Every generation must discover Nina Simone, argued feminist Germaine Greer. With the appointment on Tuesday 11 June, at 9pm at the Alighieri Theatre, the Ravenna Festival audience will not only be able to discover or rediscover the singer, pianist, writer and civil rights activist… but “meet” her: in Nina, the award-winning soprano American Claron McFadden composes a mimetic portrait of the great artist thanks to the technique of heterodirection, a key element of Fanny & Alexander’s poetics. Starting from the audio recordings of radio and television interviews and public speeches, McFadden “inhabits the voice” of Nina Simone and bears witness to the strength of her character and her creative spirit, going through the most salient moments of her biographical parable, with poetic tension to the fight for the rights of women and African Americans, to the point of revealing their fragility and wounds. The show, created by Luigi De Angelis who directs and lights, is based on the dramaturgy of Chiara Lagani (who also takes care of the costumes). The musical creation is entrusted to McFadden herself and Damiano Meacci of Tempo Reale; the latter also takes care of electronic music and sound design. Adama Gueye on percussion, while Andrea Argentieri put his experience from If This Is Levi at the service of the show.
“When Luigi told me about this project, I thought ‘This is my moment to really get to know Nina Simone’, to immerse myself in her world. – explains Claron McFadden – I think what makes this show really special is that we don’t memorize a script and try to give an interpretation. Let Nina speak through me. Obviously it’s impossible to be passive, but the idea is to become a pure container for the way Nina expressed herself vocally, linguistically and physically. I think it’s important to be able to tell her story, including everything – the pain, the joy, the anger, the political injustice, the illnesses, the pain – but without adding or interpreting anything. As a woman of color, as a musician who left her country for similar reasons, even if not as dramatic as hers, I have been lucky enough to be able to make my dreams come true despite facing some obstacles… but I know what it means.”
Alongside If This Is Levi (winner of two Ubu Awards), Nina belongs to a line of research with which Fanny & Alexander compose mimetic portraits of relevant figures from recent history – writers, artists, philosophers whose words and work continue to have relevance to our present. The choice of subject for these portraits is the wide availability of interviews, many of which were broadcast on television or radio channels. These recordings significantly document not only the opinions, but also the “soul life” of the subjects: since no two identical voices exist, the voice is our unmistakable sound imprint – the voice, and not the eyes, is therefore the mirror of the soul, guardian of our nature and our experiences. In the case of Nina Simone, the starting point is a memorable concert in 1976. Within the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland, the artist manifested an irresistible need to relate to the audience, breaking the normal boundaries of the performance ritual . Several times during the evening, she began to play the piano and then stopped and addressed the spectators directly, without filters, sharing her emotions in a strange state of grace. From that precise moment – that incredible free space that the artist created during the concert – Nina was born, which incorporates the musical reconstruction of her songs, oscillating seamlessly between moments of pure music and interaction with the audience, putting thus the traditional relationship between spectacle and spectator is once again questioned, in search of a relationship based on emotion and involvement.
Info and pre-sales: 0544 249244 – www.ravennafestival.org.
Show tickets: single numbered seat 15 euros (reduced 12); under 18: 5 euros.
