Massimo Foschi is a totem of the Italian theater scene. A charming 83-year-old gentleman with over sixty years of career behind him and his eyes still full of passion when he talks about “his” Orlando Furioso directed by Luca Ronconi, who has admirably performed both in theater and on television. I met him in the splendid Alfieri theater in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, city where Ariosto he was governor from 1522 to 1525.
The occasion is the gala that closed with the show “Orlando the theater and … the women” Music and theater conversations to celebrate Ariosto’s masterpiece and the theatrical version created by Ronconi, the first edition of “Grail Cult Fest” – a journey in search of the Grail which proposed, in Garfagnana, more than 60 events: cinema, theater, meetings, poetry tastings and workshops between history and mystery – conceived. An event intended for a wide audience conceived and directed by Consuelo Barilari.
What are the women of Orlando like?
They are many, many and represented by Ariosto in a great variety, much more than men. The poet frequented the Este court where, at that time, there were many colors and characters. He had known many of them personally. Ariosto was a discreet lover, so much so that his last woman, Alessandra, his great love, was kept hidden despite frequenting her continuously. He pretended to despise love but, in canto 24, after Orlando’s madness, he defines himself as a man who cannot be an example of virtue because evil, that is, love, he who wears it and has penetrated it. to the bone.
Was it some kind of Casanova?
Not really. Ariosto was a great observer, he had an eye for this, he was a very cultured man who had to deal with many high-ranking circles having been ambassador and governor. He was a man of the world but who looked at the world with a clear and critical eye.
What effect does it have on you today to be in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, a city of which Ariosto was governor?
When it was proposed to me to come here for this show I accepted very gladly, I was very curious because I went to all the places in Ariosto and I missed this. It was like ending a pilgrimage. I also liked the idea of re-enacting the show of Ronconi which represents a particular moment in my life. Both the show and the character represent a particular fact for me, especially for the preparation of the story of the madness, of how he went mad. Orlando is a man out of his time even if he has all the qualities of a great man who knows how to live but he is convinced that everything depends on his strength.
St. John, when Astolfo goes to the moon with the hippogriff, says that poor Orlando is condemned to be mad because he has not respected the ecclesiastical laws in force. His fault was that he had flirted with a pagan woman, not having received the yes from her; he was convinced that she loved him simply because he was Orlando, he was the man, he was the strength. This character represents the crisis of the Renaissance. His world of Ariosto is fabulous, he invents it and reinvents it over the previous authors, but he already has an eye towards a future that will never be the same.
After 46 years of Ronconi’s television drama, it was screened here in Castelnuovo. How much is still alive for the public?
Very lively, because it is a work of fantasy made using a work of fantasy. The work of Ronconi it is absolute freedom: everything is fake horses, swords used as if they were fake. He was able to enter the soul of a text and asked the actor the impossible to represent this text and, since the stage is the place dedicated to the impossible, anything can happen. For example, in the Oristiade I made many characters including Agamemnon who returns after the victory over Troy and was the divine figure 5000 years earlier. At that time the new divine figures are Apollo and Athena. Now he is doomed to death because the ideas have been consuming but he is so full of himself that he forgets everything. Luke said to me: “here you have arrived home your land you kneel, you kiss the ground. You get up and 5000 years go by. ” And I did it.
Between Orlando on stage and on TV, which one was he linked to?
To both of them Orlando was always the same. I recently had the opportunity to do a reading at the Ferrara theater to celebrate Ariosto e Ronconi. We did a film and a theatrical montage of theatrical madness. I have prepared the madness that has major verses because the images in the cinema tell. Michele Placido who had organized everything decided to make a montage starting with me in the theater: I was on the side of the stage while the Orlando cinematographic was passing on the screen. When the cinema was not speaking, I would intervene again from the hall. When naked he throws himself against the blinding light and disappears, I declined the last lines. It was a beautiful montage that people cheered on.
In the year celebrating Dante, don’t you think Ariosto is overshadowed?
No I do not think so. Of course Dante more universal in the world than Ariosto. They are two poets who, in different eras, grasp reality in a different way. I love Dante acted a lot, in the span of my 60 years of career many Orlando recitals, but also many of Dante because I was lucky enough to have a teacher in the academy like Orazio Costa who introduced me to Dante’s verses I took them around the world. I love both of them but in a profound way. Often when I don’t know how to occupy the nocturnal minutes I respect myself or pieces of Orlando or Dante’s songs.
You have also acted in many films. Would he still do the cinema?
Cinema is completion. I didn’t do much of it, I only took part in 35 films. The last one was “Romulus” produced by Netflix where I play a kind of Etruscan priest with a language that is very difficult to learn the text, as old as my 83 years old befitting; I did it very willingly. At the end, a train driver from the back of the room shouted at me: “To ‘Massimo when you are, say the force be with you”. Here I am known to the general public more for the dubbing of Darth Fenner in Star Wars than for the films I’ve played. But that’s fine. My job as an actor is done with passion, this allows us to pass on something to others.
His son Marco followed in his footsteps….
Yes, he’s an actor too. Many years ago, when he was at the academy I told him: “Marco if you want to be an actor you have to want to do it with passion.” He replied after two months that he wanted to do it. Today he is a very good actor, better than me.
What projects are you working on now?
I should make a television program. These are the impossible interviews taken from the book by Giorgio Manganelli that were once on the radio. Unlikely encounters with famous people who have passed away. We will be a team of young actors including my son Marco, Alvirone, Musulla, and also old like me.