[macromarco]

"ODYSSEY, the Musical" by Marco & Massimo Grieco is currently scheduled for the archeological area of Paestum (SA) - Italy for July 19, 2008. Official web site: http://www.odisseathemusical.com



What is Odissea the Musical?

Odissea the Musical is based on the Homer's masterpiece Odyssey. Whereas the musical transformation of the Odyssey has taken into consideration the plot, anyway, it has also emphasised the language to involve the spectator who will feel drawn into the work itself. Odissea the Musical, in its complete version, is made up of three acts of approximately 45 minutes each, with a duration, excluding intervals, of two hours and 25 minutes: Telemachus and the Prologue, the Adventure, the Return, for a total of 23 pieces of music.

As far as the staging is concerned, apart from traditional elements, modern techniques in 3D using polarised lenses will be employed, making it impossible to distinguish the real-life actors from those which — like Polyphemus or the monster Scylla, for example — have been created by the use of 3D computer graphics. The audio will be relayed through Dolby Surround. About 18 singers, 20 dancers and 8 acrobats will be employed in the production.

The musical will be performed in Italian theatres since July 2008.

What is the Second Life version?

The Second Life version is a live performance of 10 out of the 25 musical scenes of the original musical. It will last more than one hour and the singers will be the same of the "real life" show. This performance has two objectives: to promote the original musical, and to raise funds for AMREF, the African Medical Research Foundation. The Second Life project involved over fifthy people for about six months. Most of building and scripting was expressly developed for the musical. Only few objects and animations have been purchased in world. Most avatars, skins, shapes, clothes, accessories, scenes, gestures, and animations have been specially designed according to researches about the culture and habits of Ancient Greece.

The preparation of the virtual version of the show was a huge effort since Second Life was not designed for this kind of events. The production team had to solve many technical problems and to test several alternatives in order to develop a solution to the desired level of quality. The final result is not as good as the original musical, of course, which takes advantage of the best available technologies on the marketplace, but it is surely outstanding for Second Life. Just an example: the Pæstum theatre is probably the bigger lift ever built in Second Life; raised at the crossing of four islands, it may host over 300 avatars.

The production team and the cast
Music by Marco Grieco [MusicalMarco Greggan], lyrics by Marco Grieco and Massimo Grieco [Ulyx Gregan], produced by Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia [Basil Coage], and directed by Dario de Judicibus [Eadoin Welles]. The production team is made by Claudio Crocetti [KlaudeC Korobase] (Sound Director), Franca Olivieri [Fanny Douglas] (Avatar Designer), Rolando Ferri [Roland Igaly] (Public Relations), Eulalia Ciccolella [Eulalia Burger] (Production Secretary), Bob Lopp [Medhue Simoni] (Animation Designer), Jeremy R. Cooper (Lyric translation). Singers are Tommaso Fichele (Ulysses), Flavio Capasso (Telemachus), Brunella Platania (Penelope), Alfina Scorza (Athena), Maria Massa (Euryclea), Raffaele Di Gregorio (Polyphemus), Concetta De Luisa (Calypso), Roberta Andreozzi (Circe), Vito Pepe (Antinous), Domenico Prezioso (Eurymachus and Medont), and Carmine De Luca (Eurylochus). Cast is made by Lino Di Gianni [Lino Morigi], Valentina Ferrari [Saytona Chemistry], Emanuele Franceschini [Emanuele Dench], Martino Sturaro [Montolio Paine], Eliana De Vita [Eliana Iuga], and Paolo Catoni [Poll Wuyts].


What is AMREF?
AMREF Italia ONLUS(1) is the main private medical no-profit organization in East Africa, employing more than 700 people, 97% from Africa, and managing 140 development projects in 22 countries. AMREF is committed to prophylaxis, health education, and medical professional training. See http://www.amref.it for further info (site is in Italian language). 90% of funds come from private citizens, charity events and shows, as well as collaborations with selected companies. AMREF supporters in Italy are more than 120,000. Most arts, sports, and show personalities, as well as famous people in the cultural life, support AMREF as testimonials and collaborators.

Please, support AMREF by making a donation and by sharing this message among your friends. When you donate, please specify as reason for payment «ODISSEA», so that we can estimate the contributes related to the show. Thank you in advance. To support AMREF you can send your donation by bank transfer to IBAN IT19H0103003202000001007932 (AMREF Italia Onlus account, at Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank, Rome Agency #2), or by credit card (Sì Cards, i.e. Visa and Master Card, American Express, prepaid cards) from AMREF web site or calling them by phone to number +39.06.99704650.

