Looking
Rediscovering what time and habit make less visible.
Songs for all ages
Miniature
Songs, poetry and music theatre
A cloud, the wind, a stone, a puddle, a shadow and a branch begin to speak and tell their own stories. Little by little, we discover that they are also speaking about us.
Twelve original songs. Two live formats. Children and adults together.
Full-length video · Teatro Comunale dell’Antella, 202453 min
The project
in 30 seconds
Miniature — Songs for all ages is a music and theatre project built around twelve original songs by Arnolfo Borsacchi.
The starting point is an attentive way of looking at things we have known since childhood and which, over time, often begin to recede into the background. The songs follow transformations, relationships and traces, gradually bringing to the surface questions that belong to everyone’s life. In the trio version, this musical journey also takes shape on stage through words, body, movement and objects.
Children and adults share the same songs and the same images, each from the perspective of their own age.
Trio performance duration: approx. 50 minutes · Music theatre in trio · Musical storytelling in duo
Looking at things long enough
In Miniature, things are given voice through words and music and, on stage, bodies and objects accompany their transformations.
Imagining
Discovering how many possibilities a thing can contain without ceasing to be what it is.
Recognising ourselves
Allowing the stories of things, little by little, to begin to concern us too.
Sharing
Children and adults encounter the same images, each with their own way of seeing.
Two ways to experience
The songs can come to life in two different live formats, both born from the same musical and poetic world.
01
Trio
The songs take on a fully theatrical form. Singing, spoken passages, movement, objects and lighting build the dramaturgy and accompany the journey through the twelve songs.
Arnolfo Borsacchi · Serena Benvenuti · Annalisa Zito
02
Duo
Words and songs return to their essentials. One voice tells and sings, accompanied by guitar, leaving the stories to take shape through the audience’s listening and imagination. An agile format that also works well in intimate venues and cultural or educational settings.
Arnolfo Borsacchi · Annalisa Zito
Listen
Before the theatre, the songs
The first Miniature — Canzoni senza età began as a recording project: a collection of short songs created for children and adults to listen to and able to live independently of the stage.
As the project moved into theatre, the repertoire continued to grow. Il mare, L’orma and Ninna nanna dell’albero all’uccello are now part of the live performance although they were not included on the first album.
On the album, the stage belongs entirely to the listener.
Listen on BandcampMiniature 2 · in preparation
Original watercolour by Ivana Battista
The world of Miniature
A way of looking at things
As children, we easily enter into relationships with what surrounds us: we stop to observe, invent stories, ask questions about what is born, changes and disappears.
Miniature grows out of this way of looking and from the possibility of not losing it entirely as we grow up: stopping long enough for an everyday thing to reveal a story, a relationship, a question.
The songs use the same language for everyone. Children and adults hear the same words and the same music; what changes is what each person can recognise in them.
How to experience
The same poetic world can enter different contexts without changing its identity: the form of the encounter changes, not what Miniature is.
01
Theatres and cultural venues
The trio is the full theatrical form; the duo offers a more intimate encounter. Theatres, festivals, libraries, museums and cultural centres can choose the format best suited to their space and programme.
Explore duo and trio02
Schools and workshops
The performance can be accompanied by an encounter with the artists or a workshop in observation, personification, poetic development and, when appropriate, the writing of a new song.
Miniature at school03
Italian language and poetry
For Italian Cultural Institutes, Società Dante Alighieri committees, universities, Italian language lectureships, Italian schools abroad and other contexts in which Italian is encountered as a language of culture.
Explore the proposalFor presenters
Essential materials for evaluating and hosting Miniature. Tailored proposals are also available for schools and projects dedicated to Italian language and poetry.
Artistic dossier · Trio
The full theatrical form: identity, dramaturgy, audience experience, performers and practical information.
Download the Trio dossierArtistic dossier · Duo
Musical storytelling for voice and guitar: identity, listening, programming contexts and essential configuration.
Download the Duo dossierTechnical rider
Space, audio, lighting, monitoring and set-up times for the trio version; essential configuration for the duo.
Download the riderFull-length video
Teatro Comunale dell’Antella, 2024. The complete recording of the performance in its trio version.
Watch the videoTrio · approx. 50 minutesDuo · voice and guitarTheatres · festivals · cultural venuesSchools and workshopsItalian language and poetry
About us
Three different paths meet in Miniature: writing and composition, guitar, voice and performance.
Arnolfo Borsacchi
Texts, music and voice
Annalisa Zito
Guitar
Serena Benvenuti
Voice and performance
Performance concept: Arnolfo Borsacchi · Annalisa Zito · Serena Benvenuti
Contact
Host
To host the performance, create an encounter for a school, or explore a proposal dedicated to Italian language and poetry.