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Friday, July 12, 2024

Titizé - A Dazzling Venetian Dream Takes Flight at Venice's Goldoni Theater

Titizé - A Venetian Dream - Photo: ©Viviana Cangialosi, Compagnia Finzi Pasca
(Venice, Italy) The historic Goldoni Theater, which was recently revitalized with a 2 million euro nip and tuck thanks to the Venice Comune, transforms into a dreamscape with Titizé - A Venetian Dream. The production is a dazzling world premiere that promises to amaze and enthrall an international audience, old and young.

The show was written and directed by the visionary Daniele Finzi Pasca, one of the founding members of the company of the same name, Compagnia Finzi Pasca, based in Lugano, Switzerland. In its 40 years of international activity the company has created over 40 shows -- including 3 Olympic ceremonies, 2 shows for Cirque du Soleil and 8 operas -- and has graced the stages of around 600 theaters and festivals in 46 countries around the world for over 15 million spectators.

Titizé - A Venetian Dream - Photo: Cat Bauer
Titizé - A Venetian Dream blends the timeless art of commedia dell’arte with impressive acrobatics and contemporary innovations, creating a multi-dimensional spectacle that celebrates the 400th anniversary (give or take:-) of the founding of the Goldoni Theater. The title (tee-tee-ZAY) is inspired by the Venetian language for "you are."

Music, orchestration and sound design are by Maria Bonzanigo; the set design by Hugo Gargiulo; associate set designer Matteo Verlicchi; costumes by Giovanna Buzzi; with a cast of talented and flexible performers: Alessandro Facciolo, Andrea Cerrato, Caterina Pio, Francesco Lanciotti, Gian Mattia Baldan, Giulia Scamarcia, Gloria Romanin, Leo Zappitelli, Luca Morrocchi, Micol Veglia, Rolando Tarquini.

Titizé - A Venetian Dream - Photo: ©Viviana Cangialosi, Compagnia Finzi Pasca

A Venetian Dreamscape

We were treated to a early dress rehearsal to give us a taste of the wonders in store when the show opens on July 18. It runs every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until October 10, and lasts for an hour and 20 minutes with no intermission. It will then tour internationally, returning to Venice in the summer of 2025.

The production is inspired by the ethereal essence of Venice, complete with masks, Pulcinella, harlequins, water, jugglers, fog, and the stuff of dreams. The music is hypnotic, the costumes are ravishing -- especially the mermaid soaring overhead with an impossibly long tail of 3 meters -- and the performers are astonishing. I was immediately bewitched by one fit fellow with impressive biceps and triceps who dangled his partner from an elaborate trapeze with just one arm around her waist!

Titizé - A Venetian Dream - Photo: ©Viviana Cangialosi, Compagnia Finzi Pasca
There is no story, and very little dialogue. The 18 different scenes are surreal and tumble into each other the way dreams do, with the magic of Venice, and the imagination and direction of Daniele Finzi Pasca, holding the performance together. 

The show blends traditional theater with innovative technology, creating some mind-blowing illusions as the actors appear upside down in a surreal rain shower gripping a Mary Poppins up-up-and-away umbrella on a large digital screen on one side of the stage, while, at the same time, the audience witnesses the tech tricks of the live performers, lying sideways, on the other side of the stage. (You have to see it:-)

Titizé - A Venetian Dream - Photo: ©Viviana Cangialosi, Compagnia Finzi Pasca

Titizé - A Venetian Dream is the perfect entertainment for all ages and nationalities on a summer night in Venice. It is an acrobatic theatre show co-produced by the Fondazione Teatro Stabile del Veneto – Teatro Nazionale and the Compagnia Finzi Pasca for the international stage of the Teatro Goldoni in Venice, in co-production with Compagnia Gli Ipocriti Melina Balsamo.

Go to the Teatro Stabile del Veneto for tickets and more information.

Ciao from Venezia,
Cat Bauer
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog

1 comment:

  1. The historic Goldoni Theater, which was recently revitalized by a 2 million euro nip and tuck by the Venice Comune, transforms into a dreamscape with Titizé, A Venetian Dream. The production is dazzling world premiere that promises to amaze and enthrall an international audience, old and young.

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