Omaggio A Bach / Cantata

Aterballetto (I)
choreographer: Mauro Bigonzetti

Compagnia Aterbaletto is the principal dance company for production and distribution in Italy and the first permanent ballet producing body apart from opera house companies. Founded in 1979, under almost twenty years of artistic direction by Amedeo Amodio (until 1996), Aterballetto built up an important repertoire including works of Amodio and major international choreographers including G. G.Tetley, A. Ailey, L. Childs, G. Balanchine, K. McMillan, A. Tudor, J. Limon, H. Van Manen, L. Massine, D. Parsons and M. Béjart. Since 1997 the artistic director and choreographer of the Aterballetto is Mauro Bigonzetti.

In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death, Mauro Bigonzetti pays a personal tribute to the great composer. The choreographer interprets Bach’s musical universe, the geometric and architectonic perfection, the equilibrium between human and transcendent expressed in his art. For this homage, Bigonzetti extrapolates from his ‘Comoedia canto terzo’, inspired by Dante’s ‘Paradise’, some passages set to Bach’s music: intimate atmospheres fade into choral moments creating thus an ideal and symbolic journey through some of Bach’s most renowned sheets of music. The excerpts, carefully selected for their particular hues, include an original interpretation by Glenn Gould and a precious and delicate version for the accordion.

Cantata is a choreography bursting with the typical vibrant colors of the South. Its passionate and visceral gestures evoke a Mediterranean and wild type of beauty. An instinctual and vital dance explores the various facets of the relationship between man and woman: seduction, passion, quarrels, jealousy. Cantata pays homage to the Italian culture and musical tradition, a popular work in the highest sense of the term.