Sassoferrato – The appointment with the Teatro del Sentino, this year, is one not to be missed. What will open on December 17 is a prose season that promises to be exciting, intriguing and, as tradition dictates, in the name of quality. Organized by the municipal administration – always attentive to the promotion of culture and art, for which it invests skills and resources thanks also to the growing interest of the public – the season alternates exhilarating moments with more intense ones that lead to reflection, with an often aimed at current events. An edition, in which the Pro loco collaborates in the preparation, which presents six titles on the bill, five of which are subscription-based and one dedicated to the young public which will have the very young pupils of the Municipal Theater School as protagonists. On stage prominent artists of the national artistic panorama and beyond: from Cesare Bocci to Galatea Ranzi, from Tosca D’Aquino to Giampiero Ingrassia, from Enzo Iacchetti to Vittoria Belvedere, from Tiziana Foschi to Antonio Pisu, from Giancarlo Ratti to Piero Guarnera , from Annalena Lombardi to Mariella Guarnera, just to mention the best known.
The opening is entrusted to what is considered the queen and, at the same time, the most loved of operettas, The Merry Widow, an authentic masterpiece by the composer Franz Lehár. More than a century after its debut at the Theater An der Wien in Vienna, the romantic story, set in early 20th-century Paris, continues to captivate audiences with its lightness, hilarious misunderstandings and timeless themes related to love, money and power. On this occasion, Lehár’s creation is revived through an original reinterpretation by Mariella Guarnera who proposes a new and exclusive version while maintaining the elegance of the classical tradition. As a mezzo-soprano, Guarnera boasts thirty years of artistic activity which has seen her present in the seasons of the most important national and international theatres. The direction bears the signature of Edoardo Guarnera, a great tenor and multifaceted artist, who recently passed away, to whom the show is dedicated to honor his memory. Central figures of the operetta are Annalena Lombardi and Piero Guarnera. The latter, a baritone of high value, has a long and brilliant career behind him which has seen him perform constantly in prestigious Italian and foreign opera houses. Lombardi is a versatile and very talented artist: actress, singer, soprano, showgirl. In addition to the aforementioned performers, fifteen other excellent GuarnerBros artists will perform on the Sentino stage. Amusing diplomatic messes, sparkling circumstances and pleasant intrigues animate the whole story in which the melodies of Franz Lehár and others frame the show, entirely sung live.
The second appointment of the season, on January 24, is with an intense, exciting, engaging and extremely current performance – The Son – signed by the French writer, playwright and director Florian Zeller. The work of the Parisian author, nominated for six Molière awards, is part of a trilogy, The Father, The Mother and, precisely, The Son, whose texts are not connected to each other except by the number of characters and the human implications and social it develops. The direction, which bears the signature of Piero Maccarinelli, is also high-profile. The central protagonists of the representation are two great actors, intense, refined and highly appreciated by the public: Cesare Bocci and Galatea Ranzi. Alongside them are three other valuable performers, such as Giulio Pranno, Marta Gastini and Jacopo Angelini. After the success achieved by directing The Father, Maccarinelli “reprises” Zeller with this work that tells with acuteness and subtlety the generational misunderstandings, selfishness and lack of communication in the family of the young Nicola, around whose painful adolescence the story unfolds . «The plot is simple, especially at the beginning – writes Maccarinelli himself in the director’s notes – but not the texture of emotions, the desire to reveal what is often, too often hidden. The text is capable of conquering thanks not only to the beauty of the language, but to the capacity for introspection, the cross-references between one character and another, the manifestation of their weaknesses, their inability to understand themselves and others. Life in all its facets to plant a mirror in the hearts of all parents of a teenager. I don’t want to reveal the big twist of the ending that I hope will excite the audience».
