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Public call to take part in Milo Rau's "The New Gospel"

Milo Rau either answers the e-mails he receives immediately or not at all. It was from this story that the collaboration between the Swiss director and the Consorzio Teatri Uniti di Basilicata on Tòpoi. Teatri e nuovi miti was born: with a simple e-mail in which the Consortium suggested a collaboration with Rau on a project for the European Capital of Culture.

Milo Rau is fascinated by the ancient calmness of the city of Matera, and has decided to shoot a film about Jesus here, in the land that formed the backdrop for Pasolini's "Gospel According to Saint Matthew" and Mel Gibson's "The Passion". What would the prophet preach if he were to return in the 21st century? Where would he go, and whom would he choose to be his apostles? These questions form the basis for "The New Gospel", an interdisciplinary project in which the director will once again use theatre and cinema to talk about human injustice.

During his first field trip to this Southern Italy on the border with Europe, Milo Rau and his team travelled around the various "ghettos", the camps where migrants who pick oranges and tomatoes live in inhuman conditions. This is the true story "The New Gospel" will tell: Jesus himself was a revolutionary who worked as a carpenter on the great construction sites of the Roman Empire. His rejection of the global system of exploitation of his time, and the combination of revolutionary commitment (only subversive people were crucified at the time) and the search for a new form of solidarity were the director's inspiration.

Returning to the roots of the Gospel and presenting it as the passion of an entire civilization, the cast of refugees and small farmers driven to bankruptcy by the agri-industry will rewrite the manifesto of solidarity with the poorest people, a performative uprising for a more equal and more human world. As in Christ's Palestine, a place inhabited by people without a land, migrants in Europe today will be the first to be considered as the new apostles.

One fundamental event of the research stage was the encounter with Yvan Sagnet, who helped the troupe understand how the ghettos and gang-masters work, and why they exist. Yvan is a Cameroonian who arrived in Italy in 2007 to study Telecommunications Engineering at the Turin Polytechnic University. Following a poor result in an examination, he lost his scholarship, and in 2011 went to work as a tomato picker in Nardò, in Salento, for Masseria Boncuri. After coming into contact with the gang-masters system, which recruits tomato workers illegally and exploits them, Yvan became the spokesperson for a month-long strike against the inhuman working conditions, which led to reforms and the first trial on enslavement in Europe.

Yvan will play the new Messiah. His experience will be a precious aid for understanding what happens in those non-places that are part of a highly-developed global system, of which tomato picking is just the tip of the iceberg.

Who will follow him? Just as in the Gospel, it is Yvan, who plays Jesus, who seeks disciples in Italy's largest refugee camps with whom he can carry out his "Revolt of Dignity". During their visit, the troupe came across an unexpected truth that newspaper investigations will never be able to describe properly. As in a utopian documentary, this truth will be filmed, and will become part of the final story, in a contrast between biblical scenes (the first part of the film follows the story in the Bible exactly) and the making of the firm.

Alongside the men the troupe met in the camps will be professional actors like Enrique Irazoqui, Pasolini's legendary Jesus, who will play John the Baptist, and Maia Morgenstern, who played the Madonna in Mel Gibson's The Passion, who plays the mother of the black saviour Sagnet.

With Matera 2019, the search continues for temporary citizens to take part in the filming and be members of the cast. On 21, 22 and 26 August, amateur actors and anyone else who may be interested in taking part in the production of this extraordinary project will be able to participate in the casting for the selection of a number of key figures, including Pontius Pilate, Barabbas, the Pharisees and Roman soldiers. No particular experience is required, but there must be an interest in or a particular tie to the character applicants wish to play. When confirming participation, it is important to take account of the dates in which applicants are available for filming, and participants must send an e-mail giving the reasons why they would like to play the role they have selected to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

At the end of September and beginning of October, Matera will first prepare with the filming of the entry to Jerusalem, followed by the Passion and the Crucifixion of Christ, who will preach his Sermon on the Mount and will be tortured and crucified, to be finally resurrected before the eyes of hundreds of tourists. The production will be open, in line with the beliefs of Milo Rau, for whom the theatre is not a product but a process to which the general public must have access.

Photo Credits: Yvan Sagnet and his disciples Jeremiah Akhere Ogbeide, Papa Latyr Faye, Mbaye Ndiaye and Anthony Nwa-chukwu on the beach. (©2019 Fruitmarket/Langfilm. Photo Thomas Eirich-Schneider)

"The Revolt of Dignity" and "The New Gospel" by Milo Rau are part of the Matera 2019 project "Tòpoi. Teatro e nuovi miti“,  and are an interdisciplinary production including a campaign, a performance and a film.

