Exhibitions of stage designs make possible an encounter and exchange of very important information which is made available, concerning individual presentations; much to our regret, however, they are unable to show the creative role of the stage designer in the course of forming a presentation. In Italy, where an interest in stage designing is limited to a small group of experts, we are able, at present, to discern two trends: on the one hand traditional stage designing, which is more or less bound to the text of the play, and thus is to a certain extent rigid, even in those cases where the possibilities of new technical solutions, improved theatre technology, the utilization of new materials, decorative elements, costumes etc. are accessible. On the other hand we have free stage designs, which do not use any text and are therefore capable of finding new solutions, which make it possible, more then ever before, to revitalize graphic art on the stage. Here stage designing is lacking in a functional foundation, free space becomes more pliable and transmitts information based on an informal caprice or, sometimes a hysterical and extravagant eccentricity, which is proof of the fact that the stage designer is capable of forming theatrical reality, while taking into account the borderline which exist on the stage between the possible and the impossible. Everything is translated into a chaotic, gestural vision, into play, where space dominates, space which previously was considered a vacuum, and now becomes an analytic ambit of pure space in a zone of equivalent actions. In order to bring about a break with traditional theatre architecture, attempts are made to renew theatrical space that would allow direct open action. In conclusion we might say that the contemporary results obtained in stage designs can form a foundation, that may be used for various theatre forms, from which original forms may yet develop; we have before us the image of the open work of an eclectic mentality, capable of chosing the most effective idea, which might then lead to realization.
- Luciano Damiani
Additional information: Born in 1923 in Bologna. After graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts he began to collaborate with the Bologna University Theatre Center and with a number of theatre companies. He began to work for the Milan Piccolo Teatro on a permanent basis and since 1952 has done a number of stage designs working with director Giorgio Strehler. At the same time he also collaborated with other outstanding Italian directors and designed for various opera theatres /Teatro alla Scala in Milan, The State Opera in Vienna, the Saltzburg Festival/. His stage designs make specific use of light through which he achieves a special atmosphere, coinciding with the nature of the play. He has received numerous prizes for his stage designs. In 1963 he was elected to replace Caspar Neher at the Chair of Stage Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1967 the Museum of Modern Art in Leverkusen in the Federal Republic of Germany organised an independent exhibition of his stage designs; in 1968 he participated in Skené 68, the first meeting of stage designers, held in Home; in 1971 he participated in an international exhibition of the drama theatre called The Stage as a Human Forum, organised by the New Berlin Artistic Society /Neuer Berliner Kunstverein/. He has designed the reconstruction of the Gerolamo Theatre in Milan and the stage of the Arena in Verona. His design of a stage and mobile auditorium and other facilities for the New Theatre at Trieste are the result of the most progressive and modern contemporary trends. At present he lives and works in Rome.
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Exhibiting works
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: (The Magic Flute),
Salzburger Festspiele
1974, Director: G. Strehler,
- Santuzza CALÍ
Additional information: Born in Friuli. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo; in the years 1957 - 1961 she studied at the Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria, where she studied under Oscar Kokoschka and where she received three prizes for painting; later she became an assistant at the same Academy. She has also done work in graphics, illustrations, in wood and metal work, as a puppet designer. She has been active in television as a stage and costume designer. Since 1969 she has been designing far the stage and often collaborates with Emanuele Luzzati. In recent years she has designed the costumes for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Marcucci; the stage sets and costumes for Conte's Pulcinella in the City, directed by Conte; the costumes for Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan, directed by Beason; the costumes for Mussorgsky's Khovanshtchina, directed by Enriquez; the costumes for Brecht's Schweik in the Second World War, directed by Marcucci; the costumes for Divine Words by Ramón del Valle Inclán, directed Dy Enriquez; the costumes for Fersen's Leviatano, directed by Fersen; the costumes for Gassman's Or César or Nobody, directed by Gassman; the stage sets and costumes for Witkiewicz's In a Small Country Manor.
