Iliade. “Il gioco degli dei.” : the meetings

The making of a new production is like a voyage in which one chooses the crew, the boat, the course on which to proceed and, when everything is ready, the rehearsals begin. Then, at the premiere, you hoist the sails and sail into the open sea. Iliad. “The Play of the Gods” will set sail from the Donizetti Theater on December 12 as a tribute to Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023 and, after a week in our theater, will sail the seas of several Italian theaters on a long tour. On the occasion of this production in which we are the protagonists, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti has decided to offer the public and students a number of appointments that, from different points of view, shed light on different aspects of the great Homeric poem and prepare them for the vision. The protagonists of these meetings are teachers working in Bergamo schools, with the intention of enhancing the many skills present in our area. At the end of the course, an appointment with the company’s directors and actors will be offered to explore the work done, starting precisely from the choice of the text and the poetics behind its realization.

Iliade. “Il gioco degli dei.” : the exhibition

Exhibition of projects, sketches and drawings
curated by Clelia Epis

December 9-18, 2023 – Donizetti Studio

Every play is made through the intertwined work of different artistic skills, this is even more evident in Iliade. “Il gioco degli dei.”, where the visual dimension is of great importance. With this exhibition we want to give back to the audience the behind-the-scenes work, showing sketches and drawings of the scenes by Massimo Troncanetti, the costumes by Francesco Esposito, and, above all, the creative work for the creation of the creatures and props Alberto
Favretto, Marta Montevecchi, Raquel Silva. Of the latter in particular we will also show the initial research phase, the first sketches, then abandoned for solutions more suitable for the performance, up to the solutions that will be seen on stage. “Iliad sings of a world in which a competitive ideology and the ethics of success leave no room for humanity and justice, men decide nothing but are acted upon by the gods in a terrible war with neither winners nor losers. Conscience and choice are not (yet) things for humans: their civilization will have to wait until the age of Tragedy to know personal responsibility and the full weight of freedom from those gods who are the cause of everything but are not to blame for anything. In that archaic world dominated by force, inescapable fate and capricious gods, it is not difficult to mirror ourselves and recognize our own, our lives dominated by destructive forces that are above and within us and beyond control, in their eternal flight beyond the aspirations of men. There are all the seeds of the decline of our West in Iliad, which, however, also contains those of conscience, responsibility and choice.”

Roberto Aldorasi

The exhibition will be open on the following days and times:

• Saturday, December 9, 3-7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, December 10, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, December 11 CLOSED
• Tuesday, Dec. 12 to Saturday, Dec. 16, 3 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Dec. 17, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Monday, December 18, 3-8:30 p.m.