Pizzi and Idomeneo

After more than half a century, the opera returns to Ancona.

"Idomeneo is a challenge for any theatre and for the reopening of Le Muse it was worth finding a particularly rare, demanding and beautiful opera", says Pier Luigi Pizzi, the well-known Milanese producer-scenographer-costume designer.
In fact, Mozart's masterpiece is not seen much at all on the international stages and not for nothing are requests coming in from Germany to buy tickets for the performance which will make its debut on the 6 November this year.
Pizzi is staging it for the first time in his fifty year career begun alongside Giorgio Strehler. The dominant theme of the scenery which he divulges some information to us on is the sea, the same sea that almost laps the main door of Le Muse.
"We are dealing with an important, extraordinarily engaging and modern opera - says the director - in the solitude of its characters in a desperate struggle against destiny and, yet, with a profound hope of finding a way out of the dramatic event. Searching for a glimmer of hope to build our future on is a problem which each of us faces every day. In Idomeneo the destiny of a kingdom is at stake. Idomeneo is king of Crete, an island surrounded by sea. Because of a rash promise, this king finds himself in the inevitable situation of having to sacrifice his son Idamante's life to the god Neptune. From this point on, one of those extraordinary and marvellous conflicts typical of Greek mythology begins, where examples of great courage are to be found in dealing with situations with no human solutions close at hand, with dismay and emptiness created all around. Out of this conflict comes a sublime opera, with sublime music and the most beautiful choruses ever written for the opera.

With as much modesty and enthusiasm as I can, I will try to convey all of this to the public with that clarity and directness that great dramas require. Faced with such splendour you cannot lose yourself in useless details, pleonasms or commonplaces. You need to get to the heart of things with the aid of Mozart's music, find the right images so that the opera is viewed in the most moving way and opens the heart of the audience for that wonderful uplifting feeling the music asks of us. It is extremely difficult to translate the aesthetics into a moment of great emotion".

How do you imagine the staging to be in the framework of Le Muse?

"I visited the theatre when it was not yet finished. It seemed really beautiful to me, quite solid and reassuring in its structure. I am now waiting to see it finished as my theatre is of a visual kind, relying on the impressions of an audience seated in the stalls, who watch the scene where at a certain moment something will happen and the ritual of the theatre, each time so ancient and so new, will be accomplished,. I need to have a direct, sensual and physical rapport with the room the performance is in".

Which idea are you working on?

"Finding the key to the interpretation to give shape to the images of Idomeneo has been extremely difficult for me. Among the many possibilities, I dwelt on the idea of the sea, the nearest to a city such as Ancona and the whole event of the opera. I still have to check the technology which will back up my work at Le Muse, but I do already know, for example, that the ship which carries Electra and Idamante away from the island of Crete will be swallowed by a monster who does not forgive those who break the rules of the gods. We will see the ship right from the beginning, firstly being built in the shipyard, then when it sets sail and finally being swallowed by the waves. The characters' only hope is to throw themselves into a sea which could prove to be an enemy, an infernal trap, or hiding place for the monsters who may devour them. Luckily, this sea calms at the end and the play finds the answer which I am not going to recall even if many people do know it. In the same way, I don't want to give further definition to a project which is still in progress. In any case, I would not divulge all the images involved, convinced as I am of the pleasure of surprise when the audience seated in the theatre sees the curtain go up and a ritual revealing the producer and scenographer's thoughts begin. Not forgetting that the involvement must create a strong emotion right in that instant. I believe that this is the only meaning for a theatre which we love and believe in".

Does the fact that the restoration works are not yet finished cause you any problems?

"The obstacles we come across here will, I believe, be nothing but stimulating, just like every time you begin a great venture. The opening of a new theatre is already emotional as it is. In the meantime it is an act of faith at a time where everything seems to be unsettled, right from our own faith. The news surrounding the world of theatre, the dejection of the cultural operators are such to make us believe that there will be neither a future nor space for culture. Instead we are stubborn and we want this space to be there in every way possible and against all odds. It is a way of bearing witness to so many years of commitment. I have been doing this job for fifty years with the same enthusiasm as the day I started. In moments of darkness, uncertainty and confusion we are always looking for a serious place to bolster our hopes and our uncertainties. We would not do this job if we were not full of those doubts. It is only thanks to administrators and operators like those in Ancona that we artists have the opportunity to continue our work at the highest level".

Even though you have worked at the Rossini Opera Festival for twenty years, you have never staged Idomeneo in the Marche. Why?

"I have never staged this Mozart opera even outside Marche. Only once was I asked to do so in Salzburg, the year before the death of Karajan. In that case too, after having studied the opera, I had come up with a project based on the idea of the sea being the dominant feature. I was also allowed to cover the theatre stages with water where only Idomeneo would have been shown. Then unfortunately there were three performances scheduled for that room and it was technically impossible to deal with drying the stage and then another flood. Because I didn't want to give up on the idea of the water, the performance was cancelled. This does not mean that I will flood the stage at Le Muse: there is no sea in Salzburg, here though we will open a window onto the sea", the maestro concludes enigmatically.