Notte Morricone

RuhrBühnen*Spezial in May - Ruhrfestspiele

The stage is dark. A tremor can be felt. Then music begins to play. More like a collage of different types of music. A harmonica. The brief moment of a whistled sequence of notes. It is unmistakably music by Ennio Morricone. The composer, who died in Rome in 2020, is best known for his film scores for classics such as “The Mission”. His unmistakable compositions have long since emancipated themselves from their films and made Ennio Morricone a global star. 

“Notte Morricone” is the first collaboration between the Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau and the contemporary dance company CCN/Aterballetto from Italy. The CCN/Aterballetto dancers already wowed the Ruhrfestspiel audience back in 2017 with the double dance evening “Lego/Antitesi”. Marcos Morau is known to Recklinghausen audiences from his work “Pasionaria”, which was shown at the Ruhrfestspiele in 2021. With his own company La Veronal, he fascinated the audience with an impressive and curious dystopian world populated by humanoids.

“Notte Morricone” is an artistic spectacle in the style of Morau. An atmospheric dance narrative unfolds in a nocturnal setting, taking the audience on a journey into Ennio Morricone’s life, work, and thoughts. His complex musical universe forms the sonic space of the ‘Night of the Artist’. The music was arranged by Maurizio Billi, an old friend of Morricone’s. “Notte Morricone” could be a restless night in the composer’s life, during recordings in the recording studio, in front of sheet music in the solitude of his study. It could also be a dream in which the boundaries between time and space, between film and life, present and past become blurred. The wonderful Aterballetto ensemble leads through the scenes and dimensions of this surreal, cinematic night of theater, sometimes in gentle duet encounters, sometimes powerfully as an ensemble. Marcos Morau’s characteristic narrative style is continued in the movement language of the 16 dancers. As if guided by invisible threads, their bodies follow the rhythms and melodies of Morricone’s music. 

This marvelous dance theater event is a tribute to the musical legacy of an extraordinary personality. With loving details and delighting in curiosity, it is touching and visually stunning.