Un Benigni da Nobel

Fri, May 29 (CBC Radio) - Roberto Benigni. The oscar-winning actor, writer, comedian and director talks to Jian Ghomeshi about his latest project - the great poet, Dante.

Benigni is making his first trip to Canada, performing June 2-3 at the St. Denis Theatre in Montreal, June 7 at Casino Rama in Orillia, Ont., and June 10 in Quebec City.

LISTEN TO THE RADIO INTERVIEW with Roberto Benigni on Q - CBC Radio (Canada)

Part 1

Part 2

«Fave Benigni moment/quote today (w/ apologies to Mark Twain): “I’d go to Heaven for the climate, but I want to go to Hell for the company.”»(Jihan Gomeshi’s Tweet after his interview with Benigni)

When Italian actor-director Roberto Benigni got up on stage to accept his best actor Oscar for Life is Beautiful in 1998, he quoted lines of love from Dante.

That tribute to his wife was part of a lifelong relationship the exuberant actor has had with Italy’s greatest classical poet. Benigni is coming to Canada next week with a one-man show about Dante Alighieri, a fellow Tuscan and the man who wrote the Divine Comedy.

Benigni has been touring Europe for three years with his show, TuttoDante (All Dante) and will make stops in Montreal, Orillia, Ont., and Quebec City. His American premiere in San Francisco took place Thursday night.

“It was a wonderful evening, very moving and very friendly, because in my upbringing, we can joke about everything, but not about poetry,” Benigni said of his debut.

Benigni, speaking to CBC’s cultural affairs show Q on Friday, mocked his own Italian-accented English but said the language of Dante is “universal.”

“I’ve been told, ‘You’re crazy, your English is [in]comprehensible, but Dante invented a new language and I am going to invent a new language too,” he said.

Benigni said his mother introduced him to the 14th-century poet, famous for conducting readers on a tour of hell, purgatory and heaven in Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. His mother urged Roberto to read Dante to improve his memory, but for the would-be actor, it was a flight of imagination.

“When I was a little boy, I was reading Dante and I was saying to myself ‘Bravo, Dante, Bravo.’ It’s so beautiful, the music, the sound, the meaning. I felt like calling him by phone, like a friend,” he said.

Dante’s poetry continues to move Benigni with its passion and tribute to love, he said.

“When you read Dante, you do believe. The exquisite truth is to believe in something that maybe you know is a fiction, but you believe in it willingly. We need a conversion … not a personal religious conversion … but a conversion of our imagination.

“We need to take notice of incomprehensible things, of the mystery of life and death — this is very healthy,” he said.
3 years of sold-out shows

Benigni’s show, which has sold out over the last three years in Europe, mixes the contemporary with his comic take on the world.

“The first part [is] about Berlusconi and Obama and what happens in the world. In the second part we talk about the first circle of hell, which is about [lust] — the lechers, about sex, about passion, about love. It’s very beautiful,” he said.

TuttoDante is performed in French or English and Italian, complete with a recitation from The Inferno in medieval Italian, which he believes is nonetheless accessible to all audiences.

“Dante Alighieri is a universal poet, and great creators they are writing for everybody always. Every single verse is very moving, and the beauty — if we don’t understand, we just stay listening to the sound and it’s like hearing music,” Benigni said.

Benigni is a national hero in Italy, having made some of that country’s most popular movies, including Johnny Stecchino (Johnny Toothpick) and Il piccolo diavolo (Little Devil).

He is also know by fans of ’80s and ’90s American art house cinema for his colourful acting turns in films by American director Jim Jarmusch, such as Night on Earth, Coffee and Cigarettes and Down by Law. That was his first work in English.

He has not made a movie while touring with TuttoDante, but said he plans to work on a new script this fall.

(KGO Newstalk AM 810) - KGO’s Scott Lettieri brings us this report about TuttoDante, a one-man show by the world-renowned Roberto Benigni. Coming to San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall in May, the show is “About love! About sex! About passions!” exclaims Roberto.
Here is Scott’s interview with the extremely vivacious director and actor.

