Roberto Bolle returns to the Teatro del Maggio with "Caravaggio"

The Italian debut, at the Teatro del Maggio, of the ballet created by choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti

Music by Claudio Monteverdi re-orchestrated by Bruno Moretti

The staging is inspired by the life and works of Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, and transforms the revolutionary drama and theatricality of the great painter into movement.

An emotional journey into the restless and brilliant soul of an immortal artist.

Four shows are scheduled, all in the Sala Grande: May 9 at 8 pm; May 10 at 3 pm and 8 pm and May 11 at 3:30 pm.

An ARTEDANZA srl production

Main Partner: Intesa Sanpaolo

With the support of the Ministry of Culture

To satisfy the many requests from the public, the Maggio informs that additional seats in the stalls are available for all 4 performances.

Florence, May 7th, 2025 – The 87th edition of the Maggio Festival is enriched with Caravaggio, a ballet never performed before in Italy in two acts starring the international Étoile Roberto Bolle, supported by a cast of great talents. The show created by Mauro Bigonzetti – acclaimed Italian choreographer of the contemporary scene – was conceived in 2008 for the Staatsballett Berlin directed by Vladimir Malakhov. The music was re-orchestrated by the composer and conductor Bruno Moretti, who worked on pieces composed by Claudio Monteverdi from Orfeo; from Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Incoronazione di Poppea and from the Settimo libro dei madrigali.

“Caravaggio” is on stage in the Main Hall of the Teatro del Maggio on May 9th at 8 pm; May 10th at 3pm and 8pm and May 11th at 3.30pm.

Speaking about the show, Superintendent Carlo Fuortes told how the idea was born at the Teatro del Maggio last year during the filming of Viva la danza: “Together with Roberto Bolle and the Undersecretary of Culture Gianmarco Mazzi we discussed what we could do to enhance dance. Thus the idea of ​​staging Caravaggio was born: a show that takes up and reworks the choreography of the 2008 production at the Staatsballett Berlin with new sets and new costumes. It is interesting to underline that this production, born in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, also involves a private entity, namely ArteDanza. A true choral effort therefore, with the Ministry putting together the various parts, us ‘making the Theatre’ and therefore thinking about the technical part relating to sets, costumes and hospitality and ArteDanza, in fact, taking care of the executive production. I see in this a rare and virtuous model that, I think, can be replicated in the future”.

The promoter of the project as well as its interpreter and protagonist is the Étoile of La Scala himself, ambassador of Italian culture in the world and spokesperson for ballet as an art form accessible and dedicated to all, who made his debut at the Teatro del Maggio in the fall of 1999. Alongside him are some of the best solo dancers of international calibre, together with a dance troupe created for the occasion through auditions which will include around 30 young dancers. “Dance brings many values, values ​​in which I strongly believe,” said Roberto Bolle, “and evenings like these are important because, in addition to transmitting all of this, they manage to leave their mark; being able to bring Caravaggio here to Italy for the first time gives me truly unique sensations. It is very important for me to instill in the audience the emotions I experienced dancing in deserted halls with Caravaggio’s masterpieces hanging on the walls. Interpreting this brilliant artist in that context was a wonderful sensation: it is as if the very strength of Caravaggio had entered my soul, in an absolutely indelible way.”

The show is inspired by the works of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio, of which Bigonzetti highlights the complexity of the figure, exalting the aspects that make up both the man and the artist. On the one hand, his troubled inner world, moved by a particularly restless soul, and on the other, the story through the expression of his art. Caravaggio, following the interrelation of these two aspects, therefore becomes a psychological and dramatic ballet, which from a dramaturgical point of view has its recurring "notes" in the solo, in the duets, trios and quartets, interspersed with choral scenes that ease the tension and give motion to an action substantially centered on the Caravaggio ego.

Thanks to the scenography and the lights, designed by Carlo Cerri, the union between the two worlds branches out, enhancing the suggestive choreography and enhancing the movement of the bodies. The show's costumes are by Lois Swandale and Kristopher Millar.

The ballet:

At the end of the 16th century, Caravaggio, twenty years old, arrives in Rome. A city crossed by a very varied human multitude made up of monsignors and gentlemen, soldiers and acrobats, pilgrims and layabouts, gypsies and prostitutes; on all this infinite variety of bodies, looks, riches and miseries he focuses his gaze, studies their characteristics, assimilates them and then renders them in those works that will become the elements of a true artistic revolution.

From what is now called Piazza Navona to the Corso, from the Scrofa to Campo de Fiori, with voracity towards life, Caravaggio crosses the streets of Rome and at the same time feeds on that reality. The art and life of this artist are an inseparable pair. His works are filled with an expressive force that is the one that springs from an openly lived reality, his art becomes a snapshot of that reality. Three of the four signatures on the poster of this ballet on Caravaggio were born in Rome and lived there the formative years of their adolescence. Walking through those same streets that, squeezed between two rows of buildings in which the light filters sharply from the corners, suddenly open onto squares flooded with light creating that alternation between light and shadow that is typical of a theatrical game, means breathing the same visions of Caravaggio and feeling part of them. Entering one of the infinite Roman churches and discovering the signs of his passage, fixed in a work that was revolutionary at the time, inevitably means undergoing a strong direction on an aesthetic that is forming. This is the essence of this ballet on Caravaggio: transmitting the sense of an aesthetic and an artistic culture that were formed by breathing his same air. The synthesis of all the elements, dance, music and vision, without any temptation to iconography, seeks to render that concept of art that springs from life. The movement of bodies that draw inspiration and strength from the experience of life and find their development in the composition of the gesture that comes from it, draws the lines of a contemporary and passionate choreography that always moves in the rigor of technique.

Visually, a large suspended frame evokes the expectation of the work that is born from life and the stage becomes the place of the representation of human passions. Those same human passions that, musically, Monteverdi uses for his representation of the sacred, drawing on the same popular matrix that Caravaggio drew from. The construction of the musical structure follows the same need for aesthetic synthesis, unfolds in a prologue in Baroque fashion where the protagonist meets the allegorical character that represents him, in this case the Light. A first act that encounters the human events of Caravaggio and a second act that immerses itself in the art that flows from those events and from which he drew the strength of a disruptive vision that is transfigured into a narrative.

The concert is preceded by a listening guide held by Sabrina Vitangeli in the Foyer of the Main Hall. It is reserved for ticket holders and takes place 45 minutes before the start of the show (duration: approximately 30 minutes).