THE OPERA!
ДОЛЬЧЕ!
DOLCE! is a union of theatre and cinema based on great operas, a phantasmagoric story of wanderings in the world of the dead, where only music is alive and eternal.
A modern take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a story of great love and great trials. A young man, who lost his bride on their wedding day, goes to the afterlife to find her, because he cannot imagine life without his beloved. A mysterious taxi driver (charming Vincent Cassel) accompanies him on this journey, where the only thing on the hero's side is Hope. Hesitating between faith and despair, overcome by fears and doubts, Orpheus searches for a way to save his bride, rushing around a luxurious imaginary hotel, each space of which hides its secrets. Will he be able to pass all the tests and bring his beloved back to life?
The film features hits of world opera and modern music, recognizable from the first bar: famous arias and music from operas by Puccini, Verdi, Gluck, Bellini, Bizet, Rossini, Ravel's "Waltz" and the song "The Power of Love" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood).
Featuring Placido Domingo, Fanny Ardant, Erwin Schrott and Caterina Murino.
The costumes for the film were created by the Italian fashion house Dolce&Gabbana.
Actors
Charon
Vincent Cassel
Orpheus
Valentino Buzza
Eurydice
Mariam Battistelli
Proserpina
Fanny Ardant
Concierge
Caterina Murino
Pluto
Erwin Schrott
Atropos (Moire)
Rossy de Palma
Calliope
Angela Finocchiaro
Crew
Costume design
Dolce&Gabbana
Under a metaphysical sky, the taxi driver, Charon, waits for the crime to be committed. The wild chase over the waters of the Acheron to Hades (or rather, to the Hades Hotel) begins the fearless journey of Orpheus, the groom, to get his love back. At his side Orpheus will have only Hope, a young girl who will cross the realm of the dead with him. Among meetings with the souls of his deceased loved ones, Proserpina's attempt at seduction, Atrope's cynicism and the concierge's indifference, Orpheus will realise the extent of his love and confront the doubt of the living when faced with the disarming truth of death. Desperately searching for his beloved, Orpheus will discover surreal places: a semi-submerged Paris, a cliff overlooking the river Hades, the immense hotel lobby, the stages of semi-abandoned theatres.
The two protagonists will perform some of the most beautiful opera arias in a play of musical references: from Puccini to Handel to Verdi, Gluck, Bellini, Ravel, Vivaldi up to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, in an extraordinary sound world mixing acoustic orchestras and electronic sound design. The last and insidious obstacle to bringing Eurydice back to the world of the living consists in performing the aria that holds the essence of the love test. Orpheus must sing Nessun Dorma, without forgetting for whom he is singing it for. Intoxicated by success, the young lover will waver. Will he be able to take his beloved back with him?
DIRECTORS’STATEMENT
This is the story of all stories: two lovers on their wedding day, a cruel fate, the journey beyond life. This is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and their love, presented in an opera-musical in which the myth is transposed to our contemporary world, with a narrative language in which words, opera, pop, fashion and the visual arts come together.
Over the past few years, our work in major theatres around the world has taken opera to a new narrative and visual level, in order to restore the lyrical tale to its actuality. We did the same with the film The Opera!, taking the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (the subject of the first libretto in opera history), and transforming it into a metaphysical journey to new visual horizons. Because opera is current, it is pop, it is modern, it knows how to speak to our contemporaneity.
We created an unexpected encounter between acting and opera singing, between pop, special effects and images rich in symbolism, with the same intent from which melodrama was born: the simultaneity of all arts. Alongside a cast of extraordinary actors such as Vincent Cassel, Fanny Ardant, Rossy De Palma, Caterina Murino, two young protagonists chosen from hundreds of opera singers: Valentino Buzza and Mariam Battistelli. Two true stars, capable of extraordinary singing and acting at the highest level.
For the first time in Italy, the film was shot almost entirely in a virtual set, at the Prodea Led Studios in Turin, in order to be able to tell the dreamlike and visionary aspect that characterises it with the most modern cinematographic technologies. The virtual set allowed us to develop an aesthetic that mixes the metaphysics of De Chirico with rationalist architecture, the visual amplitudes of Nervi with theatrical scenography, the design of Mollino with the extraordinary beauty of Dolce&Gabbana's costumes.
The movie is designed to maximise the visionary nature of the story, to make it a grand dreamlike fresco that crosses the river Acheron and reaches the Hotel Hades, opening doors that unveil phantasmagorical worlds, traversing the black limbo of our consciousness in the search for the deepest meaning of love and death.
This film takes the Italian nature of opera to a new level, extraordinarily modern and at the same time absolutely ancient. Suitable for those who have never heard it and for those who have long experienced its emotions. It borrows the narrative structure of the musical and transports it into the world of opera, creating a new film genre: the opera-musical.
LIVERMORE & CUCCO
