After Rome, Milan, Paris, Antwerp, Rotterdam Nina Of Fanny & Alexander arrives on the stage of the Alighieri Theater. Tuesday June 11that 9 pm, the audience of Ravenna Festival will have the opportunity to come into contact with the soul of Nina Simone, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Nina is in fact the most recent of the mimetic portraits created by Luigi De Angelis And Chiara Lagani, dedicated to the figure and the musical, human and political events of Eunice Kathleen Waymon: singer, pianist, writer and civil rights activist, known under the pseudonym of Nina Simone.
Icon of jazz music, indomitable personality, Simone is here played by Claron McFadden, American soprano and performer well known in both the world of baroque and contemporary music. 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. “I feel like this is my time to really get to know Nina Simone and immerse myself in her world,” McFadden said. “The idea is to become a pure container for the way Nina expressed herself vocally, linguistically and physically, without adding anything of my own, but letting herself speak through me.”
Luigi De Angelis – who conceived the project, directed it and lit the lights – started from a memorable concert by Nina Simone in 1976 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. That evening the artist didn’t just perform her songs, but established a deep and sincere dialogue with the audience, breaking the traditional boundaries between artist and spectator. This spirit of intimate connection and sharing of emotions is at the heart of Nina who we will see in Ravenna.
The dramaturgy is by Chiara Lagani. The soundtrack, which integrates elements of electronic music, is the result of a collaboration between McFadden and Damiano Meacci of Tempo Reale, while the percussion of Adama Gueye they add a rhythmic and engaging dimension. Everything is completed by the experience of Andrea Argentieriwhich prepared McFadden for heterodirection, a technique that saw him as the protagonist of the beautiful and award-winning “If This Is Levi”.
