Tosca Libera – eighth art residency Playing Memories
Almost a year after its start date, “Playing Memories ” – the artistic residency project conceived by Saint Louis College of Music in Rome – reaches the last of its eight stages. Hosting the finale of this journey, which has intertwined arts, music and visions of performers from all over the world, is Villa Lanzi, in Campiglia Marittima, in the heart of the San Silvestro Archeominerario Park: a place suspended between memory and the future, which becomes an ideal setting for a work on the saving power of art.
Here, the cast selected for the project signed by pianist Valeria Fasiello and trombonist Jacopo Allegritti brought to life “Tosca Libera,” a tribute and at the same time a revisiting of Puccini’s imagery. A grand finale that, not surprisingly, chooses Giacomo Puccini – a composer symbolic of Italian music in the world – to reflect on the very fate of beauty, through new arrangements, signed by pianist Francesco Negri (already present as a performer in one of the previous residencies), modern but always respectful of the Maestro’s musical themes.
The visual part of the performance is the added value, which interprets the atmospheres in images, building a language parallel to the musical and performative one, thus not merely “illustrating” the scene, but dialoguing with it through projections, lights, installations or video materials, united to amplify its dramatic and poetic sense.
TOSCA LIBERA, creators Valeria Fasiello, Jacopo Allegritti
In a future that has extinguished every artistic voice, the last theater on the planet is set to be demolished by order of a self-centered prime minister who has made power his sole mission. But as the leader proclaims the end of art and useless beauty, from the darkness of the audience a voice rebels, intoning “Oh, I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.” It is a spark, a flash of freedom.
The protester is caught, but that gesture ignites an echo: an old gramophone is reactivated, releasing sounds of a lost world. Behind the curtain, amid dust and boxes, two figures-Tosca and the rebel-emerge, bringing the forbidden opera back to life. Their song becomes a final act of love, the extreme breath of a humanity that does not give up.
Even the “faithful” of power, in their uncertain dance, discover the vertigo of feeling. Then the explosion: the theater collapses, but a sound remains in the darkness, the hissing of a gramophone that will not fall silent.
“Tosca Libera“ tells of the irrepressible power of art, its ability to survive silence and fear.
Because as long as there is a singing voice, there is still freedom.
The debut of Tosca Libera will be at the “Teatro Comunale Dei Concordi,” in Campiglia Marittima, while the international repeat will take place in England, at the Crown Wharf Theatre, thanks to a partnership with the University of Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.
SAVE THE DATE:
October 25, 2025, h 18:00 – Teatro Comunale dei Concordi – Via Aldo Moro , 1 – Campiglia Marittima (LI)
October 28, 2025, h 18:00 – Crown Wharf Theatre – 1a Crown St – Stone, UK
“Playing Memories” is a project of the Saint Louis College of Music, co-produced with the Alfredo Casella Conservatory of L’Aquila, the Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan, RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts and ISIA Rome Design.
PRESS REVIEW
IL TIRRENO – Tosca libera, ecco l’omaggio a Puccini
LA NAZIONE Livorno – Al Concordi c’รจ “Tosca Libera”
