Jules Verne. Ars Ludi Ensemble, concerts in Rome

This evening, Tuesday 14 March at 20.30, the Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti, to celebrate the Golden Lion for the career of the composer Giorgio Battistelli, proposes his Jules Verne, 25 years after its composition, a production of the Biennale Musica 2022.
“For his work in experimental musical theater and his intense operatic production, created by the most important European institutions”: this is the motivation with which La Biennale Musica 2022 awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to the composer Giorgio Battistelli. On the same occasion he awarded the Silver Lion to the Ars Ludi Ensemble, made up of percussionists Antonio Caggiano, Rodolfo Rossi and Gian Luca Ruggeri, “for the executive virtuosity and the ability to transform the percussive world into a captivating Machina Mundi” .
Two awards that consecrate the excellence of contemporary Italian music that the IUC will celebrate in a single evening with the performance of Jules Verne (1987), the “historic” musical theater score by Battistelli entrusted to the Ars Ludi.
Defined as “Imagination in the form of a show for three performers”, the work pays homage to the great French writer by staging three characters from famous novels: Professor Lidenbrock (Journey to the Center of the Earth), Doctor Ferguson (Five Weeks in a Ball) and Captain Nemo (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), symbols of the relationship between man and the earth, the air, the sea.
The protagonists meet in a living room furnished with the tools necessary to carry out their adventures and each one tells his own story trying to convince the others that he is the writer’s favorite character. A surreal theatrical action is required of the three musician-performers which ends with Lidenbrock, Ferguson and Nemo joining in a chorus singing, playing and playing like children. Performers must also demonstrate virtuosity on a large group of instruments including trumpet, marimba, piano and a range of unusual percussions.
A dreamlike and exhilarating work, in which a bizarre instrumentation of sound objects is equally the protagonist: a chain hoisted by its winch, a tub full of water to be noisily kicked, a sail to be shaken abruptly, bricks that are ruffled, gravel to trample capriciously.
The text is by Battistelli himself (who also signs the direction), lights and stage machines are by Angelo Linzalata, sound direction by Pasquale Citera.

Giorgio Battistelli is the author of over 30 works for musical theater and as many pieces for symphony orchestra – as well as music for ensemble, for soloists and for choir – performed in the most important theaters in Europe, in North and South America, Asia, Oceania . Among his works for musical theater we mention Orchestra Test, Richard III, Divorzio all’italiana, Auf den Marmorklippen, CO2 (commissioned by the Teatro alla Scala in Milan), Lot (commissioned by the Hannover Staatsoper), Wake (commissioned by the Birmingham Opera Company and performed under the direction of Graham Vick), 7 minutes (commissioned by the Opéra National de Lorraine). Two new operas for the 2021-22 season: Julius Caesar, commissioned by the Rome Opera for the opening night (directed by Robert Carsen); The scuffles for the Carnival of the Teatro La Fenice (directed by Damiano Michieletto). In January 2022 also the world premiere of Toccata, commissioned by the Filarmonica della Scala. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne, and his meeting with Hans Werner Henze and Luciano Berio was fundamental. In Paris, between 1978 and 1979, he studied techniques and interpretation in contemporary musical theatre. In the 1980s he established himself as one of the most interesting composers of his generation. He was composer in residence at the Antwerp Opera, at the Deutsche Opera am Rhein in Düsseldorf and artistic director of important institutions, such as the Orchestra della Toscana, the Roman Philharmonic Academy, the Venice Biennale and the Verona Arena Foundation and the Rome Opera House. Since January 2020 he has been artistic director of the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago and, since the 2020-21 season, of the Haydn Foundation of Bolzano and Trento for the Symphony.
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Biennale Musica 2022 and Academic of Santa Cecilia since 2004, he was awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2013 and the title of Knight Grand Cross in 2020 to the Merit of the Italian Republic.
It has been published by Casa Ricordi since 1986.

Ars Ludi is a percussion ensemble with variable staff which, since its inception (founded in 1987 by Antonio Caggiano and Gianluca Ruggeri), has embarked on an active artistic itinerary on two interpretative dimensions.
On the one hand, the proposition of the contemporary repertoire for percussion, realized with an international concert activity (USA, Mexico, Germany, China, Sweden, France, Spain, Malta, Greece, Turkey, Algeria, Kenya, Scotland and Switzerland in some these occasions he recorded for national radio-television stations.) interpreting composers such as J.Cage, K.Stockhausen, B.Bartok, G.Battistelli, L.Andriessen, E.Varese, S.Reich, W.Duckworth, A. Curran, G.Scelsi, L.Berio, V.Heyn and C.Ambrosini) and encouraging the repertoire of Italian authors (L.Ceccarelli, P.Esposito, M.Lupone, L.Bianchini, M. Tadini, M.Cardi, T.Battista, N.Sani, M.D’Amico, C.Boccadoro, M.Dall’Ongaro, F. Filidei, L. Pagliei, L. Gregoretti, C. Galante and many others).
On another front, AL’s activity was characterized by the conception and implementation of projects of different and wider scope which involved many artists from the most disparate disciplines. Events which, for the most part, take the form of multimedia creations MusikAutomatik (music by Rota/Catalano and K.Stockhausen), “Tetralogy of Dreams and Pain” dedicated to W.Herzog and the Popol Vuhs, “Land im Klang” by A.Curran, “Macchine Virtuose” by L.Ceccarelli, “Drumming”, “Electric Counterpoint” and “Tehillim” by S.Reich, “Aphrodite” by G.Battistelli, “Gewael” by M.Dall’Ongaro, “Deserts ” with music by Edgar Varese and video by Bill Viola, “Inanna’s descent” by L.Andriessen, “Lied” by N.Sani, “NN” by Francesco Filidei, “Primi Piani” by L. Cinque and “Land of Silence” by Jacob TV. He has taken part in many internationally prestigious festivals such as Locarno (video-art), French Academy, German Academy, Roma Europa, Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, Monday Evening Concerts-Los Angeles, Manca-Nice, New York Interpretations, Festival Cervantino, Aterforum-Ferrara, Vienna “Land im klang”, Beijing MusicaACOUSTICA, Music/Italy in Edinburgh, Fylkingen in Stockholm, GAS in Gothenburg, Mittelfest, Nuova Consonanza, REC, Reich Festival- Rome, Milanesiana, etc. He has recorded for Brilliant, Edipan, BMG, Pontesonoro.
Rewarded for 2022 with the Silver Lion from the Venice Music Biennale

University Institution of Concerts
THE CONCERTS OF THE AULA MAGNA

Jules Verne

Ars Ludi Ensemble
Silver Lion, Music Biennale 2022

Antonio Caggiano Professor Lidenbrock
Rodolfo Rossi Captain Nemo
Gian Luca Ruggeri Doctor Ferguson

George Battistelli
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Biennale Musica 2022

Jules Verne
Imagination in the form of a show for three performers (1987)
Music and Text Giorgio Battistelli
Lights and stage machines Angelo Linzalata
Sound direction Pasquale Citera
A 2022 Biennale Musica production

Media Partners
For the 2022-2023 season, the IUC has renewed the media partnership agreement with Vatican Radio, which we thank.

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