LISTEN TO THE RADIO INTERVIEW with Roberto Benigni:

(ANSA) - WASHINGTON, 23 MAG - Roberto Benigni torna in tournee in America con TuttoDante che prendera’ il via il 26 maggio con il debutto a San Francisco. Il quotidiano New York Times racconta oggi ”l’altra faccia” dell’artista, quella dello studioso letterario: ”Benigni e’ noto agli americani come il comico scatenato che ha vinto tre Oscar nel 1999 con il film ‘La Vita e’ Bella’ ma il suo interesse di studioso per Dante e La Divina Commedia, e’ ancora praticamente sconosciuto agli americani”.

Benigni’s U.S. tour will kick off in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall on Tuesday. “Dante” plays in New York’s Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom on May 30, Boston’s Berklee Performing Center on June 6 and Chicago’s Harris Theater on June 12.

*Here’s a recap of the news for the past week:

- INTERVIEW: “Roberto Benigni Will Send You Straight To Hell” - Vanity Fair

- “HELL’S KITCHEN” - The New Yorker

- RADIO INTERVIEW: KGO AM 810 Newstalk Radio, San Francisco

- “TuttoDante with Roberto Benigni” - San Francisco Chronicle

- Roberto Benigni Interview - A.V. Club

- “Roberto Benigni porta Dante in America” - Reuters Italia

- “Italian showman Benigni brings Dante to America” - Reuters

*Comunicazione: Le date di TuttoDante previste in Germania a Baden-Baden (23 aprile), Duisburg (24 aprile) e Stoccarda (26 aprile) sono state annullate.

Sendung vom 19. April 2009 - Radio Colonia

Con lo spettacolo “TuttoDante” Roberto Benigni ha portato in diverse città tedesche la sua rilettura del capolavoro di Dante Alighieri, la “Divina Commedia”. Un incontro dietro le quinte e le impressioni di Radio Colonia.

Nel suo giro d’Europa con lo spettacolo “TuttoDante” Roberto Benigni è approdato anche in Germania. E, incontrato a tu per tu, il comico e attore toscano è a tutti gli effetti come appare in tv e al cinema, intelligente e divertente, ma anche modesto e per nulla arrogante. Ma riservato per quanto riguarda la sua vita privata, anche se in ogni intervista che concede l’attore non perde occasione per parlare di sua moglie, Nicoletta Braschi. Ed è proprio alla coppia del cinema italiano più conosciuta nel mondo, dopo Federico Fellini e Giulietta Masina, che dieci anni fa un gruppo di astronomi ha voluto dedicare un asteroide - la 21662 Benigni-Braschi. Questa e altre curiosità nel ritratto di Tiziana Caravante, che ha incontrato Benigni a Colonia.

Ascolta l’intervista a Roberto Benigni di Tiziana Caravante (3′05) :

Roberto Benigni e “TuttoDante” arrivano in Germania: una rilettura appassionata, emozionante e divertente del capolavoro immortale di Dante Alighieri, la “Divina Commedia”.

Non è stato Benigni a scoprire Dante ma Dante a scoprire Benigni: esordisce così, nell’intervista a Radio Colonia, il comico noto ormai in tutto il mondo grazie all’Oscar vinto dieci anni fa per il film “La vita è bella”, che lo vede regista e protagonista. Ma il successo del film da oscar non è nulla in confronto all’entusiasmo con cui, dall’estate 2006, i teatri, le piazze e gli stadi italiani hanno accolto “TuttoDante”, un viaggio appassionante e poetico nella “Divina Commedia” di Dante Alighieri. Ora, la decisione di Benigni di portare la poesia del suo corregionale anche al di là delle Alpi: un modo, assicura il comico, per abbracciare tutti gli italiani sparsi per il mondo. Ma sul palco, accanto alle storie e ai personaggi danteschi, non manca l’attualità.

AUDIO dell’intervista per “Al dente”:

Ascolta il saluto di Benigni ad “Al dente” (0′16)

Ascolta l’intervista a Roberto Benigni a cura di Paola Fabbri (5′28)

Tournée Tedesca di TuttoDante:
16 Aprile 2009 - Monaco di Baviera - Munchen Philharmonie Gasteig
20 Aprile 2009 - Colonia - Musical Dome
21 Aprile 2009 - Francoforte - Alte Oper
24 Aprile 2009 - Duisburg - Theater Am Marientor
23 Aprile 2009 - Baden Baden - Festspielhaus
26 Aprile 2009 - Stoccarda - Liederhalle

“Winning my Oscar was an ‘Azzurro’ moment. I was full of joy like a watermelon!”

