‘Il Segreto dell’Alba’ is a musical work in the form of a ballet, or more precisely a pantomime, conceived and written by Roberto Cacciapaglia and Giada Manca di Villahermosa. Commissioned and premiered in 1989 at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, this work represents a definitive turning point for the Milanese composer, acting as a bridge between his aesthetic sensibility of the 1980s and the sonic experimentation of the 1990s.

The narrative follows a character freely inspired by Christian from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress and his quest through the labyrinth of the contemporary world. This initiatory journey adapts the mythological figure of the hero to a heavily urbanized civilization, where every character embodies a state of mind or a feeling, and every situation reflects a psychological landscape.

Moving through the paradoxes of modern society and the human psyche, the story unfolds between two seemingly opposite dimensions: the everyday, social world on one hand, and a metaphysical, psychological realm on the other, ultimately revealing a powerful allegory of human resilience.