La gatta Cenerentola (1976) is undoubtedly the most famous play of Roberto De Simone, a real event that marks the definitive affirmation of the Master in the national and international landscape. The opera, in fact, imposes itself on the attention of the public and critics as a product that contains artistic heritage, primordial instances and a personal idea of theatre according to a process never found before in the Neapolitan context. Far from any form of folk, the work claims an alchemical and antinaturalistic nature that recovers the magical and ancestral dimension of popular culture conveyed in a typology of musical theatre of which De Simone is the original architect. The result, however, comes at the end of a path that knows some intermediate steps in which matures and realizes the inseparable link between music, theater and ethnoanthropological studies. The essay retraces the fundamental steps of the artist’s career preceding La gatta Cenerentola, the road completed in search of a theatrical style destined for a revolution of artistic forms within the Neapolitan theatre.
Dalla Canzone di Zeza alla Gatta Cenerentola. La rivoluzione delle forme nel teatro di tradizione
ANNAMARIA SAPIENZA
2025
Abstract
La gatta Cenerentola (1976) is undoubtedly the most famous play of Roberto De Simone, a real event that marks the definitive affirmation of the Master in the national and international landscape. The opera, in fact, imposes itself on the attention of the public and critics as a product that contains artistic heritage, primordial instances and a personal idea of theatre according to a process never found before in the Neapolitan context. Far from any form of folk, the work claims an alchemical and antinaturalistic nature that recovers the magical and ancestral dimension of popular culture conveyed in a typology of musical theatre of which De Simone is the original architect. The result, however, comes at the end of a path that knows some intermediate steps in which matures and realizes the inseparable link between music, theater and ethnoanthropological studies. The essay retraces the fundamental steps of the artist’s career preceding La gatta Cenerentola, the road completed in search of a theatrical style destined for a revolution of artistic forms within the Neapolitan theatre.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
