Inaugural performance Prose Season 2025-2026

Pignasecca and Pignaverde
with Tullio Solenghi

December 6 to 14 at the Donizetti Theatre

 

The Donizetti Theater Foundation’s Prose Season 2025-2026, in memory of Benvenuto Cuminetti on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death, is on the starting blocks: from Saturday, Dec. 6 to Sunday, Dec. 14, with the exception of Monday, Dec. 8, it will be staged at the city’s main theater Pignasecca and Pignaverde, a title that reprises one of the classics of the Genoese comic actor Gilberto Govi with, at the forefront, also in the role of director, Tullio Solenghi, a popular TV and theater face who is also of Genoese descent. The show is based on the original play written by Emerico Valentinetti, adapted into two acts by Solenghi himself and Margherita Rubino, with scenic design by Davide Livermore. Makeup and wig by Bruna Calvanesi taken over by Barbara Petrolati. Set design by Anna Varaldo. On stage, in addition to Tullio Solenghi: Claudia Benzi, Laura Repetto, Matteo Traverso, Stefano Moretti, Roberto Alinghieri, Mauro Pirovano, Stefania Pepe. Production Teatro Sociale di Camogli and Teatro Nazionale di Genova. Duration 1 hour 50 minutes including intermission. Times: evening 8:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 7 and 14 3:30 p.m. Ticket prices: from 15 to 45 euros, reduced from 12 to 36 euros.

Pignasecca and Pignaverde is, along with Manezzi per maritare una figlia and Colpi di Timone, one of the most representative shows of the comic art of Gilberto Govi, an actor deeply attached to his city to the point of transposing the texts of his shows into Genoese dialect. His fame, however, thanks to an irresistible comic vis and extraordinary facial expressions, has largely crossed regional and national borders. Long the focus of a rediscovery, the work and figure of Gilberto Govi have in Tullio Solenghi one of the most sincere supporters and popularizers.

It is Tullio Solenghi himself who narrates his love for Govi: “The thrilling outcome of Manezzi per maritare una figlia, which in the span of 80 performances entertained and moved an audience of at least 50,000 spectators, could only prelude a new adventure with the other great classic of Gilberto Govi’s masterful repertoire, Pignasecca e Pignaverde. I leave the shoes of the submissive “Steva” to step into those of the more sullen Felice Pastorino with unchanged enthusiasm, a mask that, unlike the previous one, hides, among the inevitable cues of great comedy, dark and intriguing human sides to be investigated and represented. This new Govian character represents, in fact, the eternal archetype of the miser, around which revolve characters and situations that go to make up, in the careful observation of reality, that microcosm of Ligurian style that manifests itself in a sort of precious “period photo.”

It is precisely by browsing through these scenic images that the audience participated in our “Manezzi,” in a kind of collective ritual that I want to punctually recreate with this new performance.”

“In Pignasecca and Pignaverde the mask becomes more authentic, with a greater narrative depth, a new challenge for me, for my staging and for the company that supports me, professionally impeccable in every role, because the empathy of the group has always been one of the essential resources of Gilberto Govi’s theater. To him and his art I wanted to dedicate my own personal tribute in this new staging as well. Happy new collective ritual to all with Pignasecca and Pignaverde!” concludes the actor and director.