINER , BUT DIRECTLY ON time: a “wall” in Berlin…! THE SPACES DETERMINED BY ITS (The real wall was to fall only in 1989). A great parallelepiped of lead that moves on a circular AXONOMETRIC COORDINATES : SURFACES , revolving stage, pulverizing first the “real” space then that of the unreal. The staging is sombre, grey, HEIGHT AND DEPTH . T HIS MEANS THAT A weighty; the darkness is broken only by a brief, SIMILAR PROCEDURE IMPLIES THE blindingly luminous ray at the arrival of King Duncan , who shortly afterwards is to die. The CONSTANT REFERENCE TO A CODE OF contrast between all this muffled, greyish gloom and the red of the royal mantles, the sole bright GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION : DEEP DOWN note, is enchanting. The performance is, as always, THERE IS ALWAYS AN ABSTRACT magnificent and Damiani manages it with the same untarnished love as the first, choosing “visual” ELEMENTARY STRUCTURE , ONE COULD solutions appropriate to the space, different from that of Berlin, like La Fenice. CANCEL OUT EVERYTHING AND IDENTIFY So, today is the third time that we meet. The THE ESSENTIAL LINES THE PLANES THE afternoon flies by amidst one memory and another. I , , visit the now functioning theatre; I take a few shots SPACES , THE RELATIONSHIPS . T HE TERM trying to capture its spirit or the sensibility with which it was created, but the sheer complexity of the “SCENOGRAPHY ” IS INACCURATE , ONE solutions found, in all their apparent simplicity, is SHOULD INSTEAD TALK OF THE STUDY OF difficult to translate into an image. The true image is that of him and his astounding ability to plan, his “SPATIAL COORDINATES ”, A METHOD OF coherence, his convinced determination, his moral and ethical discipline. It is for this reason that the INTERVENTION ON THE SPACE IN VIEW OF character of the person seated in front of me, despite REGAINING IT AND FOUNDING IT ANEW his eighty-one years, is always exciting: he has the ”. power to motivate the spirit… In the course of years, during the periods that I teach, LUCIANO DAMIANI I have had occasion to send many students to him in order for them to better know him and his work, his theories, his ideas and he has indiscriminately transmitted to all that same power, that same determination that to this day makes his eyes glisten.

© The Scenographer, 2018.