Four new productions, 200 artists on stage, a tour in the most prestigious Italian theatres. The 58th Season of the INDA Foundation at the Greek Theatre offers an ambitious program, with top names and an eye towards the future, thanks to a record-breaking edition of the International Youth Classical Theatre Festival in Palazzolo Acreide, involving 3000 students from 90 high schools and theatre groups from four universities.
From 11th May to 2nd July, the INDA Foundation will stage three works of classical theatre, the tragedies Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus directed by Leo Muscato and translated by Roberto Vecchioni; Medea by Euripides directed by Federico Tiezzi with translation by Massimo Fusillo; Aristophanes‘ comedy Peace directed by Daniele Salvo with translation by Nicola Cadoni; and a fourth modern production, Ulysses, the Last Odyssey, an original contemporary creation conceived by director and choreographer Giuliano Peparini with a libretto by Francesco Morosi.
Ulysses, the Last Odyssey concludes the season: four special performances from 29th June to 2nd July, with the staging of an original creation that tells the story of Ulysses mixing theatre, music, opera, dance, performance and light effects in an unprecedented way. In the role of Ulysses, we will see Giuseppe Sartori, who returns to Siracusa after the success of past seasons in the roles of Orestes and Oedipus; also on stage dancers and acrobats for a show that will surprise the audience of the Greek Theatre.
“The music of the Canadian folk-rock-inspired group Reuben and the dark, contemporary dance and theatre dialogue fluidly while remaining at the service of Homer’s original classical text,” explains the director Peparini. “In addition to distant or still journeys, by choosing to deal with the theme of Ulysses we will talk about our time”.
The INDA Foundation and the Italian Institutes of Culture in Edinburgh, London, Toronto and Montreal are pleased to present a panel discussion on the work behind the production of Ulysses, the Last Odyssey and the 58th Season of the INDA Foundation at the Greek Theatre in Siracusa with Marina Valensise (CEO INDA), Giuliano Peparini (Choreographer and Director of Ulysses, the Last Odyssey), Francesco Morosi (librettist of Ulysses, the Last Odyssey) and Barbara Graziosi (Professor of Greek Language and Literature and the Chair of the Department of Classics at Princeton University).
Watch the panel HERE.
Marina Valensise, journalist and writer, has been since 2020 the managing director of the INDA Foundation. She directed from 2012 to 2016 the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, and she is the author of several books. Her latest work is “Sul Baratro” (Neri Pozza, 2022).
Giuliano Peparini is a world-renowned ballet dancer, choreographer and director. He started his artistic career in Rome at the age of 15; he won a scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet in New York and at 24 he became Etoile at Ballet National de Marseille. He has performed with ballet companies and created and directed musicals throughout the world. In Italy he has produced several television series and many artists and institutions have asked him to choreograph their projects: four shows commissioned by Claudio Baglioni and for the Rome Opera House in 2015 he staged Lo Schiaccianoci, Romeo e Giulietta (2018) and Vivaldi’s Le quattro stagioni (2020-2023). The prestigious Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has chosen Giuliano to showcase their Haute Couture shows in Venice (July 2021) and in Siracusa (July 2022): an impressive performance in the most beautiful settings.
Francesco Morosi is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Udine. He was educated at the Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of California – Berkeley. His main research interests are ancient Greek drama and its reception. For the Greek theatre in Siracusa, he translated Oedipus the King (2022), and worked at the dramaturgy of Prometheus Bound and at the libretto of Ulysses, the Last Odyssey (2023).
Barbara Graziosi is Professor of Greek Language and Literature and the Chair of the Department of Classics at Princeton University. She was educated in Oxford and Cambridge, and a substantial part of her research focuses on Homeric epic, to which she devoted some influential studies (Inventing Homer, Cambridge 2002; The Resonance of Epic, London 2005; Homer, Oxford 2016).