Gustavo Modena's Othello: the first performance in an Italian theatre of a Shakespearean drama

Abstract

Performances of Shakespeare's plays in the Italian peninsula were notoriously slow to develop. They only started after the European Romantic Movement had challenged the neo-classical dramatic models of French derivation that dominated Italian theatrical life until well into the nineteenth century. The first serious attempt to stage a Shakespearean play was undertaken in 1842 by Gustavo Modena, one of the most celebrated actors of his age, who attempted to play Othello in the Teatro Re in Milan. The performance was a disastrous failure. This article investigates the political, cultural and linguistic reasons which led to that failure, underlining Modena's precarious position in the Italy of the Risorgimento (the movement in favour of national unity) as a friend and close collaborator of the most revolutionary and democratic leader of the Risorgimento, Giuseppe Mazzini. The article ends by underlining Modena's success in training a new generation of Italians who, after the unification of Italy in 1861, would become internationally famous in Shakespearean roles. Particular emphasis is placed on the Othello of Tommaso Salvini.