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Starting again from the pure and “disarmed” word in times crossed by noise: this is the message of “Waking up the day”, the inaugural event of the Theater section of the Taormina Arte 2026 international festival, with its national premiere on August 1st at 5 in the morning at the Teatro Antico. First production of the new course of the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation – with the artistic direction of Simona Celi Zanetti – the show will see on stage Ambra Angiolini, also the author of the playwright, protagonist of a show where the words of Chandra (Sanskrit word for Moon) Livia Candiani – great Italian poet, translator, of Russian origins, student of prestigious Buddhist masters – and the music of Franco Battiato come together in a journey between music, poetry and landscape.
Accompanying the actress is the “Città di Taormina” plectrum orchestra, arranged and conducted by Antonino Pellitteri. Not a simple reading but an experience to be lived in an immersive way, with the music of the Sicilian singer-songwriter continuing the dialogue where the words of the Milanese poet stop and then return.
«In the past I have really wanted to act at the Teatro Antico – confesses Ambra Angiolini –, one of the most lively and real places there is and where the human presence lights up what is most powerful we have: our presence, our breathing, with everything meditative we could obtain and deal with every day. When they asked me what I wanted to read, I thought of many things, but then I turned to Candiani’s words, because they are the readings that have changed me the most in recent years, forcing me to be present, to be there. Battiato is instead an experience of each of us, a music that is already within us and does not require the effort to understand. They seemed perfect together and I think they have a lot in common.”
Candiani is a poet with a profound spirituality and Battiato also based much of his music on spirituality. Could this be the element that links the two artists?
«I believe that both of them relied on meditation, making it real and not just utopian. We are all surviving in some places of this strange world where breathing seems to have truly become a utopia. Having two characters who don’t ask us to find time that isn’t there, but to find something that concerns us in that same time, is a gift. Like philosophy born in times when those who thought and identified it really wanted to put it at the service of the people, without creating an elitist place where only a few could learn. They seem to me to be two artists who still convey the desire to self-evolve and have awareness, that is, “with-knowledge” in the sense of knowing something together.”
So how can we stop and find ourselves in this complex everyday life?
«There are people who are also unable to put their biology into action: the fact that the human being was born to breathe, rest, take care of beauty to prevent the body from shutting down. We should meet every now and then in some sacred place or place that already has meditation intrinsically, to give us even an hour’s chance to listen to ourselves as we are. Livia wrote me something beautiful: “I’m happy that you decided to take me in there. Do it without emphasis as you know how to do, with presence and with disarmed words”. Disarmed words like Franco’s disarmed music, which makes you make peace with something. It seems beautiful to me and I would like many to experience this opportunity.”