from Giovanna Maria Fagnani
The initiative in 35 locations in Milan. Museums and libraries are also involved, unified mesh curtains in theaters. And the big screen returns to the Octagon
In prison, in the gym or in the library. In museums and at the Octagon. In high school, in the hospital, at the station and at the airport. It is the day in which the Prima Diffuso takes over the city and crosses over until it reaches Malpensa. The initiative, promoted by the Municipality, Teatro alla Scala, Edison and Rai, has come to its end eleventh editionthis year proposes 35 seats to see Musorgsky’s opera live, which opens the season of Piermarini. Ten thousand seats available, in the most disparate realities. And this makes it “a great project of cultural inclusion in the area and in places where culture struggles to arrive, such as shelters and prisons” explain from Palazzo Marino. Admission is free everywhere, but in some places – such as prisons – you enter, by invitation. Before setting off on site, it is therefore better to take a look at the site yesmilano.it/primadiffusa where the access methods for each site are indicated.
This edition also marks the return of the big screen to the Octagon, suspended in the previous ones due to the pandemic. for one evening, unified mesh curtain in many theatres: it will also be possible to attend the Premiere at the Carcano and Dal Verme, at the Conservatory, at the auditorium in Largo Mahler and at Palazzo Lombardia, at the Teatro della Cooperativa, at the Rosetum, at Edi al Barrio’s, at Pacta and at SpazioTeatro89. And then at the Medicinema of the Niguarda hospital. But the torments of Boris will also be staged behind the bars: at Opera, at San Vittore, where you will be assisted by the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio, and at the Puntozero del Beccaria theatre. And then to the Casa dell’Accoglienza Jannacci and the Oklahoma home for unaccompanied minors.
The work, welcomed by young people at the «first» with 10 minutes of applause, will also be broadcast to the museum — at Mudec, Wow, Armani Silos, Museo del Cinema — and then to the Feltrinelli Foundation and Magazzino Musica, to the Virgilio high school and in the library in Baggio. From the center to the periphery, making you discover unprecedented realities, such as Heracles Gymnasium, in via Padova: a boxing gym with a schedule of concerts and shows. But Musorgsky’s score can also be heard from the mezzanine of the Repubblica railway link, and then at the covered market in Piazza Ferrara at the Corvetto. Outside the city, on the other hand, appointment with the Premiere at Terminal 1 of Malpensa, at the brand new Roberto de Silva Theater in Rho and at the Coffee Machine Museum in Binasco.
There is no Prima without controversy. The latest comes from the words of the undersecretary for culture Vittorio Sgarbi. «The problem is the equitable distribution of funds, insufficient to respect the workers, while the costs of pharaonic productions are disproportionate and the productions limited to Scala alone, without sharing costs with other theatres, while emphasizing the mastery of foreign directors» . And like these directors, the Superintendent, the French Dominique Meyer, is also a foreigner. «As regards two absolute symbols of Italy, the Uffizi and La Scala, it is not understood why an Italian cannot be indicated».
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