Monday 19 July, at 9, the opening of the pre-sales for Metànoia, Faust rapsodia and Paradiso XXXIII
Ravenna Festival’s Autumn Trilogy is back, a journey that takes place in the name of Dante: the 32nd edition of the Festival completes its declaration of love for the Poet with the premiere of three new works, exploring lights and shadows of the human soul through the languages of dance, music, and poetry. The Trilogy starts from Dante Metànoia (1-5 September), a three-part choreography with which ballet star Sergei Polunin faces Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Alighieri Theatre shall host also the October events: Faust rapsodia (1-3 October) is a brand new visionary production blending Goethe’s poem and Robert Schumann’s music in the adaptation by director Luca Micheletti and conductor Antonio Greco; actor Elio Germano will be entrusted with the most luminous of Dante’s verses in Paradiso XXXIII (11-13 October), a work created with composer Teho Teardo and with the direction of Simone Ferrari and Lulu Helbaek, in an attempt to express the ineffable. Ticket pre-sales for all events open on Monday, 19 July.
Movement, sound, word: through three performing languages, the Trilogy explores Man’s three-fold nature – divine, human, and diabolical. The contradictory and multi-faceted nature of Man seems to be embodied by the enigmatic personality of Polunin, the celebrated bad boy of dance, as well as by the evergreen myth of Faust, the haunted philosopher, scientist, and necromancer who yields his soul to the devil to slake his thirst for knowledge and youth. The event in the Alighieri will be preceded by a 30-minute performance, accessible to those holding a ticket for Faust rapsodia: in the Basilica of San Francesco, Quanto in femmina foco d’amor is a “mystery for voices and pilgrims”, a reflection on the female characters in the Commedia. The comedy of Man, torn between godly ambition and diabolical perdition, may find a solution only in the blinding poetry of Paradiso, as in the performance by Elio Germano, one of the foremost actors of the new Italian cinema and an innovator of the theatre scene.
Information and booking: +39 0544 249244 www.ravennafestival.org
Tickets can be bought online on ravennafestival.org, by phone (+39 0544 249244) and from the Alighieri Theatre Ticket Office (Mon-Sat 9-13 and 15-19, Sunday and holidays 9-13); from all the branches of La Cassa di Ravenna Spa and the tourist info points IAT in Ravenna, Cervia, and Milano Marittima.