Angelo Sormani

Ali Baba Und Die Vierzig Räuber

''Open, Sesame!''. These are the magic words shrouding in fascination and mystery one of the most celebrated and amusing stories from the book The Thousand and One Nights. The tale unfolds among forests, golden caverns, and oriental markets where young and grown-up audiences learn to love the adventures of the humble woodman Ali Baba, his greedy and wealthy brother Cassim, the forty thieves and their rich booty, and the beautiful and smart Morgiana. This tale, which comes from the Arabic oral tradition, most likely Syrian, elaborates on some topics particularly meaningful in the growing process of children: the at times conflicting relationship between brothers, the subtle balance between trust for your neighbor and self-safeguard, the need to share problems and difficulties, the importance of help coming from close-by people, and a basic introduction to the issue of interculturalism. Music accompanies the characters and their adventures in an emotional play that alternates throbbing fears, anticipations, and shared joys. The wind band becomes the living soundtrack of these events, the main character on stage together with the narrator. Its music helps in turn to breath, move, and rejoice; it creates a magical game by intimately linking in performance the various aspects that characterize the spectacle: narration, expression, and communication. The composition is a variable five parts orchestration with percussion, requiring a narrative voice which tells the tale. Because the piece can be played by a small orchestra, it is easy to perform in schools, small theatres etc. The storyteller may perform the play in four different languages (Italian, French, English and German).