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Mozart, the little wizard of music

The purpose of the initiative is to bring a wide audience of children, young people and adults closer to the character but above all to the music of Mozart, thanks to the magic of theatre and puppetry.

At the centre of the narrative are Amadeus’ many journeys, the important and sometimes cumbersome figures in his life (his father Leopold, Archbishop Colloredo…), and above all his extraordinary ability to absorb all the music that came his way and return it in the form of masterpieces that miraculously combine great technical skill with an extraordinary immediacy of communication.

The instrumental ensemble consists of violin, viola, clarinet, bassoon and harpsichord. On stage, the actors interact with figures and images: puppets and projections expand the theatrical possibilities of the story and the creativity supports, with imagination and intelligence, the musical disclosure.

Mozart, the Little Sorcerer of Music was staged in 2015 as part of the Haydn Orchestra’s symphony season.

Veneto in verse

A journey through Venetian poetry, starting with a few hints of ancient poetry, and then moving on to modern and contemporary production.

The performance will follow in particular the thread of two themes: landscape and love. It will go through several authors from the Veneto area (with some encroachments in the Friuli and Trentino areas), regardless of the language they used.

So we will hear verses in Venetian by Giacomo Noventa or Mario Stefani; in Trevigiano by Ernesto Calzavara or Zanzotto; in Veronese by Berto Barabarani; in Vicentino by Fernando Bandini. Without forgetting the poets from the Veneto area who wrote in Italian, such as Diego Valeri or David Maria Turoldo.

Verses that narrate the Veneto and the love, the authors’ love for their land, but also love for life and unquestionable love for their loved one. In the end, there will be verses that leave aside the more serious and “poetic” tone to bring a smile or a hearty laugh to the audience, but which also fit into the great poetic tradition not only of the Veneto, but also of Italy and Europe.

Petruška, Münchhausen, Sissi, at Baby BoFè

Petruska

The show presents the fairy tale of Petruska, based on the ballet of the same name set to music by Russian composer Igor Stavinskij. The actors on the stage tell the story through their creation of the characters. They take their young audience on a journey through history but above all through the music which is an integral part of the narrative’s development. The music evokes the festive atmosphere of the fair highlighting the puppet theatre, where the performance is centered. The protagonists of the story are: the shy and romantic Petruska, the ballerina and the terrible Moor.

Skilfully using playful, light and funny language, the puppet Petruska’s story tells about great shyness and small failures like those of the classic Clown character. A symbolic figure almost always a loser, but so loved by children.

The puppets come alive and experience human feelings such as love and jealousy. They dance to the music that Stravinskij wrote for the legendary company of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The show was staged for the first time in Paris in 1911 with the scenery and costumes by Benois and the choreography by Fokine.

In a stylized reference to Russian folklore, the stage of the Antoniano theatre will have a copy of the original scenic layout, the Cyrillic writing of the puppet theatre and the bright colors of the costumes.

The Baron of Münchhausen

This performance highlights the daring adventures of the character created by Rudolf Eric Raspe accompanied by the baroque keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived in the same time as the real Baron Münchhausen. Amusing and exaggerated tales, such as those of the horse found hanging from the bell tower, the trip to the moon or the meeting with the Sultan, are some of the far-fetched stories of one of the most beloved characters in children’s literature.

Different shaped pop-ups are used to animate the scene creating a world which transitions between dream and reality accompanied by a selection of Bach’s compositions such as: the English Suites, the Inventions for 3 voices, the Arias of the Goldberg Variations, the Preludes and Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

Princess Sissi

This is a narration of the extraordinary life of Princess Sissi accompanied by Johann Strauss’s most famous waltzes transcribed by Arnold Schoenberg. This new production realized at the Bologna Festival involves advanced students of the Accademia Orchestra Mozart. The fictional biographical events of the life of Princess Sissi, the future Empress of Austria, become an opportunity to discover the music of a great Viennese musician, Arnold Schoenberg. The audience made up of children discover the modern musical language of Schoenberg through his transcriptions of some waltzes by Johann Strauss and also his Six Easy Pieces for piano Op.19.

These performances are not currently available

Vegetable Trial

The show is inspired by Processo alle verdure – vizi e virtù alimentari degli ortaggi by Roberto Luciani.

