Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale presents the 2023-2024 Season.

Emilia Romagna ERT Theater / National Theatre presents the 2023-2024 Season.

«There is a magnetic bond between theater and the world. The programming of a theater institution can only be the seismograph that makes the tensions between these two poles perceptible" writes Valter Malosti, director of ERT, presenting the artistic lines/concept of Season 23-24. «The stage - like the garden or the square - is thought of as the intermediate and manifest point of what acts between the infinitely large of the cosmos and the infinitely small of the earth: the sharing of a sensation of pure amazement, which knows finally take care of the things of the world.
Bowie's verse “Turn and face the Strange” called us to have the courage to turn around, to face the unknown and face unknown, different, unexpected paths. Now it is time to amplify our ability to look at the complexity that surrounds us, in this land devastated by man in which at the same time we witness the disappearance of the idea of ​​the human or of the human as such. Seeing deeply, inside reality, has always been the task of the theatre.

“Innovation is a way of thinking. We need to look beyond what we already know.". Or to put it with Paul B. Preciado in Disphoria Mundi “[…] change the questions to find new answers. Imagining is already acting. Claiming the imagination as a force for political transformation already means starting to change.". It is necessary to find within ourselves a posture that gives us the strength to go further, to imagine for the umpteenth time in our history “a new heaven and a new earth”. Put an end to the old world. Tracing and retracing a new boundary between heaven and earth, moving it further, and going beyond it, making sure that heaven and earth become communicating."

#NuovoCieloNuovaTerra is the 23/24 Season of Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale which covers 5 cities (Modena, Castelfranco Emilia, Vignola, Bologna and Cesena) and 8 theater halls: a project that welcomes a vast plurality of languages, styles , cultures and generations, confirming ERT's great commitment to the production and co-production of shows in synergy with a dense network of artists, theaters and institutions, to multiply research opportunities around the contemporary scene. From the big names of Italian theater to the masters of the international scene, up to the emerging realities in Italy and in the surrounding area.

«We come from a path in which, also for 2023, the second year of the three-year period 2022-24, the Ministry of Culture confirmed the relevance of ERT for the quality of artistic production and programming and the constant commitment in the exercise of its public function , certifying it as the first National Theater in terms of scores" declares the president Giuliano Barbolini «as well as for Carne, the ERT dance review, which received the first score among the 57 festivals and exhibitions. We are naturally proud of these results, also the result of the synergies with members, bodies, institutions, associative and cultural realities of the territories in which we operate and of the Region as a whole, as well as of the intense relationship with the school and the vast public, confirmed by the wide participation to the 2022-2023 Season, which recorded a clear increase in attendance compared to the pre-Covid period. Just as the virtuous collaborations with the member municipalities and owners of our theaters are crucial, which, by virtue of mutual commitments, see the opening of a new dedicated hall in the former AMCM urban regeneration sector in Modena, the resumption of complete activity of the modernized Dadà Theatre, and the completion, in compliance with deadlines, of the energy efficiency works with PNRR funds on the Storchi, Arena del Sole and Bonci Theatres. And, from this perspective, I am pleased to point out that, as regards the season of the Teatro Fabbri in Vignola, which has so far remained highly in doubt due to the complexity of the well-known factors, there are positive developments which, once fully acquired, will soon allow us to announce the confirmation of the season also in that reality. Another exciting adventure therefore begins with new challenges both in the relationship with our public and the realities we live in, and on the national and international horizon."

THE NEW THEATER OF THE PASSIONS
In the 2023/2024 season ERT / National Theater returns to inhabit the New Passion Theater after three years of closure. In fact, the construction work on the small hall has been completed, with a modular grandstand that can accommodate up to 140 seats, designed to host shows, site-specific projects, rehearsals of artists and companies and advanced training courses of the Iolanda Gazzerro Theater School. of ERT. In the summer, a further cycle of works also began in the Ex-Amcm sector for the construction of a second 236-seat hall.

«We give back to the city – underlines the mayor Gian Carlo Muzzarelli – a regenerated area not only from an urban planning point of view, but also from a cultural and social point of view thanks to the precious intervention of ERT. And with the second part of the intervention, also financed with Pnrr resources, the redevelopment of an industrial building is completed which, together with the open laboratory and the summer Supercinema, will characterize the Creativity Park".

«A place of the soul, of our city – writes the councilor for Culture, Youth Policies, University City Andrea Bortolamasi – An identity trait of our city community. Talking about ERT means talking about Modena: ERT has a distinctive characteristic, that of being a National Theater but rooted in several places in the same region, therefore it was born from an alliance between cities, from cooperation and collaboration, terms in this era of selfishness and individualism now forgotten but which still have a profound meaning for us: the season that opens brings us back, intact, the vitality and cultural liveliness of ERT, as a place for ideas, discussion and sharing. Not a simple theater but a public agora, a space of citizenship, of elaboration, of thought. A path, that of ERT, which has its roots in our city and which we want to further strengthen: the redevelopment of the Storchi Theatre, the new small hall of the Passions, the start of the construction site of the new Theater of the Passions are precise choices, of a strategy which aims to strengthen and further entrench the presence and role of ERT in Modena. However, investments are not enough, we need an overall design of the city that sees culture and its languages ​​as central [...]».

