Ibsen and the Italian Risorgimento

Versione inglese di Henrik Ibsen og den italienske Risorgimento, in AA. VV., Lyset kommer fra Sør, a cura di E. Carbone-G. D’Amico, Oslo, Gyldendal, 2011, pp. 178-193

Il mulo di Lessing

In Hamburg Dramaturgy, the lengthy parallel analysis that Lessing devoted to the tragedies of Maffei and Voltaire about the figure of Merope, led him to an Enlightenment re-reading of Aristotle and to an hypothetical reconstruction of Euripides’ Cresphontes. In this way, the German critic was able to underline Euripides’ attitude to a technique of preliminary revelation of the characters and the nodal points of the plot: on one side, it can reduce the suspense; on the other, it avoids the most superficial coups de théâtre, shifting the tragic effect from ‘what’ to ‘how’ it occurs. Contesting the position of Abbé d’Aubignac and supporting Diderot, Lessing realized that a considerable part of this Euripidean technique is based on the remixing of diegesis and dramatic mimesis: it is an uncommon ‘hybrid’ of genres that appears efficacious and extremely useful (just like the intersection from which is generated a mule). Lessing’s analysis had an important and documented influence on the modern theatre: here, we can find a Sophoclean approach (Ibsen) and an Euripidean approach to the drama. In particular, the Euripidean line is developed in Strindberg’s epic dramaturgy and, in all its evidence, in Brecht

Helene Raff e Henrik Ibsen

This biographical essay, starting from the recent publication of two books by Helene Raff, Joachim Raff: Portrait of a Life (1925) and Leaves from life’s Tree (1938), clarifies the very hidden affair between the young painter Helene Raff and the aged Henrik Ibsen, who regarded her as “youth personified”. The essay is an attempt to detect all the psychological implications of this relationship from an aesthetic viewpoint, hypothesizing that some traits of the character of the musician Joachim Raff, Helene’s father, may have passed into the figure of Solness, the master builder.This biographical essay, starting from the recent publication of two books by Helene Raff, Joachim Raff: Portrait of a Life (1925) and Leaves from life’s Tree (1938), clarifies the very hidden affair between the young painter Helene Raff and the aged Henrik Ibsen, who regarded her as “youth personified”. The essay is an attempt to detect all the psychological implications of this relationship from an aesthetic viewpoint, hypothesizing that some traits of the character of the musician Joachim Raff, Helene’s father, may have passed into the figure of Solness, the master builder

Adorno, Beckett e la parodia della filosofia

Adorno subsidiarily brings Samuel Beckett back to a kind of philosophy of modern music or to a modern philosophical music. Along this line, Adorno establishes analogies among Kafka, Beckett and Schönberg, which deny the function of art as a sedation of anxiety, creating an art that is above all a mockery of the authenticity of existentialism. The essay then explains the relationship of Adorno’s theories with Kierkegaard, but above all with Schopenhauer, from whom the German thinker derives an idea of ascetic art, distant and opposed to the infernal social voluntas.Adorno riporta sussidiariamente Samuel Beckett a una sorta di filosofia della musica moderna o di moderna musica filosofica. Su tale linea, Adorno fissa analogie tra Kafka, Beckett e Schönberg, venendo a negare una funzione dell’arte come sedatrice dell’ansia e in parallelo sostenendo un’arte ch’è, sopra ogni cosa, derisione dell’autenticità cara all’esistenzialismo. Il saggio si sofferma quindi sui rapporti tra le teorie adorniane e Kierkegaard, ma segnatamente Schopenhauer, dal quale il filosofo della Scuola di Francoforte sembra trarre una concezione ascetica dell’arte, distante e antitetica nei confronti di un’infernale voluntas sociale

OLA HANSSON E AUGUST STRINDBERG. INTERSEZIONI E TRASFIGURAZIONI AUTOBIOGRAFICHE DALLA «CITTÀ DEI PECCATI»

Il saggio analizza i rapporti biografici e letterari di Ola Hansson e August Strindberg sullo sfondo della cultura germanica di fine secolo, dando particolare evidenza alle Vivisezioni (francesi) del drammaturgo svedese

Ludvig Josephson, le metteur en scène dramaturge

Ludvig Josephson (1832-1899), per anni "primo regista" al Teatro Reale di Stoccolma, è stato uno degli uomini di teatro che ha avuto maggiore consapevolezza della transizione della propria professione da un tradizionale artigianato alla dimensione artistica. Nel 1866, allestisce un proprio dramma, "Le figlie del duce Stig", nel quale le didascalie giocano un ruolo registico preponderante che non sfugge alla critica contemporanea, la quale è spinta pertanto a interrogarsi sulle relazioni fra attore-regista e drammaturgo nella pratica teatrale, riconoscendo implicitamente che sulle scene dell'epoca si è affacciata una nuova funzione estetica: la regia

Bragaglia-Ridenti: gli anni della guerra

Il saggio esamina il lungo contrastato, ma amichevole rapporto, fra Lucio Ridenti, fondatore della più longeva rivista di teatro italiana, "Il Dramma", e uno dei primi consapevoli registi, con ambizioni avanguardistiche, della nostra scena, Anton Giulio Bragaglia. Il saggio tocca tematiche attinenti al teatro italiano durante il fascismo e la guerra, nonché allo scontro ideologico fra d'Amico e Bragaglia

Strindberg nel teatro italiano del XXI secolo

Starting from Ett drömspel, staged by Luca Ronconi, in February 2000, this paper deals with the perception that the outstanding men of the Italian theatre – especially Massimo Castri, Marco Bernardi, Armando Pugliese, Gabriele Lavia, Walter Malosti etc. – had of Strindberg’s works in the first decade of the 21st century: some interpreting them in a modernistic, up-to-date manner, some preferring to approach them in a more audaciously post-modern view. In the end, for the Italian theatre, Strindberg proves to be not in the least an established classic author to reckon with, but the testing ground of complex reflections on modernity.Starting from Ett drömspel, staged by Luca Ronconi, in February 2000, this paper deals with the perception that the outstanding men of the Italian theatre – especially Massimo Castri, Marco Bernardi, Armando Pugliese, Gabriele Lavia, Walter Malosti etc. – had of Strindberg’s works in the first decade of the 21st century: some interpreting them in a modernistic, up-to-date manner, some preferring to approach them in a more audaciously post-modern view. In the end, for the Italian theatre, Strindberg proves to be not in the least an established classic author to reckon with, but the testing ground of complex reflections on modernity