Institute of Theatre and Opera Archives

Casanova and Venice

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Giacomo Casanova, an emblematic figure of 18th-century Europe, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini is dedicating a major exhibition and cultural project to the celebrated Venetian. The first chapter of the double exhibition opens at Palazzo Cini in San Vio, from September 27, 2025 to March 2, 2026.

Curated by the Institute of Art History, with the participation of the Institute for Theater and Opera, the exhibition traces the multifaceted figure of Casanova – scholar, memoirist, philosopher, alchemist, traveler, and diplomat – throughout the restless century of the 18th century that ended with the fall of the Serenissima.

Through nearly one hundred works including paintings, engravings, books, objets d’art and documents from the Foundation’s collections and prestigious Italian and European institutions, the exhibition recounts the refined, cultured and contradictory world of the Venetian eighteenth century – Casanova’s century.

The exhibition is part of a wider cultural program involving all the Fondazione Giorgio Cini institutions, with conferences, concerts and seminars dedicated to the link between Casanova, Venice and Europe. These are also the two main themes of the double exhibition, articulated in two venues:

Casanova and Venice at Palazzo Cini in San Vio (September 27, 2025 – March 2, 2026) with a focus on Venice, the birthplace and the first stage of Casanova’s life.

Casanova and Venice at Palazzo Cini in San Vio (Sept. 27, 2025-March 2, 2026) with focus on Venice, the birthplace and the first stage of Casanova’s life.

Casanova and Europe. An Opera in Multiple Acts on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore (Oct. 17, 2025 – March 2, 2026): a look at Europe and the network of travels, relationships and adventures that made Casanova an ante litteram European figure. The exhibition Casanova and Europe. Opera in Multiple Acts is produced in collaboration for the staging with the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice.

Paolo Poli. Photographs from the archives of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Theatre Institute in Venice

An exhibition dedicated to Paolo Poli, a unique figure in 20th-century Italian theatre, opens, entitled Paolo Poli. Photographs from the archives of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Theatre Institute in Venice. The exhibition pays tribute to his flair, irony and creative freedom that has been able to cross genres, eras and taboos.

The exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Institute of Theatre and Opera in Venice, is part of the programme of the ninth edition of BE POPULAR, the Festival of Popular Theatre staged in Vicenza from 20 to 31 August.
Hosted in the gallery of Palazzo Thiene, the exhibition highlights – through photographs from the Institute archive – one of the freest and most creative figures of 20th-century Italian theatre.

Playbills, black and white and colour photographs retrace the career of an artist who made the stage the place for subversive elegance, refined and irreverent comedy and who knew how to be both popular and cultured, unsettling and profound.

Paolo Poli (Florence, 23 May 1929 – Rome, 25 March 2016) is an actor, singer, director and author. Gifted with a very personal stylistic signature, he is the representative of a theatre that is at once biting and light, refined and desecrating, which takes its cues from operetta, revue, vaudeville, avanspettacolo and variety, but which is, however, difficult to frame in definitions of genre and content.

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Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The exhibition is free of charge.

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Illustre Signora Duse, voci dall’archivio dell’attrice

Opened in 2011, the Duse Room is a permanent space dedicated to the memory of the great Italian actress. It was born out of a desire to make the precious heritage housed in the Duse Archive accessible through thematic displays.

The Institute for Theater and Melodrama offers visitors a journey through the voices of others: artists, intellectuals and men of letters who had professional and friendly relations with the great Italian actress.
The selection of letters, among which appear those of Sibilla Aleramo, Grazia Deledda, Isadora Duncan, Luigi Pirandello, Margherita Sarfatti and the famous French fashion designer Jean Philippe Worth, restores a never-before-seen image of Dusi’s art and the dense and intricate network of relationships on which Eleonora and her theater were nourished. Pages full of reflections, feelings and enthusiasms that can tell the story of the exceptional nature of this artist and the impact her art had on the culture and society of early 20th century Europe.

