At the Royal Botanical Garden of Naples: “A te, Masaniello” by Annamaria Russo on stage. Saturday 9 July as part of the Brividi d'Estate 2022 festival.
To you, Masaniello by Annamaria Russo
The path of a dream without a happy ending, beautiful and desperate, which, as
a shooting star, is born, shines and dies in the darkness of disillusionment
He was twenty-seven years old, a fisherman who sold fish at the market. In ten days he managed to give a dream to the Neapolitans, a dream so beautiful and scary that his own fellow citizens decided to destroy the dream and the madman who had allowed them to dream it.
This, to sum it up in a few lines, was the revolution of Tommaso Aniello d'Amalfi, known as Masaniello, which will be revived at the Real Orto Botanico di Napoli, Saturday 9 July 2022 at 21.00 pm (repeated on Sunday 10), in the show A te, Masaniello written and directed by Annamaria Russo, and scheduled as part of the Brividi d'Estate 2022 review.
The production, presented by Il Pozzo e il Pendolo Teatro, will see on stage the performers Alessio Sica, Marianita Carfora, Alfredo Mundo, Riccardo Maio, Gennaro Monti, Debora Sacco, Michele Costantino.
The music and soundtracks are by Gennaro Monti, the lights by Amedeo Carpentieri, the stage design by Elio Rivera.
July 7, 1647, the Neapolitan people, starving due to the fiscal pressure of the Spanish viceroyalty, unleashed a violent revolt. The leader of the insurrection was a fisherman, Tommaso Aniello d'Amalfi, known as Masaniello.
The city appointed him Generalissimo of the population and followed him with blind faith for seven days, putting the city to fire and sword, and forcing the nobles and the viceroy to take refuge in Castel Sant'Elmo, to escape the violence of the assault.
Seven days lasted the revolution of the “beggars”, seven legendary days during which the government surrendered to the strength of the people, and accepted, unconditionally, all the requests of the Generalissimo. Seven days during which the people were sovereign. Among the alleys, the streets, the squares echoed a single cry: freedom. Seven days during which the impossible became possible.
Then, suddenly, it all ended. Someone pulled down the curtain, and darkness fell, even in Masaniello's mind, who suddenly went mad. In the alleys, the people no longer cheered their commander, but, in a low voice, decreed his death. On July 14, the eve of the feast of the Madonna del Carmine, Masaniello gave his last delirious speech to the population, and, a few hours later, his head was taken as a pledge to the Viceroy.
This is the story of Masaniello, but this is also the story of Naples, which, over the centuries, replicates itself identically and immutably. A city that does not forgive those who try to lift it from the mud, revealing itself, in reality, to be a land with a soft belly, which swallows dreams and expels abjection.
Article published on 7 July 2022 - 12:24