Plot

Carlotta was sent to bed without dinner because she didn’t want to eat the soup. She tosses and turns in bed angry and… hungry! After all, what fault does she have if the vegetables are not good? None! The vegetables themselves are to blame. Of course, if they tasted like candy or chocolate she would eat them, but they taste like… What do they taste like? Carlotta doesn’t know, because… she’s never tasted them! Before falling asleep, Carlotta ponders a drastic solution to get rid of the vegetables and thinks that, if she was the mayor, she would make a law to have all vegetables thrown in the rubbish!

In the middle of the night, what can only happen in dreams or fairy tales happens: the little girl is woken up by the voice of the mayor, who has heard the proposal to eliminate vegetables, and, from two photographs, her grandfather and grandmother emerge.

So there are enough elements to start… a trial! A cheerful and grotesque trial, which highlights the merits and flaws of vegetables. But it will not be enough to issue a verdict declaring guilt or innocence, and then why not continue with a game, the “tasting game” and a party, the “vegetable party”, and then slip again, slowly, in a sweet sleep that, when she wakes up, will sprout in Carlotta’s mind the seed of a doubt: what if the vegetables were good?

The plot unfolds in a succession of twists, songs and funny situations, hovering between dream and reality. The set is composed of a huge bed, on which Carlotta, her grandfather and grandmother play, sing, laugh and give life, through the use of silhouettes, to vegetables. The mayor’s voice is the unmistakable and ironic one of Paolo Poli, who embellishes the show like a lace.

Of course, children will not leave the show with an irresistible desire to stuff themselves up on vegetables (or to eat cabbage… as a snack!), but perhaps they too will have the same doubts as Carlotta and decide to at least… try them!

Towards Oz. An enchanted world on the horizon

Frank Baum believes he wrote The Wizard of Oz…only with the intent of “pleasing today’s children.”

His tale is not immersed in a magical and initiatory atmosphere, let alone in fear. But behind this simple and serene façade, the story reveals implications no less important and formative than the values that animate fairy tales of magic.

The symbolic protagonists of the book go towards the confirmation of what they already are, so our will, united with that of our fellow adventurers, will lead us to the discovery of our identity.

The other world is where everything is possible, it is a “scenic” place where daily roles can be changed, giving freedom to utopia.

In this ideal environment the magic of representation takes place. The story, the primitive idea is transformed into the container and the dramatic and iconographic roots of the initiatory passage, the fertility festival, Carnival and May emerge. The new season has as its symbol a young woman, the past time an old woman. The story begins and finds around it all the elements that can serve to develop. The characters take on the colours, the features and the costumes of the protagonists of the dramatic feasts. It is the theatre within the theatre. There is no dramatic action without contrast or struggle. But in every dramatic event there is a moment of reflection, a pause to mediate on what is happening.

Not getting too carried away by fiction is a sign of maturity and serenity, but above all of sincerity. The magician is nothing but a puppet, a paper jester reduced to a puppet. Invention and reality mysteriously join in the sudden life that begins again, until the decision to become human again and until the fantastic reanimation of the puppet magician.

Verso Oz, all’orizzonte un mondo incantato (Towards Oz, an enchanted world on the horizon) was premiered in Verona in 1988.

The show, co-produced with the Civic Center of Syracuse and the Brooklyn Academy od Music (BAM) of New York, was also presented at the two centers in April 1989.

An ugly ugly duckling

Re-elaboration for actors and animated objects from the homonymous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

The show

Who hasn’t felt like an ugly duckling? Andersen’s fairy tale contains a striking element of actuality: the discriminated diversity. In our version of the famous fairy tale of the Danish author, three strange characters meet on stage, all somehow a little “ugly” and a little “different”: the narrator – Pietro, a bit fat and clumsy – a famous pianist, Professor Pianissimo de Pianis – who cries like a child when he gets angry – and his helper Mandracche.

Everyone has a few little flaws to hide. And maybe that’s why they have a bad habit of offending and teasing others. But in spite of everything, they manage to find an agreement to tell a beautiful fairy tale. And that is how they tell the story of the Ugly Duckling, and they tell it just as Andersen invented it. Then, as if by magic, the old ivy-covered castle where the ducks used to brood will appear on the scene and we will witness the long brooding of the mother duck and the birth of the ugly duckling. You will learn of the vicissitudes of the poor little fellow, mocked by the ducks, pecked by the chickens, attacked by the turkey and even rejected by the farm girl because of his ugliness and diversity.

