Monthly Archives: January 2011

In our Imagining Venice class, we don’t plan to spend too much time discussing contemporary Italian politics, and our focus on social concerns will revolve more around the ways in which pollution and tourism are affecting Venice in particular. But with all of the fuss about Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that’s been showing up in the media lately, I thought it was worth a quick mention.

The New York Times has published a quick rundown of the latest Berlusconi scandal, titled “Surreal: A Soap Opera Starring Berlusconi,” which describes the accusations that Italy’s prime minister, now 74, had sex with a minor (the now-18 “Ruby Rubacuore”), as well as a number of other women. Those of us who have been watching Berlusconi’s antics from afar over the years know that accusations of marital infidelity are hardly anything new, although the suggestion that he dallied with a minor has raised the scandal bar a few notches.

What’s startling to most U.S. observers is that Berlusconi has gotten away with so much for so long with so little objection from his constituency. The NYT article notes:

…[T]he full drama has been airing for the 17 years that Mr. Berlusconi has been Italy’s most colorful politician, playing to an audience shaped by the sensationalist television culture he helped create in his three decades as Italy’s largest private broadcaster.

No U.S. politician rocked by so many scandals — especially sex scandals — would survive his or her next election, but the voting majority of Italians have been forgiving, probably for several reasons: Berlusconi owns and controls a number of major media outlets in Italy; he’s rich enough to afford the best lawyers and spin doctors; he’s charming and full of jokes; the opposition parties aren’t well-organized; Italians (especially the men) tend to be more forgiving of their politician’s private peccadillos; and until recently Berlusconi’s government was quietly supported by the Vatican. In short, he has been likened to a feudal lord, above reproach, whose charm and wealth have kept his subjects faithful no matter what he does in his castle’s private chambers.

The Church’s recent criticism of his actions may be especially problematic for the prime minister, as it often was for those feudal lords, however. In addition, Berlusconi is still faced with running a country that has the euro region’s second-largest debt burden. He narrowly squeaked past a no-confidence vote in December of last year, however, so it seems that he will remain in power for some time to come.

We’re making a fun addition to itinerary! On Friday, May 20, we’ll be visiting the Goldoni Museum in Venice for a special screening of the film Carlo Goldoni: Venice Grand Theatre of the World (Bettero, 2007). This docudrama, which will be subtitled in English, was shot on location in France and Venice and includes fictional scenes, interviews with contemporary actors and directors, and footage from Goldoni’s plays.

Carlo Goldoni with his European theatrical reform was a forerunner of the French Revolution: he did away with the character masks of the ”Commedia dell’Arte” of the time and revealed the true faces and emotions of the middle class in the Age of Enlightenment. In those days Venice was at the centre of a clash between the tradition of the ”Commedia dell’Arte”, the works of Carlo Gozzi, and the new theatre of Carlo Goldoni, or the so-called “theatre of character”, which had done away with masks, improvisation, classical myths, the gods, heroes, stories of unreal or fantastic characters, in favour of characters taken from real life, such as the middle classes, merchants and commoners, brought on to the stage and made to speak the language of ordinary people.

Goldoni’s reform provoked envy and rancour. And the conflicts that derived from these, often bitter, culminated on the occasion of the feast of Carnival of 1762: Goldoni’s last in Venice, before his departure for Paris, where he spent the last 31 years of his life.

The movie will be screened for us at the Goldoni Museum, which is located in the house where Goldoni was born, and will cost us only the museum ticket price. (Watch a 2-minute museum preview video here)

I think it’s going to be a great way to spend Friday evening away from the maddening crowds, and when we get out of the film we can all go to dinner with our imaginations full of extravagant 18th-century costumes and settings!