Institute of Theatre and Opera – Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Istituto: Institute of Theatre and Opera

L’ultima figlia di San Marco: Eleonora Duse a Venezia e in Veneto

As part of the celebrations promoted by the National Committee for the centenary of the death of Eleonora Duse (1924-2024), the Institute of Theatre and Opera in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University in Venice is promoting a lecture-performance by performer Luca Scarlini entitled L’ultima figlia di San Marco: Eleonora Duse a Venezia e in Veneto. A journey through calli and canals to discover Eleonora Duse’s Venetian sojourns, her frequentations of the lagoon and the many tales told by witnesses of the time. Memories and memories, encounters and suggestions that, from Gabriele D’Annunzio’s Fuoco, will lead the spectator to Palazzo Volkoff, on the Grand Canal, to the Zattere residence, to Prince Hohenlohe’s red Casina and finally to the house of the actress’s father, Alessandro Vincenzo Duse.

Between flashes of the modern and fidelity to the past, the portrait of the great actress flows, against the backdrop of the city she loved most for much of her life, before her decision to settle in Asolo, in life and in death.

Seminar Singing in the air, with masks

From 3 to 5 March, the seminar Singing in the air, with masks, organised in collaboration with Isabelle Moindrot and Giulia Filacanapa, professors at the Théâtre Performance et Societé of the Université Paris 8 and the École Universitaire de Recherche ArTeC – Nanterre, will be held at the Institute of Theatre and Opera.

 

The seminar, a follow-up chapter to the Singing in the pool seminar hosted last year, focuses on the discovery and study of the theatrical mask, with particular reference to the aerial environment. The students attend a lecture on the history of theatrical scenography by the director, Professor Maria Ida Biggi, who gives them an overview of the research carried out by important scenographers. In addition, the students present can view sketches, masks and preparatory materials relating to some of the productions of set designer Santuzza Calì, whose entire documentary archive is preserved at the Institute.

International Conference Behold the World: Arrigo Boito, the Future in the Past and the Past in the Future

13 – 15 NOVEMBER 2018
VENICE, ISLAND OF SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE

The Institute of Theatre and Opera is holding an international conference entitled “Behold the World”: Arrigo Boito, the Future in the Past and the Past in the Future to mark the centenary of the death of Arrigo Boito and the 150th anniversary of his opera Mefistofele. Part of the activities associated with the recently established
National Committee for the Centenary of Arrigo Boito’s Death, the conference has attracted specialists from the various artistic fields in which the leading intellectual worked during his multifaceted career as a composer, librettist, avant-garde writer, theatre and music critic, translator and stage director. A special study will also be dedicated to the opera Mefistofele, a landmark in the 19th-century Italian operatic repertoire, staged for the first time in 1868 at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. This theme will be tackled with the participation of the director Robert Carsen, whose classic version of Mefistofele has been on stage for thirty years in major European and world opera houses; this year to mark the anniversary, Carsen’s Mefistofele will return to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
In November and December, again as part of the activities of the National Committee, there will also be two important Boito events at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan and the Teatro La Fenice, Venice. Arrigo Boito (1842-1918) was educated in Venice, Milan and Paris. Among the leading exponents of the Scapigliatura movement, he played an active part in the social life of the Milanese literary salons. A composer and writer, he produced numerous novels, poems, translations, critical essays and scores. Once of his most important musical works is the unfinished Nerone, staged by Toscanini in 1924, after his death. His principal works as a librettist include the texts for Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff, Faccio’s Amleto and Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. He was a playwright and early director of Eleonora Duse (they corresponded at length), for whom he
translated Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth; moreover, he directed the great diva in the first of these plays.

International Conference Giovanni Poli. The Essential Stage

25 – 26 OCTOBER 2018
VENICE, ISLAND OF SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE
International Conference Giovanni Poli. The Essential Stage

On 25 and 26 October 2018, the Institute of Theatre and Opera is holding an international conference entitled “Giovanni Poli. The Essential Stage”. The scholars and experts in the field attending the event will
analyse the career and work of the Venetian actor and stage director, celebrated for having revived and enriched the great Venetian theatre tradition and Commedia dell’Arte. The acquisition of the Giovanni Poli
Archive, at the behest of his heirs and celebrated with a public presentation on 20 October 2017, has provided the Institute of Theatre and Opera with a key resource for research work into Venetian and Italian
theatre of the second half of the 20th century. Together with the university lecturers and researchers, who will illustrate the results of studies carried out on archival materials, women and men of theatre will speak
about their experience of working with the director and playwright.
During the conference, an exhibition curated by Maria Ida Biggi will display a selection of materials from the archives of Giovanni Poli and Mischa Scandella in the exhibition room of the Manica Lunga Library.
Moreover, Stefano Poli will direct a revival of the historical manifesto play La commedia degli Zanni, written and directed by his father Giovanni.
Produced by the Teatro Ca’ Foscari at Santa Marta and staged with the participation of young actors and the collaboration of the Teatro a l’Avogaria, the play will be performed on 25 and 26 October at the Teatro Ca’ Foscari.

