13 november 2021
at 19.30

Impurissima Foemina

THE STORY OF Caterina Medici, burned alive as a famous witch in MilanO  

SOUND FRESCO FOR seven performer musicians

WORLD PREMIÈRE

Freely reworked music by Giorgio Battistelli, Guillaume de Machaut, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Francesco Filidei, Lou Harrison, Lorenzo Pagliei, Henry Purcell, Gabriella Schiavone

Percussion, stage action Ars Ludi: Antonio Caggiano, Rodolfo Rossi, Gianluca Ruggeri

Voices, stage action Faraualla: Loredana Savino, Gabriella Schiavone, Maristella Schiavone, Teresa Vallarella 

Lighting design Cesare Accetta

Concept  Rodolfo Rossi e Gabriella Schiavone

Musical dramaturgy adviser Sonia Bergamasco

Prelude by Guido Barbieri

An Ars Ludi and Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio production

Impurissima_foemina

“Caterina Medici turns to the Devil in moments of great weariness and despair. She invokes him to take her away to his kingdom that scorns that other, in which she also believes but of which she finds no sign, no answer, no glimmer of grace in her sorrowful life.”
Leonardo Sciascia, La strega e il capitano (The Witch and the Captain)

The voice and the percussion are living fossils, they are body and sound in the primordial state. Impurissima foemina is a concert in which, through music and stage actions, in a delicate balance between the language of popular tradition and the contemporary one, Ars Ludi and Faraualla blend the original sounds of their repertoire to tell a story of great emotional strength and extraordinary relevance, dedicated to the live of Caterina Medici, who was tried and declared a witch, and burned in the square in Milano in 1617.

“The difference between a servant and a queen,” we read in a note by Guido Barbieri, “is sometimes contained in a detail.  For example, Caterina Medici was missing a simple de between her name and surname.  And so, instead of ascending to the French throne like her illustrious namesake, she had to endure a life of hardship, humiliation and servitude, until her death at the stake under the infamous accusation of being a witch.”