The first part of the show will be dedicated to a now classic choreography by Angelin Preljocaj, Annonciation. Created in 1995 to music by Vivaldi and Stéphane Roy, Annonciation tells, through the confrontation between the two interpreters, the story of the announcement and confrontation between the angel Gabriel and the virgin Mary. An event that, Preljocaj notes, is among those most depicted in two millennia of figurative art, but has been addressed very rarely, if ever, in the choreographic one: “the intrusion of the angel into the intimate universe of Mary brings with it an upheaval. This is why, regardless of the texts that show Mary accepting with serenity the submission to events, many artists have instead attributed to her a different attitude, seeing in her doubts, restlessness and even rebellion. This strange simultaneity of submission and revolt, this deflagration of space and time, make us understand that the moment the message is announced, the biological process of fertilization begins. And, in fact, we are in the true act of conception. This genesis for successive steps brings us back to the very mechanism of artistic creation, at the moment when the message from virtual is transformed into real.' On stage as soloists four dancers of the Corpo di ballo del Teatro Massimo: Annamaria Margozzi and Linda Messina (Maria) and Francesca Bellone and Yuriko Nishihara (The Angel). Scenes of Preljocaj himself, costumes by Nathalie Sanson, lights by Jacques Chatelet.
Siciliana also takes its own from the figurative art: for this choreography, created for the Corps de ballet of the Teatro Massimo commissioned by the Foundation, the choreographers Mattia Russo and Antonio de Rosa di Kor'sia, on a dramaturgy by Giuseppe Dagostino, were inspired by the stuccoes of Giacomo Serpotta, and in particular the Or At night the statues that decorate the Oratory come to life: they dance, parade, launch themselves on the run of trays of cannoli, but they also relive the moment of Caravaggio's theft. On stage the Corps de ballo del Teatro Massimo, and the music by Arvo Pärt, Franz von Suppé, Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij and Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the Orchestra of the Theater conducted by Tommaso Ussardi and the Choir conducted by Piero Monti. Scenes by Christian Lanni, costumes by Adrián Bernal, lights by Salvatore Spataro.
Antonio de Rosa and Mattia Russo, together with Giuseppe Dagostino, are KOR'SIA, a collective that arises from the need to communicate through the body, to make itself visible as creators and interpreters. The three founders are united by the urgency to explore a language, that of the body, which transcends the limits of the verbal one. In their creations they combine elements from various artistic fields, such as films, photography, literature and sculpture, essential reference points for elaborating new means of expression.
A tour guide and some tourists enter the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, one of Giacomo Serpotta's masterpieces. The altarpiece Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence by Caravaggio was stolen in 1969, a hi-tech replica is now placed inside the oratory.As soon as the tourists leave the oratory, the statues come alive: some play football, others converse on the notes of the Kyrie from the Berliner Messe by Arvo Pärt. The characters leave their niches and parade in the oratory (Light Cavalry overture by Franz von Suppé), then dance all together (Tchaikovsky's Italian Capriccio). A nun enters the scene and starts cleaning the statues: immediately all come to a standstill, but then they start playing tricks. Eventually the nun dances with them (Sicilienne from the Concert for organ BWV 596 by Johann Sebastian Bach), but when she kisses a statue the sound of an alarm frightens her. Left alone, the characters of Serpotta continue to dance to the notes of popular music, then they transform the oratory into a disco; but the party atmosphere is interrupted by a shot. A mocking funeral procession follows, but again despair turns into a feast (Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Yevgeny Onegin). It's time for everyone to return to their place, a new day begins.