Autumn Festival, “Gaîté Parisienne” the great show of the Belle Époque closes the first Dance Festival in Catanzaro

John

By John

«It will be like a cannon shot, or rather, like a champagne cork!». Fredy Franzutti, choreographer and director of, has no doubts about how it will go “Gaîté Parisienne”, the show that, the last act of the Dance Festival organized by the XXI Autumn Festival, will go on on stage on Saturday 19 October at the Politeama Theatre.

In fact, the greatest citizen is preparing to transform himself with sequins and lace to transport spectators to the early 1900s, those of the Belle Époque, full of hopes for the new century that has just begun and with a desire for lightness which every now and then doesn’t hurt, so like today, in a completely different era. Gaîté Parisienne is indeed the great show on the Belle Époque, with all its explosion of art, music, theater and literature which will come to life on the Politeama stage thanks to sumptuous sets and detailed costumes, as Franzutti himself anticipates. The dancers of the main parts are also the Spaniards Nuria Salado Fustè and Orion Pico Plaja, also known for his participation in the well-known show “Amici”.

What will this Gaîté Parisienne be like?

«The set-up is fantastic: I think it’s the most impressive Italian operation that’s going around at the moment. The scenes (by Francesco Palma, ed.) are exceptional, all painted by hand, as was the custom in the past. After ballets with more conceptual stagings, I wanted to give more value to the sets and costumes, this is an important decorative staging. There will be 25 dancers on stage.”

How was the Gaîté Parisienne show born?

«First of all it must be said that it takes the repertoire title, the Gaîté Parisienne which debuted in 1938 in Monte Carlo, with Offenbach’s music, but it is my version, the choreographies are all mine. Gaîté Parisienne is the last classical ballet in history with scenes and places, but it already has within itself those elements that will lead to the elimination of the decorative aspect. There is no fairy tale told. There is the famous Cancan, one of the best known compositions, which Offenbach had initially composed for the operetta “Orpheus in Hell”. The duration is longer, I also included other pieces, again by Offenbach.”

What are they?

«There is a reconstruction of the ballet “Le Papillon”, which the legendary Maria Taglioni choreographed in 1860, which I also wanted to include as a tribute to the figure of Emma Levry, the dancer who was her student who lost her life due to a tutu that caught fire during the rehearsals of a show: the poor girl, left practically naked on stage, continued to cover herself with the same inflamed dress to avoid being seen. An episode linked to modesty in stark contrast to the women of the Belle Époque, here the cancaneuse, who can claim their freedom, even as entrepreneurs.”

It is the paradox of the Belle Époque.

“Yes. But not only that: at the beginning of the century it was understood that something had gone wrong, that the promise of the new century had not been kept and all the enthusiasm for the 20th century had quickly become nostalgia for the 19th century. And so that was mythologized as a happy era, before the problems of the twentieth century arrived. In short, as they usually say, “it was better before”. Or as Woody Allen states in “Midnight in Paris”, it is one of the conditions of man to wait for a future that is always nostalgia.” As for the rest of the programming of the first Dance Festival in Catanzaro, organized by the XXI Autumn Festival – supported by the Calabria Region/Calabria Straordinaria; Chamber of Commerce of Catanzaro, Crotone and Vibo Valentia; Municipality of Catanzaro, Fondazione Carical, as well as various private bodies -, we remind you that it will begin at 4 pm with the contemporary open lesson with the masters Marco Laudani and Claudio Scalia: due to the unfavorable weather forecast, the location will no longer be a square Prefecture, but rather the Marca Museum, where the show by the Ocram Dance Movement company “Plus ultra. Beyond the myth”.

In the evening, at 7.30pm we will move to the Politeama Theater where a meeting with the choreographer Fredy Franzutti will be held in the foyer, and at 9pm there will be the grand closing with Gaîté Parisienne. Finally, we would like to inform you that again due to the weather forecast, the lyrical gala tribute to Giacomo Puccini scheduled for October 20th at the church of SS Annunziata in Santa Caterina Borgo, has been postponed to October 25th at 7 pm.