Alessandra Ferri, star among the stars of the contemporary tersicoreo scene, returns as a protagonist at La Scala in Milan with the scandalous ‘Spring Festival’ by Igor Stravinskij signed, for the occasion, by Wayne McGregor for the La Scala ballet company directed by Manuel Legris. From 24 June to 7 July an evening-event entirely dedicated by the great English choreographer to the Russian composer is scheduled, which includes two creations ‘AfteRite’ and the world premiere of ‘Lore’, freely taken from ‘Les Noces’.
Originally inspired by ‘Silent Spring’, a text by Rachel Carson on the impact of man-made pesticides on nature, ‘AfteRite’ is set in an arid alien landscape that evokes the extreme climate of the Atacama Desert in Chile, where a colony of human beings struggle for food and survival against an inexorable nature. In McGregor’s modern retelling, Stravinsky’s story of ritual sacrifice is revisited from the point of view of the Mother, who must choose what she holds most dear and what she is willing to lose. Collection of fragments taken from wedding rituals of the Slavic tradition, ‘Les noces’ by Stravinsky was composed ten years after ‘La Sagra’. Written for four pianos, four voices, percussion and choir, ‘Lore’ ‘choreographically’ summarizes a collective body of knowledge, folk traditions and stories.
McGregor explores the difficult marriage of human beings with nature and technology through a prism of fragmented rituals that intertwine between times and traditions. Customs break, are reborn while one generation gives way to another, the sacred is continually reconstituted. Human beings discard and remember. Alessandra Ferri will be on stage only on 24 and 29 June, 6 and 7 July. On June 16 (Ridotto dei Palchi ‘A.Toscanini’) the critic and scholar Marinella Guatterini will hold a meeting open to the public entitled ‘Sacre and Noces, archaic rites observed from a distance’.