MEDIATHEK

A spectacular multimedial opera, that is freely inspired by the classical opera by Claudio Monteverdi. In this Ballo, the voluptuous world of sixteenth century musical theatre is only a starting point, the interdisciplinary and technological transfiguration uses analogical (body, voice, instruments) and virtual (video, light, electronic music) vocabuli.

The work re-examines themes that were contemporary in 1608, when the original opera by Monteverdi and Ottavio Rinuccini first staged the Ball of the Ingrates, in Mantova. Renzini confronts it with our contemporary reality and interprets it in this light, without forgetting the marvellous and sensual worlds of Barbara Strozzi or Luzzasco Luzzaschi, as well as the "Women’s Concerto" that revolutionized Italian profane music in the late sixteenth century

At the heart of the matter, is marriage, and its refusal by a feminine type that resonates perpetually throughout history (literary or not): the ingrate, the unconventional woman that is not prepared to give of herself unconditionally. The ingrate refuses to tie herself to another person believing it is the only way to preserve her individuality. She resists and never gives in. Amazon, old maid, shrew, emancipated, free and impossible, an indomitable goddess, both talented and discomforting, attractive and feared, the Ingrate finds herself in conflict with the way femininity is classically represented. She distances herself from the literary world and immerses herself in the contradictions of a concrete present, rendering the musical repertory as well as the performance profoundly contemporary. While audacious and ironic, the adaptation is never disrespectful of its classical material. The ingrate's condition addresses gender issues in an existential manner. While Monteverdi's ingrate audaciously affronts a solo, the performance reaches out beyond its repertory breaking through the conventions of musical theatre. This contemporary, multimedia approach, gives rise to an “open” show in which the relationship between spectator and event are progressively blurred. Lights, images and video work will bring forth a scene whose various elements: music, dance, words, images and sound, coexist in an original and non- hierarchical composition.