THE DANCE OF DEATH

by August Strindberg

translation and adaptation Roberto Alonge

with

director Luca Ronconi

stage design Marco Rossi

costume design Maurizio Galante

lighting design A.J. Weissbard

sound design Hubert Westkemper

production

in collaboration with Mittelfest 2014

technical manager Ottorino Neri

stage manager Angelo Ferro

assistant director Lisa Capaccioli

assistant stage manager Giulia Breno

assistant costume design Marta Rinaldi

assistant lighting design Pamela Cantatore

choreographic movements Gloria Giordano

prompter Enzo Giraldo

production Ilaria Pucci, Elisa Faletti

technical management coordinator Daniele Di Battista

technical secretaryship Silvia Preda

assistant technical manager Alessia Forcina, Giulia Chiapparelli

lighting supervisor Graziano Albertella

stagehand supervisor Paolo Zappelli

stagehands Andrea Becchetti, Fausto Pagliarola,Antonio Verde

lighting console Stefano De Vito Malin

chief electrician David Baldoni

electrician Marco Mosca

phonic Gup Alcaro

propmen Eleonora Briguori, Daniele Ricci

costume shop supervisor Chiara Crisolini Malatesta

seamstress Claudia Zampolini

costumes Farani Theatrical Costumeshop

shoes Pompei

make up and hairstyle Roberto Maria Paglialunga

scenography Scenography and Painting Laboratory of Festival of 2Worlds in Spoleto

person in charge Claudio Balducci

stagehand constructor Enrico Calabresi

scene painters Silvana Luti, Moreno Bizzarri

scenic items and props Scenography Laboratory "Bruno Colombo and Leonardo Ricchelli" of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan-Theater of Europe

props E. Rancati S.r.l.

pianos Angelo Fabbrini

audio/video service Opera 26 sas

lights Spanensemble, Luce E’ S.r.l Florence

transports GBANG S.r.l.

remote lighting control E.T.C. Italia www.etcconnect.com

Danza macabra by Strindberg is a renowned text, always interpreted by critics as an exemplum of married life which is a domestic hell, where there is confrontation and clash, between the satanic nature of the wife, Alice, and the vampy personality of the husband, the Captain, who tries to suck the life out of the second man, Kurt, who is psychologically fragile and submissive.

Actually it is a way of interpreting, sidetracked by the strong misogynist sensitivity of the Swedish author. However, with a more careful reading of the play, we acknowledge that, more simply, we are faced with the domestic hell of a couple which is not at all hellish. The story begins and ends on tones and timbres of measured marital friendliness. It is only when the third character, Kurt arrives, that the tension begins. The Captain and Alice are like a couple of actors, tranquil and relaxed when there is no audience, and suddenly excited by the presence of a spectator. Kurt’s arrival is an opportunity for both spouses to become animated and show off, identifying with their own character: the vampire for the Captain, and the diabolic female who seduces the shy Kurt for Alice. Kurt’s final flight brings the couple back to the starting point, to the calm existential routine. According to Ronconi, we are faced with a representation of a hellish but ridiculous story, which makes one curiously think of the Courtline’s vaudeville, Les Boulingrin, staged in 1898, a few years before the writing of The Death (1900), where the Boulingrin couple is triggered by the arrival of a guest who is visiting, upon whom the bourgeois couple’s tension is farcically projected.

With the staging of Strindberg’s Danza macabra, Luca Ronconi returns to the Festival of Two Worlds for the sixth time, an intense and invaluable collaboration desired by the artistic director Giorgio Ferrara as a sign of the extraordinary creative force which distinguishes the work of the great artist.

This pièce sees the Spoleto Festival and the Teatro Metastasio Stabile of Tuscany join forces and artistic ambitions once again in order to launch another major production, after the success of the last edition of The Homecoming by Harold Pinter, directed by Peter Stein and The Human Voice/The Beautiful Indifferent by Jean Cocteau, directed by Benoit Jacquot.

