Taken from Jean Cocteau’s literary text Les enfants terribles (1929), thoroughly disconcerting in its fearful modernity and its dealings with the age of adolescence, so atrociously happy and tortuous, with such tragic severity and impalpable elegance, La Boule de neige by Fabrizio Monteverde, already back in 1985 unravelled a current of Italian contemporary dance devoted to relations with literature. At that time the mirror reflection among Cocteau’s four cursed protagonists and the interpreters was almost total.
Today the choreographer places in the hands of the youngsters of the Balletto di Toscana Junior a choreography similar to a concert for four voices: all that remains of the colourless chambre where the tragic event is played out are the lights. An identical search for direct emotions that strike the spectator’s heart, like the boule, the real and metaphorical snowball that is at once hurled.
Marinella Guatterini
freely adapted from Les Enfants terribles by Jean Cocteau
direction and choreography: Fabrizio Monteverde
music written and conducted by Pierluigi Castellano,
texts by Francesco Antinucci and extracts from the opera L’Orfeo (1672) by Antonio Sartorio
costumes by Gianni Serra
light creation: Carlo Cerri in collaboration with Andrea Narese
characters and interpreters:
Paul: Mirko De Campi / Nicola Simonetti
Elisabeth: Claudia Manto / Debora Di Biagi
Gérard: Luca Cesa / Valerio Di Giovanni
Agathe: Alessandra Berti / Marta Papaccio
1985 production: Spaziozero/Compagnia Baltica
new stage production 2013: Balletto di Toscana Junior
in collaboration with Amat – Associazione Marchigiana Attività Teatrali, Arteven Circuito Teatrale Regionale Veneto,
Teatro Pubblico Pugliese
in co-production with Fondazione del Teatro Grande di Brescia, Fondazione Fabbrica Europa, Fondazione Milano Teatro Scuola Paolo Grassi, Fondazione Ravenna Manifestazioni, Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, Torinodanza
new stage production within the project
RIC.CI Reconstruction Italian Contemporary Choreography Anni ’80/’90
creation and artistic direction: Marinella Guatterini
director’s assistant: Myriam Dolce