Notte Morricone
direction, choreography: Marcos Morau
music: Ennio Morricone
musical direction and arrangement: Maurizio Billi
sound design: Alex Roser Vatiche, Ben Meerwein
text: Carmina S. Belda
set and light design: Marc Salicru
costume design: Silvia Delegneau
choreographer’s assistants: Shay Partush, Marina Rodriguez
production: Fondazione Nazionale della Danza – Aterballetto
co-production: Macerata Opera Festival, Teatro di Roma, Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Centro Servizi Culturali Santa Chiara Trento, Centro Teatrale Bresciano, Ravenna Festival|Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
duration: 70’
premiere: Macerata Opera Festival, 2024
“I, Ennio Morricone, am dead”, wrote the composer before bidding farewell. His music, on the other hand, cannot. And so it is that creators and artists always leave us without leaving us, and so it is that memory ensures that they are kept alive, kept safe. “Notte Morricone” is my gift, a devout tribute to the beauty he gave to the world. Morricone could be my father, or my grandfather, I am a direct heir to his legacy, of the films that (whether masterpieces, good, mediocre, or bad) owe him an immeasurable debt. Before delving into his music, the whistling of his tunes was already a recurring sound in my life. I am the son of parents who grew up with his “Once Upon a Time in America” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. I, among many other things, grew up with his melodies playing in the living room of my home. He may not have known it, but his music was not only the music for those films, it was also the soundtrack of our childhood. Ennio put his creativity, his inspiration, his heterodoxy at the service of the "dream factory", embedding those sounds in our memory, becoming a classic, the embodiment of the intellectual composer, the popular musician, almost a rock star. And it is in that generous act of creating and sharing beauty with us that my imagined world of Morricone begins to take shape. It is not just about working with his music, much less explaining it, since he has already said everything there is to say; it is about composing a new melody that runs parallel to the presence of his music in our lives. “Notte Morricone” unfolds in the twilight of an ordinary night in the life of a creator, who — alone and dazed in front of his sheets — takes notes and visualizes melodies for films that do not yet exist, bringing stories back to life in the rarefied air of his room. The night will be full of visitors, some musicians, who will respond to his creative call to record his fleeting ideas in a makeshift recording studio. And there, among the sheets and musical notes, a boy will appear, the one who wanted to be a doctor, the tireless chess player, the one who knew he would never play the trumpet like Chet Baker because fate had reserved a better place just for him, a place that would make him an icon for all eternity. And the night will continue to advance, turning his home in a recording studio, in the duality of his free mind and his mind that is creating music for films that would become the music of a century, turning his home into a cinema, where visitors of all kinds will come to watch his films and spend the night with him. And every night will be a new opportunity to bring the dreams of all the musicians, the children, the lovers and lone cinema-goers to life. Morricone's music gave sound the things that are left unsaid, those that remain inside. Disassociating his music from the films is a complex and almost suicidal job, but I know that today he would be very happy to know that his music could be emancipated from the cinema and live tonight in a theater.
Marcos Morau
Recently appointed Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and selected as the best choreographer of last year by the German magazine TANZ, Marcos Morau's (Valencia 1982) career continues to flourish as a creator and stage director. Trained between Barcelona and New York in photography, choreography, theater theory and dramaturgy, Morau constructs imaginary worlds and landscapes in which image, text, movement, music, and space constitute a unique universe that constantly draws inspiration from cinema, photography and literature. Since 2004, Morau has directed La Veronal, a company present in leading theaters and festivals in more than thirty countries: from the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris to the Venice Biennale, from the Avignon Festival to Tanz Im August in Berlin, from the RomaEuropa Festival to the SIDance Festival in Seoul, from Sadler's Wells in London to Danse Danse Montreal, or Oriente Occidente to Belgrade Dance Festival (“Siena” and “Pasionaria”)... In addition to his work with La Veronal, Morau is an international guest artist in various companies and theaters where he develops new creations, always at the crossroads between performing arts and dance: Nederlands Dans Theater, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Royal Danish Ballet, and The Royal Ballet of Flanders, among others. Being the youngest creator to have received the National Dance Award, the highest recognition in Spain, Morau and La Veronal seek a future of new formats and languages in which opera, dance, and physical theater are in closer dialogue than ever, seeking new ways to express and communicate in our turbulent and ever-evolving present time. Already two seasons, he is an associate artist at the Staatsballett Berlin.
The historic Aterballetto company was established in 1977, became the National Foundation for Dance in 2003, and the first National Choreographic Center in Italy in 2022 by appointment of the Ministry of Culture. It is a place for creating, welcoming and conceiving, encompassing all aspects of contemporary dance and its connection to other art forms. Situated in Reggio Emilia, the headquarters of the National Choreographic Centre is housed in the Fonderia, an industrial space dating back to the early twentieth century. By promoting dance, CCN/Aterballetto stimulates connections between the art form and other areas of contemporary society, seeing dance as an opportunity for personal and social growth and offering unique experiences to the public. Today, the company comprises sixteen dancers for full seasons, who principally work on new productions by internationally recognized choreographers, as well as selected repertoire of works by Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Hofesh Shechter, Crystal Pite... CCN/Aterballetto is also dedicated to innovative and wide-reaching artistic development. Today, the focus of CCN/Aterballetto is trained on the plurality of styles and research into new digital technologies, always striving to be cosmopolitan, curious and dynamic. Its productions are much sought-after among the most important theatres and festivals in Italy and around the world, and was presented at the Belgrade Dance Festival several times.
Morau's visual treatment is so brilliant, so strangely vivid, that we find ourselves involved in what also turns out to be a story of transmission and emancipation.
© Le Monde
Morau, one of the most interesting young choreographers on the contemporary scene.
© El País
