Italian
Padua. “Imagine, when we talk about whales, oceans, and whalers, to really see them…”. It is with a great theatrical trick that Moby Dick, the famous white sperm whale from Herman Melville’s novel, will make its appearance on the stage of the Teatro Verdi. An ending long thought impossible, but one that Elio De Capitani has managed to put to the test. Therefore Moby Dick alla prova, the text by Orson Welles translated by Cristina Viti, will debut at the Teatro Verdi on Wednesday, March 26 at 8:30 PM, with additional performances until Sunday, March 30.
Padua. It all starts with the renowned director Orson Welles, who in the mid-Fifties rewrites Melville’s novel mainly in free verse, creating a new masterpiece, epic and with a Shakespearean breath. A challenge accepted by Elio De Capitani who with this show, a co-production of Teatro dell’Elfo and Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, brought Welles’ dramaturgy to Italy for the first time, dedicating it to the memory of director Gigi Dall’Aglio. In the role of an introverted Ahab lost in his obsession, Elio De Capitani leads a crew of actors and musicians, including Cristina Crippa, Angelo Di Genio, Marco Bonadei, Enzo Curcurù, Alessandro Lussiana, Massimo Somaglino, Michele Costabile, Giulia Viana, Vincenzo Zampa, and Mario Arcari. The result is a total spectacle, a perfect synthesis of the novel that masterfully portrays the characters by combining Welles’ dramaturgy with parts sung by the choir directed by Francesca Breschi and the live music performed by Mario Arcari, with costumes by Ferdinando Bruni and masks by Marco Bonadei, while lights and sounds are curated by Michele Ceglia and Gianfranco Turco.
On Friday, March 28, at 6:00 PM, there will be an appointment with A scena aperta in the Foyer of the Teatro Verdi where the audience can meet the performers.
Director’s notes by Elio De Capitani
A lasting and magnificent obsession of Welles for Moby-Dick. And finally, on June 16, 1955, at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London, Welles can personally battle his white whales: Melville, the empty stage, and the audience-filled hall. It is a resounding success: “this show is the last pure joy that the theater has given me”. The dramaturgy builds a bridge between Melville and Shakespeare, shifting from Lear’s stubbornness – which life, a cruel teacher, will ultimately redeem – to that irredeemable, until the last moment, of Captain Ahab.
Welles’ blank verse powerfully conveys the prose of the novel with potent imagery, quickly transforming the initial entering and exiting of character into an overwhelming and intense total representation of the clash between man and nature. A second powerful engine of our version is a crew of actors more than ready for the challenge: a cast that represents the fusion of artistic excellence from three generations of the Elfo ensemble, (where many of the young artists are also award-winning artists), and who worked in full lockdown at the Elfo Puccini in Milan, finding, in the difficulty of the moment, the absolute concentration of a totalizing retreat, like a hermitage, that only life stopped outside the theater walls has granted us for once. The third powerful element is the music, composed and played live by Mario Arcari: it is a tremendous generator of deep emotions, both in instrumental performances and in the choirs and Sea shanties directed by Francesca Breschi.
And so, the white sperm whale has taken over our lives. Since we started bringing Orson Welles’ Moby Dick alla prova to the stage, the dual nature of the great marine mammal torments us.
Teatro Verdi | Padua
Wed 26 March ’25 at 8:30 PM
Thu 27 March ’25 at 7:00 PM
Fri 28 March ’25 at 8:30 PM
Sat 29 March ’25 at 8:30 PM
Sun 30 March ’25 at 4:00 PM
Moby Dick alla prova
by Orson Welles
adapted – mainly in free verse – from the novel by Herman Melville
translation by Cristina Viti
