The Italy of the 1950s was that of the Economic Miracle. The desire to rebuild the country and its economy made it possible to rebuild roads, railroads and factories in a short time, but also to give a strong impetus to cinema, artistic research and the life of theaters. The time of the War already seems far away and everything is projected forward.
For the Donizetti Theater in Bergamo, too, it is a decade of fervent activity: new works are produced with the experimental titles of the Teatro delle Novità and prestigious shows are staged with traditional titles. Stars such as Renata Scotto, Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Maria Callas took turns on the stage.
Numerous accounts of the time bring back clear memories of 1951’s La Traviata with Renata Tebaldi (in place of Maria Callas Meneghini) and with Cesare Valletti as Alfredo, reprimanded from the gallery for breaking a sentence with an inappropriate breath. The 1953 Trovatore is staged in an extraordinary edition with Gino Penno as Manrico, Antonietta Stella as Leonora, Aldo Protti Conte di Luna, and Myriam Perazzini as Azucena; the conductor was Francesco Molinari Pradelli. The sets were the brainchild of artist Erminio Maffioletti, (numerous sketches of which are still preserved in the archives of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti), his artistic and communicative strength, and his modernity. Maffioletti’s sketches return to the public all the pictorial originality and the strength of gesture of a complete artist capable of being a painter, ceramist, stage designer, lecturer and much more. The set photos, in Foto Weels’ beautiful black-and-white shots, offer visitors and scholars an opportunity to construct interesting, timely and consistent iconographic comparisons. Exhibiting Maffioletti’s sketches also means bringing to light the lively and continuous relationship that Bergamasque artists had with the Donizetti Theater, as did the students of the School of Painting of the Carrara Academy who so many times created the sets for the performances. The sketches also tell us of the courage of artistic director Bindo Missiroli, already a pioneer in the opera world for many years with the Teatro delle Novità, who also on that occasion decided to entrust the creation of the sets to a contemporary artist far from banal clichés. This was also the case for Maffioletti who was able to rework tradition by animating it with lively topicality.
For Lucia di Lammermoor in 1954 Missiroli again entrusted himself to a great artist from Bergamo, Trento Longaretti, holder of the chair of painting at the Accademia Carrara from the first year, an institute of which he would be director until 1978. Longaretti creates pictorial scenarios, well recounted in the sketches still in our Foundation today, and for Lucia’s wedding scene he plays to full effect on twin grand staircases. That is the world that frames the iconic performance of Maria Callas, well documented by the photos of Foto Weels.
The “divine” Callas is flanked by Ferruccio Tagliavini (Edgardo), Romano Roma (Enrico), Silvio Maionica (Raimondo), Giuseppe Zampieri (Arturo), Lina Rossi (Alisa), Angelo Camozzi (Normanno), Francesco Molinari Pradelli (Conductor), and Giulio Bertola (Choirmaster).

Traditional titles are alternated with the more innovative titles of the Teatro delle Novità (which was created by the strong will of Bindo Missiroli, director of the theater), a project that intended to combine modernity of dramaturgy and musical writing, with the Italian opera tradition by projecting it into the contemporary world.
The Teatro delle Novità marks the outcome of the end of the ancient model of opera, a sometimes traumatic transition. It will be an extraordinary experience for many years.
It imports the experimental dimension in both texts, music, sets and costumes. Some operas are very successful, so much so as to ensure the sense of the initiative, for example in 1937 Maria d’Alessandria by Federico Ghedini (shortly after at La Scala); in 1955 Ferrovia sopraelevata, the first opera composed by Luciano Chailly on a text by Dino Buzzati; in 1954 Allamistakeo by Giulio Viozzi, which was staged in numerous Italian theaters; in 1952 Arlecchino Re by Orlandi with sketches by Ermanno Maffioletti; in 1956 La panchina with text by Italo Calvino and music by Sergio Liberovici. Gianandrea Gavazzeni, a great conductor, and Sandro Angelini (for the sets) would be, together with Missiroli, the pillars for the success of the project.

After a long absence (1938-1949) Prose has been returning to the Donizetti since the 1950s. A vital element of the activity is the presence of performances by the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, led by Strehler and Grassi, followed by first-rate Italian companies and prestigious foreign guests. In 1949 the first show hosted at the Piccolo Teatro della Città di Milano’s Donizetti was the drama Le notti dell’Ira by Armand Salacrou.
It was the beginning of a presence that would continue for several years, bringing to Bergamo the richness of high theatrical interpretations. The Nights of Wrath, translated by Mario Luciani and Guido Rosada and directed by Giorgio Strehler, is first performed in Italy in June 1947 as part of the opening season of Milan’s Piccolo Teatro. The play is revived on May 25, 1949 at Teatro Donizetti, again directed by Strehler, and the cast includes actors Gianni Santuccio, Giovanna Galletti, Lilla Brignone, Giulio Stival, Mario Feliciani, Checco Rissone, Marcello Moretti, and Antonio Battistella. Then the Piccolo Teatro returned in 1950 with the play La Guerra di Troia non si farà, a first for Bergamo, directed by Flaminio Bollini, in 1951 with Büchner’s La morte di Danton, directed by Strehler, again in 1951 with the premiere of Hibsen’s Casa di Bambola, directed by Strehler, and in 1954 with Giraudoux’s La Folle di Chaillot.

The theater companies in the early 1950s are represented by great actors Capocomici, who manage in toto the unfolding of their Company’s programming. The most important Companies arrive at the Donizetti Theater: that of Cesco Baseggio (1897-1971), Tatiana Pavlova (1894-1975), Emma Gramatica (1872-1965), Memo Benassi (1981-1957), Ruggero Ruggeri (1871-1953), Renzo Ricci (1899-1978), and Vittorio Gassman (1922-2000).
Exceptionally in 1952 at the Donizetti came the most famous French Company of the time that of Madeleine Renaud-Jean Luis Barrault who brought to the stage Le Fausses Confidences by Marivauxe Le Fourberies de Scapin by Molier.

