GERSHWIN SUITE | SCHUBERT FRAMES

Choreography: Michele Merola
Music: George Gershwin, Stefano Corrias
Lighting and set design: Cristina Spelti
Set design: Alice De Lorenzi
Costumes: Carlotta Montanari
Music adaptation and recomposing: Stefano Corrias
Choreography assistant: Paolo Lauri
Performers: Emiliana Campo, Dylan Di Nola, Mario Genovese, Matilde Gherardi, Fabiana Lonardo, Annalisa Perricone, Alice Ruspaggiari, Nicola Stasi, Giuseppe Villarosa

Duration: 40 min.

Premiere: 8 February 2018, Teatro Ristori, Verona

The notes of George Gershwin (1898-1937), one of the most representative musicians of the 20th century, reflect the spirit of the time in which they were created, with the moods and atmospheres of the Roaring Twenties. Starting with the composer’s best pieces and suggestions from the pictorial works of another great 20th century American artist, Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Michele Merola has created Gershwin Suite, whose soundtrack anthologises the author’s most captivating pages, such as, among others, Summertime, which seals the show and recurs in several moments and in different versions, and Rhapsody in Blue. But it is not only the lush and lively music that attracts the choreographer: Merola chooses Gershwin’s music in its various facets, not only the more euphoric and brilliant pieces, but also the more romantic and intimate, sensual and seductive ones. A new composition by Stefano Corrias welds it all together, a musical carpet that gives unity to the rich mosaic of scents, now overflowing with dynamism, now fully lyrical, suspended in rethinking and thickened in melancholy. Another authorial contribution to the realisation of the show was made by Cristina Spelti, who designed the lighting and set design, and co-wrote the concept with Merola.

Some scenes are therefore inspired by the connection between the composer’s various pieces and various paintings – such as New York Movie, Soir Bleu, Summer in the City, People in the sun – by Edward Hopper, a painter who, thanks to his realism and his modus operandi of ‘framing’, is considered an artist very close to the world of photography and cinema, capable of poetically and evocatively depicting even humble and simple moments of everyday life.

“I was attracted” – says the choreographer – “by the painter’s ability to construct atmospheres and nuances that outline the implications and secrets of the human condition. The direction of the danced images and the staging of the scenes create characters and situations that are not determined once and for all, but open to different endings and solutions”.

Directly inspired by Hopper’s paintings, the intimacy of the pas de deux and solos are paraded, complemented by ensemble scenes, where the will to live and redemption from everyday life take over. On stage, so much variety takes on the guise of a film set, thanks to a set design that changes constantly, just like a set, and a choreography that touches several keys, thanks to the versatility of the choreographer, who is able to apply his creativity and talent in step with contemporary times.