OPERA LAB
A project by Letizia Renzini with New Generation Festival.
Episode 1: Carmen by Silvia Franco.
26-27 September
Giardino della Ciminiera
HAPPENING! Festival
Created by Letizia Renzini
Realized and produced by NAM – Not A Museum.
full program
PERFORMANCE
Saturday 26/09 at 21:30
Sunday 27/09 at 18:00
Saturday 3/10 at 21:30
Sunday 4/10 at 18:00
Opera Lab is a collective project conceived by Letizia Renzini. Opera Lab’s mission is to draw attention to the operatic artform, the Musical Drama and Musical Theatre, and to revive it according to new practices and free interpretations which have long been adopted in international venues, but not as much in Italy.
For Happening! Opera Lab works in concert with the New Generation Festival and will perform a study on Bizet’s Carmen curated by Silvia Franco. The Florentine actress, teacher, and performer departs using the opera and novel by Mérimée (the text upon which the opera is based) as a starting point, including details from related texts which recount the story of the celebrated cigar maker along the way. Franco also interweaves many other influences and inspirations, one of which is the apt setting of Manifattura Tabacchi. This performance interprets and commingles these various strands through dance, use of text, music and belcanto as presented by the students of the New Generation Festival.
Direction and interpretation: Silvia Franco
Mezzosoprano: Lauren Young
Dance: Gaia Mazzeranghi
Music: Marco Bianciardi
Scenography: Luca Baldini
Assistant director: Fabrizio Pezzoni
Collaboration/ Voiceover: Vincenza Modica
Production: Nam for Happening!, New Generation Festival and Zooteatro
In collaboration with: Fosca
Access will be in full compliance with the measures that the Italian government is taking to combat the spread of COVID-19.
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LETIZIA RENZINI
Director, musician, DJ, she works as stage director and creator in new music theatre, performing arts, installations and electronic music/visual. A sound and video artist, a performer, Letizia Renzini works with mixing media focusing her exploration on composition towards different languages. She had been working many years for the 3°channel of National Italian Radio as dj and speaker dor the show “Battiti”. She curated several series and festival focused in sound art and music and she’s been teaching Multimedia Arts and Cinema Studies at the Marangoni Insitute for Fashion, Arts and Design. Her works of new music theatre and her music and visuals performance have been seen listen and produced in many international art venues and festival for contemporary and performing arts such as Biennale di Venezia, Festival Romaeuropa (I) Operadagen Rotterdam (NL), National Theatre Amsterdam, Mozarteum Salzburg (A), Radialsystem Berlin (D), Fabbrica Europa Florence (I), Parco della Musica Rome (I), Centro Cultural de Belem (P), State Theatre Pretoria (SA), Macro Roma, The Place London (GB), Opéra de Lille (FR), Tanzeshus Stockholm (S), Royal Opera House London (GB), CCS Strozzina Florence (I), Walpurgis Antwerp (B), Bimhuis Amsterdam (NL), Concertgebouw Brugge (B): Hamburg Elbphilarmonie, Opéra de Lille, Cité de La Musique Paris, and many more. Her Opera “Il Ballo delle Ingrate” won the Music Theathre Now award in 2016. She premièred with her last show “Decameron 2.0” at Spoleto Festival Dei due Mondi 61 in 2018. Her last show “Love, You son of a bitch – a Scarlatti project” premièred in October 2019 at Staatsoper Under den Linden Berlin.
SILVIA FRANCO
Silvia Franco has been a member of the theatre group laLUT, Libera Università del Teatro di Siena, of which she is co-founder, since 1995.
From 2001-2006, Franco collaborated with the Museo d’arte per Bambini in Siena as director and creator of theatre workshops for children during various exhibits.
As of 1997, she teaches theatre in kindergartens, elementary and middle schools in the province of Siena. As of 2013, Franco teaches theatre and mental health courses. She studied classical and contemporary dance with Claudia Semplici at the SpazioVita centre in Siena from 1999 to 2012.
Franco founded the theatre group Zooteatro in 2013. She has worked with Giuliano Lenzi, Maurizio Panici, Chille de la Balanza, Balletto Civile, Alfonso Santagata, and Massimiliano Civica.
FOSCA
Since the beginning of its activity, Fosca has created hybrid projects that fuse performance, dance, education, and visual art. Over the years the association has formalised its organisational structure, but thanks to the participation of heterogeneous artists, Fosca has preserved its role as a breeding ground for projects that are consistently original and unique. Thanks to the work and interpersonal skills of our founder Caterina Poggesi, Fosca has become an ever more consolidated community of artists who are willing to renew themselves and embrace original ideas.
www.fosca.eu
NEW GENERATION FESTIVAL
In recent years, the New Generational Festival dedicated to Opera has turned Firenze’s attention to this artform, drawing large audiences from all over the world. Accompanied by a didactic programme and a series of summer courses specifically designed for singers and musicians, the New Generation Festival, which in its early years took place in the beautiful garden of Palazzo Corsini sul Prato, as of 2020, is hosted in close collaboration with the Uffizi gallery at the Boboli Gardens.