L’ultima figlia di San Marco: Eleonora Duse a Venezia e in Veneto

As part of the celebrations promoted by the National Committee for the centenary of the death of Eleonora Duse (1924-2024), the Institute of Theatre and Opera in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University in Venice is promoting a lecture-performance by performer Luca Scarlini entitled L’ultima figlia di San Marco: Eleonora Duse a Venezia e in Veneto. A journey through calli and canals to discover Eleonora Duse’s Venetian sojourns, her frequentations of the lagoon and the many tales told by witnesses of the time. Memories and memories, encounters and suggestions that, from Gabriele D’Annunzio’s Fuoco, will lead the spectator to Palazzo Volkoff, on the Grand Canal, to the Zattere residence, to Prince Hohenlohe’s red Casina and finally to the house of the actress’s father, Alessandro Vincenzo Duse.

Between flashes of the modern and fidelity to the past, the portrait of the great actress flows, against the backdrop of the city she loved most for much of her life, before her decision to settle in Asolo, in life and in death.

Seminar Singing in the air, with masks

From 3 to 5 March, the seminar Singing in the air, with masks, organised in collaboration with Isabelle Moindrot and Giulia Filacanapa, professors at the Théâtre Performance et Societé of the Université Paris 8 and the École Universitaire de Recherche ArTeC – Nanterre, will be held at the Institute of Theatre and Opera.

The seminar, a follow-up chapter to the Singing in the pool seminar hosted last year, focuses on the discovery and study of the theatrical mask, with particular reference to the aerial environment. The students attend a lecture on the history of theatrical scenography by the director, Professor Maria Ida Biggi, who gives them an overview of the research carried out by important scenographers. In addition, the students present can view sketches, masks and preparatory materials relating to some of the productions of set designer Santuzza Calì, whose entire documentary archive is preserved at the Institute.

International Conference Behold the World: Arrigo Boito, the Future in the Past and the Past in the Future

13 – 15 NOVEMBER 2018
VENICE, ISLAND OF SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE

The Institute of Theatre and Opera is holding an international conference entitled “Behold the World”: Arrigo Boito, the Future in the Past and the Past in the Future to mark the centenary of the death of Arrigo Boito and the 150th anniversary of his opera Mefistofele. Part of the activities associated with the recently established
National Committee for the Centenary of Arrigo Boito’s Death, the conference has attracted specialists from the various artistic fields in which the leading intellectual worked during his multifaceted career as a composer, librettist, avant-garde writer, theatre and music critic, translator and stage director. A special study will also be dedicated to the opera Mefistofele, a landmark in the 19th-century Italian operatic repertoire, staged for the first time in 1868 at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. This theme will be tackled with the participation of the director Robert Carsen, whose classic version of Mefistofele has been on stage for thirty years in major European and world opera houses; this year to mark the anniversary, Carsen’s Mefistofele will return to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
In November and December, again as part of the activities of the National Committee, there will also be two important Boito events at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan and the Teatro La Fenice, Venice. Arrigo Boito (1842-1918) was educated in Venice, Milan and Paris. Among the leading exponents of the Scapigliatura movement, he played an active part in the social life of the Milanese literary salons. A composer and writer, he produced numerous novels, poems, translations, critical essays and scores. Once of his most important musical works is the unfinished Nerone, staged by Toscanini in 1924, after his death. His principal works as a librettist include the texts for Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff, Faccio’s Amleto and Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. He was a playwright and early director of Eleonora Duse (they corresponded at length), for whom he
translated Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth; moreover, he directed the great diva in the first of these plays.

International Conference Giovanni Poli. The Essential Stage

25 – 26 OCTOBER 2018
VENICE, ISLAND OF SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE
International Conference Giovanni Poli. The Essential Stage

On 25 and 26 October 2018, the Institute of Theatre and Opera is holding an international conference entitled “Giovanni Poli. The Essential Stage”. The scholars and experts in the field attending the event will
analyse the career and work of the Venetian actor and stage director, celebrated for having revived and enriched the great Venetian theatre tradition and Commedia dell’Arte. The acquisition of the Giovanni Poli
Archive, at the behest of his heirs and celebrated with a public presentation on 20 October 2017, has provided the Institute of Theatre and Opera with a key resource for research work into Venetian and Italian
theatre of the second half of the 20th century. Together with the university lecturers and researchers, who will illustrate the results of studies carried out on archival materials, women and men of theatre will speak
about their experience of working with the director and playwright.
During the conference, an exhibition curated by Maria Ida Biggi will display a selection of materials from the archives of Giovanni Poli and Mischa Scandella in the exhibition room of the Manica Lunga Library.
Moreover, Stefano Poli will direct a revival of the historical manifesto play La commedia degli Zanni, written and directed by his father Giovanni.
Produced by the Teatro Ca’ Foscari at Santa Marta and staged with the participation of young actors and the collaboration of the Teatro a l’Avogaria, the play will be performed on 25 and 26 October at the Teatro Ca’ Foscari.

