Ferdinando Taviani, perhaps the most innovative theatre scholar of the last generation, used to say that any serious study of the theatre must take care to consider both strict archival and bibliographical research and the aspect of narration. He said that we scholars are guardians of memory and of the dead, and writing is our technique of transmission. According to Taviani, who was an excellent writer, only the mediocre misunderstand the aims and importance of good storytelling and view it as a slide toward popularisation
I dedicate this book to him
∵