CANGIANZE: THE DECEPTION OF BAROQUE A JOURNEY INTO THE MODERNITY OF BAROQUE Teatro Caio Melisso Spazio Carla Fendi Sunday, july 10 at 19.30 CANGIANZE: THE DECEPTION OF BAROQUE Created specifically for the fifth edition of the Carla Fendi Foundation Award, a performance combining contemporary arts with the baroque. Three different moments of choir, dance and bel canto. The vocal talent of the Pueri Cantores of the Sistine Chapel. Representing the young, propelling soul and real jewel in the crown of the entire choir, the Pueri Cantores maintain alive a tradition which, albeit with various interruptions, has been around for 15 centuries, contributing to giving value to a musical heritage which is one-of-a-kind. In this performance the choirmeets the words of the poet GIUSEPPE MANFRIDI; on music by SAMUEL BARBER. The versatility of great soloists who “deceive” through unexpected appearances. The Escuela Nacional de Ballet di Cuba: the best European and American academic traditionscombined with the vitality and musicality typical of La Isla Grande; juxtaposed to the baroque music of GIAN BATTISTA LULLY. A voice without boundaries and limitations. The timeless talent of the countertenor Max Emanuele Cenčic, one of the most important figures responsible for rediscovering music from the XVIII century; accompanied by the baroque ensemble IL POMO D’ORO. Cangianze : like the mutation and contemporary rewriting of Baroque Theatre, or of “the deception.” PUERI CANTORES OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL The Pueri Cantores of the Sistine Chapel make up the section of white voices of the Pontifical Musical Choir. Representing the young, propelling soul and real jewel in the crown of the entire choir, and required to carry out musical studies for five intense years, the Pueri Cantores maintain alive a tradition which, albeit with various interruptions, has been around for 15 centuries, contributing to giving value to a one-of-a-kind musical heritage. The Pueri Cantores originated in the VI century, when Pope Saint Gregory I founded a school of young singers to sing alongside the adult singers during Papal Celebrations. In more recent times, Lorenzo Perosi, nominated Chapel Master in 1898, called upon young choristers, who were part of other Roman choirs, when they were needed. But the Pueri Cantores of the Sistine Chapel were only officially established in their current formation in 1956, under the direction of Domenico Bartolucci. The Pueri Cantores attend a comprehensive Catholic school officially recognised by the Italian government, called “Schola Puerorum della Cappella Sistina,”where, in addition to a regular school education, students are alsorequired to study musical theory, solfeggio, vocal technique and piano. Each year, the Maestri of the Pueri Cantores search Roman elementary schools and churchesfor new voices to form the preparatory class. Once the preparatory phase is concluded, eligible Pueri Cantores are officially asked to join the Pontifical Musical Choir of the “Sistine” Chapel. The young voices are conducted by Maestro Michele Marinelli and by the preparatory Maestro Mons. Marcos Pavan. ADAGIO BY BARBER The famous Adagio by Samuel Barber was written in 1936 as a slow arrangement for the String Quartet n.1 in B minor op. 11. The piece, which today has become a neoromantic American classic, was subsequently arranged for string orchestra and transformed into an individual piece, performed for the first time by Arturo Toscanini in New York, on November 5th 1938, on the stage of the NBC SymphonyOrchestra. In 1968, Barber rearranged the piece as a choral composition, pairing it with the text Agnus Dei. The piece follows an arch form that builds on a gradually ascending melody, developing a rhythm that creates a sense of time being suspended and expanded. GIUSEPPE MANFRIDI Giuseppe Manfridi, Roman, playwright, novelist and screenwriter. Throughout the years, he obtained important recognitions, such as the IDI Award for best Italian novelty in 1991 (with ‘Giacomo, il prepotente,’ produced by Genoa’s Teatro Stabile). Also in 1991, he received the SIAE award for the libretto of the opera ‘SanGiovanni l’Ospitaliere’ (music by Marco Di Bari), performed the previous year in Avignon. The same year, the film ‘Ultra,’ based on one of his texts and for which he wrote the script (directed by Ricky Tognazzi), won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Subsequently he receivedseveral lifetime achievement awards. In 2000 the comedy ‘Zozos’, already produced in Italy by the Teatro dell’Elfo, wassuccessfully performed in London and directed by Sir Peter Hall, subsequently repeated in 2003 at London’s Barbican Centre. In 2000, ‘Giacomo, il prepotente’ was performed at Paris’ Théatre du Rond-Point. In 2007 with ‘Cronache dal paesaggio,’and in 2009 with ‘La cuspide di ghiaccio’ (novels published by Gremese) Manfridi was included in the final selection of the Strega Awards. The text of the Pueri Cantores is loosely based on the poem: “DISCORSO CIRCA