THE WOMAN WHO SAID NO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text and direction Pierpaolo Saraceno
With Pierpaolo Saraceno and Mariapaola Tedesco
Original music Fruciano Concept
Lights Matteo Filidoro
Assistant director Mariapaola Tedesco
Photo Francesco Falciola
Technical direction Massimiliano Boco
Onirika del Sud production

 

Franca's was the first real refusal to the shotgun wedding. It became a symbol of the civil growth of Italy after World War II and of the emancipation of Italian women. In 1965, at the age of seventeen, she was kidnapped by Filippo Melodia, nephew of the mafia member Vincenzo Rimi, and by other friends of his. Franca was abused in those eight days in which she was kidnapped. The father was contacted by the relatives of Melodia for the so-called "paciata", or rather for a meeting aimed at putting the family in front of the fait accompli and making Franca's parents accept the wedding of the two young people. According to the morality of the time, a girl who emerged from such an affair would necessarily have to marry her kidnapper, thus saving her honor and that of her family. Furthermore, at the time, the Italian Republic protected the crime of rape with article 544 of the criminal code, which was extinguished if the aggressor married his victim. Franca Viola refused to marry Melodia and not only in 1981 article 544 was repealed and only in 1996 will rape be legally recognized in Italy no longer as a crime "against morality", but as a crime "against the person".
A continuous struggle between a true and naive love and a shotgun marriage by the Sicilian Mafia. A mix of prose, music and raw body movements highlight even more those who were the first steel flowers to uralre "NO", in defense of one's dignity and one's person. A single voice will lead the neighbor to shout one word: Freedom. A single light, a single reflection, a cry to educate a sweet and mature sexuality, to overcome taboos and contribute to definitively defeating the still prevailing machismo, in the memory of many other victims of this culture of domination and oppression and to make known what characterized, in 1965, the land betrayed, loved and remembered by many. A strong and ruthless message in times in which femicide, rape, violence against women do not stop negatively characterizing our society, everywhere.

Director's notes
Being Franca means going against the tide, against the rules established by the people of that time, we are in 1965; get away from the moralism and hypocrisy of certain quiet and clean environments where the horror exists, but is well kept out of sight. Being Franca means experiencing the thrill of freedom, bearing the sacrifice of courageous choice, questioning the existence of God. A dark circus out of the blue, in which we love and hate each other. The Opera opens with a premonitory dream. The real protagonist is just a doll, which absorbs the whole story of Franca. Filippo, a man of a thousand masks, is only an intermediary between what is on the stage and the spectators. A man hanging from a fourth wall, in a continuous oscillation between good and evil, between love and hate, between freedom and chaining. On the proscenium, the objects of a naive girl are exhibited as a symbol of a passage in time, which in the end reveal themselves as the only clean and unchanged things. A wedding dress as a symbol of her virginity and her desire for marriage contrasts with a mournful black dress, symbol of an atrocious moral death. Franca boldly goes towards death and doesn't care about ending up in the arms of the "Cosa Nostra" of that time. The "southern" music that highlights the exploitation of women digs the soul of the spectator, leading him to elaborate the true concept of the tragic. A sacred orchestral music, comparable to that of the Dead Christ, during the Easter processions of southern Italy. I think that this work is an interpretation of reality where the poor and gaunt landscape is stained by some surreal brushstrokes. A story to be known and made known. Freely based on the true story of Franca Viola.