THE ERT A SEASON MODENA
39 shows of which 15 productions, 9 co-productions, 15 hospitality and, among these, 4 world premieres and 1 national debut on stage from October to May at the Storchi Theater and in the small hall of the Nuovo Teatro delle Passioni.
On October 2, the Storchi Theater opens with a special and unmissable event: Umberto Orsini plays Luchino. Visconti according to Testori, a biography-story between cinema and theater of the meeting between two protagonists of twentieth-century culture, who Orsini met at important junctures in his artistic trajectory. The artist's fee will be donated to the Teatro di Lugo and the proceeds of the evening to the Agency for Territorial Security and Civil Protection of Emilia-Romagna for the "Alluvione Emilia-Romagna" fundraiser.

Among the big Italian and international names produced by ERT, Nanni Moretti in his theatrical directorial debut with Diari d'amore by Natalia Ginzburg starring Valerio Binasco and Daria Deflorian; the long-awaited return of Pascal Rambert, one of the most important playwrights on the European scene, with the national premiere of Mon absente; Valter Malosti directing Antony and Cleopatra, also starring alongside Anna Della Rosa; Federico Tiezzi who directs Phaedra, the great classic by Jean Racine, starring Elena Ghiaurov.

To inaugurate the programme, a focus dedicated to Giovanni Testori on the centenary of his birth, with three events: in addition to the aforementioned Luchino by Umberto Orsini, the project Maddalene (from Giotto to Bacon) by and with Valter Malosti, Lamberto Curtoni on the cello and the original music by Carlo Boccadoro; and Sandro Lombardi with his ideal handover to Anna Della Rosa of Erodiàs + Mater strangosciàs, taken from Tre Lai.
The 23/24 billboard includes various productions in comparison with William Shakespeare, including the aforementioned Antony and Cleopatra by Valter Malosti; The Tempest by the visionary director Alessandro Serra; the world premiere of Romeo and Juliet – stay light in the jump by Roberto Latini; The Merchant of Venice with Franco Branciaroli in the protagonist role of Shylock. And also Teatro dei Venti which together with the inmate-actors brings Julius Caesar and the debut of Hamlet to the stage; and Civil Ballet which is inspired by the work of the English playwright in two different physical theater works, Hamlet Puppet and Nothing from King Lear.

Many others are the personalities of the Italian scene loved by the general public: the Golden Lions Rezza/Mastrella with Hýbris; Lella Costa and Gabriele Vacis with Puppet Heart from Collodi's masterpiece; Neri Marcoré in The Good News by Fabrizio De André; the Tony Award Stefano Massini with The Interpretation of Dreams; and Natalino Balasso who guides the students of the Higher Education course of the Iolanda Gazzerro School in The Comic Machine; and Paolo Pierobon – actor in Marco Bellocchio's latest film – directed by Carmelo Rifici in De Gasperi: Europe burns.
And again, Mario Perrotta with Come una specie di vertigo, a tribute to Italo Calvino on the occasion of the centenary of his birth; Massimiliano Civica with Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, starring Roberto Abbiati and Monica Demuru; Ermanna Montanari in Madre, with the dramaturgy of Marco Martinelli and live drawings by Stefano Ricci and music by Daniele Roccato; and the Italian-Australian company Cuocolo Bosetti / IRAA Theater with the traveling site-specific performance Teatro.

There are three shows dedicated to Italian political history: in addition to De Gasperi: Europe is burning by Rifici, Giacomo. An intervention of dramatic art in the political sphere, a project by Elena Cotugno and Gianpiero Borgia on Giacomo Matteotti; If there was light by Francesca Garolla dedicated to the Moro case and the years of terrorism.
ERT's support for new drama is also confirmed: the author and actress Matilde Vigna presents The Last Daughter – site specific by 3KW in Modena, the preview of her latest show Chi Resta, premiered in Bologna; the playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi brings to the stage his new text How to become rich and famous from one moment to the next; Angela Ruozzi returns to ERT theaters with 4000 miles by Amy Herzog; and the Kepler-452 company which continues the tour after the success at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels with Capital – a book we haven't read yet, featuring the workers of the GKN factory.

The How you have to imagine me project, dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini and conceived by Valter Malosti and the scholar Giovanni Agosti, also stops in Modena with the Ubu award-winning director Fabio Condemi directing Calderàn, a show produced within the international network “Prospero” and which will tour in 2024 in Madrid and Lisbon; Orgy with Gabriele Portoghese and Federica Rosellini; Porcile by Nanni Garella / Art and Health and Michela Lucenti / Civil Ballet; and Davidson by Maurizio Camilli with the very young performer Confident Frank. Also inspired by Pasolini is the original work by Filippo Timi, on stage with the musicians Rodrigo D'Erasmo and Mario Conte in Scopate sentimentali – exercises in disappearance.

