Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda opens the Dance Week of the CCN/Aterballetto.
Fonderia – Thursday, November 6 at 11:00 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The theme of love overwhelmed by war and death — inspired by the story of Tancredi and Clorinda from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata (whose first draft celebrates its 450th anniversary in 2025) and set to music by Claudio Monteverdi (1624) — retains a striking contemporary relevance. The CCN/Aterballetto reinterprets this legacy through dance, its privileged language for conveying the intensity and drama of the work, in a performance conceived by Fabio Cherstich and Philippe Kratz, featuring dancers Alessia Giacomelli and Kiran Gezels, tenor Raffaele Giordani, and harpsichordist Francesco Luigi Trivisano.
The performance is preceded and followed by contributions from Antonio Audino, theatre critic and journalist for RadioRai3, who, with his signature clarity, will cast a contemporary light on these “sacred texts” of Italian cultural heritage.
The 11:00 a.m. performance is dedicated to upper secondary school students.
APERITIF AT LA FONDERIA
From 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., enjoy a tasting of local wines and products, in collaboration with the Mercato Campagna Amica del Tricolore.
https://youtu.be/mjZQdcn1fgc
Direction and visual: Fabio Cherstich
Choreography and stage movement: Philippe Kratz
Music: Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Claudio Monteverdi
Dancers: Alessia Giacomelli, Kiran Gezels
Singer: Raffaele Giordani
Harpsichord: Francesco Luigi TrivisanoCo-production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza / Aterballetto, Teatro Regio di Parma / Festival Verdi, Torinodanza Festival – Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Ghislierimusica – Centro di Musica Antica
Born in September 2024, Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is a project aimed at enhancing live performing arts within museums and cultural sites, promoted by the Direzione Generale Musei and co-funded by the Direzione Generale Spettacolo.
For its realization, the Musei Nazionali di Perugia – Direzione Regionale Musei Nazionali Umbria — and in particular the Museo Archeologico Nazionale e Teatro Romano di Spoleto — established, with the support of the Direzione Generale Musei, a partnership shared with five other major cultural venues: Villa Pisani in Stra, Castello e Parco di Racconigi, Castello Svevo in Bari, Certosa di San Martino in Naples, and the Parco Archeologico di Venosa. Later, Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome joined the initiative, hosting it as part of the 2024 summer festival Sotto l’angelo di Castello.
The project is part of Italia Danza, a co-designed initiative by the Direzione Generale per la Diplomazia Pubblica e Culturale del MAECI and the CCN/Aterballetto, aimed at promoting Italy’s artistic heritage abroad.
In my vision of Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, I imagine a confined, circular space where proximity and the resemblance of bodies play a fundamental role. Together with choreographer Philippe Kratz, we explore the idea of bodies as mirrors, telling the story of a humanity at war with itself. Eros and Thanatos emerge as equally powerful forces, creating a paradoxical atmosphere within this perfectly balanced struggle between human beings. In our interpretation, Tancredi and Clorinda are contemporary warriors, bound to one another inextricably, compelled to fight and to relive a story already written.
A single voice gives life to three characters — the text itself, Tancredi, and Clorinda — merging within the body and sound of one singer. This estranged voice, bound to a circular path, evokes a sense of constant repetition, underscoring the endless cycle of this story of love and death — a story destined, tragically, to repeat itself through the centuries and reach us still, carrying all its force as an emanation of Tasso’s poetic power and Monteverdi’s sublime music.
Fabio Cherstich, Director
In Tasso’s tale, set to music by Claudio Monteverdi, the most obvious themes are the struggle between woman and man and religious conversion — yet these are also the aspects I find least compelling. Transposed into dance, they would risk becoming a mere narrative of circumstances.
A more philosophical or psychoanalytic reading of this struggle — from which both protagonists emerge defeated, deceived, and alone — feels far more engaging to me. Within the opposition of the two roles lies an entire world: the seeking, confronting, and wounding of one another. The dynamic is that of a ritual, a warlike confrontation between two entities drawing closer. The absurdity of the act is revealed when one of them loses their life, and we realize that the other has not won either… a powerful, shared wound that remains imprinted on both bodies. So, are these two people fighting each other — or a single person fighting against themselves?
Philippe Kratz, Choreographer
TICKETS
3 euro
TICKET PURCHASE
- ONLINE: https://www.biglietteriafonderia39.it/home.aspx
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FONDERIA BOX OFFICE: the box office opens one hour before the start of the performance (via della Costituzione 39, Reggio Emilia).
Seats are unassigned.
CONTACTS FOR RESERVATIONS
Mobile e whatsapp +39 3341023554
