Il teatro di Eleonora Duse. Nuova edizione riveduta e ampliata

Compared to the original, the new edition of Il teatro di Eleonora Duse includes a new wide section (three new chapters, an appendix, the required bibliographic updates) and especially a whole new perspective: a study on Duse coupling the perspectives of the 19th and of the 20th century. Why did the great directors consider Duse as a fellow traveler? Was it just an illusion, some kind of audience’s love? These questions can lead to the overturning of one of most credited commonplaces in theatre: the contrast between the theatre “of the actor” and the theatre “of the director”. There are no similarities between Duse’s work method and the great masters of the theatre revolution of the beginning of the twentieth century. However, there are assonances worth exploring. Although little inclined to physical scores and repeated gestures, Duse orchestrated physical and emotional reactions with the same care and precision by which, in those same years, some stage masters orchestrated their performances.