Carne also resumes, the focus on physical dramaturgy curated by the choreographer and associated artist Michela Lucenti, now in its second edition, recognized by the Ministry of Culture with the highest score among the 57 festivals and exhibitions and awarded with the highest contribution among the 17 reviews. Among international artists, Italian masters, emerging talents and local projects, the following will be on stage in Modena: Balletto Civile / Michela Lucenti with Nothing, Hamlet Puppet and Davidson; the Compagnia Abbondanza Bertoni with Death and the Maiden; Chiara Taviani with How to perfectly hide – first study; and Fathers. Hearth project, a work born from the collaboration of three very young artists under 20 who met thanks to the workshops in the Balletto Civile area.

The ERT program will be enriched by shows for families and activities dedicated to schools, which will be presented on Tuesday 19 September at the Storchi Theater during the meetings open to teachers (17.00 pm). On the same day at 19.00 pm the director Valter Malosti will meet the citizens to present the entire 23/24 season.

THE SHOWS – STORCHI THEATER
Opening the season of the Storchi Theater on October 2nd is Umberto Orsini with a special evening: Luchino. Visconti according to Testori, the first appointment within the focus that ERT dedicates to Giovanni Testori in the centenary year of his birth. After the Milanese premiere last May, Orsini plays Luchino, the biography written by Giovanni Testori rediscovered by his heirs and published by Feltrinelli in 2022. A story, between cinema and theatre, of the meeting between two protagonists of twentieth-century culture, which actor crossed important junctures in his artistic trajectory. Umberto Orsini will donate his fee to the Lugo Theater while the proceeds of the evening will be donated to the Agency for Territorial Security and Civil Protection of Emilia-Romagna for the "Alluvione Emilia-Romagna" fundraiser.
To attend the show it will be possible to choose between three types of donation: €10, €15, €20 per ticket.

It continues on November 2 with the Italian-Australian company Cuocolo Bosetti / IRAA Theater presenting Teatro, an immersive site-specific performance for the first time and produced by ERT. Just as Exhibition – set up by ERT at the Civic Museum of Modena in 2022 – was designed for large museums, Teatro is a moving installation designed for traditional theater buildings. Spectators, equipped with radio guides, will be invited to move around the Storchi Theater to discover the hidden spaces usually invisible to the public, in a journey in which collective history and private memories, reality and fiction converge. After the debut, the performance returns to the stage from November 14th to December 17th.

The long-awaited theatrical directorial debut of Nanni Moretti is scheduled for 8 to 12 November. For his Diari d'amore he chose two one-act plays by Natalia Ginzburg, Fragola e panna and Dialogo. For Moretti, the writer's "theatre of chatter" manages to put us in front of a clear mirror, showing us our inadequacy and apathy which too often makes us inert spectators in the face of the complexities of life. With sarcasm and irony, the characters talk about marriage, fidelity, motherhood and friendship, questioning the values ​​and customs dear to bourgeois society. Among the performers, Valerio Binasco and Daria Deflorian. An ERT co-production with Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Nazionale, Carnezzeria Srls, LAC Lugano, Châteauvallon-Liberté scène nationale, TNP Théâtre National Populaire de Villeurbanne, La Criée – Théâtre National de Marseille, Maison de la Culture of Amiens.

After her directorial debut with Una riga nera al piano di sopra produced by ERT, Matilde Vigna, born in 1988, two Ubu Awards in 2016 and 2019, returns to collaborate with the Foundation on the occasion of her latest work, Chi resta (in the first absolute from November 28th to December 10th at the Arena del Sole), premiered from November 11th to 19th in a special version, L'ultimodaughter – site-specific 3KW, set up specifically for the Ridotto spaces. A delicate work which, starting from the loss of the mother, investigates the loneliness of a generation, that of those who today are just under 40 years old and have no children. Matilde Vigna and Anna Zanetti present the show as a dialogue between two different worlds, to talk about the responsibilities that emerge and a pain that devours and takes us back to childhood.
The texts of Una riga nera al piano di sopra and L'ultimodaughter will be published in the Linea series published by ERT and Luca Sossella.

Hýbris, the latest creation by Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella, unique artists, will be on stage on 18 and 19 November «for crazy and lucid genius» as stated in the motivation for the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement received in 2018 in Venice. Authors of a new language, which they define as "involuntary communication", a combination of figurative art and dramaturgy inimitable in the contemporary theatrical panorama, start here from some questions: how can empty things be filled? Is it possible that the void is just a point of view? A disruptive show that investigates the relationship between nature and culture through what Antonin Artaud defined as "the body without organs", giving the audience those bitter-tasting laughter typical of Rezza/Mastrella.

