Texts by Galileo Galilei, John Milton, Bertolt Brecht et al.

Music by Ascanio Mayone, Vincenzo Galilei et al.

Deda Cristina Colonna, acting

Mara Galassi, double harp

Friends of Music of Albenga

city ​​Hall

13 August 2009

In 1609 Galileo Galilei had news of the new “telescope” made in Holland; perfected it with the excellent lenses of the Venetian industry, transformed it into a new and amazing optical instrument. He turned it to the sky and in a few days discovered the roughness of the lunar surface, the myriads of stars forming the Milky Way, the nature of nebulae. In January of 1610 saw the first four satellites of Jupiter, who called “star Medici” and so that the news of so many discoveries was known to all, wrote in three days the “Starry Messenger”. While his ideas aroused very violent controversy, obtained the acclaim of the greatest astronomers of the time, Galileo went to Rome to win over the learned Jesuit Fathers of the Roman College. There he aroused general admiration but also the seeds of future misfortunes.

After the successful adventure of "Voluptas dolendi - The gestures of Caravaggio", the actress Deda Cristina Colonna and the harpist Mara Galassi present "Sidereus is - Galileo e la Luna ', a new show inspired by the life of Galileo Galilei, premiered at three festivals in Northern Italy on the occasion of the Astronomical Year and the four hundredth anniversary of the invention of the telescope. The recited texts are based on Galileo's treatises and letters, from the trial documents, from John Miton’s Aeropagitica (1644) e da The life of Galilei di Bertolt Brecht. The musical program alternates pieces by Vincenzo and Michelagnolo Galilei – Galileo's father and brother – with the avant-garde compositions of Ascanio Mayone, published in Naples in 1609.

The collage of music and texts illustrates the ever-current theme of the struggle for the autonomy of science in the intimate itinerary of man and scientist, in a kaleidoscopic interweaving of pathetic tones, heartbroken, but also histrionics or comedians. The due artist, established exponents of the European Baroque avant-garde, once again propose a happy combination of philological research and theatrical knowledge.