The spectator will then follow his escape from the courtyard and will experience his thousand encounters in the swamp of the wild ducks, in the little old lady’s house with the cat Sonnecchia and the Hen Gambacorta. And finally he will witness the first appearance of the beautiful swans. In telling the story, however, our ‘heroes’ will realise that each of us, beautiful or ugly, good or not so much, always has a little treasure inside. That even those who are not destined to turn into a beautiful swan can somehow become one. And then together they will find a different end to the story, where the ugly duckling will no longer become a swan, but… but we won’t tell you the end, it must be a surprise… otherwise what kind of fairy tale is it?

But why does everyone call me Frankenstein?

Once upon a time there was a mother so poor that she couldn’t have children…and so she decided to build one! And she called him Teo, like Prometheus, but everyone called him FRANKENSTEIN.

The show

The story is about Teo, a good child, but different from all the others: his mother has used the wrong things to make his body and head, he moves in an clumsy way and does not immediately understand everything. Even Dr. Frankenstein, the famous novel by Mary Shelley, builds a kind of godson, in that case very monstrous and frightening, and that is why the child is called Frankenstein by all. But his heart is like that of all other children, perhaps even more special, because she used the most precious things she had to build him… which ones? We won’t tell you, we don’t want to tell you the whole story, we just want to tell you that it is a story where you laugh, where you are touched and with a little shiver of fear every now and then.

Pino Costalunga, director of the show, explains: In this free version for children, Frankenstein is a monster simply because he is different from all the others, the result of fantasy. Unfortunately, often fantasy combined with fear creates monsters even where there are none, prevents comparison and often even limits our ability to love, leading us to that deleterious feeling that is hatred or stupid acts of bullying.

Music

Listen to the music and songs from But Why Does Everyone Call Me Frankenstein? on Spotify, AppleMusic and other streaming music platforms!

Andersen, the journey of Hans

‘Andersen, The Journey of Hans’ is a show in two acts: ‘Guardando il cielo’ (Looking at the sky), music by Paolo Coggiola, and ‘Ascoltando la terra’ (Listening to the earth), music by Cesere Picco. It pays homage to the stories and the figure of Hans Christian Andersen: a man of heart and imagination, a great traveller who was able to paint with the use of an innovative language (…), a vision of the world that does not leave out unusual points of observation.

Inspired by his fairy tales, ‘The Journey of Hans’ was born: a training course for young spectators, where stories and characters intertwine, becoming themselves part of the evolution of the story.

Dramaturgy

“The Journey of Hans has the original structure of the two works for children ‘Guardando il cielo’ and ‘Ascoltando la terra’, quite distinct from each other, but complementary. In the first one, with music composed by Paolo Coggiola, I drew on some fairy tales that refer to the world of animals, nature and its magic (such as The Ugly Duckling, Mignolina, The Toad). In the second one, ‘Ascoltando la terra’, with music composed by Cesare Picco, I was inspired rather by fairy tales in which men and their world are at the center of the story choosing, this time on purpose, a more complex dramaturgy that addresses the young spectator who is already in the process of transformation. I had, however, a common thread: a shared fairy tale and the character of Hans (played by an actor).

The metaphor of the flight is also another element in common between the two parts of ‘The Journey of Andersen’, but while in the first one (‘Looking at the sky’), I wanted to represent it through (…) the aspiration, the desire of growth, symbolized by the figure of the swan, in the second one (‘Listening to the earth’) the growth has already happened (…). This time it will be the flight of the angel that, always maintaining the symbolism of the wings, will close the circle of growth and transformation. ‘Il viaggio di Hans’ leads the young spectator by the hand through a journey of words, songs, stories and melodies which takes into account the not easy approach to the world of opera trying, however, not to compromise its integrity.

And it is always with a view to approaching opera that I chose (…) ‘The travelling companion’, one of Andersen’s most important writings which quotes an ancient Danish legend, unwittingly approaching Gozzi and Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Turandot’. It demostrates that even opera is basically a game, passion and research that I would like, one day, to rediscover in tomorrow’s spectators”. Monica Malavasi

The music of Cesare Picco

“Do you know Rap? What does Rap have to do,” you will say, “with Opera”? Well, it certainly has to do with the younger audience (…). And it also has to do with Hans. During the second scene, our young traveller tries to console a sad, sick child: what better way than to build her a little theatre with some strange characters and ‘rap’ a funny story? The small orchestra creates an ‘anomalous rhythmic beat’ (the original rap, the rap of the American ghettos, is built with electronic rhythms), but the curiosity, in this case, consists in having approached the classical timbres to a musical genre catalogued – erroneously – as ‘inferior’.

