The commemoration of forty years of democracy in our country will govern a large part of the cultural programming of 2023. In this sense, the Teatro Colón will begin a new season outside its splendid setting. In the Ocher pavilion of La Rural there will be a staged version of “Resurrección”, the monumental Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, with a staging by Romeo Castellucci and orchestral direction by the eminent Charles Dutoit.
The occasion will be quite a challenge since none of the stage proposals of this creative theater director leaves the spectator indifferent. Quite the contrary, the images that come from his inexhaustible imagination tend to oscillate from certain dreamlike beauty with decadent airs, to the most bizarre.
His vision reinforces that the performing arts in opera houses should be spaces for artistic avant-garde creation. Do not limit yourself to repeating in a more or less virtuous way what has already been seen and heard so many times. They should even give us the joy of giving ourselves to novel and even iconoclastic readings. For example, in 2019, Castellucci presented “Requiem”, a staging of Mozart’s last and unfinished work. In a series of enigmatic episodes, he contrasted the mournful music with a stirring evocation of all civilization. From the birth, with wailing singing children, to the vibrant folk dance and the somber implosion amid the battles and destruction of nature.
The staging that Castellucci makes of Mahler’s music reminds us that art is a journey that invites us to think and reflect. “Resurrection” was known last year at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and generated different controversies about the symbolism of what happens on stage. On a muddy plateau, a vehicle with the logo of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees arrives and a group of people clad in white overalls gets out. They begin to dig and slowly bodies appear in what appears to be a mass grave. These dead can symbolize both the victims of a war and people who suffered the rigors of a totalitarian State. It is a world devastated by pain to which the Mediterranean creator sheds light and transforms into hope.
The unmissable proposal, which will take place from March 7 to 12, is part of Divina Italia, a collaboration between the Teatro Colón with the Italian Embassy in Argentina and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Buenos Aires, focused on touring the legacy of Italian musical art.
