SYRACUSE – Ajax by Sophocles, directed by Luca Michelettiinaugurated the 59th season of classical performances last night at the Greek theatre of Syracuse.
Before the start of the show, Francesco Italia, president of Inda and Marina Valensise, managing director and interim superintendent of Inda, announced to the public the program of the 60th Season at the Greek Theater of Syracuse. In 2025 the Inda will stage Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles directed by Robert Carsen in the translation of Francesco Morosi, Electra by Sophocles directed by Roberto Andò in the translation of Giorgio Ieranò And Lysistrata by Aristophanes directed by Serena Sinigaglia in the translation of Nicola Cadoni. In July 2025, the director, choreographer and artistic director Giuliano Peparini will present a world premiere in Syracuse of a new original creation focused onIliad.
The show, translated by Walter Lapini with original music by Giovanni Sollima performed live by an ensemble, scenery and lights by Nicolas Bovey and costumes by Daniele Gelsi in collaboration with Elisa Balbo, thrilled the audience of the Greek Theatre. On stage is Micheletti himself who in this production plays the double role of director and interpreter of Ajax; with him on stage Daniele Salvo in the role of Odisseus, Diana Manea (Tecmessa), Roberto Latini (Athena and the messenger), Tommaso Cardarelli (Teucer), Michele Nani (Menelaus), Edoardo Siravo (Ate/Thanatos), little Arianna Micheletti Balbo in the role of Eurisace and then again Giorgio Bongiovanni, Lorenzo Grilli, Mino Manni and Francesco Martucci (corifei), Giovanni Accardi, Gaetano Aiello, Ottavio Cannizzaro, Pasquale Conticelli, Giovanni Dragano, Raffaele Ficiur, Gianni Giuga, Paolo Leonardi, Marcello Mancini and Marcello Zinzani. Completing the cast are the children of the Inda Academy, the theater school named after Giusto Monaco and then the musicians Francesco Angelico, Christian Barraco and Cecilia Costanzo (cellos), Giovanni Caruso (percussion), Giuseppina Vergina (harp), Marcello Zinzani ( clarinet) and Paolo Leonardi (trombone).
“A tragedy of horror and madness, Ajax is also a powerful meditation on the condition of man struggling with his own uncertain and often senseless destiny – these are the words of Luca Micheletti – The suicide of the archaic hero prefigures the transition to a new society of which Odysseus is the paradigm: if Ajax succumbs because he is unable to forgive his mistake and embrace his condition as a fallible creature, Odysseus, on the contrary, becomes an ambiguous spokesperson for the complexity of human, draws with dismay and wisdom on a new knowledge: the era of heroes is over”.
This evening, at 7pm, the second debut of the season with the premiere of Phaedra (crown-bearing Hippolytus) by Euripides directed by Paul Curran in the translation by Nicola Crocetti. Tomorrow, Sunday 12 May, at 9am, the inauguration of the XXVIII edition of the International Festival of Classical Youth Theater in Palazzolo Acreide with over 2 thousand students who will arrive from all over Europe from 12 May to 4 June to perform on the stage of the Akrai Theater .
