Agenda Venezia

Oriental Carnival dance

 

The encounter between Carnival and Theatre traditions has woven a conducting thread which, until the present date, has accompanied the history and life of the Venetian Carnival, renewing the splendour and magic from the 1980's onward. After nearly one hundred years of neglect, Carnival was reborn in the '80s with the fortunate intuition of Maurizio Scaparro, hystrionic master of the Italian theatre, who recognized, in Venice's magical atmosphere, an ideal open-air stage in which to bring upon the scene a grand show where the roles of public and protagonists merge and interchange, through the golden, glittering filter of masks. The symbol of this Carnival rebirth was a building of evocative name: the Teatro del Mondo, constructed by Aldo Rossi, ephimeral architecture, floating in the dock of San Marco. Thus Venice, a magical city which arose on water, consacrates itself as theatre for all the world and all the world for theatre, at Carnival time. As with a set of Mastryoshkas, one inside the other, inside this great open air theatre which is Venice open up the precious, suggestive theatres of the city. There is also a Chinese show: now Carnival has chosen to celebrate China, and Venice renews its vocation as Gateway to the Orient, confirming its millenial, legendary links with Chinese culture and traditions. Carnival Way winds through worldly as well as cultural events in Venice's theatres, across her courtyards, calli and campielli, inside sumptuous palaces. For a wide and varied public, Carnival presents equally numerous and varied proposals.

Marisa Chelodi (translation of Maria Fasolo)