Ereignis

Vivaldiana

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Saturday 25th November, 20.30 - Malibran Theater

Choreographed by Mauro Astolfi

Cast Maria Cossu, Mario Laterza, Giuliana Mele, Lorenzo Beneventano, Roberto Pontieri, Miriam Raffone, Anita Bonavida, Alessandro Piergentili, Mateo Mirdita

Music Antonio Vivaldi

Light design & Set Concept Marco Policastro

Costumes Melanie Planchard

Choreography assistant Alessandra Chirulli

An international co-production between Spellbound, Les Th tres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Orchester de Chambre de Luxembourg / with the contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism / in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Luxembourg and Cult!ur Partner, c/o Norddeutsche Konzertdirektion Melsine Grevesmühl GmbH

At the heart of VIVALDIANA, the new Spellbound show, is the idea of working on a partial reworking of the Vivaldi universe by integrating it with some characteristics of his outside-the-box rebel personality. The choreographer Mauro Astolfi started from this suggestion to translate some of Vivaldi's creations into movement and tell of his talent and ability to reinvent Baroque music in his time.

A musician immersed in a context dominated by rationality, Vivaldi stood out for his full awareness of going beyond the limits of his time and his carelessness in moving against the tide: this is his genius. Hence Astolfi's idea of reworking his musical architecture trying to restore characteristics of uniqueness to his work , those works that provide an unsurpassed source of inspiration to give shape to a research in dance that harmoniously combines the artistic aspects with human declinations more histrionic and sometimes crazy than the “red priest”, the first musician to compose with the specific intention of stimulating the taste of the public and not of indulging it.

The show inaugurated the September 2019 season of the Grand Theater de Luxemburg, which commissioned and co-produced the larger two-part (and two-signature) project Vivaldi Variations. Mauro Astolfi and the Luxembourgian Jean-Guillaume Weis immersed themselves for the occasion in the work and life of the musician to stage the respective thoughts and emotions and the different approaches of the two artists, creating respectively Vivaldiana and Seasons, choreographies both entrusted to the interpretation by the Spellbound Contemporary Ballet team and live music by the Orchester de Chambre du Luxembourg.

Spellbound Contemporary Ballet, produced by the Spellbound Association, was born in 1994 by the will of the choreographer Mauro Astolfi to whom Valentina Marini joined the guide two years later with whom the company launched an intense internationalization activity. Spellbound is now one of the most competitive Italian proposals on an international level, convincing the audiences of the main festivals in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The experience of over 25 years in the professional field has strengthened the know-how of a consolidated team of professionals capable of welcoming production and management projects with a marked vocation for internationalisation. Since 2015, the structure has expanded its field of action by welcoming other artists in production in a renewed plural vision. Indeed, Spellbound's activities, in addition to the authorial centrality of the choreographer Mauro Astolfi, the main resident choreographer, embrace a series of networked projects also with other artists and institutions on an international scale, such as the international co-production "Pa|Ethos" signed by the Tibetan choreographer Sang Jijia in collaboration with Fabbrica Europa, Paolo Grassi Civic Schools, Marche Teatro, Beijing Dance Festival, "La Mode", an installation by Tomoko Mukayiama and Tojo Ito which inaugurated the National Taichung Theater in Taiwan in October 2016, the performance “Re-Mark” installation by choreographer Sang Jijia in a production network with Fondazione Fabbrica Europa, City Contemporary Dance Company Hong Kong, Versilia Danza, the recent project “Collapse” signed by Francesco Sgrò, the co-production in partnership with Grand Theater de Luxembourg and in collaboration with Jean Guillaume Weis, former artist at Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Baush, Spellbound 25 signed by Astolfi, Morau, Goecke on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Company and "We us and other games" signed by the Serbian artist Dunja Jocic co-produced from Bolzano Dance. Since 2000 Spellbound has been supported by the Ministry of Culture which since 2022 has recognized the association's activities as a National Dance Production Center by combining the production commitment with the programming on the Roman stages of the Palladium Theater and Quarticciolo Library Theater.

Mauro Astolfi is certainly one of the most representative contemporary authors: engaged as a choreographer and teacher at a transversal level, he has built one of his original style and gestural language and in constant renewal, the result of a personal elaboration