“Inner Joy”: Music, Voice, and Psyche Amid the Ruins of Rome

Abstract

This article originates from the experience of the performance “Inner Joy,” held at the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome, featuring Vito Mancuso and the Choir of the Rome Opera House. A performance built among the ruins to foster a dialogue bet-ween Renaissance music, reflection, and spiritual resonances, exploring inner joy as

the outcome of a transformative process involving body, psyche and spirit. The evening’s path intertwines with references to several authors, framing joy as a form of fidelity to oneself and a possible resource of care in a time marked by wars, precarity, and dehumanization. Finally, the article proposes inner joy as an act of resistance capable of bringing forth a shared space of meaning.