Notti di Luce
Lights from the World of Fantasy

The artistic project

The different aspects of fantasy, the praise of light-heartedness, the relationship of fantasy, science and technology. Those are but a few of the subjects on which the artistic project Notti di Luce 2003 is based.
While last year's edition was mainly an investigation on the "lights" of some of the key cities of the nineteenth century, this year's edition is inspired by the very lights and sounds that can be found in city nights, so as to ideally open the city gates to fantasy and make it possible to experience the city with light-heartedness and pleasure.
Bergamo, as a matter of fact, can almost be considered as possessing the character of one of Italo Calvino's "invisible" cities, a sort of city of light and fantasy, where over a three-day period the fantasy of the arts and entertainment meets by magic with the rationality of technological light.
Light is indeed one of the best examples of light-heartedness and it melts with man's logic, thus exalting his creative and operational abilities.
Fantasy also makes it possible to travel with the mind and to bring closer places and locations which would otherwise be separated, both physically and time-wise, yet extremely contiguous and similar from the viewpoint of emotions and expression.
All of those aspects are going to be openly stated and developed during the events, which will consist - as is tradition at Notti di Luce - of original productions and other performances that have been especially created with in mind the "open" dimension of Piazza Dante.
A first-ever at Notti di Luce, Piazza Dante will feature the athletic dance of Kataklò. This outstanding theatrical and athletic group, who has performed in the opening nights of the Sidney Olympics and of Paris' World Football Championship, will present its new show "Up, Vertical Energies", a tribute to the mountains, in perfect balance between athletic performance and poetical abstraction.
In keeping with one of Notti di Luce's nice habits, Bergamo has been granted the opportunity to have as exclusive guests a number of large musical ensembles: Bob Mintzer's Homage to Count Basie, Orchestra Enea Salmeggia with Gianluigi Trovesi, Orchestra Regionale Toscana with Gino Paoli, Swiss Orchestra with Franco Ambrosetti. Some of these ensembles have intertwined their musical arrangements and the spoken word through a number of intriguing paths, both theatrical and musical. The 2003 edition is an attempted repetition of those projects by paying a tribute to "The Voice", Frank Sinatra, who will be played by English singer Nick the Nightfly and will be narrated by Chiara Colombo, a talented young actress. Some of Orchestra di Milano's famous soloists, under the direction of Gabriele Comeglio, are also part of the musical ensemble.
A theatre rendition by Mario Bertasa of Italo Calvino's famous book Le Cosmicomiche [The Cosmicomics], featuring actor Gene Gnocchi with original music by Neji Trio. Though this "journey" the audience will be led into the unreal world of Sci-Fi, always on the borderline between seriousness and cheerfulness, thanks to Gene Gnocchi's sharp irony that he has taken from Calvino's works and thanks to Oreste Castagna's brilliant direction.

Claudio Angeleri - Art Director for Notti di Luce