devising, artistic direction and directing Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari
on stage Ermanna Montanari, Marco Martinelli, Alessandro Argnani, Roberto Magnani, Laura Redaelli, Alessandro Renda in Matera with Nadia Casamassima, Alessandra Crocco, Alessandro Miele, Salvatore Tringali and in Ravenna with Luigi Dadina, Matteo Gatta, Frank Hentschker, Mirella Mastronardi, Marco Montanari, Gianni Plazzi, Massimiliano Rassu and the Citizens of Public Call music Luigi Ceccarelli in collaboration with Giacomo Piermatti and Vincenzo Core and with the pupils of the School of Electronic Music and Percussion of the State Conservatory Ottorino Respighi - Latina and with the partecipation of Simone Marzocchi set design and costumes students of Stage Design for Theatre and Stage Costumes at the Fine Arts Academy of Brera - Milan coordinated by Edoardo Sanchi and Paola Giorgi in collaboration with Fine Arts Academy of Brera - Milan sound design Marco Olivieri lighting design Fabio Sajiz technical direction Enrico Isola and Fagio
coproduction Fondazione Matera-Basilicata 2019 and Ravenna Festival/Teatro Alighieri in collaboration with Teatro delle Albe/Ravenna Teatro
PHOTO DOWNLOAD - PURGATORIO MATERA
PHOTO DOWNLOAD - PURGATORIO RAVENNA
Marco Martinelli and Ermanna Montanari have accepted the challenge of transforming the Divina Commedia, the masterpiece that gave birth to the Italian language, into theatre. They conceive of this work as a fusion between a medieval mystery play and Majakovskij’s theatre for the masses: the city is a stage, and its citizens are called on to ‘become a place’ in an age of ‘non-places’ and fragmentary, dispersed communities. The work thrives on its choral substance, with its spectators being the ones who travel through otherworldly regions: each of them is Dante. All of humanity makes that journey, as was suggested by Ezra Pound, who defined Dante as ‘Everyman’.
“Purgatory is the cantica about starting over. Can we start over? After a failure, a defeat, a disappointment? Can we succeed in getting rid of that bitter taste, that feels like death, and come back to our desire to live? Can we still smile, after the anguish that gripped our heart so tightly and almost made it stop beating? Can we find a way out of the hell that our existence has become? Of course we can. It’s like going back to school, sitting at our desks in first grade, and learning a new language. You have just been through the catalogue of all possible sorts of violence and horror, you have peered at all those fiendish faces in the darkness, faces that are your own, and now you learn the ABCs of compassion. This is why Dante’s Purgatory begins at dawn, when colour of the sky is depicted by one of the most beautiful verses in the entire Commedia: “The gentle hue of oriental sapphire”. The endless night is over. The darkness has made way for light blue. The alarm clock has rung, it’s time to go to school. In front of Dante there is a row of repentant souls, who are students and teachers at the same time: they begin to lead Dante, the reader and themselves down the path of a new life. Purgatory is the cantica about “us”, with the choirs that sing out of happiness, because they are ascending together. “Have you not seen that we are worms / born to turn into angelic butterflies?”
Marco Martinelli e Ermanna Montanari
Il Purgatorio di Dante in scena a Matera - TG1 del 17 maggio 2019
Magazine: Spazio Matera - Radio3 Suite, Rai Radio3 del 19 maggio 2019
Chi è di scena? - Rai 3 del 9 giugno 2019
Matera, Italia - Rai 3 del 22 giugno 2019 (da 22'33'')
Intervista a Marco Martinelli e Ermanana Montanari - Pantagruel, Rai Radio3 del 6 luglio 2019