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Exhibiting works
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R. del Valle Inclán: (Divine Words),
Teatro Stabile di Roma-Maggio Fiorentino
1974, Director: Enriquez ,
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S. Witkiewicz: (In a Small Country Manor),
Teatro Belli
1975, Director: Salines,
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V. Gassman: (Or Cesar or Nobody),
Teatro La Pergola
1974, Director: V. Gassman,
- Giorgio DE CHIRICO
Additional information: Born in 1888 in the town of Volos, in Thessalia. After the death of his father in 1907 he came to Italy, where the city of Turin and its specific architecture made a great impression on him. The year 1914, when in Paris, marks the beginning of his metaphysical period /Italian Squares, Mannequins, etc./. In 1915 he returned to Italy, where he worked in Rome and Florence. Subjects which greatly increased his poetic range, such as Horses on the Seashore, The Gladiators, Furniture in the Valley, first appeared in his painting in 1927. In recent years he has painted Mysterious Baths and is the author of a sculptor and painting composition for the XVth Triennial in Milan /1973/ for the Art and the City section /organised and authored by Giulio Macchi/. He has participated in numerous exhibitions both in Italy and abroad. His work as a stage designer is very extensive: he designed the stage sets and costumes for Rietti's ballet The Ball in 1929, staged by Diaghilev; in 1933 he designed the stage sets and costumes for Bellini's The Puritans; in 1937 the stage sets and costumes for the Oresteia by Aeschylus; in 1947 the stage sets for Strauss' ballet Don Juan, in 1949 the act curtain for Monteverdi's Orpheus; in 1951 the stage sets and costumes for Pizzetti's Iphigénie and the stage sets and costumes for Strauss' ballet The Legend of Josef; in 1952 the stage sets and costumes for Boito's Mefistofele, in 1956 the stage sets and costumes for Stravinsky's Apollo Musagetes, the stage sets and costumes for Verdi's Otello and in 1970 the stage sets and costumes for Gluck's Orpheus and Euridice. In 1974 he designed the stage sets for the television weekly Habitat. In 1973 in the Madama Palace in Turin an exposition of his collected stage and costume designs was opened.
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Exhibiting works
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: (Man and the Environment - Italian Squares),
Teatro TV Roma
1974
- Roberto FRANCIA
Additional information: Born in Rome. Since 1963 he has been cooperating with L. Damiani at the Teatro Stabile in Bologna, as well as designing stage sets for other Italian theatres. He participated in the PQ 1975, where he received a Silver Medal for the stage design for Shakespeare's Hamlet and m the PQ in 1979.
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Exhibiting works
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Williame Shakespeare: (Hamlet),
Teatro Comunale di Bolzano
1972, Director: Maurizio Scaparro,
- Emanuele LUZZATI
Additional information: Born in 1921 m Genova. He studied at the School of Fine Arts
in Lausanne. He has worked as a painter, illustrator and above
all as a set and costume designer. He collaborates with Giulio
Gianini and together with him has made several feature and car -
toon films, the best known of which include Paladini, The Thiev -
ing Magpie, Pulcinella / the latter two were nominated for an
Oscar/ and most recently The Magic Flute /1978/. Among his most
important stage designs are those for productions of Ionesco' s
The Rhinoceros, Ruzzante' s Dialogues, The Girl of Ancona and
The Flirt, as well as for T. Stopparď s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are Dead, Fersen' s Lea Leibowitz and Golem, Shakespeare' s
Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and A Mid -
summer Nighťs Dream, Brechť s Mr Puntila and His Man Matti,
Man is Man and The Good Soldier Schweyk in the Second World War,
Dreyer' s Jesus, directed by Trionfo' s end Gassman' s Either
Caesar or Nobody, directed by the author. He also collaborated on
productions of Jonson´ s Volpone the Fox, directed by Squarzina,
Bruckner' s Leonce and Lena, directed by Fersen, Jarry´s Ubu
Bound directed by Conte, Erdman' s The Suicide, directed by Marcucci,
Conte' s The Golden Cock, directed by the author,Tieck' s
Puss in Boots, directed by Corsini and Strindberg' s Svanevit
directed by Conte. He has also designed sets and costumes for
the foremost opera theatres, both in Italy and elsewhere, for
instace for the English Opera Group, for the Glyndebourne Festival,
for the Chicago Opera House, the State Opera in Vienna, for
the Münchner Festspiele, the London Ballet Festival and for a
number of other theatres. He has written and illustrated nume -
rous books for children and received a prize for illustrations
at the Bratislava Biennial of Book Illustration in 1967. He participated
in the Prague Quadrennial in 1975. Luzzati lives and
works in Genova and in Rome.
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Exhibiting works
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A. Gassman: (Or Cesar or Nobody),
Teatro La Pergola
1974, Director: A. Gassman,
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Ruzzante: (The Flirt and Dialogues),
Piccolo Teatro di Milano
1970
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Williame Shakespeare: (King John),
Teatro Stabile di Torino
1974
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M. Greyer: (Jésus),
Teatro stabile di Torino
1974, Director: Alcer Trianto,
- Pier Luigi PIZZI
Additional information: Born in Milan in 1930. Since 1951 he has worked as a stage and costume designer both in Italy and abroad for drama and opera theatres, for films and television. The majority of his work is based on collaboration with director Giorgio de Lullo; both are responsible for a new approach to Pirandello's plays, beginning with The Rules of The Game in 1965, up to the recent production of All for the Best. Pizzi has also collaborated with other directors, both Italians and others, above all with Luca Ronconi for whom he designed the stage sets for a television production of Orlando Furioso, for a production of Bacchae by Euripides at the Vienna Burgtheater and the Wagnarian Tetralogy at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
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