As part of Carne, Hamlet Puppet returns to the stage on 24 and 25 November, a ballad performance born from the meeting between the choreographer Michela Lucenti, the guitarist Paolo Spaccamonti, the director Giorgina Pi and the composer Valerio Vigliar. Combining video images, music, singing, acting and dance, Hamlet's events are addressed through the gaze of his father's ghost, to question the meaning of being heirs. When the Specter arrives he is like a devil, who from his radio podium describes the horrendous betrayal in fragments of monologue transformed into the refrains of a dark Nick Cave record.

From 30 November to 3 December the Storchi Theater welcomes the return to ERT of Alessandro Serra, a director with a visionary style who, after the success of Macbettu, once again compares himself with Shakespeare in The Tempest, a tribute to the irreplaceable strength of the theatre, in which a company of comedians evoke worlds on the border between reality and imagination. ERT is among the co-producers together with Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Teatro di Roma – Teatro Nazionale, Sardegna Teatro, Festival d'Avignon, MA scène nationale – Pays de Montbéliard.

On the centenary of the birth of Italo Calvino, the 2022 Ubu award for best text/dramaturgical writing for Dei Figlio Mario Perrotta pays homage to the great Italian writer with Come una specie di vertigo. Il Nano, Calvino, liberty on stage on 15 and 16 December. Produced by ERT and Permàr – Compagnia Mario Perrotta, the show retraces the autobiographical novel The day of a scrutineer and the character of the Dwarf, to whom Calvino dedicated only one page, albeit a memorable one. Perrotta attempts to give voice to some questions about freedom and self-determination which constantly run through all of Calvino's masterpieces.

We then continue with the first show of the project How must you imagine me, created by the director of ERT Valter Malosti and the scholar Giovanni Agosti and which last season presented the entire corpus of the six tragedies of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Davidson, also part of Carne, will be on stage in the Storchi Ridotto from 19 to 21 December. Freely based on the screenplay of Pasolini's Il Padre Selvaggio, the show tells the story of the conflict between the two protagonists, the teacher and Davidson, who is wary of the new teacher's method and culture. In his work in the area, on the occasion of the 10 Di / Versi project. Contemporary madrigals which took place in Modena in autumn 2021, Balletto Civile met its “Davidson”: a talented young performer, Confident Frank, here joined by Maurizio Camilli of Balletto Civile. An ERT and Civil Ballet production.

The actor, comedian and author of theatre, cinema, books and television Natalino Balasso takes care of the Higher Acting Training course Text, body, voice of the Iolanda Gazzerro Theater School of ERT, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Emilia-Romagna Region. Romagna. From September until December 2023, Balasso guides students in the study of the mechanisms of prose comic theatre, from a dramaturgical and stage action point of view. On the occasion of New Year's Eve, December 31st, the Storchi Theater hosts the final evening entitled The Comic Machine (ERT production) with Balasso himself, the actress Marta Cortellazzo Wiel and the course participants on stage. In the previous days, from 27 to 30 December, at the Teatro delle Passioni four different days of "construction site" open to the public, entrusted to the students, in the name of laughter.

Valter Malosti directs Antony and Cleopatra, a show which sees him interpret with Anna Della Rosa the two overwhelming protagonists of the tragedy written by William Shakespeare between 1607 and 1608, and which debuts at the Storchi Theater in Modena from 10 to 14 January. An ERT production with Fondazione Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Bellini, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano, Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura.
Politically incorrect and dangerously vital, to the mysterious and furious rhythm of an Egyptian bacchanal, the two lovers go beyond reason and the games of politics. Inimitable and incomparable, not even death can contain them.
«Of Antony and Cleopatra – says Malosti – my generation has above all imprinted in its memory the image, bordering on kitsch, of the Hollywood couple Richard Burton – Liz Taylor. But on this disenchanted and mysterious work, which mixes the tragic, the comic, the sacred and the grotesque, on this wonderful philosophical and mystical (and alchemical) poem that sanctifies eros, that plays with high and low, written in verses that are among the highest and most evocative of all of Shakespeare's works. For more than one scholar, the shadow of our great philosopher Giordano Bruno hovers, demonstrating their profound complexity: a theater of the mind that demands a new heaven and a new earth ».

Antony and Cleopatra, as the poet, translator and teacher of English literature Gilberto Sacerdoti suggests, is an optical prism:«Seen from the front it is the story of love and politics narrated by Plutarch. Seen obliquely, it pushes us to decipher "the infinite book of nature's secrets".

On January 21st it's the turn of Nothing as part of Carne. In the hands of Michela Lucenti and Balletto Civile, Shakespeare's King Lear is transformed into a choreographic dramaturgy capable of inserting itself like a wedge into the folds of reality, a duel between body and word, movement and scenic space. The title evokes the "Nothing" pronounced by Cordelia, the word that begins the destruction of the known and that opens the doors to the new, to the subversive, to an order that was not pre-established.
Nothing is a profound reflection on the possibility of starting over by denying the power of the fathers and the legacy that remains in order to find a dialogue, to let the present become the new classic.

