Opera & Credits

Obsessive search for beauty, desire for immortality and knowledge, mirror, power, control, fear… these are just some of the basic themes suggested in Wilde’s work and then proposed in “Dorian Gray – Beauty has no mercy” in a contemporary interpretation.

The show offers a very strong interplay among narrative video projections, intense acting perfomance, conteporary dance and a special series of 15 arias. The music ranges from rock, rock pop, to modern orchestral sound getting the whole opera into a unique complete harmonious structure.

Wilde’s existential themes have been interpreted by the remarkable artistic sensitiveness of the young author and composer Daniele Martini and inspire much food for thoughts suitable for all generations.

The magnetic interpretation of Federico Marignetti, actor and singer, interactives with the physicality of the contemporary dance and intimately seduces the audience until the end of the show with no rest.

The direction of “Dorian Gray – Beauty has no mercy” has chosen settings and solutions with colors, draperies, aesthetics inspired from the world of fashion, mime, dance and theatrical performances by combining adjacent expressive languages. From the original storyboard of Daniele Martini, Wayne Fawkes set the first directing to reach the final mise-en-scene with Emanuele Gamba.

The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a well-known story: Dorian, a young man from the British bourgeoisie in the late ‘800, under the hedonist influences of Lord Henry Wotton, falls in love with the “neverending beauty” painted in his portrait by Basil Hallward. He strongly desires to obtain immortal beauty instead of the painting and this happens. Dorian’s life progressively becomes an obsessive exploration of most immoral pleasures.

The story begins begins when Dorian is already thirty-eight and is already a mature, experienced man. While his appearance has remained unchanged over time, his soul, which is trapped inside the painting he has kept hidden for years, displays the unmistakable, monstrous signs of unavowable events. Each of these marks has a story, an emotion, that Dorian relives as he looks at his face beginning with his own beauty.

Pierre Cardin’s career is also sprinkled of successs in creating show costumes: from Beatles to La Belle et la Bête directed by Jean Cocteau – just to name a few.

Even “Dorian Gray – Beauty has no mercy” proudly gets the signature of the maison with a peculiar feature: simplicity. The fashion stylist wanted to allow the leading role to the creativity of the show therefore essential and threadlike lines of dresses have been choosen in order not to fill the scene but contain it. The saut-de-lit and the revisited frac of the protagonist offer nineteenth-century recalls to the modern style, while the dancing soul’s gown leaves complete stature to the physicality of the body.

production Espace Pierre Cardin

cast Federico Marignetti and Marco Vesprini / Thibault Servière
playwright and composer Daniele Martini

artistic director, set design Rodrigo Basilicati
direction Wayne Fowkes and Emanuele Gamba

arrangements and sound Daniele Falangone

video design Sara Caliumi
light design Paolo Bonapace

costumes Pierre Cardin