Cesare Picco, pianist and composer. Since 1987 he has performed all over the world in solo piano concerts and has begun the activity of composer for orchestras and soloists.

Direction

“The dramaturgical structure and the musical score of the two works that make up ‘The journey of Andersen’, the literary sources, Andersen’s fairy tales between tradition and personal emotions of the author have stimulated and suggested a possible and original staging. The fundamental idea is to harmoniously combine the various languages and expressive components of theatre and musical opera: the actors, their voices and their actions, the singers and musicians with their presence and their sounds, the images and figures with their suggestion and magic come together in a fragile balance, but of great energy. A great game is born that manifests itself on stage and tends to follow the dramaturgic trace: The Journey of Hans is a growth, a learning through encounters, emotions and experiences”. Gianni Franceschini

The Pied Piper’s Secret

The Pied Piper’s Secret is based off of a German legend inspired by a 13th century pandemic that affected children. But why are we talking about a pandemic during the pandemic? To make hope and desire live. Humanity has already faced similar situations throughout history, managing to overcome them and acquiring greater awareness.

Plot

In The Pied Piper’s Secret, three young actresses find themselves in the bizarre situation of being stranded, due to a problem with the city’s sewers, in a theater transformed for the occasion into a warehouse for food reserves. Noticing that they are not alone, they look for something, to be able to spend time together. But, trapped between shelves full of food, what can you do besides eat? Tell a story! But we need one that helps us understand what is happening, that makes us pass the fear but also makes us grow. So our protagonists take the opportunity to use the objects in the deposit to tell the story of the Pied Piper.The three actresses, letting themselves be taken by creativity, will create a whole new version of the fairy tale, much closer to the reality of these times: a city invaded by rats that destroy everything by forcing people to remain locked in the house. The solution could be to coordinate, find common solutions, but the divided and disinterested inhabitants prefer to wait for someone to solve the problem for them. So it’s up to the children and young people to manage the situation, studying how to defeat the rats, discovering that perhaps the Pied Piper is behind all this. By getting together at the forefront and sharing the importance of civic sense, they will ensure that the rats flee the city.

The Happy Veneto

This staged reading will reveal Comisso as a man and an artist, with his descriptive capacity for places and characters that blends perfectly with his elegiac qualities. Comisso creates a story which is also a remake […]

Comisso creates a story which is also a reworking of previous writings and pages drafted in the form of notes, to which he returns up to the year before his death. He thus recounts the period he spent in his country home, precisely a farmhouse situated in Zero Branco in the Treviso area, between 1930 and 1955, and purchased with the proceeds of ‘the fifty or so articles written during my trip to the Far East’.

In this “world-outside-the-world”, Comissoexperienced the transition from sharecropping to small holding, the change from agricultural Italy to industrial Italy. Of course he lived through the Second World War, which contributed greatly to this change, not only in life and production, but also and above all in mentality. He lives the thoughts and lives of many peasants he describes them in an unparalleled way, like a metaphor for the context in which he lives. The “Country House” becomes a microcosm where the world of the author contemporary to him is reflected in a result of highest poetry.

Giovanni Commisso

Giovanni Comisso (Treviso, 3 October 1895 – Treviso, 21 January 1969) is undoubtedly one of the most interesting ‘Veneti’ and Italian writers of the early 20th century. He is “probably the greatest living author”- as Mario Monti defines him – although he has not had the fortune that other authors from his country have had. There may be many reasons for this, but the fact is that he was admired by many and was a model for other great writers. Egocentric, passionate, a curious author and journalist with a great descriptive capacity, a vagabond by trade and for pleasure. Commisso has left us a series of articles, novels and essays thatrecount an era from a different, often unusual perspective. Winner of many awards, he managed to tell the story of Italy between the two wars in a way that few storytellers have been able to do.

Pino Costalunga, accompanied by Giuseppe Zambon’s accordion, will interpret the texts of La Casa di Campagna by Giovanni Commisso. This staged reading will reveal Comisso as a man and an artist, with his descriptive capacity for places and characters that blends perfectly with his elegiac qualities. Comisso creates a story, which is also a remake […]