The national premiere of Mon absente is expected on 27 and 28 January, the new text by Pascal Rambert, 2016 Académie Française Theater Prize winner and one of the most acclaimed European playwrights, close to ERT since the production of the Italian version of Clôture of love. After Répétition, Architecture (with which he inaugurated the Avignon Festival in 2019 and guest at VIE Festival in 2020) and Sorelle, Rambert returns to Modena with a show on emptiness and absence. Around a coffin strewn with flowers, family and friends of a woman who is no longer with us gather. Memories and words flow through the tears, keeping the living together, for better or for worse. From the void of loss a portrait slowly emerges. In this scenario of pain and contemplation, eleven people of different generations are confronted with the mystery of death. An international co-production of ERT in synergy with Châteauvallon-Liberté, scène nationale, TNS – Théâtre National de Strasbourg, ExtraPôle Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur*, La Criée-Théâtre National de Marseille, Théâtre Gymnase-Bernardine, Théâtre National de Nice).

The death and the girl of the Abbondanza/Bertoni Company scheduled for February 3 continues the plot drawn by Carne in the Modena season. The show is made up of three moments: a musical one - the homonymous quartet in D minor - a physical one - to investigate the human being and his dynamics - and a spiritual and philosophical one, which looks at the mystery of the end.
To the notes of Franz Schubert and the text of the Lied by Matthias Claudius, Michele Abbondanza and Antonella Bertoni construct a choreography in which young female figures find themselves on a dark border between sexuality and death. These two aspects are entrusted to the level of dance (the girl) and video (death), in a mix of languages.

Five years after the theatrical version made in Milano at the Strehler Theatre, Stefano Massini, Tony Award for Lehman Trilogy as best text in 2022, resumes his work on The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud from 8 to 11 February, to which he also dedicated the successful novel The Interpreter of Dreams, published by Mondadori and already translated into multiple languages.
To the notes of Enrico Fink and the scene of Marco Rossi, a mosaic of characters takes shape who, narrating their dreams, rendered into images by Walter Sardonini and illuminated by Alfredo Piras, compose a symphony of possible interpretations, in which the public recognizes itself and finds itself .

In February, two other installations produced by ERT as part of the Come devi imaginermi project: from the 13th to the 18th the Ridotto dello Storchi hosts Orgia with Federica Rosellini and Gabriele Portoghese. The two talented actors bring to the stage an original reading of the work in verse, in a dimension of experimentation, pleasure and curiosity towards this text, staged for the first time in 1968 in Turin, the only one of the tragedies with directed by Pasolini.
At the Storchi Theatre, however, on 17 and 18 February Calderàn (an ERT and LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura production) will be staged, directed by Fabio Condemi, Ubu Prize 2021. The artist compares himself with Pasolini's labyrinthine work , inspired by the masterpiece of the seventeenth-century author Pedro Caldòn de la Barca, Life is a dream. But the context is radically different: we are in Franco's Spain of the 60s, amidst revolutionary turmoil and logics of power that seem to leave no other space for freedom than in the dreams or paintings of Diego Velázquez. A reflection on our being in history. The show is created within the international project “Prospero Extended Theatre”, thanks to the support of the “Creative Europe” program of the European Union and will be on tour at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid on 24 and 25 February, at the Teatro São Luiz in Lisbon on March 1st and 2nd.

Filippo Timi will be on stage on 22nd and 23rd February with Sentimental Scopate – disappearance exercises, a show inspired by the spirit and style of Pasolini, whose idea was born from a call from the singer-songwriter Vasco Brondi as artistic director of the review “A desperate vitality – Conversations with Pier Paolo Pasolini” held in Mantua in May 2022. The piece is composed of the original texts written and performed by Timi, who is accompanied on stage by the musicians Rodrigo D'Erasmo (composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist) and Mario Conte (electronic music experimenter).

Alcide De Gasperi, anti-fascist and imprisoned for two years in Regina Coeli, took on the full weight of Italian fascist history in order to be able to ferry it towards other possibilities and to be able to redeem it. The show De Gasperi: Europe is burning (from 29 February to 3 March) by Angela Demattè, starring Paolo Pierobon – actor in the role of Pope Pius IX in Marco Bellocchio's latest film work, Rapito, in competition for the Palme d 'Oro 2023 – directed by Carmelo Rifici, delves into this fragment of Italian history from the perspective of the life of the man/statesman in relationship with his collaborators and with his intimate life. Stature and complexity, lights and shadows of a man from another era who totally adheres to his political task so much so that he no longer sees the boundaries between himself and the nation, so much so that he takes on the burden of it, then inevitably becoming its creator and victim.

