Il resto del mondo è un mistero

Sipario Maestro

CHARACTERS

Vittoria Paci ANÙK First hunter/explorer

Linda Scarponi KUNÀ Second hunter/explorer

Luca Grosso First village head

Amedeo Testerini Second village head

FIRST VILLAGE CHOIR

Solomeo’s Mousiké Children's Voice Choir and Youth Choir

Klara Lužnik, conductor

SECOND VILLAGE CHOIR

Children's Voice Choir and Youth Choir of

Perugia’s “F. Morlacchi ” Conservatoire

Marta Alunni Pini, conductor

SOLOISTS OF THE PERUGIA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Azusa Onishi, first violin

Silvia Palazzoli, secondo violin

Sabina Morelli, viola

Alessandra Montani, cello

Federico Passaro, double bass

Simone Frondini, oboe

Luca Franceschelli, bassoon

Monica Fagioli, flute

Gabriele Margaritelli, clarinet

Mirko Basiglio, trumpet

Lucia Sorci, piano

Giovanni Baldassarri, marimba

Domenico Grasso, percussion

Arianna De Angelis Marocco, Sara Libori, choreography and dance

Cristina Ducci, scenography

Valentina Venturi, makeup

dolls made by Microscopio Kids Foligno (PG)

Graziano Sirci, director

Fabio Ciofini, art director

Alfonso Ottobre

Born in Rome, where he completed his musical, literary and philosophical studies, Alfonso Ottobre started publishing in the ‘90s, in particular short stories and poems in various specialist magazines and a collection of lyrics called Custodia Rigida con Specchio. Recently, Ottobre has published two poetry anthologies, La nave frangisilenzio and L’insonnia del Pellicano with Leonida Edizioni. In 2023, the same publishing house released Ottobre’s first novel: Il mio amico, John Keats. He has also published extensively in the field of philosophy. In addition to essays, academic articles, and contributions to both Italian and international collective works, he released a monograph in 2012 entitled Arte, Esperienza e Natura (AlboVersorio Edizioni). However, his works relate predominantly to the music world. Many of them have also been used by contemporary Italian composers, in particular Piero Caraba. This thirty-year collaboration gave life to the musical play Il resto del mondo è un mistero premiered at Teatro San Ferdinando in Naples in 2021.

Piero Caraba

Piero Caraba graduated in Choral Music and Choir Conducting at the S. Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, before graduating in Composition under the guidance of Vieri Tosatti. He then obtained a Master's degree in Gregorian Chant at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. Caraba is the author of instrumental, choral and stage music. His works have been published by numerous publishing houses, including Suvini Zerboni, Carrara, and Verlag Helvetia. In addition to Fondamenti pratici d’armonia (Ricordi, Milan, 1988, fourth printing), he also published Le forme della musica (Sinfonica, Milan, 2010, second edition, third printing). In 2021, the Teatro San Ferdinando in Naples hosted the premiere of Il resto del mondo è un mistero, a musical play with libretto by Alfonso Ottobre and produced by Fondazione Pietà de’ Turchini, which also curated the printed edition. Caraba has conducted numerous choral and symphonic ensembles at some of the most prestigious music institutions and events, including the Sagra Musicale Umbra, Spoleto Festival, and Fondazione Internazionale di Assisi, where Piero is currently the art director of the Dicembre Musicale di Assisi. From 2011 to 2015, he was the Superintendent and Art Director of the Guido d’Arezzo Foundation. From November 2013 to October 2019, Caraba served as the Director of Perugia’s Conservatoire where he currently teaches Theory of Harmony and Analysis of Compositional Forms. He is also a member of the National Artistic Commission of Feniarco (Italian National Federation of Regional Choral Associations).

Like a dark, powerful metaphor, the symbolic story created by the characters reveals a deep connection that naturally reflects the complexity of our modern world. For centuries, dreams have served as the night’s landing strip for all desires. It is from this realm that the boundless imagination of a young dreamer emerges in the interaction between her mother’s awareness and the prolific world of a sleeping child. In this almost abstract relationship lies a complex interplay between the dark, passionate, matriarchal force (reminiscent of Greek tragedy) and the vibrant, fertile energy of visionary sleep (generational dialectic). In short, it’s a generative short circuit between mother and daughter, who, in turn, holds her two births in her arms: two fetishes, two puppets, two dolls. Mimesis of a taboo and a destiny. The geographical layout of our story emerges from this shady context. A turbulent river, carrying all the virtues of the genius that drives it, splits the scene into two banks that remain unknown to one another. Since a river (and its god) naturally fits into the background of any initiation, it becomes a sacred, impassable boundary between two peoples who remain unknown to one another (mother and daughter?). Therefore, in an evocation of the terrible biblical plagues, the environment suddenly succumbs to a severe and deadly drought, leaving everything around it shrivelled and withered, scorched by the relentless blades of a merciless light.

Starting from the first village – or perhaps the first metaphorical stage – amid the fearful passivity of a generation on the brink of exhaustion, a young virgin (Diana the huntress?) emerges as a symbol of salvation and source of vitality and health hidden behind every taboo. Overcoming the widespread fear, she ventures into the plague – an impenetrable forest – in search of a reason for hope. Symmetrically, as in Piero’s fresco in Arezzo, an identical virgin intertwines, in an uncontrolled pulse, with the first brave girl she hardly recognises. Here, the narrative intensifies through the first Diana the huntress’s account of her cognitive experience, made ecstatic and mystical by the suspicious and alarming presence of that river, that wall-like boundary. Yet, despite this vivid testimony, there is a general passive denial, although the virtuous virgin, now spellbound, insists on the pseudo-superhuman nature of what she has witnessed. The narrative is the same, as is the reaction of the inhabitants of the opposite bank. Both confident in the emerging new reality, yet, at the same time, alarmed by the enemy emanating from the creature they encountered. Thus, deep within themselves, each person envisions, in the shadow, the bloody fate of this unfortunate encounter, one that was neither sought nor wanted. Wrecks, shipwrecks, and escapes (Kavafis – Waiting for the barbarians) are the ideal poison to terrify and dream of enemies to be tamed everywhere. But perhaps a welcoming spirit – and even love – can arise from the inherent nature of the two symmetrical huntresses standing against violence.

Before the river starts roaring again after the drought, bringing a new dream to be dreamt and shared. That’s how the truth is. During the final ritual feast, a stranger who doesn’t belong to either of the tribes will suddenly arrive. Will the experience of the philosopher and the prophet have taught the two peoples that they can trust him? Of course, not! He is greeted as a 'ghost’, fuelling panic in the two tribes. Because the rest of the world is always a mystery.

Graziano Sirci