It is not easy, from the scant documentation available, to reconstruct the stages of the artistic life of Mario Fumagalli (1864-1936), a performer of opera and drama, head of a theatre company and company director, a true and underestimated protagonist of the Italian stage at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Always attentive to goings-on in the Italian theatrical world, in 1900 Fumagalli, from Germany, where he worked, made contact with Gabriele d’Annunzio in order to obtain his permission to perform his first works, translated into German (The Dream of a Spring Morning, The Dream of an Autumn Sunset, The Dead City, Gioconda and Glory).
In 1904, Fumagalli was called upon by the Poet to stage The torch under the bushel. This was one of the most significant chapters in his artistic career, which found in d’Annunzio a safe and culturally distinguished guide, courageous in undertaking the path of renewal and by now sufficiently aware of the rules of the theatre ‘profession’.
The Bard chose to entrust the Fumagalli company (and not the otherwise famous Virgilio Talli company) with the staging of The torch under the bushel, which made its debut at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan on 27 March 1905. On the occasion of the opera’s staging, Fumagalli, called upon to impersonate Tibaldo de Sangro, met the beautiful and ambitious Teresa Franchini (1877-1972), his future wife and diva of the Italian theatre, who had been chosen by d’Annunzio himself to play the protagonist Gigliola.
In one of the letters shown here, concerns surface over Eleonora Duse’s unwillingness to perform in the 1902-1903 season. As we know, the great diva, who did not hold the actor – whom she described as “zacconiante” (i.e. acting like the hated Zacconi) – in the highest esteem, denied herself to the Italian public who were anxiously expecting her. Instead, she preferred to undertake a tiring tour first in Berlin, Paris and Vienna, then in the United States, from mid-October until December 1902, with performances in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia.
1-2. Teresa Franchini with Gabriele Steno (Gabriellino d’Annunzio) and the playbill for the premiere at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan.
3. A scene from the play.
4. A photo of Teresa Franchini in the studio.
5. Adolfo de Karolis, front cover of The Torch Under the Bushel, published in Milan by Treves.