A.Baricco, G.Sollima, E.Melozzi, 100 Cellos, S.Rocca e V.Solarino – Thucydides. Athens against Melo

In the play Thucydides. Athens against Melo, on stage in the Cavea of ​​the Auditorium Parco della Musica as part of the REF, Alessandro Baricco together with the 100 Cellos - an ensemble of one hundred cellists founded by Giovanni Sollima and directed by Enrico Melozzi - narrates an episode taken from the pages of La Thucydides' Peloponnesian War. To the notes of the ensemble, the story of the clash unfolds, which occurred in 416 BC, between the Athenians and the inhabitants of the island of Melos, in the Cyclades islands, personified in the show by Valeria Solarino and Stefania Rocca. The refusal of the Melii to submit to the ultimatum of surrender and conquest sent by the Athenians gave rise to one of the most dramatic and tragic episodes of the war: the total destruction of the city, the killing of all its men, the deportation of women and children. 

What emerges in the show is that Thucydides tells about the meeting between the ambassadors of the two cities as if he had participated in it firsthand: the great Athenian historian in fact reports the exact words spoken by the ambassadors and reconstructs the verbal clash in a dramatic and realistic way between the two sides. It is precisely those same words that give rise to an important and very current reflection on the concepts of justice and law in the face of the aggressor and the attacked, the victor and the vanquished. All this leads to profound considerations on the atrocities of war, on the meaning of justice and above all on the violence and futility of war, yesterday like today.

Photo credits: courtesy of  the Auditorium Parco della Musica offficial site