Danilo Rossi

Ascanio Celestini

“I give my testimony, my testimony is almost always the testimony of a testimony, almost never is it a direct testimony, in fact, I never recount my being a witness to an event, I am a witness of a testimony, the event that I witnessed is the story. […] [I remember] another event that I talk about: the event is the person who tells me things”.
“My grandfather used to say that before telling a story, you have to know what perfume it has…”

The reawakening of the peaks accompanied by the narration of Ascanio Celestini and the notes di Danilo Rossi.

Marco Delugan

A gathering among giants. On one side, the breathtaking allure, sublime and daunting of the high alpine peaks, even more surprising seducers in the intimate and solemn moment of reawakening in the first hours of the day; on the other the enthralling, consolidated talent of the adept narrator Ascanio Celestini, accompanied by Danilo Rossi, first viol soloist of the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala.
Celestini narrates, and he does it with masterly skill. The stories he tells regard his personal memories but also collective ones; that is why it is so hard to remain unmoved by his monologues, that seem to speak directly to the heart. He works on memories and on oral narration, on songs, on music, rites and popular fairy tales, on a heritage we have almost lost. He has always done this, for necessity, pushed by an innate anthropological vocation and by his family tradition.  Celestini knows that a story of fifty years ago helps us understand what is happening now; but he also believes that the lessons of history, unfortunately, are not useful. What is needed, instead, is to see things from a daily viewpoint, to know how events really effect our everyday life. So his seeking is born on the field, an archive of oral testimonies. And the single stories, lives, experiences, re-elaborated in a theatrical way and then recounted, become epics, and altogether give meaning to our immense collective history. The important thing is to tell, to pass on, to prevent memories from being lost.

Appointment then, with Celestini at dawn on the 14th of July, in a magical alliance between art and nature, an intoxicating and satisfying synergy that inevitably seduces.