“Spectators must become tourists and the event an opportunity to enhance the entire Biella area, with its beauties and its products”. This is the message launched on Friday evening at the presentation of the «Passion 2022». Postponed twice due to the pandemic, the great popular theater show that has been handed down for more than 200 years and which at each new edition involves the whole country (400 people on stage including actors and extras, 300 behind the scenes) will be presented from 18 June to 25 September at the Sordevolo Amphitheater, thanks to the will, stubbornness and commitment of all deaf people.
As the mayor Alberto Monticone, the president of the Associazione Teatro Popolare di Sordevolo Stefano Rubin Pedrazzo and the director Celestino Fogliano pointed out (in connection because he is in quarantine), the two years of waiting with the organizational machine already started have created problems and led to a cost increase, but the stubbornness and determination of the entire community have never failed.
Coordinated by Massimiliano Gaggino, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Biella (who will be Satan in the show), the presentation involved entities and companies that support the event: the Region, represented by the Councilor Chiara Caucino and by the councilor Michele Mosca; the Municipality of Biella with the mayor Claudio Corradino, to underline the importance of the event for the entire territory; the main sponsors (Lanificio di Sordevolo, Lauretana, Menabrea and Botalla) who will be present in the Amphitheater with special initiatives such as aperitifs based on local products; Marco Ravetti of the historic firm Alfredo Azario of Biella, producer of candles since 1773, who has created one inspired by the Passion.
The managers of the Popular Theater of Sordevolo presented some of the initiatives linked to the event. The promotional video was shown, which plays very effectively on the suggestions of props, costumes, details, scenography and protagonists, including horses, whose entry into the large arena is always a source of intense emotion. Elisabetta Chiappo recalled the new layout of the Museum of the Passion, which will also offer a specific exhibition. Two books were then presented: «Biblia Pauperum – The Passion of Sordevolo» which, published in 2020, through the photographs of Claudio Burato and the drawings of Nicoletta Feroleto, enters the heart of the show; «Sordevolo, where passion works» which, released in 2019 by Marco Roggero and Luigi Zai, broadens the gaze to the entire territory, recounting its beauty and traditions.
Finally, one of the multiples, in reduced size, of the great work (5 meters high by 8 wide) that Paolo Barichello will place at the entrance to the Amphitheater was presented. Entitled “MMXXII” (2022 in Roman numerals), it represents a cross, made up of the faces of men and women, inclined and suspended, to express the sense of fragility that humanity is experiencing.