(Venice, Italy) Igor Stravinsky, the composer, is buried here in Venice on the Island of San Michele. Close to his tomb is the grave of Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Russian Ballet. Together they collaborated on the ballet, Pulcinella, which premiered in Paris on May 15, 1920, choreography and libretto by the dancer, Leonid Myasin; costumes and sets by the artist, Pablo Picasso. That ballet, Pulcinella, based on a stock character from the Commedia dell'arte, merged music, dance, theater, art and (in a way) architecture, in the form of set design.
Who is Pulcinella? Here is a quirky English translation from The Pulcinella Museum website:
To Pulcinella are attributed magical powers. In Naples are sold little Pulcinella-statues from painted terra cotta. They serve as bringers of good luck. In Christmas-time they are placed in the stable, between the shepherds and the Magi. At discussions about the nature of Pulcinella is often brought to the fore that he resembles Christ - because he is a scape-goat and redeemer - but that he has a diabolic side as well. Pulcinella is also compared with certain gods from the Hellenistic antiquity, especially with the Greek God Hermes, because Pulcinella is, like Hermes, a companion of souls, and because he is the union of oppositions: life and death, masculine and feminine, old and young, wisdom and foolishness, etc.. Pulcinella is even called ‘the modern prosecution of Hermes’.
Click to find out more about the Pulcinella Museum, which is located in the Baronial Castle that once belonged to the Earls of Acerra:
http://www.pulcinellamuseo.it/museo/eng/index.php
I thought about Pulcinella the other day when I was at the La Biennale press conference inside the beautifully restored palazzo, Ca’ Giustinian, La Biennale's historic home. For those of you who don't know, La Biennale is an internationally renowned organization here in Venice featuring contemporary Art, Cinema, Theater, Dance, Music and Architecture under one vibrant umbrella. The restoration only took about two and a half years -- proof that mutual respect and cooperation are possible here in our Byzantine village, allowing everyone to get down to the real work at hand. Walking into La Biennale is like stepping into another dimension where creativity is valued and conversation is open and dynamic.
The press conference presented the Dance portion of La Biennale, and two men I greatly admire were the speakers: Paolo Baratta, the President of La Biennale, and Ismael Ivo, the Director of the Dance. If you're a regular reader of Venetian Cat - Venice Blog, you know I've spoken about them before.
The three year project is Grado Zero, or Zero Degree, and opens a new chapter in La Biennale's aim to lead dance into the future. With performances, master classes and projects for young people, La Biennale hopes to attract dancers from all over the world. Sound ambitious? Well, with Ismael Ivo at the helm, anything is possible. He is an energetic speaker, brimming with tremendous energy -- he is a bit like Barack Obama, and not just because he's black -- Ismael was in my environment long before Barack, and his enthusiam is for dance, not politics:) I had the opportunity to speak to Ismael after the conference, and by the end of the conversation, we were hugging each other and saying, "Yes, we can!" From La Biennale website:
The 'Arsenale della Danza' pilot project
The project invites dancers to attend an intensive research workshop. A three-month program with daily sessions run by masters who will prepare attendees to implement ideas, images and visions of the performer's art. The project is aimed at candidates with a solid basic education, skills and experience, who wish to professionally improve themselves in contemporary dance. Auditions will take place on 13th and 14th March 2009. The Arsenale Dance project will run 30th March to 30th June 2009.
To go to La Biennale's website, please click here:
http://www.labiennale.org/en/dance/
Maurizio Scaparro, the Director of the Theater section of La Biennale was also in attendance, and I had the opportunity to speak with him, too. Back in November, I promised I would let you know about the Hollywood screening of his film, L'Ultimo Pulcinella. There was all sorts of uproar over here when Gomorra was not nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Well, I saw both L'Ultimo Pulcinella and Gomorra, and I thought L'Ultimo Pulcinella was riveting. I know that Gomorra has made it on to many critics "best" lists, but I am wondering if it's not more a matter of distribution.
In any event, those of you in Los Angeles will have the opportunity to judge for yourselves during
Los Angeles, Italia, a Film, Fashion and Art Fest taking place at the Manns Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood on February 15 to 21. When I left Hollywood back in 1998, the redevelopment was just starting; the last time I was there was in 2006, and it was completely transformed, yet still retained some of its decadent charm. In fact, Hollywood sort of reminds me of Venice, and guess who is one of the sponsors? The Casinò di Venezia! And the entire stew reminds me of Pulcinella, with light and dark, life and death, the union of opposites, the resurrection...