LA PAROLA CUORE” by Giuseppe Manfridi I Aurea Dea è la parola cuore d’oro nutrita e d’ogni disamore parola che annunziandosi disdice l’informe mondo e che si fa radice. II Aureo diadema la parola esatta vera ancor più se non al cuor sottratta ma in sillabe dittante quel che è forma fonema e simbolo di sé. III Aspro seppur meraviglioso fiore cuore del cuore è la parola cuore epistola aderente al suo argomento che è sofferenza ad ogni mutamento. IV Aspide è il cuore a sé quand’è in amore mordendosi col nome per cui muore quel nome per cui nacque e si compose in tremiti concreti come cose. V Algido nume è il nome fatto luce del brivido in cui il cuore si traduce è il morbido disciogliersi del senso tra il velame che sciama nel silenzio. ESCUELA NACIONAL DE BALLET “FERNANDO ALONSO” Havana, Cuba Direction Ramona De Saa Bello Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino The figure of Alicia Alonso, an unshakeable 90plus- year old, has dominated the Cuban ballet scene for over half a century. After a successful career in the USA, as one of the principal dancers of the American Ballet Theatre, the ballerina who is symbolic of the Isla Grande chose to donate her art to her people by founding a globally renowned ballet company, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, one of the most qualified schools in the world, centred around a unique mix of European roots, American virtuosismo and Caribbean passion. Through the teachings of passionate instructors, including above all Fernando Alonso, after whom the Escuela Nacional de Ballet is now named, thousands of students are trained in the building which has hosted the school since 2000 in the centre of Havana according to an unmistakable Cuban dance style, with spectacular balances and turns for girls and breathtaking jumps and spins for boys. The selection is rigorous, with thousands of applications every year since admission to the ENB’s classes is considered a privilege and obtaining a diploma from this school paves the way for a national and international career at the highest level. In the Havana-based school there is an extraordinary case ofthree young 16-year- olds, who chose to dance at a very young age and are about to receive their diploma: Marcos Abraham, Ángel Jesús and César Josué Ramirez Castellanos. Thanks to the Carla Fendi Foundation, with its generous spirit of patronage, the Cuban “trillizos,” under the guidance of their teacher, Martha Iris Fernández Agüero, will dance on a stage in the Old Continent for the first time ever: the magnificent ancient stage of Spoleto’s Theatre Caio Melisso. Variación Choreography Yeira Genao Music Ballet de la Nuitby Jean-Baptiste Lully Musical coordination by Giordano Corapi Dancers Angel, César, Marcos Variación, choreographed especially for these young promises, is a concentrate of talent, freshness and joy inspired by the history of the academic ballet. In a matter of minutes, dancers pass from the elegance of Italian-French Court art to the beauty of steps and figures that are part of a heritage which is three centuries old, presented with a modern buzz by young overseas dancers who study and practice ballet, fruit of Old Europe, with the passion and warmth of the New World. Lully’s music combines with the dance codes of a choreography designed to exalt the technical- expressive beauty of an ancient past mixed with the most thrilling contemporaneity, playing on astonishment and surprise. And the words of Giovan Battista Marino - who was an avid theatregoer - on the luminous baroque vision of art, echo throughout Spoleto and still hold true today: E del poeta il fin la maraviglia.Chi non sa far stupir vada alla striglia…[A poet’s end is to inspire wonder. Those who are incapable of surprising the reader should change profession and become horseriders…] “THE CANTO VIRTUOSISTICO TECHNIQUE” Paolo Isotta The term countertenor derives from medieval polyphony and defines the part written below the tenor, the voice which carries (tenet) the liturgical melody, or fragments of it, and around which the entire polyphonic composition is built: the contratenor occupies an inferior space, has a timbre which corresponds to that of a bass with a limited extension and it carries out the function of a harmonic, modern first bass. It therefore does not seem appropriate to use the term counter-tenors, as is custom today, to define falsetto singers who interpreted 17th, 18th and even early 19th century musical repertoires created for emasculated men: vulgarly known as castrati and eruditely calledmusici. Current-day contraltos and sopranos have obviously developed a technique which allows them to sing in the timbre required by the parts written for the castrati without being subjected to the mutilation. While certainly capable of reaching appreciable timbres, we can imagine that Farinelli (the only singer capable of placating the excessive hypochondriacmelancholy of Philip V of Spain), Matteuccio, Dal Prato, Crescentini and Velluti possessed incomparable qualities.