Born in 1933 in Sousse (Tunisia), he graduates from the Accademia d’Arte Drammatica of Rome in 1953 and makes his début as an actor in Tre quarti di luna under the direction of Luigi Squarzina. He is an actor in performances by Orazio Costa, Giorgio De Lullo and Michelangelo Antonioni, but in 1963 he starts working as a director with the Corrado Pani and Gianmaria Volontè company. It is the extraordinary and highly successful staging of Ariosto´s Orlando Furioso in 1969, with the adaptation elaborated by Edoardo Sanguineti, to bring him to International success. Over the years he has worked with several theater institutions: from 1975 to 1977 he is director of the Theater Section at the Venice Biennale, and between 1977 and 1979 he founds and directs the Theater Design Lab of Prato, where he stages Baccanti di Euripide and La torre by von Hofmannsthal. In the eighties, the fundamental stages of Ronconi’s work, regarded as unquestionable maximum points in the history of postwar Italian theate,r are: Ignorabimus by Holz (1986), Dialoghi delle carmelitane by Bernanos (1988) and Tre sorelle by Chekhov (1989).

From 1989 to 1994 he is director of the Teatro Stabile of Turin, in 1994 he is appointed director of the Teatro di Roma, and from 1999 to 2010 he becomes the artistic director of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, where he carries out many important events. He still runs the School for Actors of Milan. In 2002 he founds, with Roberta Carlotto, the Centro Teatrale Santacristina, production and training unit which he directs in the countryside structure created between Gubbio and Perugia. In 2006 he is invited to direct five performances in Turin, which constitute the "Progetto Domani", held on the occasion of the Winter Olympics.

As an opera director, besides the "classics" of Italian opera (Verdi, Bellini, Puccini, and especially Rossini) and European (Bizet and Wagner), Ronconi faces an interesting study on the uncommon areas of musical theater, like the great age of Italian Baroque (Rossi and Monteverdi) or contemporary opera productions, including Il caso Makropulos by Janácek and Il giro di vite by Britten. He also directed the television versions of some of his most important shows and he is exhibition curator.

Many shows have won prestigious prizes and acknowledgements, such as the VI Premio Europa per il Teatro di Taormina Arte (April 1998); the UBU Prize as the best show of their theatrical seasons for "Progetto sogno" in 2000, Lolita in 2001, Infinities in 2002, Professor Bernhardi in 2005, "Progetto Domani" in 2006 and, more recently, the National Critics Prize for "Progetto Lagarce" and the ETI Prize as best show for Sogno di una notte di mezza estate. In 2008. he was awarded by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei with the "Antonio Feltrinelli" Prize for Theater Direction and has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Bologna (1999), Perugia (2003), Urbino (2006) and Venice (2012).

Within the sphere of the Biennale Teatro Venice, in August 2012 he withdrew the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, while in March 2013, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, the Mayor of Milan gave him the Seal of the City.

During her theatrical career she has been directed, among others, by Strehler, Visconti, Ronconi, Harold Pinter, Susan Sontag, Alfredo Arias interpreting with recognized mastery great characters of classical and modern theater. She has inspired writers such as Ginzburg, Siciliano, Patroni Griffi, Cesare Musatti and Franca Valeri, who created unforgettable protagonists of our stages for her. For many years she has also been acting in French on Paris stages introducing some of her heroines with great success. She wrote two plays, Caro Professore and Alcool, which ran for more than 200 performances, and two novels published in France, Rue Ferou and Se souvenir et oublie. She has participated in over 60 films directed, among others, by Visconti, De Sica, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Bolognini, Brass, Giordana, Techiné and Bunuel. Her new role as singer has been demonstrated with Stramilano her city in nostalgia music, and Ja das Meer ist blau, poems and songs from Brecht and Weill, shows conceived by her. For her performances she has won the prize Ennio Flaiano, three Maschere d’oro, four Nastri d’argento, the David di Donatello, the Grolla d´oro, the Premio De Sica and the Ciak d’oro. In 2004 she became Grande Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana. In 2009 Robert Wilson directed her in Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. In 2011 she was awarded the title of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et de Lettres. In 2013 she starred in The Human Voice/The Beautiful Indifferent by Jean Cocteau, directed by Benoit Jacquot.

