Music by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and original pieces by Paola Magnanini
Soprano: Giulia Bolcato
Mezzo-soprano: Paola Gardina
Dance company Fabula Saltica: Cassandra Bianco, Laura De Nicolao, Davide Dibello, Federica Iacuzzi, Claudio Pisa, Manolo Perazzi, Antonio Taurino, Chiara Tosti

Conductor and Orchestra Director: Gerardo Felisatti
Choreography: Claudio Ronda
Choreography Assistant: Federica Iacuzzi
Costumes: Antonio Taurino, created by Federica Coppo
Technical Director: Gianluca Quaglio

Orchestra of the Francesco Venezze State Conservatory of Music in Rovigo and the Regional Philharmonic Orchestra of Veneto
2023 New Production of the Ballet Association “City of Rovigo” – Fabula Saltica Dance Company, with the contribution of MiC and the Department of Culture of the City of Rovigo

The Stabat Mater is a meditation attributed to Jacopone da Todi, giving voice to Mary’s suffering as she witnesses her son Jesus being crucified. This prayer questions how a mother can survive the pain of her child’s unjust death and tragically brings us back to the present. It prompts reflection on the arrogance and pride of mankind. It speaks of death—this elusive, mysterious, and unpredictable event—and of the solitude that comes with grief. It highlights the pain of those left behind, particularly the mothers of contemporary wars and violence, both public and private, who know no resurrection.

Through a continuous flow of visual and sonic scenes, our Stabat Mater questions what remains after surviving the death of a child and how to give shape and space to grief. Mary’s archetypal pain, immortalized in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, is the lament of a human voice calling for shared compassion. It’s as if that voice asks not to be left alone, to share the pain and make it our own. In ancient times, no one was left alone in mourning; communities, especially women, would surround the grieving person, participating in their lament. The ancient lament was a required ritual with a rhythmic and musical identity, giving form to the grief, containing it within a musical time frame, transforming it into art and preventing it from descending into madness.

But are we still capable of feeling and recognizing suffering as part of humanity and life, of “feeling together” and experiencing the same emotion together? Today, in grief, we are alone. We struggle to find forms of shared expression, retreating into ourselves. As witnesses to others’ pain, we often don’t know what to do, lacking a communal ritual for sharing grief, leaving the individual to face it alone.

The Music
From a musical standpoint, the project introduces a completely new element that both projects the work into a contemporary dimension and allows the various episodes to connect even more effectively with the dance. Certain sections have been linked with specially composed musical inserts. These new parts maintain the original sentiment of Pergolesi’s text, drawing no external material, but are woven into the original musical fabric, reworked and experienced in a modern context.

Photo by Valentina Zanaga