The Mystery of Eleonora Duse

Techniques, Strategies, Magic

Series: 

Author:
Mirella Schino
Translator:
Kalina Yamboliev
Eleonora Duse was one of the greatest actresses of all time, beloved by audiences all over the world and considered Sarah Bernhardt's only rival. But she was also something else: an artist who brought a new vision to the stage. Placing themes like vulnerability, suffering, and pity at the center of the theater, she transformed theatre from entertainment or artistic admiration into an intense existential experience. She was capable of using both extraordinary and low-literary value plays to evoke these deep emotions. This book casts light on Duse's scenic techniques, strategies, motivations and needs. It reconstructs her revolution and analyses the efffect she had spectators – an efffect so intense that it bordered on magic
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74568-1
Publication:
29 Apr 2026
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74567-4
Publication:
28 May 2026
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Mirella Schino teaches history of performing arts at Roma Tre University. She has worked on: Eleonora Duse; Italian theater between the 19th and 20th centuries; Odin Teatret; theater movements of the 1970s; the great directors of the early 20th century.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures

Introduction
 1 Duse’s Life and Work
 2 Admired, Idolised, Unknown
 3 The Use of Images
 4 The Structure of the Book
 5 A Few Moments of Duse’s Stage Life

1 Apprenticeship and Early Successes (1858–1885)
 1 Duse’s Early Years
 2 Foscarina’s Recollections
 3 Naples, 1878–1879
 4 The Otherness of the 19th-Century Actor
 5 1885, Duse’s First International Tour
 6 Winners and Losers

2 How Duse Worked: The Technique and the Magic
 1 A Stylistic Transformation
 2 Frou-Frou
 3 Duse’s Stage Techniques
 4 Unusual Testimonies
 5 Duse’s Body
 6 Clotilde and Césarine
 7 Duse’s Second Revolution in Theatre
 8 Flavio Andò
 9 Capocomica

3 The Shakespeare Project
 1 A Matter of Respect
 2 The Love Story
 3 The Meeting
 4 Letters
 5 Duse as Cleopatra
 6 The Premiere
 7 The Messenger Scene
 8 Duse and Audouard’s Cleopatra
 9 A Period of Change
 10 Duse as a Writer

4 D’Annunzio Project
 1 The Alliance Pact
 2 Il fuoco, 1900
 3 The Works Duse Staged
 4 The Later Works, 1901–1902
 5 The End of the Pact, 1904
 6 Three Years Prior: La città morta, 1901

5 Duse in the 20th Century
 1 Lee Strasberg
 2 The New Century
 3 Duse’s Extremism
 4 A New Use for Theatre
 5 Duse and Lugné-Poe
 6 Edward Gordon Craig
 7 The One

6 Far from Theatre
 1 Duse’s Correspondence
 2 September–December 1915: First Proposals in Cinema
 3 January–June 1916: Preparation
 4 The Script
 5 July–September 1916: The Filming
 6 October 1916–January 1917: Problems
 7 March 1917: Public Release
 8 Duse’s Financial Situation
 9 Duse as a Writer

7 Return to Theatre
 1 Duse in Italy
 2 Contemporary Eleonora Duse
 3 Post-War Crisis and Change
 4 Ellida’s White Hair
 5 Piero Gobetti
 6 Duse and Mussolini
 7 Abroad
 8 A Portrait of the Artist on Stage
 9 The Last Letter
 10 Duse’s Death on Tour
 11 Duse’s Friends
 12 The Funeral Procession

Conclusion

Archival Sources
Bibliography
Alternative Text
Index
Academic institutes, scholars, actors and actresses, libraries, specialists, (post-graduate) students, fans and theater teachers.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xvi, 313 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004745681

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