Until July 28th, ten evenings at the Amphitheatre of Santa Maria Capua Vetere for the eighth edition of the Arena Spartacus Festival.
From Chet Baker to Billie Holiday: a tribute to the great masters of Jazz.
Three special evenings with a tribute to Totò and Caravaggio
Live shows for 10 euros, cinema for 3 euros and discounts for students to make culture accessible to all.
Cinema and music that confront, dialogue and intersect between “Myth, sounds and visions”. The program of the eighth edition of the Arena Spartacus Festival, the Festival of the Performing Arts that since 2015 has animated the summer evenings of the Amphitheatre of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, the second largest Roman amphitheatre in the world after the Colosseum, with cinema, literature, music and theatre, is decidedly original and evocative.
This year the theme of the festival, which in its first seven editions has attracted over thirty thousand spectators to ancient Capua, will be “Jazz Telling” to celebrate in ten events the union of stories and images of characters and protagonists who have told their lives through music. A jazz music festival that will have cinema as its 'shoulder' with an evocative setting between stage and big screen.
This year too, the initiative, which has never received any public financial support, is the brainchild of “Amico Bio Arena Spartacus”, the world’s first organic restaurant in an archaeological site founded by Enrico Amico and Bruno Zarzaca in 2013. The event is organized and produced by Radio Zar Zak with the artistic direction of Donato Cutolo and Maurizio Zarzaca and with the patronage of the Municipality of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, the Regional Directorate of Museums of Campania, the Arte’m consortium, the Pro Loco of Santa Maria Capua Vetere and the Automobile Club of Caserta.
Cinema and Jazz: Contamination Under the Stars in the Nights of the Arena Spartacus Festival at the Amphitheatre of Campania
Arena Spartacus Festival will kick off on Saturday 1 July at 19pm at the Amphitheatre Campano in Santa Maria Capua Vetere with a special evening dedicated to the theme “Myth, sounds and engines”.
It will start with a rally of historic cars and motorcycles (which will start at 17.30:20.30 pm in the historic center of Santa Maria Capua Vetere) in one of the most important places in Italian history marked by Hannibal, Spartacus and Garibaldi, among others. A rally also aimed at promoting the project of creating a Museum of private collectors of vintage cars and motorcycles that will be the prelude to the first evening of a combination of cinema and music with the screening (at 22:XNUMX pm) of the historic film by Dino Risi “Il sorpasso” and with the music (from XNUMX pm) of the Ichnusa Blues Band.
Then there will be every Thursday and Friday in July at 21.30:XNUMX pm another four comparisons between cinema and jazz. In the first three weeks of the Festival, the tribute to three of the greatest jazz artists in the history of music: Chet Baker, Billie Holiday and Keith Jarrett.
On Thursday, July 6, Bruce Weber’s historic documentary film “Let’s Get Lost” about the life of Chet Baker will be the prelude to the live show “About Chet” on Friday, July 7 with the Giovanni Amato Trio (Giovanni Amato trumpet, Alessandro La Corte, piano and Vincenzo Nigro, bass).
On Thursday 13th July on the big screen of the Spartacus Festival Arena “Billie”, the award-winning film by James Erskine about the life of Billie Holiday, will open the way for the live show “Into Billie” on Friday 14th July with the Simona Pettenati Trio (Simona Pettenati vocals, Francesco Marziani piano, Gianfranco Coppola double bass).
Thursday 20th July will be the turn of Clint Eastwood's cinematic journey in the "Piano Blues" which on Friday 21st July will have the jazz counterpoint dedicated to Keith Jarrett with the live show of the Head Project Trio (Fabio Tommasone piano, Raffaele Natale drums, Antonio Napolitano, double bass)
The closing of the Arena Spartacus Festival will be on July 27 and 28 with a double evening tribute to Totò, the prince of laughter. “In that summer of '49, two things struck me about Totò. A sort of split between the actor and the prince. On the set he acted, he was scurrilous, farcical, comical. Then he became Prince De Curtis and his loyalty to the noble figure was total. He loved being at home. He had a screening room where he watched films, even alone. He listened to music and composed some. When he received guests, in the evening, he would play his songs for us, he would tell anecdotes. He was a very nice man, but he wasn't a comedian, he didn't show off. He knew how to listen. He was kind, a gentleman”. Mario Monicelli's famous words on the 'double soul' of Antonio de Curtis tell the meaning of the double cinematographic and then musical tribute to Totò.
On Thursday, July 27, on the big screen of the Amphitheater Campano there will be “I soliti ignoti” one of the most appreciated films by Monicelli himself that brought together some of the greatest actors in the history of Italian cinema: Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Totò. On Friday, July 28, the tribute to Totò with “Sepè le Moko”, the live show by Daniele Sepe with his band (Paolo Zamuner, Roman Gomez, Antonella Iannotta and Massimo Del Pezzo).
On Wednesday 19 July, again at 21.30:XNUMX pm, there will also be a theatrical interlude in the busy programme of the Arena Spartacus Festival. A tribute to the artistic genius of Caravaggio with Ludovica Rambelli Teatro, the company famous for the Tableau Vivant technique, which will stage “The Conversion of a Horse. Tableaux Vivant by Caravaggio”.
Popular prices for all evenings and visits to the Amphitheatre of Campania with one euro of the ticket for the flooded areas of Emilia Romagna
Also this year the prices for all the shows of the Arena Spartacus Festival are deliberately 'popular' (10 euros for concerts and for the theatrical show and 3 euros for the cinema shows, with reduced tickets for school and university students at 5 euros and 1 euro respectively). Info on www.arenaspartacus.it, electronic ticket office on www.go2.it and physical ticket office open every evening at least two hours before the shows.
On each evening of the Festival, arriving before 19 pm, it will be possible to visit the Campanian Amphitheatre and the Gladiator Museum (entrance ticket 3,50 euros with a one euro donation for the flooded areas of Emilia Romagna).
The special food and wine program for the tenth anniversary of Amico Bio Arena Spartacus
This year the Arena Spartacus Festival also celebrates the tenth anniversary of “Amico Bio Arena Spartacus” which on 10 June 2013 inaugurated its activity at the Amphitheatre Campano of Santa Maria Capua Vetere as the first restaurant in the world in an archaeological site, after a call for tenders from the Ministry of Culture which for the first time had also considered quality catering as an indispensable additional museum service. For the occasion, “Amico Bio Arena Spartacus” in addition to the traditional menu featuring dishes produced entirely organically and biodynamically will also offer special themed menus dedicated to cinema, music and history and a cocktail bar service.
Info and Tickets Arena Spartacus Festival:
Tel. 0823-1831093 – Cell. 392-3070500
Email: arena.spartacus@gmail.com
www.arenaspartacus.it
Archaeological Circuit of Ancient Capua – Info and guided tours
Tel. 0823-1831093
Email: anfiteatro_smcv@arte-m.net
Article published on 30 June 2023 - 16:45
