The curtain rises, the ‘agora’ of Thought comes alive, the great Music goes on stage with the violinist David Garrett.
On Saturday 17 June, at 9pm, the traditional appointment with the Taobuk Gala Evening, in its 13th edition, returns. As usual, the setting is the Teatro Antico in Taormina, birthplace and core of the Mediterranean world and stage to Taobuk Awards for one night.
During the evening, which will be broadcast on Rai1, the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature Annie Ernaux, Iranian Azar Nafisi and American Joyce Carol Oates will be honoured with the Taobuk Award for Literary Excellence. Three female figures, far in their human and artistic journey and yet similar, linked by a sharp and inquiring writing and by their social committment. To shake consciences, to break ranks, to smash the glass ceiling, to rethink society, rebuilding it and training it to freedom, starting from the empowerment of women.
Receiving the Taobuk Award will be the world-famous violinist David Garrett, who will perform with the Catania’s Teatro Massimo Bellini Orchestra, conducted by maestro Gianna Fratta.
Also, as every year, the Taobuk Award for Science will be delivered. In 2023, the Taobuk Award for Science will go to the populariser David Quammen. David Quammen’s production took on global resonance following the spread of the zoonotic pandemic, which he predicted in Spillover back in 2012.
If Annie Ernaux, the author of masterpieces such as The Years, Happening and A Man’s Place, makes writing a political act for gender equality, Azar Nafisi, in her manifesto work Reading Lolita in Theran, launches a revolutionary cry that is at once a gasp of feminist pride, a glimmer of light and a plea for help against all totalitarianism and all forms of censorship. Thus, following the same paradigm, Joyce Carol Oates condemns the commodification of women and domestic violence in Wild Saturday, Beasts, The Female of the Species and Blonde.
Five prominent figures on the literary, scientific and musical scene and a single linking thread: the theme of freedoms, in a plural declination that embraces the freedom of the individual and projects it into a shared universal space, breaking down the bottlenecks of thought, the territorial boundaries and the political, cultural and social barriers that hinder the most urgent trajectories of a universal reasoning.
____
Taobuk Gala is an event celebrating excellence in literature and the arts and is held annually with the participation of the highest offices of State and in a mix of voices, reflections, readings, dance performances, musical performances and theatrical performances.
Hosted by Antonella Ferrara e Massimiliano Ossini.
Taobuk Award for Literary Excellence a Annie Ernaux
Taobuk Award for Literary Excellence a Joyce Carol Oates
Taobuk Award for Literary Excellence a Azar Nafisi
Taobuk Award to David Quammen
Taobuk Award to David Garrett
Taobuk Award to Giulia Staccioli– Kataklò Athletic Dance Theatre
Taobuk Award to Marco Bellocchio e Francesca Calvelli
Taobuk Award to Valeria Golino
Taobuk Award to Levante
Taobuk Award to Giuseppe Penone
Taobuk Award to Edoardo Leo
Katatklò Athletic Dance Theatre
With the Symphony Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo Bellini of Catania
Conducted by Maestro Gianna Fratta
With the soprano Carmen Giannattasio
Musical co-production by
Massimo Bellini Theatre of Catania
A programme by Antonella Ferrara, President and Artistic Director of Taobuk
With Gida Salvino, Paolo Logli, Michele Demieri, Paola Miletich
Directed by Marco Brigliadori
The Taobuk Awards are realised by Atelier Orafo Le Colonne