On 15 and 16 March it is the turn of Puppet Heart: the actress Lella Costa and the director Gabriele Vacis together tackle the great classic by Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio. Story of a puppet, which turns 140 this year. With their usual style, they analyse, break down and recompose history to look for the profound themes that make it universal and paradigmatic, thus offering us numerous keys to understanding our daily life, starting from the lies, which today we call fake news, up to all the shades of lying.

On 28 and 29 March Neri Marcorè brings La Buona Novella, the album by Fabrizio De André published in 1970, to life on the Storchi stage. After the success of Questo che non ho, Marcorè and the playwright and director Giorgio Gallione renew their artistic partnership in the name of the great Genoese singer-songwriter: not just a concert but an original show, sung and acted by a company of actors, singers and musicians who immerse themselves in De André's work as if in a very rich heritage.

After having confronted classical tragedy over the years, with Phaedra by Jean Racine, Federico Tiezzi returns to Greek myth by directing Elena Ghiaurov on stage. The text, written in 1677 starting from Euripides' Hippolytus and Seneca's Phaedra, is a bourgeois drama, almost an ante-litteram Ibsen imbued with Jansenism and moral philosophy. An ERT co-production with ATP Teatri di Pistoia – Centro di Produzione Teatrale, Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi, expected from 18 to 21 April after the world premiere debut at the Teatro Bonci in Cesena.

With its powerful universal themes, The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare poses still necessary questions to today's audience: ethical clashes, never-pacified social and interreligious relationships, love, hatred, the value of friendship and loyalty, greed and the role of money. It is a fundamental text that the director Paolo Valerio presents again from 2 to 5 May, directing a cast of actors led by Franco Branciaroli, in the role of Shylock, a multifaceted, mysterious figure, cruel in his thirst for revenge, but who surprises the spectators by arousing also their compassion.

James. An intervention of dramatic art in the political sphere is the project by Elena Cotugno and Gianpiero Borgia on Giacomo Matteotti on stage at the Teatro Storchi on 19 and 20 March. The exhibition compares two of his speeches in Parliament: that of 31 January 1921, in which he denounced the connivance between the bourgeois political forces and the fascist groups, and that of 30 May 1924, the last session in which the deputy participated before be assassinated and in which he contests the results of the elections of April of that year. A work which, through Matteotti's words in their rawness and truth, invites us to reflect on the meaning of political militancy, citizenship rights, the possibility of opposing fascist violence and the role of theater in society.

THE SHOWS – NEW THEATER OF THE PASSIONS
The focus that ERT dedicates to Giovanni Testori on the centenary of his birth inaugurates the New Passion Theatre. In addition to the aforementioned Luchino, starring Umberto Orsini (2 October, Teatro Storchi), the project consists of two productions: Maddalene (from Giotto to Bacon), a show by and with Valter Malosti, Lamberto Curtoni on cello and the original music by Carlo Boccadoro, and Erodiàs + Mater strangosciàs, a new project curated by Sandro Lombardi for Anna Della Rosa (ERT production with Compagnia Lombardi-Tiezzi and Centro Teatrale Santa Cristina).

Maddalene (from 13 to 15 October) is a singular poetic, penetrating and histrionic collection, which reveals, as Valter Malosti writes, «the parallel Testori, sublime, adventurous and emotional art critic»; a sort of summary - "very strangled" says Testori - of art history, which accompanies the journey of the Magdalene over the centuries. A path, which unfolds through the dialogue between images and words: from Duccio to Masaccio, from Giotto to Cézanne, from Beato Angelico to Caravaggio, from Raphael to Rubens, from Botticelli to Titian, from Grünewald to Bacon. The theme of the figure of Magdalene has always been at the center of Testori's interest. The publisher Franco Maria Ricci built one of his unique and valuable art books, Maddalene, on this figure, printing it in 5.000 numbered copies in March 1989. Testori produced the cards on the individual works: «poematic cards» or «poem cards» versicoli" as he called them, original criticisms in the form of poetry. The verses are accompanied and counterpointed by about twenty short original suites for cello written over the years by the composer Carlo Boccadoro and varied and implemented at every opportunity also thanks to the talent of the cellist Lamberto Curtoni.

Sandro Lombardi, the historical interpreter of Giovanni Testori's Tre Lai (Cleopatràs, Erodiàs and Mater strangosciàs), attending Cleopatràs directed by Valter Malosti with Anna Della Rosa, felt the desire to give the actress his interpretation of the second and third dei Lai, as the great masters of oriental theater do. An artistic handover born of esteem and affection - an unprecedented initiative in the context of the Italian scene - to an interpreter who has worked with some of the major Italian and European directors. Erodiàs + Mater Strangosciàs premieres from 17 to 29 October.