L'Ultimo Pulcinella, a film which also combines the elements of Art, Theater, Dance, Music and Architecture into a dramatic statement, is screening on Friday, February 20th at 9:45PM. Maurizio Scaparra will not be there because he will be here with us in Venice, since he is also the Director of La Biennale Theater, which opens that same night with Le Sorelle Bronte directed by David Livermore at the Goldoni Theatre -- you can judge by Maurizio's level of activity how much talent the man is packing. However, those of you in Hollywood will be treated to the star, Massimo Ranieri, in person, as well as enjoying his powerful performance in the film. Admission is free, and there are all sorts of other great films like Il Postino and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Los Angeles, Italia. Honoring Honoring the Italian Masters of Cinematic Art Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Gillo Pontecorvo and legendary Producer Franco Cristaldi. Special tributes to director Pupi Avati and showmen Christian De Sica and Massimo Ranieri. Tribute to ANTHONY MINGHELLA.
Click to go to the Los Angeles, Italia website:
http://www.losangelesitalia.com/
Ciao from Venice,
Cat
Venetian Cat - Venice Blog
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/
(Venice, Italy) The week before the high water was a time of enchantment here in Venice, and I am going to go back in time and highlight some of the adventures I had the pleasure to enjoy. There is a lot of talk in town these days about human development, and, to me, there is no better way to develop human beings than through art and culture. The theme of La Biennale's theatre section this year was Mediterraneo, and the Director, as mentioned before, was Maurizio Scaparro, the director of the film L'Ultimo Pulcinella, which will screen in Los Angeles in February.
That image you see is the amazing Greek soprano, Myrtò Papatanasiu, in Un Mare di Angeli, or A Sea of Angels, which premiered on November 29th at the Goldoni Theatre here in Venice. Myrtò performed Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata produced last year by Franco Zeffirelli and directed by Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, "a performance that earned the applause of audiences and critics alike," according to the notes from La Biennale.
The Fondazione Alda Fendi–Esperimenti produced the show, and Alda Fendi, one of the renowned Fendi sisters, was here herself. (At a press conference she wore a necklace made out of aviator sunglass lenses -- it was clever, and really worked.)
Cameras flashed inside the lobby of the Goldoni as the hip, glam audience flowed in the door--the younger Venetian aristocrats in town put in a strong appearance. Marco Loredan was one, and with three Doges in his family, you can't get much more noble than that! Marco also has a reputation as being one of Venice's greatest dancers, a fact to which I can personally attest:) There had been some discussion about what to wear to the show, and the guys set the tone by deciding on jackets and ties. A British journalist remarked to me later at the Caffè Florian that he found it quaint -- had it been in London, everyone would have dressed in jeans. Well, no one does "quaint" better than Venetian nobility of any age -- amusing, clever and refined, with a lagoon twist.
There is something magical about the Mediterranean Sea... there are long shafts of sunlight that beam past the surface and down to the depths. It really is like a sea of angels! It is difficult for Americans, perhaps, to appreciate how the Mediterranean Sea links vastly different cultures. Names like Libya, Lebanon, Algeria, and Bosnia sound exotic, existing in another universe and time. Perhaps it's time to look at the map:) You can see that Sicily is just a skip away from Tunisia, and that Spain is almost kissing Morocco.
Maurizio Scaparro joked that someone asked him if the diving image for this year's Biennale was that of Barack Obama.
From La Biennale:
"It is the Mediterranean that slips from island to island, the thousand islands of Greece and the Italian, Spanish and North African islands. It flows softly, or stealthily, along daring, imaginative, hospitable coasts. For centuries it has bathed and surrounded temples, amphitheatres, arenas, villas. ... It saw the gods of Hellas, the diaspora of the apostles of Christ, the Roman triremi, the arrival of the Barbarians, the silent work of the hermits in the monasteries high above the wave.
"A Sea of Angels: the sound of their wings lingers above the water. It comes from Crete, visits Constantinople during the siege of the Turks, sounds the hammers of Lord Elgin, who perpetrated the massacre of the Parthenon, touches the cheeks of the Empress Theodora and dances with Irene, Melina, Zorba and the fishermen of Piraeus. ..."
The performance was on Thanksgiving night, and I imagined myself in an audience of present-day angels. I loved the show, which incorporated film, music and images of airplanes that transformed into angels and flew gently around the theater. A lot of Italians said they did not understand it, especially since much of it was in Greek. I have no particular history with the Greeks, and with all the languages floating around this city, I can't understand half of what I hear with my ears anyway -- I usually depend on the language of the heart. From my point of view it was uplifting and beautiful. Everyone did agree that Myrtò Papatanasiu's voice was stunning, and she was given a round of applause when she entered the Caffè Florian with her entourage later in the evening. The difference between Myrtò in and out of costume was striking -- she's so natural and engaging off stage, it's hard to believe she could transform effortlessly into an Uber Vocal Chord Woman. We nibbled on hors d’oeuvres and sipped wine until about midnight.
