Giuseppe "Beppe" Menegatti (6 September 1929 – 17 September 2024) was an Italian theatre director. He is best known for directing productions with his wife, ballerina Carla Fracci, but also directed first performances in Italian of plays by Beckett and Babel.
Beppe Menegatti | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Menegatti in 2010 | |
| Born | 6 September 1929 |
| Died | 17 September 2024 (aged 95) Rome, Italy |
| Occupation | Theatre director |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 son |
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Life and career
editGiuseppe Menegatti[1] was born in Florence on 6 September 1929.[2][3] He attended performances of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as a young boy; he remembered that he received a ticket for Verdi's Rigoletto for his tenth birthday, in a performance with the young Giulietta Simionato as Maddalena.[4] He developed a passion for opera.[1] The Silvio D'Amico National Academy in Rome awarded him a scholarship. In the mid-1950s he was called by Luchino Visconti as assistant director. He collaborated during his career with Eduardo De Filippo, Vittorio De Sica,[1][5] Giorgio Strehler and Franco Zeffirelli.[6]
He directed operas, ballets and plays by important authors, including, in 1964, the Italian premieres of Samuel Beckett's All That Fall[2] and Play and that of Isaac Babel's Maria,[5][4] with actors including Paola Borboni, Lydia Alfonsi and Virginio Gazzolo.[2] He directed almost all shows of his wife, ballerina Carla Fracci.[1][7] He showed her versatility in dramatic ballets, some based on plays including The Macbeths in 1969, The Seagull in 1970, Mirandolina in 1983 and Mourning Becomes Electra in 1995, based on opera such as The Sicilian Vespers in 1992, and some based on historic biographies such as Nijinsky: Memories of Youth in 1989, Alma Mahler G. W. in 1994, and Zelda, Save Me a Waltz in 1998. He assisted his wife in managing the ballet of the Arena di Verona in 1996/97.[2]
Menegatti authored productions that combined dance, spoken language and song.[1] He directed for television, such as The Ballerinas, a ballet-drama in two parts in which Peter Ustinov and Fracci played roles in scenes from the history of ballet.[6] He recreated ballets whose choreography had been lost,[2] especially in the 2000s when he and his wife managed the Rome Opera Ballet, for example Ballets Russes ballets such as The Red Poppy.[6]
Personal life
editMenegatti married Carla Fracci in 1964; they had a son, Francesco, born in 1969.[8][9] She died on 27 May 2021.[7] After her death he moved to Rome where their son lived.[6]
Menegatti died in Rome on 17 September 2024, at the age of 95.[1][2][6]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Morto Beppe Menegatti, regista e marito di Carla Fracci: aveva 95 anni". Adnkronos (in Italian). 17 September 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f "Beppe Menegatti, Esteemed Theatre Director and Husband of Carla Fracci, Passes Away at 95". Il Messaggero. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
- ^ "È morto il regista. Beppe Menegatti. L'amore di Carla Fracci" [The director has died. Beppe Menegatti. The love of Carla Fracci]. La Nazione (in Italian). 18 September 2024. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Beppe Menegatti answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Directors' Edition". gramilano.com (in Italian). 3 February 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ a b "Beppe Menegatti". sipario.it (in Italian). Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "Director Beppe Menegatti, husband of Carla Fracci, dies at 95". gramilano.com. 17 September 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
- ^ a b Balmer, Crispian (27 May 2021). "Italy's leading prima ballerina, Carla Fracci, dies at 84". Reuter. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- ^ Bandettini, Anna (27 May 2021). "L'addio a Carla Fracci, il marito Beppe Menegatti: "Mi hanno chiamato da tutto il mondo, una cascata di amore per lei"". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 10 June 2021.
- ^ Brug, Manuel (28 May 2021). "Zum Tod der Primaballerina Carla Fracci". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 28 May 2021.