Eduardo at the Court of the Louvre

The marvel of Paris and the mysteries of Naples, the majesty of the Louvre and the treasures of Capodimonte, the backwash of the sea and the evocative music of the French uprisings. An announced success that of “Les Fantômes de Naples”, which exceeded the wildest expectations. A work capable of uniting two sensitivities that have found themselves to be similar, a work that went to checkers by poetic interlocking, two languages ​​that have together found a third way to understand each other and proceed united in the name of Eduardo De Filippo. The show, conceived by the director of the Théâtre de la Ville Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota on dramaturgy by Marco Giorgetti, a co-production of the Louvre Museum, Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and Teatro della Pergola in Florence, occupied a space never before open to the public, the Cour Lefuel, the ancient stables of Napoleon III, with its imposing steps used as a theatrical backdrop to host the very current universe of Eduardo whom in France they call the “Neapolitan Molière”.
The show, intertwined between Italian actors and French actors, each in his own language, each with his high and popular culture together, has grown day after day, has acquired fluency, an amalgam that has become perfect of songs and words, illusions and pain, smiles and sudden bursts of joy. The Neapolitan never sweetened, to the ears of the local public it presented itself as a mournful ballad of restless spirits that took up space and time in a seamless reference with interventions in French, as tight as if they were a single speech. Suggestions extracted from the most famous works of Eduardo and again Pirandello’s “Six characters in search of an author” a pièce that De Filippo particularly appreciated. Again Pessoa and his verses and a sonnet by Shakespeare in Neapolitan. Before concluding with Lina Sastri and her “Black Tamurriata” accompanied in an infernal jumble by the actors together, the shiver comes from the voice of Eduardo himself, taken from the Taormina speech which was later revealed to be her spiritual testament.
A dive into an ever-evoked world that brings the highest art to general understanding. Merit of Demarcy-Mota’s constantly evolving direction which has given a dreamed imprint, far from any possible realism, played between tragicomic illusion and blatant fiction to merge into the magic that only the ghosts of the soul can discover. And of Marco Giorgetti who, having given up his role as manager for once, has returned to being an actor and playwright with extreme naturalness and effectiveness, engaged in a fine work among the most important texts of European dramaturgy. A special mention for the actors, all of them, Italian and French, who jumped into the adventure without reservations. The aforementioned Lina Sastri always mistress of the scene and Mariangela D’Abbraccio: the first, voice of the earth, who sang ancient Neapolitan ballads accompanied by musicians as well as bringing a Filomena Marturano caught in her most heated monologue and D’Abbraccio, a presence very strong on stage, interspersed between songs and evocative words. Above all, we owe her the execution of the poignant piece by Pino Daniele, “Chi tene ‘o mare” sung as in a breath of sea breeze. And the beautiful voice of Ernesto Lama lent to a creepy “Amapola”.
Among the French, all perfectly inserted in the roles, we must mention Valérie Dashwood and Serge Maggiani engaged in a lexical ping-pong between Pirandello and De Filippo. Applause aside for Francesco Cordella, in a complex and not easy to sustain mask, a very sweet and sorrowful puffin who has found an autonomous poetic trend, capable of connecting the various souls of the show while remaining a protagonist at every appearance. Standing ovation for all performances and sold out amphitheater.