Conference on Eleonora Duse

This conference is part of the celebrations for 150 years since the birth of Eleonora Duse. Such an important anniversary deserves to be celebrated with a high-profile international initiative aimed at highlighting the artistic and personal contribution of the great actress and exploring hitherto little studied aspects of her multifaceted personality. For this purpose, two institutions – the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the G. Mazzariol Department of History of the Arts and Conservation of the Artistic Heritage, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice – have promoted the event bringing together authoritative experts to discuss the figure of the great actress, according to various themes.

The guest speakers have been asked to consider four major topics and to correlate them during the conference: Duse’s education, apprenticeship, debut and the early years of her career; the views of other actresses and Duse’s influence on them and on world theatre; Duse and international repertories, seen through her theatre tours and relations with international writers like Henrik Ibsen; and, lastly, Eleonora Duse’s rich and complex relations with other arts: literature, music, cinema, photography and fashion.

There will be two special evenings (3-4 October) accompanying the conference, again wholly dedicated to the actress and her art. Elena Bucci will lend her body and voice to a text written together with Paolo Puppa (Eleonora o la metamorfosi), while Milena Vukotic will interpret a monologue written by Puppa, entitled Una notte di Eleonora.

Venice, Ca’ Foscari University, Auditorium Santa Margherita
Giorgio Cini Foundation – Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
1-4 October 2008

Information
tel.+39 041 2710234
fax +39 041 2710215
e-mail mariaida.biggi@cini.it