World premiere at Ivan Zajc Theatre for the international coproduction of Teatro Stabile del Veneto with Italian Drama - Croatian National Theatre of Rijeka - HNK Rijeka.
Giorgio Sangati directs one of Carlo Goldoni's most unique and scandalous works with Camilla Semino Favro, Ivan Alovisio and Olga Rossi.
After the debut in Rijeka, the tour will continue in Pula and Piran, then Venice and Padua.
Rijeka – Croatia, February 2nd, 2025 - A Goldoni noir that one does not expect, this is The Wise Wife directed by Giorgio Sangati, a production born from the international collaboration between Teatro Stabile del Veneto – National Theatre with the Croatian National Theatre of Rijeka - HNK Rijeka. Premiered Saturday, February 1st, at Ivan Zajc Theatre, the show will be on stage until February 5th. The performance was celebrated by the audience, which filled the Theatre with a sold-out crowd and a strong presence by the Italian-speaking community of Rijeka. Among the attendees were the Consul General in Rijeka, Iva Palmieri, the Superintendent of the Croatian National Theatre Ivan Zajc, Dubravka Vrgoč, the General Director of TSV, Claudia Marcolin, the President of the Executive Board of the Italian Union, Marin Corva, the Artistic Director of the Italian Drama, Mirko Soldano, and representatives of the Italian Embassy in Croatia and the ICE-Agency for the promotion abroad and internationalization of Italian companies. Croatian Theatre has always felt a connection to Goldoni's comedy due to the fundamental role it has played in European Theatre history and the historical influence of Venetian cultural throughout the Adriatic area.
On stage, the cast is composed by Camilla Semino Favro, Ivan Alovisio, Olga Rossi, Aurora Cimino, Riccardo Gamba, Stefano Maria Iagulli, Giuseppe Nicodemo, Alberto Olinteo and Andrea Tich, as well as the artistic ensemble: scene designers Marco Rossi and Francesca Sgariboldi, lighting designer Dalibor Fugošić, costume designer Manuela Paladin, and composer Giovanni Frison, all engaged in a close collaborative experience between actors and workers from both the Italian Drama of Rijeka and Teatro Stabile del Veneto. The result is an international project closely shared between the two coproducing entities.
The subject of the play is incredibly serious: Count Ottavio, gripped by a new passion for the Marquise Beatrice, decides to get rid of his wife Rosaura, daughter of the merchant Pantalone. She, however, with her extraordinary intelligence, won’t give up easily and will use the Theatre as a refined defense tool. Written in 1752, when Goldoni was about to leave Teatro Sant'Angelo, The Wise Wife is a true psychological thriller that keeps the audience in suspense, but also a choral work that tells of a violent and individualistic world (starting with the false friends Lelio and Florindo, gossips and freeloaders) and masterfully mixes tragedy – barely touched – and comedy. The main story is intertwined with the lighter one revolving around the servants, with the inevitable Harlequin - here strangely washed-out - and the couple Corallina-Brighella who, unlike their masters, live a decidedly more equal relationship, introducing, well ahead of their time, a less unbalanced vision of couple relationships.
“With this fully bourgeois anti-Locandiera (the year of composition is the same), we witness a significant step towards modern drama and its interior labyrinths – writes Giorgio Sangati in his director's notes. – It is a Goldoni horror, more Nordic than Mediterranean, a psychological thriller that anticipates Ibsen and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, but also a choral work that tells of a violent and individualistic world and masterfully mixes tragedy and comedy”.
Sangati, a true devotee of Carlo Goldoni's work, having previously staged Arlecchino, the servant of two masters, and The Jealous Women, entrusted the role of Rosaura, the titular wise wife, to Camilla Semino Favro, already awarded the Mariangela Melato Prize in 2015 and then Le Maschere del Teatro Prize as Best Actress in 2019, a versatile artist of theatre, cinema, and TV (on the big screen in Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti and The Last Night of Love by Andrea De Stefano). Ottavio is Ivan D’Aloisio, protagonist in Dostoevsky's The Demons directed by Peter Stein (UBU Award for Best Show 2010) and fresh from the successful play Clytemnestra by Roberto Andò on tour the past season, also a television darling having taken part in series such as Commissioner Montalbano, Doc in Your Hands, Don Matteo, while in cinema he was directed by Mario Martone, Marco Cassini, Francesco Bruni, and Dario Argento. Olga Rossi, on stage as the Marquise Beatrice, an experienced actress who has worked with masters such as Massimo Castri, Giancarlo Cobelli, Carmelo Rifici, and Luca Ronconi, and in the last year has taken part in the shows The City by Martin Crimp and Macbeth by Shakespeare both directed by Jacopo Gassmann. In cinema, she has worked with Gabriele Salvatores, Rocco Pappaleo, Giuseppe Loconsole, Eugenio Cappuccio, and for the small screen noteworthy is her participation in the Netflix serie The Law of Lidia Pöet.
The scene envelopes the viewer in a dramaturgical workshop, a contested space, a functional and dangerous mousetrap. The costumes, while maintaining their historical essence, have been stripped of all embellishments, to give these characters a contemporary nuance.
After a tour in the Istrian cities of Rijeka, Pula, and Piran, the production will land in its natural cradle, namely the Goldoni Theatre in Venice for its Italian debut and then it will close the tour in Padua, at the Verdi Theatre.
By Carlo Goldoni
Adaptation and direction by Giorgio Sangati
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Characters and performers:
Countess Rosaura Camilla Semino Favro
Count Ottavio Ivan Alovisio
Marquise Beatrice Olga Rossi
Pantalone de' Bisognosi Giuseppe Nicodemo
Brighella Riccardo Gamba
Corallina Aurora Cimino
Lelio Stefano Maria Iagulli
Florindo Andrea Tich
Arlecchino Alberto Olinteo
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Scenes Marco Rossi, Francesca Sgariboldi
Costumes Manuela Paladin
Lights Dalibor Fugošić
Original music and sound design Giovanni Frison from The Devil's Trill by G. Tartini
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Assistant director Sonia Soro
Stage manager Andrea Slama
Subtitles and translation Dharma Dana Grubišić
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Production TSV - National Theatre, Italian Drama - Croatian National Theatre of Rijeka - HNK Rijeka
Tour dates:
- 01, 04, 05 FEB 2025: Ivan de Zajc, Theatre Rijeka
- 07, 08 FEB 2025: Istrian Popular, Theatre Pula
- 10, 11 FEB 2025: Tartini, Theatre Piran
- 14 > 16 FEB 2025: Goldoni, Theatre Venice
- 19 > 23 FEB 2025: Verdi, Theatre Padua
