Dal dipinto alla scena: Norma secondo Federico Tiezzi
Biagio Scuderi
Abstract
Since his debut with the company ‘Il Carrozzone’ (1970), Federico Tiezzi has stood out because of his peculiar dramaturgy which makes of figurative arts its hallmark. In fact his contemporary education as art historian entails a fruitful permeation between stage and icon which allows him to establish himself as a precursor of the so-called ‘Image Theatre’. In all the plays and operas he has put on, his rigorous visual grammar brings about suggestions and interferences that deeply innervate his scene setting. Moreover, reference to Aby Warburg’s teachings clearly shows up in his way of portraying the character on an intertextual backdrop, as well as in his pondered study of gestural expressiveness that he develops having as guide the Pathosformel’s theory.
This essay aims at investigating Tiezzi’s poetics through the analysis of an opera production that clearly display the osmosis between scene and figurative arts: Bellini’s Norma, famous for the unusual collaboration of the Pop-Art star Mario Schifano in making the stage curtains and the backdrops. Schifano’s naïf art fits into a neoclassical-inspired set which is explicitly reminiscent of Jacques-Louis David’s painting, arousing quite an evocative aesthetic and semantic contrast.
Keywords
Norma – Federico Tiezzi – Opera direction – Image theatre – Mario Schifano – Pier Paolo Bisleri – Aby Warburg – Jacques-Louis David
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