Forlì, 18 June 2024 – The curtain has closed (amid applause) on the fourth edition of the Festival of Caterina Sforza which saw the last two matches hosted in the newly inaugurated arena set up in the courtyard of the Ravaldino fortress.
A very apt choice, if you consider that that was Caterina’s true home, which however is not dictated by a philological intent. In fact, if the summer event has moved to the Rocca di Ravaldino, it is because the external space of the Saint Dominic which hosted it in recent years is now an open construction site, as work is underway on the last part of the museums.
This year the event took place from 9 May to 16 June with 15 events spread throughout the city: in addition to the Rocca also the Diego Fabbri theatre, ExAtr and the Mega Mondadori bookshop in Forlì. Many notable guests enriched the edition: Azzurra Rinaldi, Roberto Mercadini, Mariangela Gualtieri, Nicoletta Verna, Chiara Mercuri, Jennifer Guerra, Stefano Bartezzaghi, Ester Viola, Beatrice Baldaccini, Jacopo Veneziani, Maria Pia Timo and Giuseppe Cruciani.
We are talking about a total of 3,000 people to be part of public. Numerous events have gone sold out and in some cases someone was left out. The last event of the review, a talk which took place on Sunday evening, was no exception in terms of attendance, guaranteeing a finale with a bang. During the evening, among the speeches, there was also that of the outgoing culture councilor Valerio Melandri (his reconfirmation is in the balance), creator of the festival, whom he thanked for the five years that have just passed.
“I am very happy with the result of this edition – underlines the artistic director Eleonora Mazzoni – and I was particularly excited by the two evenings that were held in Caterina Sforza’s house. The environment was also perfect from a technical point of view: spacious, yet intimate, equipped with all comforts, including dressing rooms for the artists. It is a natural theater with the most suitable scenography of all.”
Mazzoni then moves on to contents: “It was a varied and colorful festival. For me, renewing our gaze on culture means trying to be profound and at the same time accessible to a broad and intergenerational audience and this year my fellow citizens have warmly followed a program in which even complex books coexist with unpublished performances, dissemination, meetings and shows. It was a festival of exchange and dialogue, the ingredients that undermine that ‘organised solitude’ which is now the hallmark of our society”.
“The personality and history of Caterina Sforza had disappeared from the city’s horizon – comments the mayor Gian Luca Zattini –. There was no place, representation or event that recalled his name and deeds. We, with an operation of great quality and courage, have brought the figure of Caterina to the center of an extraordinary Festival, all about her, enhancing her qualities and characteristics within an all-female, modern and dynamic dialogue . This year, with the added value of the Fortress restored and returned to the public in all its beauty after decades of abandonment, we have told and developed an even more beautiful and evocative festival, which all of Italy has envied us. I thank you from the bottom of my heart Eleonora Mazzoni for his extraordinary artistic talents and his ability to stage a multifaceted and attractive event”.
