Articles by: Massimiliano Finazzer flory

  • Massimiliano Finazzer Flory recita Giusepoe Verdi
    Arte e Cultura

    Giuseppe Verdi alla Parata del Columbus Day!

    ENGLISH VERSION >>

    La 5th strada di New York è un palcoscenico naturale dove la vita è rappresentata attraverso la sua energia. New York è un grande teatro dove l’opera principale è l’uomo. Una moltitudine umana che ogni giorno pensa e cammina veloce. Ma il 9 ottobre in occasione del Columbus Day la 5th strada si ferma e allestisce un’altra forma: uno spettacolo diverso per oltre 1 milione di spettatori.

    35.000 cuori sulla 5th strada Tricolori per pulsare la giornata dell’orgoglio italo americano. In questa circolazione emotiva vi sarà anche la Lombardia riconoscendo e rappresentando la cultura come apertura verso principi, valori, bellezze da conoscere, da condividere.

    Sarà infatti una coreografia coordinata intorno ai Beni culturali tutelati dall’Unesco a “incarnare” la Regione Lombardia con la Fondazione Stelline attraverso un gesto estetico guidato dal volto e dalla storia di Giuseppe Verdi. Sulle note trionfali di un’Aida immaginaria sfilerà infatti una performance dedicata all’anno della cultura voluta da Cristina Cappellini e dalla Istituzione regionale.

    La performance è una coreografia che ha una sua regia: 11 corpi tra attrici e attori con costumi creativi e coerenti ispirati dall’identità di ciascuno degli 11 beni culturali lombardi patrimonio dell’umanità. Dunque potremmo vedere all’inizio del corteo figure del Cenacolo Vinciano in onore a Leonardo seguite da coppie inaspettate: l’Arte rupestre preistorica della Val Camonica a fianco del Villaggio operaio novecentesco di Crespi d’Adda; la fede cristiana dei Sacri Monti insieme alle Opere di difesa bergamasche; l’architettura teatrale di Sabbioneta e i Longobardi nei loro luoghi di potere; la più antica palafitta dell’Arco Alpino insieme con la Ferrovia retica del paesaggio; il più spettacolare complesso di vertebrati marini del Monte San Giorgio con i saperi e il saper fare della tradizione cremonese, con i suoi archi, violini, viole, violoncelli, contrabbassi. E a proposito di musica non poteva mancare Giuseppe Verdi che come Leonardo da Vinci sono milanesi se non di adozione, di amore.

    Il nome di Verdi è legato al Teatro alla Scala ma gli ultimi anni della sua vita sono legati a Milano che ne celebrò compatta e collettiva la scomparsa. Ma Verdi ora è ancora vivo e in 5th strada dirige questo corteo in costume offrendo alla Lombardia e all’Italia l’occasione di essere ancora una volta protagonisti della cultura universale.

    * Massimiliano Finazzer Flory
    Regista, attore e ideatore dell’evento
  • Massimiliano Finazzer Flory as Giuseppe Verdi
    Art & Culture

    Giuseppe Verdi Marches in NYC's Columbus Day Parade

    Laggi l'articolo in italiano >>

    New York’s Fifth Avenue is a stage where life is represented through energy. With a crowd that both thinks and walks fast, the main attraction is man. But for Columbus Day, Fifth Avenue stops and takes on a different form: a show, for over 1 million spectators, of 35,000 people on Fifth Avenue celebrating Italian-American pride. This year spectators of the Columbus Day Parade are in for a special treat from the region of Lombardy–a performance with “Giuseppe Verdi” as the leader.

    Italy is well-known for both its vibrant, modern culture and its illustrious past. The country is home to a staggering 53 of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, sites that are recognized for having cultural, historical, scientific, or some other form of significance and that are legally protected by international treaties. This year, some of those sites will be represented in Manhattan’s Columbus Day Parade.

    The region of Lombardy will be present at the Columbus Day Parade in order to act as a window into the principles, values, and beauty of the Italian culture. With the help of the Fondazione Stelline, the region of Lombardy has organized a performance guided by Giuseppe Verdi’s history and persona.

    This performance is dedicated to the year of culture and was called for by Cristina Cappellini and the regional Institution of Lombardy. It contains 11 actors as well as creative costumes that were inspired by each of Lombardy’s 11 World Heritage Sites, and is the work of director and actor Massimiliano Finazzer Flory.

    At the beginning of the parade, figures from Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper will be seen marching. Those figures will then be followed by some unexpected yet fascinating pairings: the prehistoric rock art from Val Camonica and the Crespi d’Adda industrial village; the Christian Sacri Monti and defense fortifications from Bergamo; the theatrical architecture of Sabbioneta and the Longobards; ancient Alpine pile dwellings and the Rhaetian Railway; the most spectacular grouping of marine vertebrates from Monte San Giorgio and old-fashioned know-how from Cremona with its bows, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.

