Il teatro dell'inverosimile. La storia dell'operetta vista da un palco di provincia (Cesena 1880-1968) (2024)

Il teatro di Zellide. Drammaturgia a Cesena (1797-1885). Spigolature tra realtà e rappresentazione

«Le vite dei cesenati. XIII» a cura di Giancarlo Cerasoli, Cesena, Stampare, 2019, pp. 359-400. , 2019

Zellide Fattiboni, Teatro drammatico

La Scena della città. Rappresentazioni sceniche nel Teatro di Cremona 1748-1900

Editrice Turris, 1994

Catalogo con indici delle rappresentazioni teatrali, musicali e coreografiche, ma anche in prosa, andate in scena nel teatro di Cremona (chiamato Teatro Nazari, poi della Nobile Associazione, della Concordia e infine dedicato ad Amilcare Ponchielli) dalla sua costruzione settecentesca alla ricostruzione neoclassica tuttora attiva, e fino alla fine del XIX secolo.

Marionette per una «camerata attrice». Notizie sul teatro gesuitico nell’Ottocento (Loreto 1834-1857)

Teatro e storia, 2023

Founded in 1540, the Society of Jesus was suppressed in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV. Reestablished in 1814 by Pius VII, it also resumed its pedagogical activity, and in its theatre colleges were a part of the experience, following in the wake of a famous tradition that came from the mid-sixteenth century. On the theatre of the “new” Society there are no specific studies to date: this essay aims to be a first contribution to a wider research on the subject. It is based on chronicle sources (so-called “college diaries”) and it focuses, to begin with, only the college in the city of Loreto, in the Marche region (then one of the Papal States), in the period 1834-1857. In this college and in these years, however, we are confronted with an unexpected fact: it is not an actor’s theatre performed by the students, as that of the ancient Society had been, but a puppet theatre, made by local professionals, where the students, unseen, merely give voice. It is a mixed form of theatre, combining the craft of the puppeteers and the amateurism of the students, and framed within the usual life of the college (study, religious practices, etc.), but within the carnival time only. The repertoire, too, is very different from that of the ancient Society: no longer a theatre written by the masters of rhetorics, predominantly edifying, with a spiritual framework, useful for maturing moral and religious consciousness and conforming behavior in the young actors; it is rather a varied theatre, ranging from farce to tragedy, rich mainly with comedies and where Italian “maschere” and the contribution of music, ballets and singing are frequent. The texts are those of professional playwrights and belong to the eighteenth-century and particularly contemporary repertoire. The audience is diverse and very participatory. The theatre is associated with other carnival “entertainments”, always performed by specialists, and rich meals for all. In short, the climate has completely changed: in the new Society, in this college, the theatre is no longer an essential pedagogical factor, but, even in the seriousness of the commitment, it is primarily a festive experience, in which pleasure and laughter prevail; and which, moreover, represents a parallel experience to that of the public theatre, of which it constitutes a singular pendant.

L'avventura del teatro granducale degli Uffizi (1586-1637)

2015

The essay reconstructs the chronological details of the construction and disposal of the Teatro degli Uffizi. An extensive unpublished documentation, and a newly discovered plan of the theatre in the Archivio di Stato di Modena, bring to light hitherto unknown persons and situations. The study anticipates reflections and proposals for a structural solution that would modify the model proposed in 1975 by Ludovico Zorzi. As a foundation of these new hypotheses, the essay offers a re-reading of the Vitruvius’s theories on which the florentine highly specialised technical skills were based on.

IL TEATRO GRANDE DI BRESCIA. Il Ridotto e la vita dell'Accademia degli Erranti 1760 - 1797

Il Teatro Grande di Brescia. testi di V. Frati, R. Boschi, I. Gianfranceschi, M. Mondini, F. Robecchi, C, Zani , 1986

La grande ambiente del Ridotto (in origine sala accademica degli Erranti) del Teatro Grande di Brescia rimane tra le più originali e innovative realizzazioni di Antonio Marchetti e dell'architettura del tardo barocco lombardo e veneto. Il complesso apparato decorativo, eseguito tra il 1769 e il 1770, si deve al figurista veneto Francesco Zugno (allievo di G.Battista Tiepolo) e all'ornatista Francesco Battaglioli.

