NICOLA PIOVANI - Viaggi di Ulisse per Bari in Jazz 2026

**Ulysses’ Journeys** is a musical narrative for instruments performing alongside recorded voices. The themes of the work are the emotions inspired in the artist by his readings and imaginings of some of Ulysses’ journeys—a character three thousand years old, still imbued with an unfathomable sense of fascination and wonder.

Six instrumentalists from the Aracoeli Ensemble appear on stage, including **Nicola Piovani** himself, *primus inter pares* at the piano. The ensemble consists of piano, double bass, saxophone, cello, percussion, and electronic keyboard.

The voices recite verses by poets who, from Homer to Saba, have written about Ulysses: the hero–antihero, the traveler guided by the comet of curiosity, by a hunger for knowledge, by the desire to look a Cyclops in the face, to hear the Sirens’ song, and to see what lies beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

For the texts, Piovani turned to great works of literature, using passages by Homer, Pindar, Cavafy, Tasso, Saba, and Joyce. They are read by a cast of recorded voices, including theater actors such as Mariano Rigillo, Massimo Wertmüller, Carlo Cecchi, Massimo Popolizio, Paila Pavese, Virgilio Zernitz, and Chiara Baffi—longtime friends and collaborators of the composer—alongside the Irish actress Siobhan McKenna and a rare recording of James Joyce’s original voice.

The performance is enhanced scenographically by a series of drawings specially created by Manara, the creator of so many sexy heroines and a visionary illustrator in the style of Fellini.

*In collaboration with the Fondazione Musica per Roma*

**Nicola Piovani** — piano
**Marina Cesari** — saxophone / clarinet
**Sergio Colicchio** — keyboard / accordion
**Pasquale Filastò** — cello / mandoloncello
**Vittorino Naso** — drums / percussion
**Marco Loddo** — double bass
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