In 1953 a new theatrical formula (born in 1951), the Opera dei Tre Gobbi (Opera of the Three Hunchbacks), entered the stage at the Donizetti: author-actors Alberto Bonucci, Vittorio Caprioli and Franca Valeri, whose verve positively encountered the audience. Their shows are animated by an intelligent and unscrupulous satire of certain aspects and types of contemporary society.
Also in 1953 appears a singular Company formed by Dario Fo, Giustino Durano, Franco Parenti, authors and protagonists of Il dito nell’occhio: a new show, responding to the needs of contemporaneity, based on the acting of a text dense with jokes.

It should be noted that in 1954, next to the Teatro delle Novità musicali, the Teatro delle Novità di Prosa, conceived and promoted by Bindo Missiroli, directed by Enzo Ferrieri, known for his work in favor of the best contemporary productions, both for his activity in the main theaters and with Italian Cultural Circles, was joined for one Season. The event presents contemporary works of particular value never performed in Italy staged in the strictest respect for the text, keeping the scenic requirements within the limits imposed by full adherence to their poetic reality. All performances are directed by Enzo Ferrieri, with the contribution of his own Company composed of such well-known actors as Enrica Corti, Mario Ferrari, Franca Nuti, and Giuseppe Caldani. The participation of set designers such as Enzo Convalli and Pier Luigi Pizzi, composer Luciano Berio and choreographer Jacques Lecoq is noted. All of the works on the program are premiered at the Donizetti in March and June 1954: Family Reunion by T.S.Eliot, The Long Interrupted Stay by T.Williams, Portrait of Madonna by T. Williams, Apollon de Bellac by J. Giraudoux, La Venexiana by a 16th-century ignorto, Teresa Angelica by V. Bompiani, Il Signor Vernet by J. Renart, Il piacere di dirsi addio by J. Renard
After the ‘premieres’ at Teatro Donizetti the shows go on stage in other numerous Italian theaters. The event, after one year of its realization, is cancelled. It is a missed opportunity for Bergamo, which does not understand its importance, considering the interest in prose performances in those years.

1954 also saw the presence of Marcel Marceau ‘s Company presenting The Coat, a mimodrama inspired by Gogol”s short story. Marceau, one of the greatest interpreters of the art of mimicry, is at the Donizetti again in 1965.
The following year, in 1955, the theater hosts the Teatro delle 15 Novità directed by Maner Lualdi, which brings 15 one-act plays to the stage. The curiosity lies in the fact that spectators are given a card divided into two parts on which the author’s name is printed; on one of the parts is printed YES and on the other NO. The spectator can choose the answer and hand over the performance coupon, thus giving his assent or dissent to the performance.

In 1956 the performances of Il Teatro di Venezia, presented by the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, are interesting; the operation saves a reality that threatens to die out artistically.

A new way of conceiving theater was defined in the mid-1950s and developed in the 1960s with the birth and formation of the Stable Theaters, which took their plays from their cities around Italy. This period saw the delineation of the new figure of the directorwho replaced the ‘great actor,’ who united in himself the figure of the Capocomico and the Company Director. A new chapter in the history of European theater began, one of profound renewal of theatrical proposals.

It is a true revolution that of jazz music that spreads throughout Europe, Italy between the 1920s and 1930s, and that also touches Bergamo. In 1937 Rhapsody in Blue by G. Gershwin resounded for the first time in the city at the Duse Theater. From then on, the jazz audience in the city will gradually increase.
In the years of World War II, jazz is heard clandestinely in some private homes with (rare) records or via radio despite the fear of German controls, which often forces the music to be interrupted.
The postwar period is the time of the freedom of jazz as well. The city’s musical life flourishes, both in private listening and, above all, in the city’s public venues where many orchestras entertain listeners sometimes using American servicemen (still in Bergamo) as outstanding instrumentalists. Small ensembles entertained audiences on the Sentierone at the Caffè Savoia, the Balzer, and the Nazionale.
The history of jazz in Bergamo continued in 1946 when the 1st Jazz Club was founded on the wave of the cultural and political activity of the Cittadella Group.
On May 24, 1950, Duke Ellington’s orchestra performed at the Teatro Duse, and in 1952 two concerts officially consecrated jazz as a genre worthy of being heard at the Teatro Donizetti as much as classical or opera music. The first is scheduled for Feb. 6 with theDizzy Gillespie Orchestra. The audience is divided between those who do not understand the new proposal and leave the hall, and those who decide to remain satisfied. The second concert is set for November 17 with the group of soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet and Claude Luter with his Orchestra, and it is again a success; yet, despite the consensus of the press and the public, the municipal administration will not support any more initiatives of this kind for many years. Bergamo is a pioneer, but it is too early!
One has to wait until 1969 for the I International Review organized by the Azienda Autonoma di Turismo with the collaboration of the City of Bergamo. Giorgio Gaslini, Cannonball Adderley and Maynard Ferguson parade on stage, laying the foundation stone for a festival that will experience growing success. The International Jazz Review¹ will continue until 1983², with a brief interruption between 1979 and 1981, then for a new jazz festival in Bergamo it will be necessary to wait until 1991, when the City Council will launch Bergamo Jazz Festival. Thanks to jazz, the audience of the Donizetti Theater will also change, becoming increasingly new and informal, thus showing the evolution of customs and habits.

¹ – International Jazz Review
² – 1969-1978 consecutive editions with resumption from 1982 to 1983