Synopsis
The Italian character: a film within music and about music.The Italian character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous rostrum in Rome. Today, this post belongs to Sir Antonio Pappano, an Anglo-American with Beneventian roots, who rediscovered an essential part of his Italian origins conducting the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
In the documentary, a production of Alpenway Media Production GmbH directed by Angelo Bozzolini, the story vividly unfolds itself: It portrays the planning and performance of a great project; it shows how the sound ripens from the first rehearsal to the final applause of a sold-out music hall, what happens to the musicians before they enter the stage, and how they release the tension at the end of a concert.
With the personal histories of the members and the conductor of the orchestra, The Italian character allows its audience to gain an insight into a fascinating world that is usually concealed from it. Simultaneously, it tells the story of a national institution, of a historically singular development, of an approach to life that is characteristic for a country which is loved by many, but sometimes misunderstood and even underrated in its unknown variety.
How do you arrive at making classical music? Which efforts does this job require every day? What special relationship binds each artist to his instrument? What do they experience on stage? How do you explain the transformation of extreme suspense during the concert into exuberant joy afterwards? – The documentary will answer these questions with a grand, stirring, polyphonic narrative.
Beside the main story line, the film calls forth the presence of some of the best soloists and orchestra conductors in the world presenting material collected during their collaboration with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, and consequently with the Italian character.
In these moments the “inner” life description of the orchestra will be completed by contribution of friends from “outside”, by their perspectives, their thoughts about the italian character and about their relation with this extraordinary ensemble of passionate musicians.