The next day, much of the same crowd braved the rain for brunch over at the Guggenheim. I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked because I was having Thanksgiving dinner that night, and needed to fix the stuffing and the turkey -- which the host (who is a great cook) ended up preparing without me. Lesson: never put food in the house of a cook or they will cook it without you! And this year Antica Drogheria Mascari actually had imported cranberry sauce! Yay!
That was only ten days ago, and today there is violence in Greece. Today, December 8th, is the birthday of my protagonist, Harley Columba. It is also the day John Lennon was killed; the Feast of the Immaculate Conception; the day Buddha was enlightened; the Festival of the Egyptian goddess, Neith; and the birthday of Amaterasu, the Japanese Goddess of the Sun. It is the day that the United States declared war on Japan. Extreme negative, extreme positive energy all on one day. It may surprise some of you to learn that unlike John Lennon, I don't believe in peace on Earth -- but I do believe in harmony.
As I've said repeatedly, I try to avoid religion and politics, which is difficult if one lives in a place where the Arab, Christian and Jewish cultures converge -- not to mention the zesty ingredients the various countries and languages add to the mix. Difficult, also, when these themes run through many cultural events and conferences. A few evenings before, on November 23, I attended a bittersweet performance entitled Salonicco 43. This is from the La Biennale website:
Thessaloniki, also called the ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’ or the “mother of Israel, counted a population of 100,000 in 1939, 50,000 Jews, many of Italian origin and nationality, present in all the different social classes and perfectly integrated with the Greek population. Historian Albertos Nar remembers it as “the largest and most prosperous Sephardite Jewish community in Europe, and one of the most important in the world”. Of the 32 synagogues in the city, fourteen of which were built by people from Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, all that remains are faded old photographs…
During the terrible months of 1943, the Italian consul in Thessaloniki was Guelfo Zamboni, a Fascist functionary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who, in the face of the inhumanity of the Holocaust, began a personal, heroic battle to try and save as many lives as possible by providing forged Italian identity cards that would allow their possessors to reach Athens and save their lives.
His tenaciousness, his courage, his perseverance saved more than 500 Jews from Nazi barbarity, men, women, children who became the protagonists of our cultural project, and who transformed our Zamboni into a new Italian Schindler. In 1992 he was given the title of “righteous among the nations”.
The project "has received the High Patronage of the President of the [Italian] Republic for the high ethical value and for the originality of the themes it addresses."
To read the entire summary, go here:
http://www.labiennale.org/en/theatre/program/2008/en/79612.html
On Saturday, I read an article in the New York Times by Rabbi Menachem Froman that I liked: Because the Jews and Arabs are “so mixed up,” Rabbi Froman proposed the establishment of two countries without borders, or two states in one land. He envisages a shared Jerusalem where the Old City, containing the main sites sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews, is ex-territoria, a Jerusalem that houses the headquarters for international institutions. To read the entire article, go here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/world/middleeast/06froman.html?pagewanted=1
Sound impossible? Like John Lennon, I am a dreamer. Remember -- I live in Venice, where everything is possible.
Ciao from Venice,
Cat
http://venetiancat.blogspot.com/
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(Venice, Italy) Igor Stravinsky, the composer, is buried here in Venice on the Island of San Michele. Close to his tomb is the grave of Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Russian Ballet. Together they collaborated on the ballet, Pulcinella, which premiered in Paris on May 15, 1920, choreography and libretto by the dancer, Leonid Myasin; costumes and sets by the artist, Pablo Picasso. That ballet, Pulcinella, based on a stock character from the Commedia dell'arte, merged music, dance, theater, art and (in a way) architecture, in the form of set design.
The press conference presented the Dance portion of La Biennale, and two men I greatly admire were the speakers: Paolo Baratta, the President of La Biennale, and Ismael Ivo, the Director of the Dance. If you're a regular reader of Venetian Cat - Venice Blog, you know I've spoken about them before.
The three year project is Grado Zero, or Zero Degree, and opens a new chapter in La Biennale's aim to lead dance into the future. With performances, master classes and projects for young people, La Biennale hopes to attract dancers from all over the world. Sound ambitious? Well, with Ismael Ivo at the helm, anything is possible. He is an energetic speaker, brimming with tremendous energy -- he is a bit like Barack Obama, and not just because he's black -- Ismael was in my environment long before Barack, and his enthusiam is for dance, not politics:) I had the opportunity to speak to Ismael after the conference, and by the end of the conversation, we were hugging each other and saying, "Yes, we can!" From La Biennale website:
In any event, those of you in Los Angeles will have the opportunity to judge for yourselves during
