Ducks, or rather hens that lay golden eggs and “find themselves on the throne as queens”, and Carmelite nuns who end up on the gallows “so as not to face a world without grates”. Prostitutes who decide to raise Arturo, “the son of violence and orphan because the mother dies in childbirth” and blackcaps, those of the tango danced by an old woman who dreams of love. And then flayed, victims of the Mafia, «heroines or martyrs because in order to be remembered a woman must perform extraordinary gestures, be universally recognized excellence. But how many mediocre men, on the other hand, go down in history without too much effort? Lots of them. And they even let us study at school! ».
Emma Dante, 55-year-old director, actress and playwright from Palermo, who has dedicated all her inexhaustible creativity to the female universe, introduces the protagonists of her upcoming films and theatrical performances: «By now I am the director who tells stories of women. I don’t do it on purpose and I hate generalizations, but in fact it is. The female universe offers me a world of ideas, the male one a little less ». On Tuesday 18 October, her “Pupo di Zucchero” (“a Sicilian sweet that smelled in the kitchens of mothers and grandmothers”) opens the season of Theater of Rome (and remains on stage until 30), in the meantime the directing rehearsals of “Dialogues des Carmélites” have begun, which opens on November 27 Rome Opera House, in April his “Sicilian Vespers”, after the debut at the Massimo in Palermo, will be staged in April at the Comunale of Bologna “but with a female conductor, Oksana Lyniv, it will be an interesting experience”. In his spare time he is editing the film “Misericordia” (“with two prostitutes, mothers out of mercy, in fact”), retouching the show “Il tango delle capinere”, again at the Argentina theater in May and dismantling and reassembling the adventures of the ” Papara “” which will be the third part of the trilogy dedicated to “Lo cunto de li cunti” by Basile, but calmly. Now I have to deal with puppets and nuns ».
Emma Dante after the 5 Nastri “We women are made to excel”
Emma Dante in Carmel: how was the meeting with the nuns who choose the guillotine in order not to deny the vote?
“I liked the idea of this group of women, prisoners of their own faith, martyrs. Anything that has to do with contemplation, spirituality, when it leads to extreme choices, attracts me. And they are extreme. During the Revolution their extreme gesture brings them to the gallows. They are nuns, but they are women. Women women and not women without sex. On stage they all have long hair down. They are almost broken up ».
Sensual?
“People who have a before and an after. The painter Jacques-Louis David portrayed many noblewomen of the time at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. And the protagonist of the “Dialogues” is one of them, a noblewoman. I was inspired by those portraits and we use them on stage to highlight that behind every Carmelite there is a lady, or a girl, who had a life before the vow. In opera you have to be very concise. A strong image is needed for the viewer to grasp everything in an instant. Music dominates and therefore the vision must be instantaneous to leave music its central role, the river of notes must flow on the stage ».
In order not to give up their votes, they go to the guillotine. In your opinion, is there anything else besides religious sacrifice?
«The desire to get lost in contemplation and the fear of the world without grids. They are fragile, not strong women, who make a strong choice. Even during revolutions that change the world, nothing much changes for women. For them it is always more difficult. And to go down in history they are forced to make extreme sacrifices ».
In Pupo di Zucchero, however, the protagonist is an elderly man who invites the dead of the family to dinner on the night of November 2.
«And mammina arrives, her sisters Rosa, Primula and Viola, Pedro from Spain who was pining for Viola, uncle Antonio and aunt Rita victim of his” blows “. The show lasts as long as the “sugar baby” rises: the statuette takes shape with water, flour and sugar. In the South there is still the custom of organizing sweets banquets for November 2nd: in exchange for biscuits, the deceased relatives bring gifts to the children. Before the puppets were in the shape of knights, paladins now on the stalls superheroes are offered ».
A Sicilian Halloween?
“Halloween wiped out our tradition. A shame because it was a special celebration that Camilleri described beautifully. The children woke up early because they knew that loved ones who were no longer there had arrived during the night. It was a way of keeping them in memory. After opening the gifts we went to the cemetery and the cemetery was filled with voices ».
Sooner or later he will also take care of Mrs. “Papara” …
«It is the third part of the trilogy dedicated to“ Lo cunto de li cunti ”. But I’ll take it easy. Papara is the story of a king who can no longer move: he is confined to his realm. Because? Because a papara, or rather a hen, has slipped into his anus. On his way back from a hunting trip, he stopped to take his needs. To clean himself, he sees this hen he believes to be dead and uses it as toilet paper. But the hen is not dead and she slips right there, in his backside. A drama. The whole court, the queen, the daughter, ignore him. On the contrary, they exploit this situation because the king, with the hen in the intestine, lays golden eggs. Eventually, however, he dies. The hen somehow gets hold of him. And she takes the throne instead of her. A show that should be done today. Who knows, it could serve to stimulate an original reading of power ».