“In fair Verona, where we lay our scene”, writes Shakespeare at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare chose Verona to set two of his plays – Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The fact is known as attested by the long lines of tourists in front of Juliet’s house, which now seems a bit cliché, but it is always pleasant to know that you are going to visit the giant set of Shakespeare’s plays, even if today for the most it is just a symbol of love.
Verona, the first stop of my tour of Italian festivals. It is the first time I come to this city. This summer, with or without Shakespeare, the city is full of theatre shows because two festivals are going on at the same time: the Estate Teatrale Veronese and the Arena di Verona Opera Festival. Here, I’ve spent three days watching two shows.
I arrive a few hours before the start of the first show at the Teatro Romano. It is the beginning of the evening, the air is warm, soft and I decide to walk towards the city centre. Before I know it, I am facing the majestic Arena di Verona, where tomorrow I’m going to see Aida. I continue my way alongside the river, passing in front of restaurants, where people start to arrive. Everything remains so quiet, so soft. I cannot take my eyes off the river, nor the sky. When there, right in front of me, on the other side of the water, stands the Teatro Romano, an ancient Roman theatre built in the late 1st century BC. The Teatro Romano is where has been occurring the Estate Teatrale Veronese festival for 76 years.

I have two hours before the show starts. I eat a plate of cannelloni in a capers and anchovy sauce and I arrive 45 minutes in advance at the theatre. The sun is setting on the river. I enter through a gate next to the river and find myself in a garden, next to where the stage is set. I am one of the first ones to arrive. I have to leave my water bottle at the entrance but I have time to get another one at the bar, set between trees and an ancient wall of stone. The location lies outside of time. For 40 minutes, I observe people coming, going to their seat, bumping into someone they know – then a whole conversation starts. It seems like a garden party, such joy while waiting for the show. The space is well thought out, there are some chairs up in the stands and some on the parterre, leaving enough space for people to walk between the rows (and later on to dance!).

At the Teatro Romano

“Signore e signori, lo spettacolo inizierà tra dieci minuti”. The Croce Rossa finishes to distribute some pillows for us to be comfortably installed, the last persons are seated and the stage becomes blue. Tonight, Fatoumata Diawara will sing on the stage of the Teatro Romano. The Malian singer arrives with a guitar under the arm, in a sumptuous brown dress, under a long red coat, with a tall hat on her head. We listen to her sitting on the chairs of the theatre, which allows us to raise our head to the sky and see, little by little, the night coming, the sky changing colour.

Fatoumata Diawara brings us together around her warmth, making the space intimate. She is such a generous performer, her presence on stage is powerful, she sings, she dances; you can tell that she has more than one string to her bow. She is a songwriter, singer and actress. She was born in 1982 and is seen today as one of the prime musicians of her country. She acted in several movies and theatre plays until 2011, when she released her first EP Kanou. Through her words during the concert, I understand that to achieve all of this demanded her willingness and energy- which she wants to pass on to us when, after a while, she urges us to stand up and dance with her: “It is Saturday night!”, she says. And here we are, full of celebration, dancing in front of our chairs at the Teatro Romano. Sometimes, she talks to us in English between songs. Her words are political words, denunciating girls’ circumcision in some parts of Africa or celebrating the power of women. It is with wet eyes that we dance on the next song, trusting her and following her energy.
Fatoumata Diawara receives many demands to perform live. Tonight, after having experienced one of her shows, I understand why. Her concert was not just a show, it was a dialogue between her and us, but it was also her diary reading or a theatre show or a fashion show or a trip to visit African landscapes (some of her music videos filmed in Mali were projected behind her during her performance).
For the last song, Fatoumata Diawara comes back on stage with a mask on her face. There, she delivers a captivating movement performance. The night is there, everything is transformed, she drags us into her world of hope, of body language and, most importantly, of music. She said it herself at the beginning of the concert: “Music is the international language, we all speak music, we can understand each other through this medium”. Because this is what is important: to be together. On this note, at the end of the concert, Fatoumata Diawara calls her two children on stage, so they can dance with her. She introduces them to us and makes us all feel like a big family.
At the exit of the theatre, I find myself on the river Adige, now having a background of water sound and enthusiastic conversations from an audience full of energy. On the way back to my room, I am already thinking of the next night, at the Arena di Verona.

At the Arena di Verona

The day after, I have until the evening to discover Verona, a theatre in itself, a city-theatre. I visit every church of the town and from one church to another, I see the panels indicating the way to Juliet’s house or Juliet’s tomb. I am walking in a true life-size scenography.
Tonight: the opera in four acts Aida by Giuseppe Verdi, as part of the 101st Arena di Verona Opera Festival. Stefano Poda is the director, scenographer, choreographer, costumes and light designer. When I enter the Arena, it is daylight. Behind the stage, on the stands, two architectural columns are smashed amongst the bleachers. One is ancient, made of stone, the other one is mechanical, looking like a robot, an innovative material. Pikes with hands on their top surround the stage and, at the back, stands a huge curled hand. Even before the start of the show, I am mesmerised by the set design. Again, it is an open-air stage, therefore the nightfall will accompany us during the performance. The Arena is divided between the parterre, covered by a red carpet, where beautiful dresses and suits walk, and the top, on the stone steps, where the dress code is more casual.
The show starts, welcoming Alvise Casellati, the conductor of the evening. After him, dozens and dozens of bodies of every age enter the stage. From this instant, the show will continue to be more and more spectacular: performers entering from under the stage, bright white lights reflected on silver shiny costumes, the fingers of the curly giant hand unfolding to the sky, a giant balloon flying above the stage, diffusing the light from the spotlights.
I am watching a world rich of imagination fused with technical prowess, within which rise the majestic voices of Marko Mimica as the King, Clémentine Margaine as Amneris, Maria José Siri as Aida and Yusif Eyvazov as Radames. Egypt and Ethiopia are at war. The Egyptian general Radames is in love with Aida, who is the Ethiopian slave of Princess Amneris – who is in love with Radames. An intrigue of love, jealousy, betrayal and death is set : the festival aims to be international, therefore puts Italian and English subtitles above the stage, so everyone can understand the lyrics.
It is clear that the combining of tradition and technology innovations in the set design (the set propels us into a sci-fi world: an inclined glass canopy in lieu of a regular stage, a giant moving hand made of metal filaments, or laser rays meeting the light of bright white spotlights in the sky) resonates with the double temporality of the story. An ancient war in Memphis, Ethiopians about to invade: the picture still resonates within the current political climate of wars, invasions and genocides. The echo of the plot with today makes the show even more poignant because the images seen are transposed to those of the news. For instance, when in the second act a group of slaves enters from the floor, crawling and dying on stage, one cannot help but to think of the recent photos of the Palestinian. Aida can also be seen from the perspective of decolonisation, especially in this context of an Europe recognising more and more its guilt in the face of its colonising. Moreover, the show asks a timeless question : the one of balance between passion and duty.

From each seat, the performance looks impressive: either you are in the parterre caught up in the faces of the singers, either you are high up, enjoying the global view of the stunning architecture of the Arena and hearing the sounds of the voices deployed to the sky. Slowly, the night falls and only the voices piercing the lights seem to exist. All of our heads are captivated towards the giant stage of the Arena, so alive, so loud in this infinite space with no ceiling. A seagull flies above us, it is Verona and the river Adige joining us in our theatrical summer.

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Tag: Ateatro in English (7), Estate Teatrale Veronese (2)