He was born in Rome.

He attended the graduate program in Humanities at the University La Sapienza and the acting course of the National Academy of Dramatic Arts "Silvio D´Amico".

He was assistant director to Luca Ronconi and Luchino Visconti, with whom he collaborated intensely.

For the RAI he directed the film L’uomo che ho ucciso from the novel 1912 +1 by Leonardo Sciascia, screenplay by Domenico Rafele, Pierre Dumayet and the series Avvocati by Giancarlo de Cataldo.

For the film industry he directed: Un cuore semplice, screenplay by Cesare Zavattini from the story by Gustave Flaubert, awarded with the David di Donatello, Premio Rizzoli, the Prix Saint Vincent and the Nastro d’argento; Caccia alla Vedova screenplay by Enrico Medioli from the Vedova Scaltra by Goldoni; Tosca e altre due from the play with the same name by Franca Valeri, screenplay by Enrico Medioli.

For the theater he has staged performances of classical and contemporary authors such as Pirandello, Strindberg, Goldoni, Carlo Bernari, Francesca Sanvitale, Enzo Siciliano, Franca Valeri, Cesare Musatti, Natalia Ginzburg and Corrado Augias.

For the Rome Opera House he staged Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini.

For the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto he staged: Gogo no eiko by Hanz Werner Henze; Amelia al Ballo by Gian Carlo Menotti; The Turn of the Screw by Benjanim Britten; The Piano Upstairs by John Weidman.

As an actor he participated in: Measure for Measure and Richard III by Shakespeare, directed by Luca Ronconi; Nina by André Roussin, directed by Bernard Murat; Alcohol written and directed by Adriana Asti; The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco, directed by Tullio Pericoli.

He was Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris and President of the Forum des Instituts Culturels Etrangers à Paris.

From 2008 to 2012 he was President and Artistic Director of the Foundation Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, of which today he covers the role of Artistic Director.

Giovanni Crippa debuts on the scene at twenty, in Equus by Peter Shaffer, directed by Marco Sciaccaluga .

He has worked with the major Italian directors, including De Lullo (Shakespeare´s Twelfth Night and The Three Sisters by Chekhov), Albertazzi (Le Cid by Corneille), Squarzina, De Fusco, Siciliano, Crivelli, Cappuccio, Andrée Ruth Shammah (I promessi sposi alla prova by Testori), the same Giovanni Testori (Filippo by Alfieri), Patroni Griffi (Uncle Vanya by Chekhov, the so-called Trilogy of the theater in the theater by Pirandello and Fior di pisello by Bourdet), Cherif, Maccarinelli (Electra and Orestes by Euripides), Stein (Medea by Euripides and Demons by Dostoevsky).

His first direction is The angel, from the poem by Loi in 1993.

Starting in 1995, he takes part in the major productions of the Teatro di Roma directed by Luca Ronconi, interpreting Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana by Gadda, Davila Roa by Baricco, I fratelli Karamazov by Dostoevsky, Questa sera si recita a soggetto by Pirandello, Alcesti di Samuele by Savinio. For the Theater of Genoa he starred in La centaura by Andreini and in Nora alla prova da "Casa di bambola". For the Turin Winter Olympics project designed by Ronconi, he took part in Troilus and Cressida and Lo specchio del diavolo. At the Piccolo, again directed by Ronconi, he was among the interpreters of La vita è sogno, Lolita, I due gemelli veneziani (UBU Prize as Best Supporting Actor), Candelaio, Prometeo incatenato, Baccanti, Rane, Peccato che fosse puttana, Professor Bernhardi, Il ventaglio, Inventato di sana pianta, Sogno di una notte di mezza estate, Il mercante di Venezia, La compagnia degli uomini. He also acted in I pretendenti by Lagarce, in Il gatto con gli stivali or rather, Una recita continuamente interrotta by Tieck/Tessitore, in Dettagli by Lars Norén, all three directed by Carmelo Rifici and in La cimice by Majakovsky, directed by Serena Sinigaglia. With his sister Maddalena, he played in Passione, from Passio Laetitiae et felicitatis by Giovanni Testori directed by Daniela Nicosia.

