Nineteen Mantras was staged as world premiere at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on the 10th and 11th of January 2012. The project was born from an encounter of three different creative spheres: the music of Riccardo Nova, the visual concept and dramaturgy of Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and the choreography of Shantala Shivalingappa brough together to create a balanced vision of both worlds, two visions and two cultures—India and Europe—in a single performance. The work aims to create a universal drama, in which the concepts of space, time, duration and succession are not respected. Actions do not follow on from other, but they expand into one another, thus creating cycles that dissolve and dissipate to then be reborn. The music, inspired by the natural forms of sound, opens towards Indian cosmogony by focusing on some significant moments of existence.
On stage, six students from the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, the Indian dancer Hema Sundari Vellaluru, and two acrobats, accompanied by the Indian musicians, Mysore Manjunath (violin), Uday Kiran (voice), BC Manjunath, (mridangam and percussion), Guru Prasanna, Kanjira and the Italian musicians from the Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble.
Music by Riccardo Nova
Directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti
Dramaturgy by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and Riccardo Nova
Choreography by Shantala Shivalingappa
The Alain Daniélou Foundation (previously, Harsharan Foundation) supported the making of the project by hosting the Indian dancers and musicians in its Zagarolo centre as part of the Residency Programme, as well as organising a concert at the MAXXI Museum in Rome.