Giulio Paolini on stage: The scenographies for Richard Wagner

The work of the artist Giulio Paolini (Genoa, 1940), one of the protagonists of Arte Povera, has an intrinsic theatrical vocation since the Sixties. The critic Tommaso Trini has called his work "a theater of dramatized ideas". The conceptual matrix, the reflection on the art making, the opening to classical culture and, above all, the continuous dialogue of his painting and installations with the spatial dimension, have to do with the world of the scene. Therefore, collaboration with the stage in classical and modern theatrical performances is almost a constant in his artistic work since 1969, when he realized the scenes and costumes for Vittorio Alfieri's Brutus at Turin’s Carignano Theatre. His scenographies for opera are also of high quality, in which Paolini fully achieves the goal of the total work of art.

My contribution focuses on two of Giulio Paolini’s scenic collaborations for Wagner opera: Die Walküre (2005) and Parsifal (2007), produced by the Teatro San Carlo of Naples under the direction of Federico Tiezzi. In Paolini’s work the value of tradition and history are pivotal; these same elements also appear in his set designs. For this reason, Paolini faces Wagner, on the one hand respecting the theatrical “tradition”, on the other hand renewing it in an original, even disruptive way. My paper examines this particular aspect of his work for the opera theatre, bringing out the concept of the eternity of the Classic and Museum, already present in Paolini’s artwork, in comparison with the Wagnerian message.