On the big screen he starred in State buoni se potete by Luigi Magni; on television he was the male lead in Manon, directed by Sandro Bolchi and in Cheri, directed by Muzii.

Marco Rossi was born in 1961 in Florence and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence at the school of Antonio Capuano. He worked as an assistant with the stage designer Maurizio Balò.

He designed the sets for shows by Luca Ronconi Amor nello specchio by G. B. Andreini (Ferrara, 2002), Peccato che fosse puttana by John Ford (Teatro Farnese of Parma, 2003, co-produced by the Piccolo Teatro and staged also at the Teatro Studio), Diario privato by Paul Léautaud (Teatro Argentina in Rome, 2005), I soldati by Jakob Lenz (Piccolo Teatro, Teatro Studio, 2005), Inventato di sana pianta, or rather, Gli affari del barone Laborde by H. Broch (Piccolo Teatro, Teatro Grassi, 2007, UBU prize for Best Set Design), Itaca by Botho Strauss and L’antro delle ninfe curated by M. Trevi (project "Odissea doppio ritorno", Teatro Comunale of Ferrara, September 2007), Giusto la fine del mondo, always by Jean-Luc Lagarce, directed by Luca Ronconi (Piccolo Teatro, Teatro Studio, 2009), La modestia by R. Spregelburd (Festival of Spoleto, Teatro Caio Melisso, June 2011), Il panico by R. Spregelburd (Piccolo Teatro, Teatro Strehler, 2013). In 2014 he created the scenes for Celestina laggiù vicino alle concerie in riva al fiume by Michel Garneau directed by Luca Ronconi at the PiccoloTeatro Strehler.

After having studied architecture at the University of Rome and attended the Academy of Costume and Fashion in Rome, Maurizio Galante works for the designer Roberto Capucci. He presented his first prêt-à-porter in Milan in 1986 under the name of "Maurizio Galante X Circolare". As of 1992 he presents his fashion collections in France participating in the calendar of the Parisian Haute Couture. He settled in Paris in 1996, and the following year he founded the brand "Maurizio Galante". In 2003, with Tal Lacman, he created the company Interware. As of 2008 he presents his collections of haute couture as an official member of the exclusive club of the "Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture". He takes part in numerous exhibitions and his works are widely present in the most important museums in the world. For the theater, he worked with Giorgio Ferrara for Mémoires by Goldoni at the Théâtre Montparnasse in Paris in 2006 and designed the costumes for the works he directed Gogo no eiko by Hans Werner Henze and Amelia al Ballo by Gian Carlo Menotti, which inaugurated the 2010 and 2011 editions of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. Rejecting all labels and the restrictive concept of "season", the creativity expressed by Maurizio Galante goes beyond fashion, in design as well as interior and exterior design. His work can be defined as a happy marriage of contrasts between sophisticated creativity and discretion, rigor and poetry, tradition and innovation. His creations, in the various sectors, solicit desire and dialogue and are designed with the intent to arouse new emotions.