«Illustre Signora Duse». Cento voci dall’archivio dell’attrice

One hundred years after the death of Eleonora Duse (Vigevano, 1858 – Pittsburgh 1924), this volume offers a previously unpublished selection of the many letters preserved in the actress’s archive held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation’s Institute for Theatre and Opera. It includes one hundred of the many voices that had artistic and friendly relations with her, including actresses and actors, intellectuals and men of letters.
From the letters to Duse emerge memories of encounters, exchanges of opinions, shared projects and creative visions. A plurality of voices, often far removed from each other, surprisingly agree in recognising the exceptional nature of the figure of Eleonora Duse, of her vision, of her theatre.

 

A revolutionary and passionate artist, Eleonora was the most famous Italian actress of our recent past. A successful actress and leading lady, she left an indelible mark on the Italian and European culture of her time. Many pages were written about her, and some of the most significant testimonies are collected in this book: the poet Ada Negri describes her as ‘the most sublime female figure of our time’, Piero Gobetti speaks of her as ‘a religious spirit’ and the Florentine writer Fernando Agnoletti compares those who did not have the good fortune to hear her at the theatre ‘to those who have not read the Odyssey in poetry’.

 

Il filo rosso tra Arrigo e Leonor

To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of the great actress, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute of Theatre and Opera has accepted the invitation received from the Circolo cultura e stampa bellunese to collaborate on an exhibition documenting the personal and professional relationship between Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito.

In the splendid setting of Palazzo Fulcis, visitors will therefore be offered an exhibition itinerary through the photographs and letters exchanged between the two great artists. The exhibition will be enriched by a selection of other original documents and memorabilia, including the first editions of Arrigo Boito’s plays, a portrait of the composer and man of letters executed in 1902 by Leopoldo Metlicovitz and two dresses that belonged to Eleonora Duse.

A series of photographic panels dedicated to the biography and artistic production of Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito complete the exhibition.

The exhibition was realised with the cooperation and support of the Chamber of Commerce of Belluno, the Veneto Region, the Province and the Municipality of Belluno.

In the course of the exhibition, various events have also been organised.

 

Among these, those involving the Institute of Theatre and Opera are:

 

15 November, Palazzo Fulcis, Belluno, 6pm

Conference Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito, by Prof. Maria Ida Biggi, Ca’ Foscari University, Institute of Theatre and Opera, Fondazione Giorgio Cini

 

20 November, Teatro G. Pierobon di Paiane (Ponte nelle Alpi), 8.30pm

Screening of the short film S’io fiammeggio nel caldo d’amore. Dante nelle lettere di Eleonora Duse e Arrigo Boito (2021). The screening will be introduced by a lecture by Paola Bigatto and Marianna Zannoni

 

6 December, Palazzo Crepadona, Belluno, 9pm

Screening of the film Cenere (1916). The screening will be introduced by a lecture by Maria Ida Biggi and Marianna Zannoni

Book presentation Santuzza Calì al Teatro Biondo

On the occasion of Santuzza Calì’s 90th birthday, the Institute of Theatre and Opera joins the celebrations dedicated to the artist with the presentation of the new monographic publication by Maria Ida Biggi, Santuzza Calì. Arte fantasia colore, published by Silvana editoriale (2024). 

 

The meeting will be held at the Teatro Biondo in Palermo on 28 September, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition that the theatre will dedicate to the artist, and which will feature a selection of images from Santuzza’s theatrical works, of which the originals are now held in the ARCHiVe donated to the Institute in 2022.

 

The presentation will be attended by Santuzza Calì, Maria Ida Biggi (Ca’Foscari University of Venice and director of the Institute of Theatre and Opera), Lorenzo Salveti (Rome Academy of Dramatic Art), Luigi Piccolo (Sartoria Farani) and Veronica Olmi (Teatro Verde, Rome) and Pamela Villoresi, director of Teatro Biondo.

Romagnola by Luigi Squarzina

The National Committee for the celebrations of the centenary of Luigi Squarzina’s birth (1922-2022), chaired by Maria Ida Biggi and of which the Institute of Theatre and Opera is the coordinating body, promotes the performance of the original production La Romagnola, based on the famous text by Squarzina. 

The new production by the Compagnia Le Belle Bandiere is staged under the direction and interpretation of Elena Bucci.

The version of La Romagnola will then permanently enter the Company repertoire and co-produced by the Teatro Rossini of Lugo.