    And speaking of music, we mustn't forget Giuseppe Verdi who, like Leonardo da Vinci, is Milanese if not by adoption than by love. The name Verdi is connected to the Teatro alla Scala, but the later years of his life are also linked to the city of Milan, which celebrated him, especially after his death.

    Today, however, Verdi is still alive, and he’ll be in costume on Fifth Avenue directing this parade and offering both Lombardy and Italy the chance to once again be at the forefront of universal culture.
  • Events

    Soon in New York: ‘My Leonardo.’ A Unique Project

    What does it mean to wear a costume, put on makeup, wear a wig, a beard, a mustache, have your face turned white, feel a slight stiffness in your right arm, drag your feet slowly, feel the weight of the past on your body, be close to death and yet have the power of thought, of words, and of love? This is what it means “to be

    Leonardo.” For months, actually, for more than a year, I will be wearing not only clothes, but also an image.

    The transformation is not purely psychological; the concept of truth is essential. I don’t need to pretend to be good or to be bad, but I do need to be true. Although truth is inside each one of us, it comes to the surface; it becomes seen and suffered. Therefore, you can neither imitate nor pretend to be someone. I did not need to appear to be or pretend to be Leonardo, but rather, I need to be Leonardo. I need to live him.

    In 1519 Leonardo da Vinci was dying. Three years from now, in 2019, there will surely be celebrations of his death. But for me these events were already in motion for quite some time, and they didn’t speak of his death, but rather, of his life. Leonardo is already on its journey, and it will always be, just like the inventor and interpreter of nature and of man was. For the next three years it will be in New York, particularly in Brooklyn.

    With the support of the Stelline Foundation and the trust of the institutions in which Leonardo was born, lived, and worked, such as Vinci, Milano, Vigevano, we present the HUB Leonardo. This unique project combines the art of theater with modern technology; the fusion of theater and technology can be seen in my show “Essere Leonardo da Vinci” and in my multimedia installation, with video narration and music, that is dedicated to The Last Supper.

    It is currently on display in Brooklyn. Within the next three years in America, we will accomplish two feats that initially seemed impossible: capturing the thought and the authentic Renaissance language of Leonardo, and the presentation of a digital work of art - the only one of its kind, based on something that cannot travel - the mural “The Last Supper.” With this project, we propose partnerships and alliances not only between theater and technology but also between the Renaissance and the creativity of our contemporary era. 

    Seats are limited, confirmation is required: [email protected]

    Info Location:

    202 Coffey Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn 11231

     

     

     

     
  • Art & Culture

    Marinetti in New York City: The Film

    I wrote a film about Futurism. What’s more, I made a film about its founder, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Even better, we produced a film about Marinetti in New York. But, if Marinetti never set foot in New York, why make the film? Why Marinetti?

    Why make a movie about Futurism at all? That’s why I’ll let the man himself reply: “We are
    hastening the grotesque funeral of antiquated Beauty whose essential elements were memory, nostalgia, the fog of legend produced by remoteness in time, the exotic fascination produced by remoteness in space, wild solitude, wear and tear, the dirty traces of the years, crumbling ruins, mold, the taste of decay, pessimism, tuberculosis, suicide, the flattery of pain, the aesthetics of failure, the adoration of death. 

    Today a new beauty is born out of the chaos of new contradictory sensibilities… Geometric and Mechanical Splendor. 

    Its essential elements are: hygienic oblivion, hope, desire, bridled force, unbridled imagination, ubiquity, passion for success… the felicitous precision of gears… the meeting of convergent energies to make one single victorious trajectory, the feeling of the great city.”  That’s why.

    A city born out of chaos

    Because this city is born out of chaos and contradiction. It’s the son of anarchy and the mother of order. Cities may differ but all are beautiful, as long as our eyes are open to the other. 

    Urban truth is all in the telling. That’s why. I imagined Marinetti coming back to life and speaking his truth, now alone, now among the people. From Manhattan to Brooklyn. To paraphrase Calvino, cities are divided between those who give shape to their desires and those whose desires cancel out the city. 

    Or get cancelled out by it. Marinetti’s prophecy of endless imagination was fully realized by NYC. Boccioni’s The  City Rises has been at MoMA for years. But Marinetti has been in New York forever. Without him there would be no Futurism, and New York paradoxically represents the best outcome of Futurism. 

    Futurist New York This film is homage to a great man who never kowtowed to history. He believed that humanity could live together. He was right. Over half the population of the world lives in big cities now. He imagined that cities would rise vertically and run deep. 

    Cities of skyscrapers and subways. Where energy, information and electricity are blood, breath, and the nerves of a new and diverse community. New York  City is the perfect translation of Marinetti’s project. So. Why the film? I’ll answer this one myself. I was sitting on a bench in Central Park. A bench like any other. 

    Anyone could sit on it. And yet, sitting on that bench, admiring the marvelous contrast between the architecture and blue sky, between culture and nature, I discovered a plaque. On it was written something to the effect or if you’re here to have a look,  close your eyes and you’ll see with your heart. The city like a set, the bench like a film.