At the heart of VIVALDIANA, Spellbound’s new show, the idea of working on a semi-reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s universe integrating within it some characteristics of his rebellious unconventional personality. Starting from this concept, the choreographer Mauro Astolfi translated into movement some works by Vivaldi in order to portray the talent and ability to reinvent, during his lifetime, baroque music. Vivaldi was a musician immersed in a context dominated by rationality. He distinguished himself because he was fully aware that he was going beyond the limits of his time and was not afraid of going against the trends; this is what made him a genius. This gave Astolfi the idea to re-elaborate the structure of his music and attempt to give back to his works elements of uniqueness, those works that provide an unparalleled source of inspiration to give shape to a research in dance that brings together harmoniously the artistic aspects with the most histrionic human characteristics and sometimes crazy aspects of the “red priest”, the first musician to compose with the specific intention of stimulating the public’s taste and not comply with it. In September 2019 the show inaugurated the season of the Grand Theater of Luxemburg, which commissioned and co-produced the wider project in two parts (with two creators) Vivaldi Variations.
Mauro Astolfi and Jean-Guillaume Weis from Luxemburg for this event deeply engaged themselves in the work and the life of the musician to create a stage performance of their corresponding thoughts and emotions and the different approaches of the two artists, respectively creating Vivaldiana and Seasons. These choreographies were both entrusted to the interpretation of the team of Spellbound Contemporary Ballet and the live music from the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxemburg.