«Illustre Signora Duse». Cento voci dall’archivio dell’attrice

One hundred years after the death of Eleonora Duse (Vigevano, 1858 – Pittsburgh 1924), this volume offers a previously unpublished selection of the many letters preserved in the actress’s archive held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation’s Institute for Theatre and Opera. It includes one hundred of the many voices that had artistic and friendly relations with her, including actresses and actors, intellectuals and men of letters.
From the letters to Duse emerge memories of encounters, exchanges of opinions, shared projects and creative visions. A plurality of voices, often far removed from each other, surprisingly agree in recognising the exceptional nature of the figure of Eleonora Duse, of her vision, of her theatre.

A revolutionary and passionate artist, Eleonora was the most famous Italian actress of our recent past. A successful actress and leading lady, she left an indelible mark on the Italian and European culture of her time. Many pages were written about her, and some of the most significant testimonies are collected in this book: the poet Ada Negri describes her as ‘the most sublime female figure of our time’, Piero Gobetti speaks of her as ‘a religious spirit’ and the Florentine writer Fernando Agnoletti compares those who did not have the good fortune to hear her at the theatre ‘to those who have not read the Odyssey in poetry’.

Il filo rosso tra Arrigo e Leonor

To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of the great actress, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute of Theatre and Opera has accepted the invitation received from the Circolo cultura e stampa bellunese to collaborate on an exhibition documenting the personal and professional relationship between Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito.

In the splendid setting of Palazzo Fulcis, visitors will therefore be offered an exhibition itinerary through the photographs and letters exchanged between the two great artists. The exhibition will be enriched by a selection of other original documents and memorabilia, including the first editions of Arrigo Boito’s plays, a portrait of the composer and man of letters executed in 1902 by Leopoldo Metlicovitz and two dresses that belonged to Eleonora Duse.

A series of photographic panels dedicated to the biography and artistic production of Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito complete the exhibition.

The exhibition was realised with the cooperation and support of the Chamber of Commerce of Belluno, the Veneto Region, the Province and the Municipality of Belluno.

In the course of the exhibition, various events have also been organised.

Among these, those involving the Institute of Theatre and Opera are:

15 November, Palazzo Fulcis, Belluno, 6pm

Conference Eleonora Duse and Arrigo Boito, by Prof. Maria Ida Biggi, Ca’ Foscari University, Institute of Theatre and Opera, Fondazione Giorgio Cini

20 November, Teatro G. Pierobon di Paiane (Ponte nelle Alpi), 8.30pm

Screening of the short film S’io fiammeggio nel caldo d’amore. Dante nelle lettere di Eleonora Duse e Arrigo Boito (2021). The screening will be introduced by a lecture by Paola Bigatto and Marianna Zannoni

6 December, Palazzo Crepadona, Belluno, 9pm

Screening of the film Cenere (1916). The screening will be introduced by a lecture by Maria Ida Biggi and Marianna Zannoni

Book presentation Santuzza Calì al Teatro Biondo

On the occasion of Santuzza Calì’s 90th birthday, the Institute of Theatre and Opera joins the celebrations dedicated to the artist with the presentation of the new monographic publication by Maria Ida Biggi, Santuzza Calì. Arte fantasia colore, published by Silvana editoriale (2024).

The meeting will be held at the Teatro Biondo in Palermo on 28 September, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition that the theatre will dedicate to the artist, and which will feature a selection of images from Santuzza’s theatrical works, of which the originals are now held in the ARCHiVe donated to the Institute in 2022.

The presentation will be attended by Santuzza Calì, Maria Ida Biggi (Ca’Foscari University of Venice and director of the Institute of Theatre and Opera), Lorenzo Salveti (Rome Academy of Dramatic Art), Luigi Piccolo (Sartoria Farani) and Veronica Olmi (Teatro Verde, Rome) and Pamela Villoresi, director of Teatro Biondo.