“ORPHEE” INAUGUARATES THE 25TH EDITION OF ROMA-EUROPA FESTIVAL Music and Vision September 25

“ORPHEE” INAUGUARATES THE 25TH EDITION OF ROMA-EUROPA FESTIVAL
Giuseppe Pennisi


The RomaEuropa Festival is 25 years old. When it first started, few believed that it would survive that long because the Italian audience had the reputation of being rather conservative and, thus, hardly opened to a festival which tried to marry modern and classical music with ballet and electronics. More surprisingly , the Festival was headed by a not so young former politician – now 92 years old – who after several Ministerial posts had became the head of a major insurance company but has always had the flair for modern paintings and contemporary music. Next to him a young French lady with experience in performing arts organization and a lot of connections in her native country France, Initially, the Festival was mostly an Italian-French affair. It gradually broadened its horizons; e.g. it was the first music initiative to bring to Italy an opera with Peter Sellars ‘ stage direction.

This year , the Festival lasts from September 21st to December 2nd and offers 35 different shows (some with two or three performances). It is financed mostly by local authorities and several private enterprises, including banks and high tech firms. It operates in several theatres and auditorium both in the city centre and in the suburbs. A reason for its success is that it practices a low prices policy and attracts young people.

The 2010 edition was inaugurated with Orphée by José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu, a modern version of an opéra-ballet with music borrowed from Monteverdi, Gluck and Glass (as far as I could gathered on the September 21st opening night), performed by a cellist and a tiorba player (as well as sang by professional singers) but mixed with recorded modern rhythm. It is a modern Rive Gauche Orphée ; a band of happy-go-lucky youngsters, including the poet and his girl friend-wife, have marvelous time in today’s Paris – huge projections and a Svoboda’s “magic lantern” effects provide the right atmosphere. But Eurydice dies ,just as the myth goes, and her lover travel to hell (a very grey Paris) to bring her back. On the return trip to Paris, the young man turns to make sure she is with him and, of course, she dies again and forever. Back in the Rive Gauche, Orphée joins sexy “boys only” clubs until the Furies eat him alive because they are responsible to punish all crimes against the rules of the society. The one Act “opera-ballet” lasts 75 minutes . A long tour is planned in France, Luxemburg, Belgium and (next January) Italy. No doubt, the dancing is very attractive as well as acrobatic. The singing is entrusted to two sopranos (Sabine Novel, Soanny Fay), a tenor- cellist (Sébastien Obrecht) , two basses (Blaise Kouakou, Merlin Nyakam), a marvelous counter-tenor (Théophile Alexandre). The tiorba player is Folent Marie. An interesting and pleasant approach to the myth which may encourage the audience to go and listen the “real things” by Monteverdi and Gluck.

Just a few words of some of the other items of the Festival. For electronic music and electro-acustics lovers, there Sensoralia and Visual Concert. For those who prefer contemporary “high” music, Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments with Dawn Upshaw under Peter Sellars’ stage direction. For more traditional audience Shostakovic ‘ seldom performed Leningrad mammoth symphony. In short, electronics prevail but there also an eye to the more conservative audience.