Artistic direction
Daniele Cipriani
Music consultancy
Gastón Fournier-Facio
Piano
Beatrice Rana and Massimo Spada
Cello
Ludovica Rana
Choreographer
Uwe Scholz, Simone Repele and Sasha Riva
Acting voice
Ettore Volontieri
Music by
Sergej Rachmaninoff
Texts edited by Gastón Fournier-Facio
Italian version of Simonetta Allder
Lighting designer
Alessandro Caso
Scenic director
Luis Ernesto Donas
“I am myself only in music. Music is enough for a lifetime,
but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
S. Rachmaninoff
Soirée Rachmaninoff is a performance conceived by Daniele Cipriani with musical advice from Gastόn Fournier-Facio to pay tribute to Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), whose 150th birth anniversary and 80th death anniversary are being celebrated worldwide this year.
The performance will feature one of the world’s most sought-after pianists, Beatrice Rana. Together with her, pianist Massimo Spada and cellist Ludovica Rana will perform some of the Russian composer’s best-loved preludes and sonatas in dialogue with the dancers on stage; also on stage will be Ettore F. Volontieri – former Director General of the Rachmaninoff Foundation at Villa Senar in Switzerland – who will recount firsthand memories and anecdotes from Rachmaninoff’s life and career. The program opens with a reproduction of a historic recording of the Prelude in C sharp minor Op. 3 No. 2 in Rachmaninoff’s own performance; the composer was particularly fond of this Prelude; it is one of his earliest and most successful compositions, fully expressing his musical thinking. This is followed by Vocalise in C sharp minor Op. 34 No. 14, performed by the Rana sisters, and the Prelude in D major Op. 23 No. 4 performed by Massimo Spada. These solo moments will be joined by others in which the musicians will interpret Rachmaninoff’s pieces in dialogue with the dancers on stage. The choreography of Uwe Scholz Sonata – on the Andante from the Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor Op. 19, and Trio – on the Andantino, from Suite No. 2 for 2 Pianos Op. 17 – will then be performed with dancers Rachele Buriassi (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens), Esnel Ramos (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, formerly National Ballet of Cuba) and Oleksii Potiomkin (formerly Kyiv Opera House). To follow, world premiere choreography At the end of the world, on the Symphonic Dances Op. 45, by choreographers/dancers Sasha Riva and Simone Repele, who will also be performers alongside Yumi Aizawa (formerly Grand Théâtre de Genève), Parvaneh Scharafali (formerly Nederlands Dans Theater), Riccardo Ciarpella, Luca Curreli, Francesco Curatolo, Chiara Dal Borgo, Giulia Pizzuto, and Chiara Ranca.
Comments Daniele Cipriani: “Hovering over Soirée Rachmaninoff is a deep sense of love, romantic love, for family, for one’s country, for nature… But above all for music. A love that hovers, sweet and poignant at the same time, from Rachmaninoff’s words and notes, performed by the three wonderful musicians on stage, elaborated by the sensitivity of three exceptional choreographers and caught on the fly by the dancers. This, then, is our tribute: to evoke the figure of Rachmaninoff and make his music visible, realizing – the artists all and myself are convinced – his dream.”
