BOMARZO 2007
a unique experience without precedent
“Un día vendrá aquí un soñador y recordará todo esto"
(Some day a dreamer will come here and will remember all this)
Manuel Mujica Lainez
“Bomarzo 2007”: a project born in 2003 and materialized in a few days in the town of Bomarzo (Italy) between July and August 2007.This documental-experimental video was directed and produced by Jerry Brignone based on an original idea of his own and Massimo Scaringella. During two hours and a half it develops a free version of the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s opera “Bomarzo” with Manuel Mujica Lainez’ libretto written from his famous homonymous novel. The singular image setting accompanies the audio of the original cast version in its opening night in Washington in 1967, previous to its notorious historic prohibition in Argentina by its de facto president, general Onganía.
The full-length movie was filmed in only four days (July 26th/29th 2007) without rehearsals by Argentinian, Italian and local artists who met each other during its making. Edited in six days, it was then immediately exhibited to the Bomarzo inhabitants and other invited civil servants and diplomats.
“Bomarzo 2007” had thus its first public showing in the frame of a cultural event in Palazzo Orsini, at Bomarzo, which took place during August 3rd and 4th, entitled “Bomarzo a Bomarzo: Un Omaggio” (“Bomarzo to/at Bomarzo: A Homage”). The pre-gala consisted in the exhibition of a documentary made in Argentina by the 3 de Febrero National University (UNTREF) on the figure of Mujica Láinez and “The Paradise”, his ranch in Córdoba, accompanied by lectures by professors from the Buenos Aires University (UBA) and the UNTREF, a lyric concert of Argentinian songs with piano -including Ginastera’s works- and a dinner.The following night opened with the inauguration of a collective exhibit of Italian and Argentinian artists on the subject of Art and Writing (including fourteen different editions in Spanish of Mujica Láinez’ novel). Afterwards, the content of “Bomarzo 2007” edited up to the moment was shown to a big audience which included several guests, government authorities, representatives of official organisms and the local people, much of them performers in the film. The event culminated with a tasting of regional foodstuffs and typical local recipes. Both evenings were registered by the UNTREF for a documentary that summarizes this unusual experience which took place with free entrance and all the artists involved in the project working for no fees whatsoever.
A unique experience without precedent, this venture took the opera “Bomarzo” for the first time to the location which inspired it, bearing the aim of all involved to pay homage not only to its authors, Ginastera and Mujica Láinez, but also to the historically so productive cultural exchange between Argentina and Italy, of really transnational implications, as well as Bomarzo’s people and its captivating natural beauties.
Participants (credits) Backings and sponsorships
Opera's plot resume Acknowledgments
