Pitt to Host Nationally Touring Italian Ensemble in Theatrical Adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed Oct. 16

PITTSBURGH—A theatrical adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni’s novel The Betrothed featuring dance, music, and dramatic readings by a nationally touring ensemble from Milan, Italy, will be presented at 8 p.m. Oct. 16 in the University of Pittsburgh Bellefield Hall Auditorium, 315 South Bellefield Ave., Oakland.

The free public performance will be directed by and star Massimiliano Finazzer Flory, Milan’s culture commissioner. The adaptation will be in Italian with English supertitles and is cosponsored by Pitt’s Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures and European Union Center of Excellence.

The Betrothed’s performers will be, in addition to Flory, Gilda Gelati, prima ballerina of La Scala Theatre Ballet Company, and Elsa Martignoni, a violinist in the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra. The adaptation, which received its world premiere at La Scala in 2010, will feature music by Verdi, Mascagni, Bellini, Paganini, Berio, and Rota.

According to the touring ensemble’s program, the theatrical adaptation is being presented “as part of the celebrations to mark 150 years since the unification of Italy,” bringing together the words of Manzoni, “the best-known writer of united Italy,” with music by some of the leading 19th- and 20th-century Italian composers, including Verdi, who wrote his Requiem in memory of Manzoni.  The aim of the adaptation was “to present a world to us which is still our own, a world which, with all its virtues, vices, and contradictions, is still able to move us.”

For more information, email Pitt Professor of Italian Francesca Savoia at savoia@pitt.edu.

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