The Italian Greta Garbo is gone: Rossella Falk dies at 86

 obituary, theatre  1 Response »
May 052013
 

Rossella Falk 8 and a half The Italian Greta Garbo is gone: Rossella Falk dies at 86

, 10 Novem­ber 1926 – , 5 May 2013

One of the greatest Italian stage act­resses has died in Rome at the age of 86.

Ros­sella Falk was a giant among Italian act­resses, with a slightly arrog­ant air and regal poise which set her apart from many of her more earthy col­leagues. The label “the Italian Greta Garbo” was well chosen, and even her hair­style recalled that of the film star, though Falk’s career, unlike Garbo’s, con­tin­ued well into her eighties. Her 2006 bio­graphy was called The Last Diva, and a diva she was. She fre­quen­ted the likes of  , Noël Cow­ard, Dirk Bog­arde, Peter O’Toole, and had a twenty-year friend­ship with , whom she later played in Ter­rence McNally’s .… [con­tinue reading]

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Anna Proclemer — powerful Italian stage actress — dies at 89

 obituary, theatre  No Responses »
Apr 252013
 

Anna Proclemer Anna Proclemer powerful Italian stage actress dies at 89

Anna Proclemer (Trento, 30 May 1923 – , 25 April 2013)

One of Italy’s greatest act­resses died this morn­ing on the eve of her 90th birth­day. Anna Proclemer was primar­ily a stage animal with a sear­ing pres­ence and power­ful voice, allow­ing her to dom­in­ate every stage she stood on. She was a larger-than-life act­ress, the like of which doesn’t really exist today: a true star.

Proclemer worked with the giants of Italian theatre, Gior­gio Strehler and Luca Ron­coni, and played Vit­torio Gassmann’s Ophelia in 1952. She was a mem­or­able Jocasta in Sophocles’ Oed­ipus Rex three times, includ­ing one pro­duc­tion with Gass­mann in 1955, and with her fre­quent part­ner Gior­gio Alber­tazzi in 1969 at ’s La Scala in a pro­duc­tion designed by Pier Luigi Pizzi and with Clau­dio Abbado con­duct­ing a spe­cially com­mis­sioned score.… [con­tinue reading]

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Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors’ Edition

 ballet, questionnaire, questionnaire - directors' edition, theatre  No Responses »
Feb 032013
 

Q&A

Beppe Menegatti Barack Obama 375x500 Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors’ Edition

When did you first go to the theatre?
To see Rigo­letto at the Teatro Comun­ale in Florence on 10 Octo­ber 1939 for my tenth birth­day, with Gino Bechi, Fer­ruc­cio Tagliavini, Lina Aimaro and the young Giuli­etta Simi­onato as Madelena.

Why did you want to work in the theatre?
In Florence we give out presents for the Epi­phany. When I was six there was a won­der­ful gift for my brother, a model theatre, but I though “This is mine!” It was large, more than a metre wide with 32 dif­fer­ent sets. We had to use it for fire­wood dur­ing the war.

Which per­formers do you remem­ber most from your child­hood?
, Eduardo De Fil­ippo, Tit­ina De Fil­ippo, and Jean-Louis Bar­rault.… [con­tinue reading]

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Mariangela Melato: Milan, 19 September 1941 – Rome, 11 January 2013

 obituary, theatre  2 Responses »
Jan 122013
 

Melato 371x500 Mariangela Melato: Milan, 19 September 1941 – Rome, 11 January 2013Mari­an­gela Melato was one of the finest act­resses I have ever seen.

Unfor­tu­nately, lan­guage restraints meant that her immense tal­ent was largely unknown out­side of Italy, but Melato was a rare creature indeed cap­able of mov­ing with ease between Racine’s Phèdre and musical com­edy, from Shakespeare to cab­aret, the vil­lainess Gen­eral Kala in Mike Hodges’ film Flash Gor­don to the Mil­anese snob in Lina Wertmüller’s Swept Away, from play­ing a cour­ageous law­yer in tele­vi­sion to delight­ing in comic skits.

She could make an audi­ence laugh while seem­ingly doing noth­ing at all, yet had a sear­ing intens­ity in dra­matic roles. Her low, throaty voice was unique and a power­ful ally in the theatre, and her lithe body and imp­ish sense of fun kept her look­ing much younger than her years, though she has died at just 71. … [con­tinue reading]

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Adolphe Appia at La Scala: a new publication by the Amici della Scala

 opera, set design, theatre  No Responses »
Nov 252012
 

The  (Friends of La Scala) was formed in 1978 to pro­mote music, art and cul­ture in and the Lom­bardy region, though the La Scala opera house is the focus of their activities.

Activ­it­ies of the Amici della Scala include schol­ar­ships for young tal­ents; gifts of musical instru­ments to young soloists; lec­tures, con­fer­ences, tele­vi­sion doc­u­ment­ar­ies and exhib­i­tions on operas pro­grammed at La Scala; and they have pub­lished around 70 books and catalogues.

Some of the most inter­est­ing of these pub­lic­a­tions are a series of mono­graphs on the set and cos­tume design­ers who have worked at La Scala, which have been pub­lished at a rate of four a year since 2002. The new batch brings the total in the series to forty.

… [con­tinue reading]

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Leading actor leaps from the stage to confiscate a persistent cell phone

 theatre  6 Responses »
Nov 192012
 

Tutto per bene 700x525 Leading actor leaps from the stage to confiscate a persistent cell phone

At ’s pres­ti­gi­ous Teatro Strehler yes­ter­day after­noon, esteemed actor Gab­ri­ele Lavia was nego­ti­at­ing the tricky array of emo­tions set out by Pir­an­dello in his play Tutto per bene. Then the cell phones star­ted ringing. Once, twice, three times…

The mat­inée per­form­ance largely con­sisted of eld­erly ladies, not as quick as their grand­chil­dren at switch­ing off cell phones, or even find­ing them. The muffled Nokia theme got louder as it was taken out of a hand­bag, and just con­tin­ued to ring. Lavia turned des­per­ately to the audi­ence, “Please Signora, just answer it!”

Gabriele Lavia 2 400x533 Leading actor leaps from the stage to confiscate a persistent cell phoneIt stopped ringing for a few seconds and Lavia returned to the des­per­a­tion of a man who has just dis­covered the infi­del­ity of his long-dead wife, and that his daugh­ter isn’t bio­lo­gic­ally his.… [con­tinue reading]

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Milan’s Teatro Franco Parenti celebrates its birthday with an orgy of Hamlets

 Italy, theatre  No Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Boeri Pisapia Shammah Borghini Milans Teatro Franco Parenti celebrates its birthday with an orgy of Hamlets

One of the most respec­ted Mil­anese theatres was born from an artistic col­lab­or­a­tion between three pil­lars of Italian theatre: the dir­ector Franco Par­enti, writer Gio­vanni Test­ori and up-and-coming young dir­ector Andrée Ruth Shammah. Together they formed the Salone Pier Lom­bardo which, since Parenti’s death in 1989, has been run by Shammah, and renamed Teatro Franco Par­enti. This getting-together of like minds happened 40 years ago, and in the mean­time the theatre (or rather group of the­at­rical spaces, large and small) has became a touch­stone for new writ­ing and invent­ive sta­ging. The adven­tur­ous spark still sets alight excit­ing pro­jects, includ­ing that of its anniversary sea­son, the Pro­getto Amleto (Pro­ject ).

It was in Janu­ary 1973 that the cur­tain first went up on Testori’s rework­ing of Shakespeare’s Ham­let. … [con­tinue reading]

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