Luigi Rasi from declamation to mélodrame

Abstract

The essay focuses on the music and theatre performances led by Luigi Rasi, Director of the “Regia Scuola di Recitazione di Firenze” (Royal School of Acting of Florence since 1882 to 1918. Actor, writer, historian of theatre and teacher of declamation, Rasi brought on stage several melodramas, from Bürger’s Lenore to Schumann’s Manfred. In collaboration with the “Regio Istituto Musicale di Firenze” (Royal Music Institute of Florence) and in dialogue with different European intellectuals (among others, Arnaldo Bonaventura, Edward Dent, Edgardo Maddalena) Rasi researched a new relationship between music and declamation, a field of experimentation which would have later found a larger fortune also in Italy.