Alberto Savinio's Alcesti di Samuele in the Aftermath of the Second World War

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Alcesti di Samuele (Alcestis, Daughter of Samuel), by Italian writer, painter, set designer, and composer Alberto Savinio (1891-1952), voices the anxiety that surrounds the difficult process of postwar reconstruction. Savinio warns against the dangerous manifestations of nationalism that are ingrained in human nature, arguing that the only solution against future threats of totalitarianism is to take refuge in one's intellect, to maintain a critical detachment and resist propagandistic enticements. As Brecht had parodied the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, (1) Savinio rationalizes past events through a deconstruction of the myth of the dictator as a supernatural being. In Alcesti di Samuele, the former American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt states: Molti cercano la soluzione del fascismo e io questa soluzione l'ho trovata: smettere di pronunciare il nome di Mussolini. In un mese, del fascismo non rimarra, traccia.... La colpa del fascismo e del nazismo si imputa a Mussolini e a Hitler. Errore. La colpa e dei popoli che hanno espresso dai propri visceri questi due personaggi cosi profondamente, cosi pericolosamente, cosi tragicamente espressivi. II dittatore un mezzo, uno strumento, un intermediario, un irrresponsabile, un passivo. Il dittatore e una vittima. (2) (Many people are looking for a solution to Fascism; I have found a solution: to stop saying Mussolini's name. In a month there will be no trace of Fascism.... The responsibility for Fascism and Nazism is attributed to Mussolini and Hitler. This is a mistake. The responsibility lies with their peoples, who have expressed from their own bowels two characters so deeply, so dangerously, so tragically expressive. The dictator is a means, a tool, a middleman, an irresponsible, passive individual. The dictator is a victim.) Set in Munich during the Second World War, Alcesti di Samuele centers on the ultimate sacrifice of Teresa Goerz, a Jewish woman who commits suicide to protect the career of her Christian husband, Paul. Published by Bompiani in 1949, the play received a cold reception when it premiered in 1950 at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan under the direction of Giorgio Strehler. The story of Teresa's voluntary death becomes, in Savinios imagery, a modern echo of the archetypical myth of Alcestis who, in Euripides' homonymous play, chooses to die in her husband Admetus's stead. In Alcestis, Heracles compensates Admetus's generous hospitality by bringing back Alcestis from the underworld after defeating Thanatos, the personification of death. As Teresa's sacrifice replicates the tragedy of Alcestis, the plot requires a new Heracles to rescue her from the underworld. In Alcesti di Samuele, Roosevelt, who helped to deliver Europe from the horrors of the Second World War, is the last representative of a long series of Heracleses, whose task is to conduct periodic purifications of the world, each time having to face different challenges (96). (3) Roosevelt/Heracles is the emblem of libertarianism and democracy, whereas the last embodiment of the Lernean Hydra, one of the monsters defeated by Heracles, is totalitarianism itself. Hence his katabatic mission to retrieve Teresa/Alcestis symbolizes the defeat of the triumphal violence and brutality that nourish totalitarian regimes. …