9,265 total spectators, an average of over 1,000 attendees per performance: The Conscience of Zeno, the second title of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti’s Prose Season staged in the main city theater from Saturday, January 25 to last Sunday, has achieved a tremendous success. “These have been fantastic days: thank you Bergamo and greetings to the Mayor who is with us today!”: this is how Alessandro Haber, the main protagonist of the show, bid farewell at the end of the last of the nine performances, one of which was applauded by over 1,000 students. After the curtain fell, in the dressing rooms, a cordial meeting took place with Elena Carnevali, who in turn thanked the great actor for the beautiful performance of the entire company. “This is the second year we’re performing this show. There are cities where the audience is more accustomed to going to the theater and where we record more subtle reactions that capture certain nuances. Among these is certainly Bergamo: Teatro Donizetti is one of the theaters I love most and have frequented the most in my long career,” Alessandro Haber recounted warmly, “Here you can understand that the audience comes to the theater with pleasure, with the desire to embrace you, to welcome you. Of course, it depends a lot on the show: it’s like making love, when you find that special quid. And in Bergamo I believe we managed to touch the audience, also thanks to Paolo Valerio’s direction which I find beautiful and the skill of the entire company, made up of a group of capable actors. I have a special relationship with Bergamo, perhaps also because my first love story was with a girl from your city. Beyond that, once again I felt particularly at ease here.” Francesco Godina, who plays young Zeno in the show, was making his debut at the Donizetti: “From these demanding performances, I take home first of all the beauty of Teatro Donizetti, which I had heard about but hadn’t yet had the fortune to experience. We’re almost at the end of the tour, we have about fifteen performances left to reach the planned 100: in Bergamo, the performance attended by students was one of the best. Young people perhaps laugh at different moments than the, let’s say, traditional audience. This means that they are perhaps more sensitive to a different kind of humor that captures them. The satisfaction comes precisely when the laughter arrives on Svevo’s text. Which means that our operation has succeeded.”