The campaign is organised by IIPM (the International Institute of Political Murder) in collaboration with Associazione No Cap - Contro ogni forma di caporalato, the Comitato dei Braccianti della Felandina, Ghetto Out Casa Sankara, Spin Time Lab Roma, the Osservatorio Migranti Basilicata, Agricola Leggera, Campo Libero, Altragricoltura – Confederazione per la Sovranità Alimentare, UILA Taranto – Unione Italiana lavoratori agro alimentari with the participation of European Alternatives, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Medico International and FUTURZWEI – Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

The performance is a co-production between IIPM (the International Institute of Political Murder), and the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation, Teatro di Roma and NTGent, in collaboration with Teatri Uniti di Basilicata, Fruitmarket and Langfilm, and with the participation of ProLoco Ginosa and the Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna. 

The cinema project is a Fruitmarket and Langfilm production, co-produced by SRF SSR and ZDF, in collaboration with Arte, IIPM (the International Institute of Political Murder), the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation, the Consorzio Teatri Uniti di Basilicata and Teatro di Roma , with support from Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the European Cultural Foundation, Filmund Medienstiftung NRW, the Office of Culture (FOC), Zürcher Filmstiftung, DFFF - Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Kanton St.Gallen Kulturförderung / Swisslos, BKM - Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Volkart Stiftung, GEA – Waldviertler, Stadt Lausanne und Kanton Waadt and the Fondo Etico di BCC Basilicata.

Inhabiting the Opera, an opera among the Sassi stone districts

One of the most intense moments of the Matera 2019 cultural programme was performed between 31 July and 3 August: Abitare l’Opera (Inhabiting the Opera), a major cultural production produced with one of the oldest theatres in the world, the San Carlo Theatre of Naples. Bringing opera to the great natural stage of the Sassi on a walkway in the middle of the audience, which brought it into direct contact with the action on stage, proved to be a great success with the public, and a winning gamble.

Over a thousand spectators applauded "Cavalleria Rusticana” in a Piazza San Pietro Caveoso that had been transformed into a stage, using the façade of the Church of Santa Maria di Idris for the spectacular video projections. The event was broadcast live on Rai5 on Saturday 3 August, directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, with orchestra and choir conducted by Juraj Valcuha and a cast including Veronica Simeoni, Roberto Aronica and George Gagnidze. 

The prologue to "The Seven Capital(ist) Sins”, which denounces excesses in liberalism, involved dividing citizens into stations. At each station, a choir of citizens sang popular songs associated with the various sins – pride, sloth, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy and greed – with the extraordinary scenery of the Sassi at sunset creating a theatrical setting.

The long, evocative pathways were characterised by modernity and tradition, recounting the weaknesses of humanity in performances, followed by two large masks set opposite each other – good and evil, which often represent both sides of the same coin in our everyday lives.

Greeted with applause and standing ovations, the performances of Abitare (Inhabiting) offered its audiences an extraordinary immersive experience. “Cavalleria Rusticana” was broadcast on television throughout Switzerland, and Arte also broadcast the event in Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, the Principality of Monaco and French-speaking countries across the ocean. From the middle of August, the opera will be presented in Japan, Hungary, Slovenia and Greece. Between 2019 and 2020, “Cavalleria Rusticana” will be distributed to cinemas in Europe, Korea, the United States and Latin America. It will be available on DVD from Spring 2020.

Inhabiting the Opera: rediscovering being citizens through participation

The story told by the citizens who took part in the staging of the prologue to Cavalleria Rusticana, directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, was a reappropriation, and in some ways a reconciliation. The travelling performance at the Sassi, a modern version of the Seven Deadly Sins viewed from a "Capitalist" standpoint was an integral part of the "Inhabiting the Opera" project, accompanying audiences towards Pietro Mascagni's work, which was performed in Piazza San Pietro Caveoso by the Orchestra of the San Carlo Theatre of Naples.

It was a unique experiment uniting people from very different contexts who came together to form a company that enlivened the ancient streets, which were not just a splendid backdrop but an essential component of the performance. Citizens and professional artists joined together to bring one of the most important productions of the year as European Capital of Culture to life.

Reappropriation was achieved in part through the Sassi. The citizens who made up the chorus that backed up the scenes acted by the artists sang traditional songs from the city and the entire region. On one condition, however, that was very clear from the outset: the choir’s purpose was not to search for a pure dialect that is sometimes claimed to be the mother tongue, only to be humiliated through usages that only seek self-satisfaction. The raison d'être of popular songs was to communicate a universal message that transcended a kind of localism of identity. Singing these songs today in the same streets where they had resounded thousands of times with a different sort of awareness was the challenge faced by the citizens who took part in Inhabiting the Opera, a challenge they can be said to have met. 

The same can also be said of the artists – some of whom were originally from Matera – who told of a kind of reconciliation. It is a phenomenon that enables you to make peace with yourself and your land after you have left it and only return to it and take it in hand when you are an adult.
It is in this sequence of intimate, profound feelings that inspired those who took part in this unique experience that the unusual strength of Inhabiting the Opera can be found.