In addition to the aforementioned Antony and Cleopatra by Valter Malosti with Anna della Rosa (premiere 10-14 January, Teatro Storchi), there are other shows that stage and compare with the works of William Shakespeare.
Among these, Romeo and Juliet - stay light in the leap of the two-time Ubu Award winning director and actor Roberto Latini, who chooses Romeo and Juliet to construct a "scenic concert" assembling the only five scenes of the tragedy in which the two protagonists are together, from alone. The play is conceived as a diptych: Giulietta, played by Latini himself, is on stage from 31 October to 5 November; from 7 to 12 November it is Romeo's turn, with Federica Carra. The work, for the first time, was composed together with the sound designer Gianluca Misiti, Latini's historic collaborator. An Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / National Theater production.

In November, there are two more shows based on the Shakespearean opera, both by Teatro dei Venti, with which ERT continues and strengthens its collaboration: from 16th to 19th Giulio Cesare and, after the preview last May in Castelfranco Emilia, from 23rd at 26 the world premiere of Hamlet. Both shows, which ERT creates in co-production with Teatro dei Venti, are part of a trilogy dedicated to Shakespeare and produced in the prisons of Castelfranco Emilia and Modena. Hamlet marks the first experiment in the professionalisation of prisoners as part of the European project AHOS All Hands On Stage, in which organizations and penitentiary institutions from 30 countries (Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania and Serbia) participate for 5 months to involve prisoners in job placement processes in the technical sector of live entertainment.

As part of the Carne physical dramaturgy review, the first study of How to perfectly hide by the dancer and choreographer Chiara Taviani, who has collaborated with Balletto Civile since 30 and founded together in 1, will be staged on 2010 November and 2011 December to Carlo Massari the C&C Company.
Two performers, Loretta d'Antuono and Lorenzo De Simone, a symbiotic couple, are constantly connected to the outside world, overexposed and stripped of their private life. Inspired by the contemporary condition of hyper-connection, Taviani thus addresses the need to find a space in which to voluntarily hide away, to hide from external eyes and rediscover one's most authentic essence.

After the success at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels last June, the ERT production Il Capitale arrives at Passioni from 7 to 17 December. A book that we have not yet read, Kepler's theatrical investigation – 452 on the case of the GKN of Campi Bisenzio, which brought the factory workers on stage. Nicola Borghesi and Enrico Baraldi spent an entire autumn in the plant, sleeping on camp beds, participating in picket lines, assemblies and demonstrations. They listened and observed in an attempt to establish a dialogue between Karl Marx's Capital and the events that happened at GKN, and to build a connection between a great classic of philosophical and economic literature and the contemporary world.

The comic machine - Theatrical laboratory on comedy / Construction site are four evenings of laughter featuring the students of the Higher Education course of the Iolanda Gazzerro School of ERT (Text, body voice) led by Natalino Balasso and the actress Marta Cortellazzo Wiel.
The workshop participants take turns on stage to dismantle and overturn, through the mechanisms of comedy, tragedy and «all that apparatus of rhetoric, hypocrisy, clichés and conditioned reflexes that our existence has taught us to use to hide from our nature", writes Balasso. On the occasion of New Year's Eve, December 31st, the final evening entitled The Comic Machine (ERT production) is scheduled at the Storchi Theater with Balasso himself, the actress Marta Cortellazzo Wiel and the students of the course on stage.

Director Angela Ruozzi, after the Bolognese dates last season, returns to ERT from 16 to 28 January with 4.000 miles, a text by the American playwright Amy Herzog, awarded with the Obie Award as the best text on the OFF Broadway circuit in 2011 and finalist the Pulitzer Prize for Playwriting in 2013.
In the middle of the night Leo shows up at the door of the New York apartment of his grandmother Vera, played by an extraordinary Lucia Zotti. She is an elderly communist who lives alone, he is a contemporary hippie, returning from an unfinished bicycle trip due to a tragic event. Leo's ex-girlfriend will join them, creating further confusion. An ERT co-production with Centro Teatrale Mamimò.

Nanni Garella with his company Arte e Salute resumes his latest show Porcile (13 - 25 February), one of the tragedies in verse written by Pier Paolo Pasolini which focuses on the weight of the sins of fathers on the fate of their children. Director Nanni Garella collaborates on this occasion for the first time with Balletto Civile and Michela Lucenti, building together a contemporary work that blends direction and choreography, movement and acting. An ERT production part of the Come Deviarmi project dedicated to Pasolini.

From 29 February to 3 March the season of the Teatro delle Passioni continues with Massimiliano Civica, director of the Teatro Metastasio in Prato, director, who brings to the stage Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, starring Roberto Abbiati and Monica Demuru. Becketti's work leads into a banal everyday life that brings out an existential condition, that weight on the chest that leads human beings to seek contact with others to feel less alone. The lively monologue of the protagonist Winnie is for Civica «an attempt at dialogue, the poignant “nostalgia” and the “dream” of talking to each other; an apparently uninterrupted interior monologue which is, in reality, a desperate search, groping and blind, for the right word to meet the other".