On 21 February Tosca D’Aquino and Giampiero Ingrassia will stage Love and flavors in the kitchens of the Leopard, a funny and engaging comedy whose text is signed by Roberto Cavosi, directed by Nadia Baldi. Alongside the two protagonists, another great interpreter, Giancarlo Ratti. The cast is completed by three excellent actors: Tommaso D’Alia, Rossella Pugliese and Francesco Godina. What happens in the kitchens of Palazzo Ponteleone while the famous dance narrated by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s famous novel The Leopard is being held in the luxurious halls above? It is easy to say: the courses fly, the cooks fight, they throw pans, but, above all, unthinkable, cruel and wonderful loves are revealed, seasoned with all those holy and profane scents typical of Sicilian cuisine. Teresa, the cook, in her youth was the favorite prostitute of none other than Don Fabrizio Salina, the Leopard. Theirs was a love as intense as impossible that set fire to an entire summer. But it’s been twenty years since they’ve seen her and she’s waiting for him, hoping he’ll at least say hello, while her soul keeps an unmentionable secret. A story set in the second half of the 19th century that unfolds between succulent quarrels, blackmail, irony, sarcasm and humour, through the clash between Teresa and the other cook, Monsù Gaston. One envious of the other, they are not satisfied with competing in preparing the best dishes, but also want to have the exclusive attention of Don Fabrizio. A text in which dishes and feelings mix artfully in that kaleidoscopic world of languor and eroticism, of passion and causticity typical of the “deep” south.
A recital dedicated to laughter, but also to “amarcord”, entitled Face another face, will be staged on 11 March. To put in her… face, tough and sincere as always, Tiziana Foschi, who, through a brilliant performance, represents the faces of various characters, often singular, sometimes funny or strange, that the Roman actress has met along the way of his career and his life, from the beginning with the famous quartet “Premiata Ditta” until today. Actress with an overflowing comic vis, but also versatile and intense – just think of the masterful dramatic interpretation performed in April Fools next to Cesare Bocci – Foschi returns to the Sentino Theater with the “complicity” on stage of a solid shoulder, that of Antonio Pisu, actor, director and screenwriter of great artistic sensitivity. Both sign the text of the show, directed by Pisu himself. It is Foschi herself who explains the meaning of this theatrical work of hers: «People, human typologies that I have seen pass (but also remain) in many years of this profession. Faces that amplify themselves on stage, become grotesque just to elicit a laugh, and in the audience everyone recognizes the neighbor, the newsagent, the office colleague, the mother-in-law, but never himself. It’s the age-old game of parody: turning people into characters and everyday situations into what’s worth telling. My faces are projections of realism, they are contemporary faces, which tell the story of current events, but also cynical and polite dream faces. This show tries to unleash a laugh, stimulate a thought, arouse a memory… it seeks a new face to show».
The subscription show season will close on 19 April with two great artists, multifaceted, brilliant, masters of the stage: Enzo Iacchetti and Vittoria Belvedere, protagonists of a splendid comedy, Blocked by the snow, which bears the signature of the British playwright Peter Quilter, directed by Enrico Maria Lamanna. The text of the show is very recent, having been written in 2020 during the first lockdown. Blocked by the snow is a brilliant comedy whose theme is the coexistence of people who are different, both in terms of character and in their way of conceiving the world and life, in a borderline situation of extreme necessity. Patrick is a middle-aged man who lives alone in a country cottage. He loves being alone and over the years has developed a kind of misanthropy. One day, however, during a violent snowstorm, his peace is disturbed. Judith, a woman who lives in the nearby village, knocks on her door asking for bread and eggs. It is entirely covered in snow. Patrick, annoyed with her, pleases her, hoping that Judith will leave soon. Unfortunately for him, things get complicated. The snowstorm becomes even more violent and a police statement warns all the inhabitants of the area not to go outside and to barricade themselves indoors. The two are thus forced to have to live in that forced quarantine. Two strong characters constantly compared, twenty-four hours a day. Will Patrick and Judith be able to find common ground, even though they belong to completely different worlds? Will they become friends, despite everything, even after the snowstorm is over?
The subscription campaign has already started. Info: Municipality of Sassoferrato – tel. 0732/956222-231 – cell. 377/1203522 – fax 0732/956234, e-mail: info@comune.sassoferrato.an.it – web: www.comune.sassoferrato.an.it , “Teatro” area.
Teatro del Sentino Sassoferrato, here is the new prose season – Radio Gold