concept and direction: Agata Castellucci, Teodora Castellucci, Vito Matera

with: Agata Castellucci, Teodora Castellucci, Alberto Galluzzi, Trevor Louw, Francesca Siracusa

original music: Demetrio Castellucci

choreography: Agata Castellucci, Teodora Castellucci

dramaturgy, light and set design: Vito Matera

costume design: Dewey Dell, Guoda Jaruševičiūtė

soprano vocals: Benedetta Zanotto

set realization: Laboratorio scenografia Pesaro - Lidia Trecento

Organisation: Valeria Fărîmă

production: Dewey Dell

co-production: CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia, FOG Triennale Milano Performing Arts Festival, Teatro della Tosse Genova / Rassegna Resistere e Creare, Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Teatro Alighieri / Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazioni

in collaboration with: AMAT e Civitanova Danza per RAM – Residenze Artistiche Marchigiane, progetto promosso da MiC e Regione Marche, Centrale Fies_centro di ricerca per le pratiche performative contemporanee

with the support of Teatro Stabile dell’Umbria, Masque Teatro, Societas / Teatro Comandini

thanks to: Alessandro De Giovanni, Scott Wright, Emanuele Dattilo, Andrea Marcon

duration: 60'

A city is burning and the shimmering flames are reflected on the surface of the sea lapping against the shore. From where we stand the flares and waves blend together and the sky magnifies the light of the fire.

We collect the ashes and trace the stories of bodies swept up by streams of clouds and fire. We find a love story carved by the fury of the elements. We recognize the face of the exiled Queen of Carthage and the figure of the Trojan refugee Aeneas.

The direct confrontation with Henry Purcell’s Baroque masterpiece “Dido and Aeneas” - one of the finest and most luminous interpretations of the Latin tragedy - has inspired an electroacoustic recomposition of the entire score; the libretto’s words, which evoke natural phenomena such as storms, clouds, and lava, nourish and sustain the work’s choreography and stagecraft.

The sky and the human body are the same entity.
Every cataclysm holds within itself a serene raw power, and the potential to tear apart, overthrow, and radically transform everything.

Ph. by Pier Paolo Zimmermann