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In a time crossed by noise, the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation chooses to start again from the word. It is from this vision that the national premiere “Svegliare il giorno” was born, a production that marks the start of the new artistic course of the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation, under the artistic direction of Simona Celi, and which will inaugurate the theater section of the Taormina Arte 2026 International Festival.
The event is scheduled for Saturday 1st August at 5pm at the Ancient Theater of Taormina, where the public will be invited to live the experience of dawn through an original project that intertwines poetry, music and landscape. The protagonist will be Ambra Angiolini (protagonist in the cover photo by Maddalena Petrosino), who also writes the dramaturgy of the show based on texts by Chandra Livia Candiani (courtesy of Einaudi). Accompanying her will be the City of Taormina Plectrum Orchestra, conducted by Antonio Pellitteri. The music is by Franco Battiato, with arrangements by Antonino Pellitteri.
In the light that accompanies the return of day, Ambra Angiolini’s dramaturgy intertwines the poetry of Chandra Livia Candiani and the music of Franco Battiato in a shared listening journey. The word and music dialogue with the beauty of the landscape, transforming the Ancient Theater into a space in which the public is called to live an experience, rather than to attend a simple performance. Through Candiani and Battiato, the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation pays homage to two of the highest expressions of contemporary poetic and musical research, while celebrating one of the greatest Sicilian composers.
The note presenting the project clearly explains the meaning of the drama created by Ambra Angiolini: “I hope to share not a reading, but an experience. A time in which nothing is asked of us other than our presence. In a world that continually asks us to raise the threshold of pain, the most urgent need is to continue to feel. To start again from the breath. From the heartbeat. From our thoughts. This is why I chose the words of Chandra Livia Candiani. Because I felt the need for disarmed words. Music by Franco Battiato will continue that dialogue. And then come back. As the dawn itself says, the dawn comes back. Every day it comes back, it reminds us that we can do it too, without even realizing it. And, above all, remember that you are alive.”
Celi: “With words we seek shelter from the aggressions of our time”
The artistic director of the Taormina Arte 2026 International Festival, Simona Celi Zanetti, introduces the show as follows: “Our theatrical season opens with a great artist and with a powerful value, that of words to which we all feel the need to return, for comfort, to purify ourselves and to seek shelter from the aggressions of our time. Ambra Angiolini and Chandra Livia Candiani represent for me a moment of truth and depth, in the idea that this Festival finds, in the authors, in the music, in the great actors and its identity in its relationship with the public. And identity also means giving strength to Sicilian artists, those who tell the story of a new island, always in turmoil, never iconographic. Artists who do research and bring their work to the theaters of the world. We want them here so that the Taormina Arte Festival is also their stage. The Taormina Plectrum Orchestra is a precious Sicilian excellence. Franco Battiato’s music is the natural form of thought Taormina Art”.