Uno strano caso di storia dello spettacolo. Le bravure del funambolo Albertus nel cielo di Milano (maggio 1460) con due testimonianze inedite di Giovanni Luigi Toscani e Giorgio Valagussa.

Biblioteca Teatrale, 2023

Between April and May 1460, the act of a sleek funambulist enchanted Milan during several public celebrations. An account of the facts is provided by Mantuan orator Vincenzo della Scalona, along with two previously unpublished Latin texts, here presented in their first edition: the Carmen Quorundam Ludorum by Giovanni Luigi Toscani and a letter written by the humanist Giorgio Valagussa and addressed to Guglielmo Paleologo of Monferrato. By comparing these sources – unusually numerous, detailed and varied by types and forms – the author tracks and describes the skills mastered by a fifteenth-century acrobat, specifies the celebratory contexts in which the performances were taking place and reconstructs the reactions of the spectators. A philological analysis of the texts investigates the multi-layered readings and aims at defining the gaze of the writers of the time, whose accounts have preserved the memory of the performing arts. As an ultimate goal, such a “strange” case in theatre history offers the opportunity to initiate some reflections on the possible approaches that can be used to study the culture of performance during the Italian Renaissance.

Figurando una historia Della «teatralità» o «teatrabilità» del Decameron

Quaderns d’Italià, 2009

“La Cronaca Prealpina” e il teatro a Varese (1926-1948), 2013

“La Cronaca Prealpina” and the theatre in Varese (1926-1948) with a documentation appendix: The ‘sad case’ of the open-air theatre at the Public Gardens. Documents about theatre from the Prefect’s Office in the State Archives of Varese “La Cronaca Prealpina” is taken as a possible source to get an insight of the playand, more generally, show-related events and activities in Varese during the period 1926-1948. By sampling through some late spring performance news, what emerges is a kaleidoscope involving both indoors theatres and open-air shows; both professional celebrities and more naïve, though not talentless, amateurs; both permanent, traditional halls and travelling, alternative performances. On the eve of the raising of Varese to the rank of capital of a province, 1926 is marked, from a theatrical point of view, by a quite diversified range of scenes, though the Teatro Sociale holds supremacy among them for its tradition and capacity. In late May, it is included in the tour of Angelo Musco’s renowned Sicilian dialect company of players, but it is also the setting of a merely philanthropic show, aimed at found-raising for elementary schools, an event which will for long recur in this period of the year. In early June 1928 the main event in town is the recital of the internationally illustrious sisters Irma and Emma Gramatica, while the local travelling company of the Rame family brings its popular repertoire all around the district. 1938 marks the closure of the Teatro Sociale, after an unsuccessful attempt to make it safe according to the law and much debate, often supported by journalist Giovanni Bagaini and the cultural club acting within the Taverna Artistica. A cornerstone element in the entertainment and leisure sphere of Fascist Italy is the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro, an institution organizing workers’ free-time activities, which in Varese is noticeably active and forceful. Between May and June 1938, the province sends one of its OND amateur theatrical companies to the annual national competition held in Naples, with very good results. Another typical OND initiative is the Carri di Tespi, cheap but complex theatrical structures, motorized and travelling. After an initial, almost experimental season in 1937, the following year the provincial Carro of Varese starts its summer tour, scheduling 36 shows. From late spring articles for 1948, another travelling, performing ceremony comes out, although spectacular elements in it are only oriented to devotional, and political, aims: the Peregrinatio Mariæ, a multi-station procession of a statue of the Madonna, accompanied by songs, torch-lights, paper flower decorations, and festoons. In the meantime, in the new indoor playhouse, the Impero, an operetta company decently tries to revive a beloved yet worn-out genre, doomed to give way to the rising success of cinema. In the appendix, a set of documents illustrates the short experience (June 1938 - May 1939) of a cinema-playhouse installed at the Estensi public gardens of Varese by a private entrepreneur.

Orrori e meraviglie nel teatro tragico tra Cinque e Seicento

Critica Letteraria, 2014

Il Teatro d’opera a Caltagirone: attività artistica e repertorio dalla fondazione (1823) alla fine degli anni Settanta dell’Ottocento

2022