Second Life is becoming more and more a virtual stage that fits for promotion and diffusing on the web of music in all its aspects, but :it’s quite unespected that an RL production starts debuting in SL prior to RL. That’s the case of the musical “Odissea”a work by Marco e Massimo Grieco;whose debut will happen before inworld ( May 9th at 12:30 slt, in the land Italia Vera (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Italia%2010%20Milano/19/23/86) followed by the Real Life debut in the summer 2008 . The aim of this performance inworld is to take advantage of SL potential in order to promoting both the RL work and to raise funds for a benefit association A.M.R.E.F.African Medical Research Foundation http://www.amref.it/index.cfm This project actually affects for his smartness so we decided to make some questions to the authors, Marco and Massimo Grieco,who kindly accepted to meet us and reveal what drived them to start this project. Marco and Massimo told me about themeselves and their passions , explaining their concept of musical composition , based on research and experimentation . Their rediscovery of ancient myths together with the love for traveling in the greek lands roused the desire of putting in music the story of Ulysses and his ” nostos” ,a kind of coming back to the common roots of Mediterranean civilisation. The musical is above all a teamwork: behind the scenes many people worked to this project: some international companies have been charged with the developing of the gestures tin order to give naturalness to avatars overacting.Furthermore some of the best sl developers worked to this produstion :the virtual director ”, Dario de Judicibus,the audio supervisor Claudio Crocetti, Franca Olivieri who made the avatars and their costumes, Rolando Ferri PR handler, Jeremy R. Cooper the English translator:to this team it’s necessary to add dozen of people with the task of moving the avatars . It comes spontaneous asking Marco which has been the motivation that caused him to use a pop genre as musical for the stage play of Homer’s masterpiece, wich is one of the cornerstone of western civilisation.He states that the idea is the result of the friendly talk with his brother and Ciro Caravano (of Neri per caso), the three friends have ben taken by the need of both doing a musical and giving voice to a sort of reflection upon Homeric myth:the captivation of human being resides in the never ending contradiction between the strength of his mind and the weakness of his passions:this is the ultimate meaning of Ulysses adventures. The musical panoply of the work draws on a well recognizable leit motif “La Partenza di Telemaco”, and I asked Marco which has been his source of inspiration:” All the flavours, the sensations and emotions -he says- that I felt year after year during my travels all around in Greek islands ,as Itaca and Cefalonia , enriched me with sounds and colors that suddendly became a part of my souls; these boosts joined my personal backgound : in fact, Hyonic Greece musical instruments and its traditional prosody are really so similar to the ones which is possible to find in southern Italy:(”bouzouki” is realy similar to guitar mandolin):it seemed so natural ,for me, to let them flow into music.!” This kind of traditional roots have been the cue for an happy contamination with pop, rap and even rock, in order to incline contemporary audience towards the great Homeric work.This natural and spontaneous plot gave life to arrangements that go back over world music and classical tradition arising a very enjoyable mixing! Actually a musical is not only made by… music so we asked Massimo about which kind of specific work did it require the Odissea’s “mise en scene “. “Rather than isolating single episodes-he answers- we preferred cutting it down through the music in order to evoke the pathos aroused by Odissea. We decided therefore to synthesize the feelings of characters in a few drawings.” At this point I asked the authors about the kind of troubles found in the fullfillment of the project: “Well we had to solve a lot of technical problems,- Massimo says- as the realisation of scenes (as Polyphemos and the monster of Scilla) , the continous changes of setting and the complex interaction between virtual environment and real dancers: the choice has been to keep virtual the set designs in order to let the “real” artists express themselves singing and dancing. ” The enthusiastic way of present their creature explains how it’s been possible for them to gather supports around the project : “Everyone who listened to the musical offered himself completely for this cause, starting from actors, dancers choreographers and so on.”hte authors say. As a last question I asked who are the persons who have helped the most fotr the fullfillment of this project and they answered:”In RL the promoter of Premio Charlot who strongly wanted the performance of Odissea in the archeological area of Paestum (SA) and in SecondLife Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia who decided to host the musical inworld in his lands(Italia Vera). Ulysses story,after 3200 years, is still up to date and it’s definetly able to move deeply and make everyone dream: this is a good reason to wait the debut of “Odissea he musical” even in our Second Life.


(1) ONLUS stands for Organizzazione non lucrativa di utilità sociale, that is, a no-profit organization with social and humanitarian aims which is acknowledged by the Italian government.