On Sunday evening Gian Giacomo Schiavi spoke with the musicologist Mariateresa Dellaborra about Luigi Illica as writer. How did it go?

Luigi Illica's was a multifaceted, complex talent, a real Risorgimento character capable of best expressing the ideal and revolutionary thrust of the late nineteenth century. Gian Giacomo Schiavi has found some pieces of theatrical criticism written by Illica for the Corriere della Sera, and the crocodile published on the occasion of the funeral and written by a historical figure, the critic Renato Simoni. The result is an eclectic, bizarre, very lively character. An enthusiastic man with a talent for all kinds of literary genres, who participated in an important revolution in the codes and models of librettos of the time. It is also for this reason that during the evening of the Illica Festival, selected pieces from Bohème, Andrea Chénier and Madama Butterfly will be represented, interspersed with the recitation of Giorgio Melazzi, who in the role of Luigi Illica will declaim the texts of the librettos. It is a way to emphasize the importance of the word in harmony with that of the compositional work. A tribute that serves above all to focus attention on the librettist's work.

The man who emerges from the portrait that the various events of the Festival make up seems an out of the ordinary and full of talent...

Certainly the end of the nineteenth century, with its revolutionary movements and the movements of Verismo and Scapigliatura, saw many of these artists supporting and celebrating the libertarian values of the time. Giuseppe Verdi is a famous supporter of the Risorgimento, but his contemporaries Ponchielli and Boito are no less. Luigi Illica is a man of his time, full of audacity, enthusiasm, ready to fight for the causes he believed in.