Spain - “The Firebird” by Teatro Gioco Vita
The Firebird is a shadow-and-dance pièce entirely based on the “choreographic story” which Igor Stravinsky composed in 1909 for the Russian Ballet. And the definition “choreographic story” is not improper as The Firebird is a tale told through music.
But Stravinsky created a music which is never dominated by the story but enjoys complete expressive freedom. Its strength lies precisely in the balance between what is functional and what is autonomous, between figurative and abstract.
In The Firebird, Teatro Gioco Vita proves the great spectacular potential of shadow theatre and chooses dance as an interlocutor, -a language able to give a body to the incorporeal nature of shadows and to act as a scenic medium between shadows and music.
The Firebird is one of the most important and popular productions by Teatro Gioco Vita. Twenty-two years since its debut and thirteen years since its second production, the show is re-proposed at the Festival de Granada, a festival born in the Alhambra «to gather and to convey the enormous heritage of great European musical culture».