After its debut in Castelfranco Emilia, from 5 to 10 March it arrives at Passioni How to become rich and famous from one moment to the next by Emanuele Aldrovandi, author of works translated into 10 languages ​​and director for theater and cinema (recently Premio Hystrio 2023 for dramaturgy and Nastro d'argento 2021 with the short film Bataclan). The show features a mother who wants to help her seven-year-old daughter become an artist and she is willing to do anything to do so. A reflection on the relationship between happiness and personal fulfillment. An ERT co-production with the Associazione Teatrale Autori Vivi, Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale and Teatro Carcano.

Ermanna Montanari, actress and author, Stefano Ricci, painter and illustrator, Daniele Roccato, composer and solo double bass player: three great artists with an unmistakable style met to create MADRE, on stage from 19 to 24 March. A Mother has ended up in a well, her Son tries to pull her out of her: an allegory of Mother Earth, lethally poisoned by humanity. Starting from the drama written for them by Marco Martinelli, they compete on stage, intertwining the dreamlike drawings performed live by Ricci, the magmatic vocal sounds of Montanari - who gives voice to both the Son and the Mother, protagonists of the text - and the sweet and excruciating notes of Roccato's double bass. With this show, Ermanna Montanari is among the finalists of the 2023 Le Maschere del Teatro italiano Award for the Best Monologue of the 22/23 Season, which will be awarded on 7 September at the Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini in Catania.

Fathers. Progetto Hearth, from 5 to 7 April, was born from the collaboration of three under 20 performers, Ana Baldoni Rodrigues, Confident Frank, also starring in Davidson, and Seit Kibja, who met during the local workshops conducted by Balletto Civile. The project, part of the Carne exhibition, involves the artistic support of Balletto Civile with very young artists for this, their first experiment in collective creation. The show, produced by ERT, reflects on the dilemmas and challenges of a generation that would like to redeem the sacrifices made by their fathers.

The last show of the ERT season at the Passioni is from 12 to 21 April: If there was light, text and direction by Francesca Garolla, an author active in Italy and France. “If there was light, it would be beautiful,” wrote Aldo Moro to his wife during the days of the kidnapping, shortly before his death. Starting from the famous phone call of 9 May 1978 in which Valerio Morucci, exponent of the Red Brigades and "responsible for logistics" of the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, communicated the death of the President of the DC to the lawyer Francesco Tritto, Garolla analyzes the consequences of collective history on the individual and on the future. An ERT production with LAC – Lugano Arte e Cultura.

The activity of Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale is made possible thanks to:
Founding Members Municipality of Modena, Municipality of Bologna, Municipality of Cesena, Emilia-Romagna Region
Ordinary Supporting Members Municipality of Castelfranco Emilia, Municipality of Vignola, Modena Foundation, BPER Banca
With the support of the Ministry of Culture
Media Partners: Rai Radio3, ERCreativa, Gazzetta di Modena, QN – il Resto del Carlino
Technical Partners: Lepida, Elogic

Information
Storchi Theatre
Largo Garibaldi 15 – Modena
tel. 059 2136021 | biglietteria@emiliaromagnateatro.com
Ticket: from Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 am – 14.00 pm; Tuesday and Saturday also 16.30pm-19.00pm
Online selling: modena.emiliaromagnateatro.com | www.vivaticket.it

New Theater of the Passions
Via Peretti 9 – Modena
Ticket: Open only on show days one hour before the start
Online selling: modena.emiliaromagnateatro.com | www.vivaticket.it

Subscription pre-emptions: from 6 to 14 September reserved for Season 22/23 fixed seat season ticket holders, holders of the Season 22/23 Card and the Season 23/24 Preview Card.
New subscriptions: from the September 15
Single ticket sales: from the September 22
Subscriptions: Card 6 and 8 inputs; Card UniMore; School Card.
News: Carnet Open: 20 coupons for the Storchi Theatre, the Nuovo Teatro delle Passioni and the Ridotto of the Storchi Theatre; Under 29 Card: 10 entries reserved for Under 29s and can be used alone or in a group for one or more shows. It is possible to include shows from all ERT theaters on the CARD.

Show times
Storchi Theatre
from Tuesday to Friday 20.30pm
Saturday 19.00 hours
Sunday 16.00 hours

Reduced of the Storchi Theatre
from Tuesday to Friday 19.00pm
Saturday 21.30 hours
Sunday 19.00 hours

New Theater of the Passions
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday at 21.00 pm
Thursday and Saturday 19.00pm
Sunday 18.00 hours

Julius Caesar show times: Thursday 16 November at 20.30pm; Friday 17 November at 20.30pm; Saturday 18 November at 19pm; Sunday 19 November at 18.00pm.
Hamlet show times: Thursday 23 November at 20.30pm; Friday 24 November at 20.30pm; Saturday 25 November at 19.00 pm; Sunday 26 November at 18.00pm.
Theater show times: 2, 14, 16, 23 November and 14 December at 20.30 pm; 19, 26 November and 3, 17 December at 11.00 am; November 27th and December 11th at 19.00pm.