He is an American Lighting designer and artist who has worked worldwide designing for theater, video,exhibitions, permanent architectural installations and special events. Among his long-term collaborations there are theater directors, including Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, Luca Ronconi, Daniele Abbado and Bernard Sobel; the film director Peter Greenaway; visual artists William Kentridge, Fabrizio Plessi, Vadim Fishkin and Shirin Neshat, and architects such as Gae Aulenti, Fabio Novembre, Pierluigi Cerri, Richard Gluckman and Matteo Thun. Among the places which have housed his creations, for theater, Lincoln Center New York, Los Angeles Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Paris Opera Garnier, Brussels Opera La Monnaie, Teatro Real Madrid, Epidaurous ancient theater, Schaubühne Berlin, Esplanade Singapore, Bunka Kaikan Tokyo; for exhibitions and multimedia installation Guggenheim New York/Bilbao, Royal Academy of London, Petit Palais Paris, Vitra Design Museum, Milan Triennale, Quirinale of Rome, Kunstindustrimuseum Copenhagen, Shanghai Art Museum, Aichi World Expo 2005, Milan Salone del Mobile, Venice Biennale, Bienal de Valencia, the Louvre and many more. Recently, he has created the lighting design for The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic at the Manchester International Festival, Orfeo and The Return of Ulysses at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the opera Eugene Onegin at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, the exhibition Retrospective Giorgio Armani, for Parsifal at the Los Angeles Opera, the Ukrainian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, Lady from the Sea at Dramatyczny Teatr, Warsaw and Quartett at the Théâtre Odéon in Paris; he also worked for the exhibition dedicated to Sebastiano del Piombo at Palazzo Venezia in Rome, The Fly at the Théâtre du Châtelet directed by David Cronenberg, Drifting and Tilting the Songs of Scott Walker, at the Barbican Theatre; directed by Luca Ronconi, he worked for opera and prose for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, prose by Rafael Spregulburd, and others; he has also worked at Il Tempo del Postino at the Theater Basel; at the Hugo Boss flagship store in the Meatpacking District, NY and the exhibit La Bella Italia, organized on the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary at the Venaria Reale. His installation with light regards, was presented at the Salone del Mobile 2006. He was the first to receive the IFSArts prize for Lighting Design in 2010. He is Resident lighting designer for Change Performing Arts in Milan, honorary vice-president of the Academy of Light, summer program director at the Watermill Center in New York and teaches at the Norwegian Theater Academy and the NABA in Milan. A.J. Weissbard is based in Rome.

He was born in Frankfurt in 1953 and graduated from the "Hochschule der Künste" in Berlin as a sound engineer, and since the early eighties, has been living and working in Italy, devoting most of his work to the sound design for theater productions.

He has worked with many Italian and international directors such as Luca Ronconi (collaboration began in 1986 with Ignorabimus), Robert Wilson (Come in under the shadow of this red rock by T.S. Eliot, Persephone and G.A. Story), Jerome Savary (Blimunda opera by Azio Corghi text by José Saramago, the Teatro alla Scala), Peter Stein (Tatyana opera by Azio Corghi ), Mario Martone (Operette morali and the movie Noi credevamo), composers such as Luciano Berio (Cronaca del luogo, Salzburg Festival), Luca Francesconi (Gesualdo considered as a murderer, Amsterdam), Fabio Vacchi (ll letto della Storia, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Director Barberio Corsetti), making his contribution to important institutions such as the Teatro alla Scala, the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, the Venice Biennale, the Festival of Spoleto, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Salzburg Festival and Holland Festival.

Founding member of AGON, he participated as a sound engineer in all the most important projects of the association.

In 2005 he won the Prize of the National Association of Drama Critics and the prestigious UBU Award for the sound design of the show Electra. In 2011 he was nominated for the David di Donatello for the original music of the film "Noi credevamo" by Mario Martone.

He has collaborated with RAI-Radio 3 and the Swiss Italian RadioTelevison (RTSI) for some radio plays performed partly in holofonic sound.

Since 2005 he has been teaching at the Academy of Brera - Department of Design and Applied Arts (Design of Sound Spaces) and collaborates with the Civica Scuola Paolo Grassi in Milan.