‘Strehler and the Milanese stages’ opens today the exhibition on the director 100 years after his birth

100 years after the birth of Giorgio Strehler, the two Milanese theaters to which the great director linked his experience in prose and opera dedicate a widespread exhibition itinerary to him, enriched by the contribution of the Corriere della Sera Foundation. It is the city of Milan that thus remembers the director born in Trieste but who here became a central figure of the European Theater, founding the Piccolo Teatro together with Paolo Grassi in 1947 and becoming a constant presence at La Scala with 35 directions of 33 different titles including the same 1947 and 1990. The exhibition ‘Strehler and the Milanese stages’, which opens today, is divided into several sections: the Teatro alla Scala presents an exhibition “in presence” entitled Strehler, the gesture, the space in the halls of the Theatrical Museum and in the Ridotto dei Palchi curated by Vittoria Crespi Morbio, and the virtual exhibition Strehler and the breath of the true poetic, also accessible to the global public and curated by Franco Pulcini. Il Piccolo instead sets up I love the theater because I love life, consecrated to the story of the relationship between Strehler and Milan and located in the spaces of the Strehler Theater, the Grassi Theater and the Studio Melato Theater. “The city of Milan – observes Superintendent Dominique Meyer – celebrates the centenary of Giorgio Strehler through the joint initiatives of the two theaters in which Strehler worked and lived. In the same year 1947 Strehler founded the Piccolo with Paolo Grassi and made his debut at La Scala. Rooting in the artistic and civil life of the city, the continuity of theatrical making between opera and prose, the drive towards a European cultural perspective are part of Strehler’s legacy as much as his specific contribution to the development of the concept of direction. It is important to remember Strehler’s extraordinary artistic career, but it is important to do it together, bringing together the cultural forces of the city with the contribution of the Corriere della Sera Foundation “. “The Strehler100 Project – explains the Director of the Piccolo Teatro Claudio Longhi – is experiencing a new stage with the Strehler exhibition and the Milanese stages, a precious opportunity to retrace, from different perspectives and through a variety of materials (often unpublished), the fascinating artistic parable of the founder of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. Thanks to the synergy with the Teatro alla Scala and the Corriere della Sera Foundation, an evocative journey takes shape, divided into two sections, which illuminates the rich universe of the Maestro’s creative laboratory. intertwining it at the same time with the history of the city of Milan. If the theater, as a live show, is an ephemeral art, founded on the here and now, the exhibition aims to enhance its amphibious nature, between transience and permanence, reviving the traces of the past and establishing a contemporary dialogue with the figure of Strehler, aimed at feeding – in the words of Walter Benjamin – the ‘living flame’ that ‘continues ua to burn […] on the light ashes of life ‘”.” The Corriere della Sera Foundation – adds its president Piergaetano Marchetti – has collaborated with enthusiasm in this great project through a rich selection of pages from Corriere della Sera. In this way it was possible to highlight the sequence of events that characterized the history of Milan from the post-war period onwards, while showing some of the turning points that marked Italy: from reconstruction to the economic boom, from cultural rebirth to the ferment of the years Sixty to the ‘Milan to drink’. The small and the big story intersect, forming the warp and weft of a rich and varied intertwining that can be explored in the exhibition “.