Rubrica di Simona Curatola

Autumn is in the air with cooler temperatures, colorful leaves and theatres open back again! So we are ready to give you some tips about the best upcoming events in Italy.

Starting from Milan, we signal for the ballet a date not to be missed with the XXVIth edition of MilanOltre Festival, an event rich of performances with some of the best international ballet companies, workshops, meetings and so on (up to Dicember 2 at Elfo Puccini).

Moving to prose, from October 16 to November 4 is on stage at Sala Shakespeare Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending. At Teatro Verdi makes its debut Duda Paiva with Bastard, within the review of the Figure Theatre – the IF Festival – on October 19, while from November 13 to 18 at Leonardo is on stage a masterpiece of Russian dramaturgy, Anton Checkhov’sThe Cherry Orchard.

In Rome, the XXVIIth edition of RomaEuropa Festival – with the motto «All that we can do» – continues up to November 25, with a combination of theatre, music, ballet and various performances in eight places throughout the city (Teatro Argentina, Palladium Università Roma Tre, Teatro Eliseo, Auditorium Conciliazione, Teatro Vascello, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Brancaleone, Opificio Telecom Italia). Upcoming events include: at Teatro Argentina from October 26 to 28 national debut of Birds with Skymirrorsby the Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio, an ode to nature and our connectedness within it, celebrated through dance; from November 4 to 6, world premiere of Quicksand – Call me God, with four playwrights – Gian Maria Cervo, Marius von Mayenburg, Albert Ostermaier and Rafael Spregelburd – who had collaborated in writing a text for various voices and which addressed one of the most pressing issues of our times: the relationship between personal safety and individual freedom. On November 16 Daniel Abreu, both choreographer and dancer, debuts at Palladium with his latest work Animal, while at Auditorium Parco della Musica on November 23 will be on stage The homage to Philip Glass, in the occasion of his 75 years, in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Musica per Roma. The performance will be organised as a singular comparison of the composer – famous for his soundtracks and his collaboration with the world of pop and rock music – and two European composers, Igor Stravinsky and Arvo Pärt.
Let’s move to Florence, where we higly recommend for the great opera the Turandot by the direction of Zubin Mehta on November 27 at Nuovo Teatro dell’Opera, while a few miles away, in Pontedera (PI), from November 12 to 28, makes its debut Era, an International Festival of theatre, dance and literature.

This autumn is the right time for visiting great painting exhibitions in Italy: in Pisa, at Palazzo Blu, Kandinsky: from Russia to Europe (until February 3); in Torino, Palazzina della Società Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Degas: masterpieces from Musée d’Orsay (from October 18 to January 27)and, last but not least, in Pavia, at Scuderie del Castello Visconteo, Renoir: la vie en peinture (until December 16).

For photography, we signal two monographics in Milano during the first weekend of November: Giovanni Presutti in Dependency, photographic works reflecting on dependency as a mean of survival to contemporary life (Bel Vedere Gallery until November 3) and Peter Lindbergh: Known and “the Unknown” at Carla Sozzani Gallery until November 4; in Lucca until November 4 it is still possible to admire the surrealist portraits by David LaChapelle at Lu.C.C.A. (Lucca Center of Contemporary Art). Finally, for comic section, we would like to suggest the Festival Lucca Comics & Games that will take place from November 1 to 4 in the wonderful Tuscan city.