    Institute of Theatre and Opera

    The Institute was established as the evolution of the Institute for Literature, Theatre, and Music, which was founded in 1957 by Vittore Branca and Pietro Nardi. Interest in melodrama grew with the acquisition, in the same year, of the substantial collection of the Roman physician Ulderico Rolandi, which consists of approximately thirty thousand opera librettos dating from the second half of the 16th century to the early 20th century. The collection also includes a rich thematic library, a large number of scores, and a collection of portraits, posters, offprints, and newspaper clippings. In 1970, the Italianist Gianfranco Folena was appointed director of the Institute, introducing a linguistic approach to the study of theatrical and musical disciplines.

    The annual conferences attracted scholars from all over the world and contributed to the reassessment of the opera libretto, at a time when emphasising its importance was considered a novel approach. Thanks to access to the libretto collection, an international scholarly community emerged, establishing the Fondazione Giorgio Cini as a centre of excellence for research. Between the 1960s and 1980s, several major donations, including the Eleonora Duse Archive (which included collections from Sister Mary Mark and Olga Resnevič Signorelli), allowed the Institute to pursue one of its main research focuses: the study of the actor in the 19th and 20th centuries, in both the Italian and international theatre traditions.

    In the late 1980s, the acquisition of the personal archive of dancer and choreographer Aurél M. Milloss enabled the Institute to become a leading reference for the study of various forms of dance. Over time, the Institute was further enriched by the personal libraries of Gian Francesco Malipiero, Francesco Gallia, Aurél M. Milloss, and Ulderico Rolandi.

    In 2007, it was renamed the Study Centre for European Theatre and Opera. Over the years, intensive digitisation efforts were undertaken, culminating in the creation of the Theatrical and Musical Iconographic Archive, which now houses more than twelve thousand files, ranging from portraiture and set design to theatre architecture, costume design, painting, and graphics. The Study Centre has also expanded with new and invaluable donations concerning post-20th century theatre, including contributions from Luigi Squarzina, Titina Rota, Pierluigi Samaritani, Elena Povoledo, Maurizio Scaparro, Giovanni Poli, Mischa Scandella, Arnaldo Momo, and Santuzza Calì.

    In 2017, the Study Centre became the Institute of Theatre and Opera on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. That same year, it began a project to rediscover the figure of Lyda Borelli, a charismatic artist and one of the most famous Italian actresses of the early 20th century. 

    Since 2007, the Institute has been directed by Maria Ida Biggi.

    Eleonora Duse in Antonio e Cleopatra, photograph by Pau Audouard, c. 1890 Duse Archive © Fondazione Giorgio Cini

    The Institute supports research and scientific dissemination, manages and promotes its documentary and iconographic archives, and organises seminars, conferences, publications, and cultural initiatives.

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    STANZA DUSE

    Inaugurated in 2011, the Stanza Duse is a permanent space dedicated to the memory of the great Italian actress. It was created with the aim of making the valuable heritage preserved in the Duse Archive accessible to the public through temporary thematic exhibitions.

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    LYDA BORELLI

    Since 2017, the Institute of Theatre and Opera has been dedicated to rediscovering the figure of Lyda Borelli, an artist of great charisma and one of the most famous Italian actresses of the early 20th century.

    Lyda Borelli (La Spezia, 1887 – Rome, 1959) was one of the most renowned Italian actresses of the early 20th century. A woman of extraordinary charm and an artist of remarkable talent, Borelli quickly captured the public’s attention, first in the theatre and later in cinema, making her debut in 1913. As the leading lady of the company and a performer of undeniable talent, she was also an icon of the Liberty style and elegance, embodying the modern woman: emancipated, a lover of speed, and flight. Muse to writers and artists, she had relationships with the most famous intellectuals of the time and portrayed several characters who have since become legendary. Orio Vergani writes: “La sua vita teatrale fu breve, ma con lei si chiude un’epoca, un gusto, uno stile. Lyda Borelli aveva immortalato e bruciato al tempo stesso le immagini e gli accenti di tutta una generazione” (‘Her theatrical life was short, but with her, an era, a taste, a style came to an end. Lyda Borelli had immortalised and burned at the same time the images and accents of an entire generation’).

    The Institute, which has focused on the history of the actor since its foundation, explores through thematic reviews and exhibitions the artistic career of Lyda Borelli, the first wife of Count Vittorio Cini, to whom the Foundation owes its creation. Her theatrical career, which anticipated and matched with equal success her better-known film career, makes her one of the most interesting actresses of the generation following that of Eleonora Duse, of whom the Institute holds an important archive collection.

    Lyda Borelli in Salomè, 1909-1910, Nunes Vais Archive © ICCD-Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale, Rome.

    Institute of Theatre and Opera

    DIRECTRESS
    Maria Ida Biggi
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    teatromelodramma@cini.it

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