This morning, on BBC Radio 4, the journalist Fi Glover interviewed Roberto Benigni - who is in London for his one-man show TuttoDante currently on World Tour - about his “Inheritance Tracks“: he referred to “Casta Diva” (Vincenzo Bellini) sang by Maria Callas, and “Azzurro” by Paolo Conte and Adriano Celentano.

Click here to listen to this nice interview:

On BBC Radio 3 (Tuesday, March 31st) Roberto Benigni talked about his one-man theatre show about Dante’s Divine Comedy which has been filling stadiums in Italy and is now coming to London (Drury Lane Theatre) as part of a worldwide tour.

Bidisha (BBC Radio 3) talks to Oscar-winning Italian actor Roberto Benigni - best known for his comic film set during the Holocaust, Life Is Beautiful - about his obsession with Dante and his one-man show TuttoDante. Benigni is often remembered outside Italy for his behaviour at the 1998 Academy Awards when accepting the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for Life Is Beautiful - he climbed on the backs of the seats for his procession to the stage and applauded the audience.

Benigni is regarded in Italy as an excellent improvisatory poet and he can recite Dante’s Divine Comedy from memory. His one-man theatre show inspired by the Divine Comedy and mixed with observations on current affairs and his own past experiences has been a huge success in Italy. TuttoDante (Everything about Dante) was seen on television by more than ten million people. Bidisha asks whether something so Italian can make the transfer to Britain.

Sabato 14 marzo su BBC Radio 4 è stata mandata in onda un’intervista a Roberto Benigni che ha parlato del suo show TuttoDante in scena a Londra domenica 6 aprile 2009.

Saturday 14 March 2009 (BBC Radio 4, London) - The Italian actor and comedian Roberto Benigni, who won an Oscar for his role in the film Life is Beautiful, is taking his one-man show TuttoDante (Everything About Dante) on tour. He explains the show, which is a satire inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.

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TUTTODANTE live in London:

Date: Sunday, April 05, 2009

Opening times: show time: 08.30pm - doors: 07.00pm

Venue: Drury Lane Theatre, Catherine Street, London, WC2B 5JF

26-02-2009 - Actuellement au Grand Rex pour un One man show consacré à Dante, Roberto Benigni était, ce matin l’invité de Marc-Olivier Fogiel.

Au micro de Marc-Olivier Fogiel, le Toscan est intarissable. Il est exubérant, expansif et profondément irrévérencieux. On se rappelle d’ailleurs de lui en 1999, sautillant joyeusement de siège en siège jusqu’à la scène où un précieux Oscar l’attendait. Grâce à son personnage de clown gesticulant, Benigni a réussi une grande prouesse : éveiller l’attention du public sur des sujets lourds ou des oeuvres peu accessibles. C’est ainsi qu’après “La vie est belle”, et “les Métamorphoses” du poète Ovide, Benigni s’attaque à un colosse de la littérature italienne : La divine comédie.

“Moi, quand je parle français, je fais comme Dante : j’invente un nouveau langage !”. Après avoir remporté un franc succès à Florence en interprétant, devant la statue de Dante Alighieri treize chants de la “Divina Commedia”, Roberto Benigni décide de continuer hors d’Europe. Depuis fin 2008, il chemine en compagnie de ses spectateurs sur les traces du père de la langue italienne. En mars, les Parisiens pourront donc découvrir au Grand Rex les tombeaux enflammés des hérétiques, rencontrer le Comte Ugolino ou encore écouter le récit du dernier voyage d’Ulysse. Des textes déclamés sur le ton mi-badin mi-mélancolique qui caractérise désormais Roberto Benigni.
Rendez-vous donc les 6 et 7 mars prochain, avec “Tutto Dante”, un voyage en Enfer en compagnie d’un nocher (en poésie, celui qui conduit l’embarcation) d’exception.

Pubblichiamo un estratto audio dalla trasmissione “Cercando Amleto” di Rete Due, Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana, con un breve commento sullo spettacolo TuttoDante di Roberto Benigni a Lugano di domenica 7 dicembre 2008.