Nicola Piovani – Ulysses' Travels

Written and directed by Nicola Piovani, “Ulysses' Travels” - a performance on stage at the Auditorium Parco della Musica - is a musical tale for instruments paired with recorded voices. The central themes of this tale are the emotions and the deep impressions left on Piovani by his readings and his imagination of some of Ulysses's travels, a three-thousand-year-old figure, a mythical figure whose fascination and wonder remain mysterious and enigmatic even today. All this, accompanied by instrumental music, which alone can attempt to capture the emotion those distant tales are capable of arousing.

The instrumentation includes piano, double bass, saxophone, cello, percussion, and electronic keyboard, along with recorded voices reciting verses by poets such as James Joyce, Konstantinos Cavafy, Homer, Umberto Saba, Torquato Tasso; voices inserted into the score have a primarily sonic role.

Written and directed by Nicola Piovani. Orchestra soloists: Marina Cesari – sax/clarinet; Sergio Colicchio – keyboard/accordion; Pasquale Filastò – cello/mandoloncello; Marco Loddo – double bass; Vittorino Naso – drums/percussion; Nicola Piovani – piano. Actors in video: Carlo Cecchi, Paila Pavese, Massimo Popolizio, Mariano Rigillo, Virgilio Zernitz, Chiara Baffi, Massimo Wertmuller; recorded voices: James Joyce, Siobhan McKenna; texts: Konstantinos Cavafis, Homer, James Joyce, Torquato Tasso, Pindar, Umberto Saba. Drawings: Milo Manara.

Photo: Auditorium Parco della Musica official site