9:00 p.m. Traditional / Ecological / Experimental / Spiritual

Felina: Parco Tegge

Operapaese: Uomini e donne dell’Appennino reggiano
Pierluigi Tedeschi, Banda di Felina, Icarus Ensemble, Giorgio Battistelli

An extraordinary occasion: a world premiere opera created by one of Italy’s greatest composers, Giorgio Battistelli, known and acclaimed internationally. This opera is not only set in the Reggiano Apennines but makes the territory itself the protagonist, with its people, professions, and history. Battistelli will conclude the festival Storie dell’Appennino, conceived by Icarus Ensemble—one of the most acclaimed groups for exploring and promoting contemporary music—within the framework of L’Uomo che cammina, the annual event by the Municipality of Castelnovo Monti that explores the relationship between humans, the environment, and the sacred.

“The artisans,” Battistelli explains, “all participate in a total performance with their hands, their bodies, and their faces lined with wrinkles, worn by time and work. They produce a ‘sweated’ music born of labor, intended to represent the passage of time. With this work, I want to evoke the ancestral sounds of our culture, already rare and disappearing: a world that is still evaporating, slowly and inexorably. This opera expresses my intention to protect a world in extinction. I am not referring only to artisanal professions, but above all to the anthropological aspect of their activity—the specific way the bodies of artisans age. The wisdom of their hands differs from contemporary knowledge, which is more theoretical, shaped by the rationalization of the relationship between hand and material. These aspects are not interchangeable; indeed, they are diametrically opposed. I wanted to preserve those ancient faces, those hard hands.”