The
Cosmos Theatre presents a Staged Reading of
L’EBREO
(The
Jew)
A Carnival Comedy from 1614 by
Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger
SATURDAY MARCH 23, 2019
11:30 AM
WARNE BALLROOM
COSMOS CLUB
WASHINGTON, DC
Adapted by: Edward Goldberg
Directed by: Tarpley Long
Executive Producer: Anthony E. Gallo
CAST:
MONNA
SIMONETTA TARPLEY LONG
ALAMANNO
TOLOSINI STANLEY CLOUD
DIANORA
TOLOSINI GLORIA RALL
ORETTA
TOLOSINI SOPHY BURNHAM
LUCIA LEONORE SALZMAN
RIHA BEATRIX
WHITEHALL
GIOVANNI
BARBA MILES BENSON
GIROLAMO
AMIERI RICHARD WAUGAMAN
AMBROGIO BORDONI MARK YOUNG
FEDERIGO RODNEY ROSENSTEIN
MELCHISEDEC GEORGE SPENCER
UNDERSTUDY BUNTY KETCHUM
SOUND DIRECTOR
BEATRIX WHITEHALL
PLACE AND TIME:
Florence, in 1614, during the Carnival season.
The story unfolds—scene after scene--in the course of a single day.
ACT ONE
SCENE 1 A
FLORENTINE STREET
SCENE 2 THE
HOME OF GIROLAMO AMIERI
SCENE 3 THE
HOME OF AMBROGIO BORDONI
SCENE 4 IN THE
STREET
SCENE 5 THE HOME OF ALAMANNO TOLOSINI
SCENE 6 THE
HOME OF AMBROGIO BORDONI
SCENE 7 THE
HOME OF ALAMANNO TOLOSINI
SCENE 8 ON THE
PONTE VECCHIO
SCENE 9 IN THE STREET
SCENE 10 THE HOME OF ALAMANNO TOLOSINI
FIFTEEN MINUTE
INTERMISSION: DESSERT, FRUIT, COFFEE AND TEA WILL BE SERVED
ACT TWO
SCENE 1 IN THE STREET
SCENE 2 MELCHISEDEC’S HOME IN THE
GHETTO
SCENE 3 IN THE STREET
SCENE 4 IN THE STREET
SCENE 5 UPSTAIRS IN THE TOLOSINI HOME
SCENE 6 UPSTAIRS IN THE TOLOSINI HOME
SCENE 7 ELSEWHERE
IN THE TOLOSINI HOME
SCENE 8
IN THE STREET
SCENE 9 UPSTAIRS IN THE TOLOSINI HOME
SCENE 10 THE HOME OF GIROLAMO AMIERI
SCENE 11 THE HOME OF ALAMANNO TOLOSINI
SCENE 12 IN THE STREET
SCENE 13 THE HOME OF AMBROGIO
BORDONI
SCENE 14 IN THE
STREET
SCENE 15 IN THE STREET
SCENE 16 MELCHISEDEC’S
HOME IN THE GHETTO
SCENE 17 IN THE STREET
ABOUT L’EBREO:
A world première, no less! This rollicking comedy— with a Jew in the
title role—was written for the Carnival of 1614 at the Medici Court, by
Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (great-nephew, heir and namesake of the
celebrated painter, sculptor and architect).
“Think Molière,” says Tony Gallo (’93), who is directing the staged
reading, “but better!” Buonarroti (1568-1646) and Moliere (1622-73) were both
intrigued by the Italian commedia
dell’arte, with its manic energy, exaggerated characters and preposterous
conflicts. But what is a Jew doing in the midst of this comic mayhem—especially
a Turkish Jew named Melchisedec (“King of the Righteous”), with a turban, a
long robe and a hennaed beard?
“1614 was a wild time in the Tuscan capital,” Ed Goldberg explained,
“especially when it came to the Jewish population. Rich Sephardic merchants
were arriving from the Ottoman Empire, forming a small but exclusive circle in
the local ghetto. With their exotic dress, foreign manners and evident wealth,
they seized everyone’s attention—in the streets of Florence and at the Medici
Court.”
Edward Goldberg is a Washington native with a Ph.D. from Oxford. For most
of the last forty years, he has lived in Florence, exploring public and private
archives. Along the way, he published various books and articles, including Jews and Magic in Medici Florence and A Jew at the Medici Court (both
University of Toronto Press, 2011).
What about Michelangelo the Younger’s play, L’Ebreo (The Jew)? Goldberg discovered the autograph manuscript in
the Casa Buonarroti, that family’s historic palazzo,
only a few blocks from his own home. In scene after raucous scene, we see
Melchisedec—a classic Levantino (Jew
from the East)—surrounded by boisterous characters from the commedia dell’arte: impetuous young
lovers, overbearing elders, riotous servants and gossipy neighbors, plus a
pompous lawyer and a scheming marriage broker. We watch them trip over each
other’s feet in the mad whirl of the Florentine Carnival, the annual silly
season between Epiphany (Twelfth Night) and Lent.
“Melchisedec is the ultimate anti-Shylock”, Goldberg observed. “Ironic
but good-natured. Always in on the joke.” “Buonarroti was far less tolerant, when it came to lawyers,” Gallo noted
with a laugh. “If there are ‘bad guys’ in the piece, it’s them!”
Brilliant and lively, richly evocative of Late Renaissance Florence, L’Ebreo (The Jew) seems like a
guaranteed hit. So, why did it have to wait four hundred years for its début on
the world stage?
“No one could read it!” Goldberg sighed. “Buonarroti abandoned L’Ebreo as a scrawled draft, with a
dense overlay of cross-outs and rewrites. Thank God for high-resolution
photography! Thank God for image-enhancement!”
With L’Ebreo (The Jew),
Goldberg faced a triple challenge. First he had to retrieve the author’s own
words. Next, he needed to delve beneath layers of revision to reveal the play’s
dramatic core. Only then could he shape this material into a performable
script—in English—while preserving the sound and sense of the original.
