 The Dragon and the Lion
The Biennale di Venezia, in association with the City of Venice and its Department of Culture, participated in the 2006 Carnival of Venice with an independent program of diffusion and experimentation conceived by Maurizio Scaparro, the director of the Theatre section.
This is the new Theatre Carnival, in the wake of the first, memorable experience in the Eighties, when the Biennale di Venezia – led by Scaparro himself – turned theatre performance into an event that modified the use and perception of the city, bound by a tight and stimulating relationship with Venetian culture, a catalyst for the international revitalization of an ancient popular event such as the Venetian Carnival.
The opening event of the 2006 program which also includes a Theatre Festival during the month of July, the new edition of the Theatre Carnival was entitled The Dragon and the Lion, and dedicated entirely to China, to what it has represented in the past and in the present to our European imagination, and to its possible significance in a rapidly changing world.
An intense program ran between February 23 and 28, day and night, in the historic theatres of the City with performances that alternated between the Teatro La Fenice, the Teatro Malibran, the Teatro Goldoni, and other theatres and public squares in Venice, at the Ateneo Veneto and in the fascinating spaces of the Arsenale – Sala Marceglia, Spazio Fonderie, Corderie – that the Biennale di Venezia has so successfully cultivated in recent years.
The Highlights
Shanghai Tango - Jin Xing Dance Theatre
in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice
Artistic history and biography blend in Jin Xing, marking her for an exceptional fate: a star of contemporary dance – at the age of 18 she was consecrated “best ballerina in China” and in 1991 won the award as best choreographer at the American Dance Festival, invited by the Beijing Modern Dance Company and sought by the best groups around the world – Jin Xing was also a prodigious soldier – a colonel in the Chinese Liberation Army, but above all a male dancer who later became a female dancer. A transformation that Jin Xing recounts in a book soon to be published in Italy by Sonzogno, and in a documentary film (The Strange Destiny of Colonel Jin Xing).
Shanghai Tango is Jin Xing’s latest creation (2003): inspired by a Chinese folk tale about a mother divided between her husband and her lover, the work is also an expression of Shanghai today, a mix of passions and culture straddling past and future.
“It is important to bear in mind Jin Xing’s professional experience when judging her work. Because Shanghai Tango is a mix of East and West in the dance figures as well as in the choice of music and costumes... East and West for example blend in the final scene when the girls in ample costumes with a long wide skirt spin on the notes of a Strauss waltz while the boys in a white uniform similar to the red guards move around the stage on bicycles… A delicious pas de trois by Jin Xing with the husband and lover is structured like a series of family photos. But certainly beyond the curiosity about the person what is most fascinating is Jin Xing’s seductive dance and great technique. An anthological performance, developed in tableaux. Demonstrating great choreographic mastery and a thousand inspirations, like the new China. Halfway between East and West” (Sergio Trombetta, “Danza & Danza”).
The Serpent Woman - Teatro Fondamenta Nuove
or from the unknown desert of China to the vast reign of Eldorado, concealed to the entire world - world premiere
by Carlo Gozzi
a study by Giuseppe Emiliani
adapted and directed by Giuseppe Emiliani
sets by Graziano Gregori
original music by Uri Caine
costumes by Carla Teti
with Marcello Bartoli and Dario Cantarelli
produced by Vortice/Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Compagnia I Fratellini, City of Venice – Department of Cultural Production, Teatro Metastasio Stabile della Toscana, Teatro Stabile del Veneto Carlo Goldoni, la Biennale di Venezia
The Serpent Woman is a triumph of visible set changes, of sudden alternations between light and darkness, of costumes slapped together in the most exotic rococo taste, of comic tricks, magical events, wars, initiation trials: a kaleidoscope of accentuated resonances, that unfold amidst the tonal opposites of the direct expressive power latent in the tragicomic play and in the equally direct expressive power that culminates in the naively magical-erotic play. The ephemerality of performance, enchantment, metamorphosis, magical composition and dissolution, and wonder seem to represent Gozzi’s theatrical and expressive intent.
From the unknown desert of China, the fairytale reaches the remote land of gold, the “vast reign of Eldorado, concealed to the world”, the eighteenth century (and Voltairian) symbol of happiness. Only in this utopian land can the story’s happy ending take place. For the conservative yet lucid Gozzi, the primacy of feelings cannot complete its course in the common reality of the story and everyday life.
It is the purpose and privilege of theatre performance – with its ephemeral duration and obvious stage mimicry – to demonstrate values that are different from the ones represented out in the “world”. Truly the opposite of Goldonian realism… Yet today, looking back at Gozzi, and after producing so many of Goldoni’s plays, I find De Sanctis’ opinion surprisingly stimulating: “At that time, Gozzi seemed to be a traditionalist, and Goldoni a reformer; yet I would have liked Goldoni to possess some of the revolutionary fiber that I found in that traditionalist” (from Giuseppe Emiliani’s notes).
London Jing Kun Opera
Jingmeng (The extraordinary dream) from Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavillion
with Wai Hing Lee and Kewei Zhang
In the same venue as the exhibition dedicated to the costumes from The Last Emperor a fragment of Peony Pavillion will be presented, a masterpiece of the most ancient Chinese opera, the so-called Kun opera.
Recently listed by Unesco as one of the 19 masterpieces that constitute the intangible oral heritage of humanity, Kun opera – which influenced the entire development of the genre, including the Beijing opera – is currently experiencing a renaissance in China thanks to the commitment of writers such as Bai Xianyong. Music, drama, dance and acting, accompanied by the traditional bamboo flute, compose the most ancient form of this very elaborate art, which appeared during the medieval era and flourished during the Ming dynasty: Peony Pavillion constitutes one of its expressive peaks.
A celebration of young love as a source of rebirth, Peony Pavillion, written by Tang Xianzu, narrates the tormented relationship between Du Liniang, the daughter of high imperial dignitaries, and Liu Mengmei, a young scholar. Kewei Zhang – who has acted professionally since the age of 15 and has won many awards – and Wai Hing Lee – who studied Kun and Beijing opera for over 10 years in Hong Kong – interpret The extraordinary dream, one of the 55 episodes through which the tale unfurls. Du Liniang ventures out alone for the first time into the garden behind the palace, without her parents’ permission; her encounter with nature awakens strange feelings within her and when she returns to her room she falls asleep and dreams that she meets a young scholar, Liu Mengmei, who swears eternal love to her.
“No matter how wonderful the outside world can be – said Bai Xinyong – we should never forget that there is a peony that has already blossomed in the gardens of our own home”.
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