The musical project, Le Due Lune (The Two Moons) – created through the virtuous collaboration between the L’Orientale University of Naples (promoter of the event), the World Youth Orchestra Foundation, the IULM University of Milan, and thanks to the important support of the Fondazione Cultura e Arte (instrumental institution of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale, chaired by Prof. Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele who works towards promoting cultural and artistic initiatives aimed at solidarity) – traces a multi-ethnic path that traverses and unites two different but intrinsically linked cultures: the Arab-Islamic world and the Western world.
The work carried out in workshops and seminars throughout Rome, Naples, and Milan arrived in Dubai on November 17th and 18th for Expo 2020 during the week dedicated to the theme of “Tolerance and Inclusivity”, with the performance inspired by a story from the OneThousand and One Nights: The Two Moons.
The performance combines narration and music, alternating the elegance of words with the seduction of sounds, between images and sensations that narrate the long history of exchanges between Asia, the Middle East, and Mediterranean Europe.
A narration through the sounds of the Italian and Arabic languages, accompanied by the universal language of music, will invite spectators to cross linguistic-cultural barriers and geographical borders, and learn a wonderful story of inclusiveness, peace, and tolerance.
Before being presented in Dubai, the performance was shown in Naples on October 25th, 26th, and 28th at the L’Orientale University of Naples, with a workshop on the translation and critical and historical elaboration of the texts that constitute the Arabic part of the performance, and on November 13th, 14th, and 15th at Palazzo Du Mesnil with rehearsals open to the public.
“Le Due Lune is a project created at the L’Orientale, a university that focuses on the study of languages and cultures of the ‘other’, often erroneously sensed as distant and foreign. The project then developed and paved the way towards building a wonderful synergy between public and private institutions, with great enthusiasm on behalf of the teachers, artists, and students. A clear example of the fruitful dialogue between different skills, cultures, and artistic visions,” Prof. Roberta Denaro of the L’Orientale University of Naples stated.
On November 17th, in the Auditorium of the Italian Pavilion in Dubai, thanks to the participation of the audience present in the hall, a listening workshop on the poetic texts and music of the performance was presented while, on November 18th at the Millennium Amphitheatre, Le Due Lune was staged with script, direction, and musical direction by Damiano Giuranna, along with the participation of actresses Valeria Almerighi and Silina Choueriy and the musicians of the World Youth Orchestra. The sound of the Italian and Arabic languages, with the sounds of musical instruments, and Mediterranean and Middle Eastern musical traditions, are the protagonists of this performance.
“The performance narrates an episode of the Thousand and One Nights, interpolated with Italian poems and arias from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and verses belonging to medieval Arabic literature, as well as from music of the ancient Maghrebian and Arab-Andalusian traditions. At the center of the performance is the female figure of Shahrazad, the archetypal and universal emblem of female intelligence and wisdom. A figure that perfectly represents two sides of the same reality: two cultures, Western and Eastern, which confront each other using the privileged tool of the arts as a special message of fraternity, love, and beauty,” Director of the World Youth Orchestra Foundation, Damiano Giuranna, commented.
At the end of the project, a day of studies will be held at the IULM University, curated by Prof. Valentina Garavaglia (IULM) and Prof. Roberta Denaro (Orientale University), with the participation of the director, and also IULM professor, Giuseppe Carrieri ,as well as Maestro Damiano Giuranna of the World Youth Orchestra Foundation.
“I have always been convinced that the arts, including music, play a leading role in the cultural and spiritual growth of an individual and in the formation of the collective conscience, nullifying differences in favor of social inclusion and a constructive dialogue among populations,” Prof. Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, President of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, added. “The Le Due Lune project builds an ideal bridge between our country, with the city of Naples as the protagonist, and the Middle East, arriving in Dubai during Expo 2020, as the depiction of universality and the contemporary values represented by music, literature and poetry, masterfully combined by Maestro Giuranna and his Orchestra of young musicians, in a performance that brings together Italian and Arab traditions and covers a time span of several centuries between East and West. Moreover, the performance finds its counterpart in a series of listening, translation, and elaboration workshops, perfectly in line with the Foundation’s philosophy of exchange and cultural development.”