Dafter the success of Naples millionairethe tribute continues Rai 1 to Eduardo De Filippo. Tonight at 9.30pm it airs live Christmas at the Cupiello houseone of the most famous works of the Neapolitan playwright, revived by Vincenzo Salemme. The Neapolitan actor and director will lead the opera from the Domenico Scarlatti Auditorium in Naplesthe Rai Production Center.
Christmas at the Cupiello house on Rai 1, cast
The television broadcast arrives as the grand finale of a tour that saw Salemme performed by the major Italian theatres. In the cast, together with him, there are: Vincenzo Borrino, Antonella Cioli, Sergio D’Auria, Oscarino Di Maio, Pina GiarmanàGennaro Guazzo, Antonio Guerriero, Marianna Liguori, Geremia Longobardo, Nuvoletta Lucarelli, Agostino Pannone and Fernanda Pinto.
The music is by Nicola Piovani, the costumes are designed by Francesca Romana Scudiero, while the scenes are curated by Luigi Ferrigno. Finally, Cesare Accept was responsible for the lighting design. After Christmas at the Cupiello houseSalemme will be involved in a new show: Every promise is debton stage from the end of February to the end of April.
It is not the first time that Salemme brings theater to television and live. It had already happened in 2019 with Dreams and needs by Eduardo Scarpetta and last April with Neapolitan? And make me some pizza. This time decided to venture «into Eduardo’s masterpiece»he says, «setting up a crazy machine, in front and behind the scenes, on which more than 40 people work». He then defines the work as “fundamental for Italian theatre”.
“Christmas at the Cupiello house”, Vincenzo Salemme. (Getty Images)
Vincenzo Salemme: «The most beautiful and poignant comedy in history»
For the Neapolitan director and actor, Eduardo De Filippo represents a beacon. Their first meeting dates back to 1977 and Salemme was a young actor looking for hope and above all for roles. De Filippo was already the great playwright and playwright who rewrote the pentagram of contemporary theatre. The meeting took place in Cinecittà during a break from filming Christmas at the Cupiello house.
Salemme managed to unpick a small part and has never forgotten that fleeting encounter. «I met him during a break from work. She had a pale wine-colored shawl over her shoulders, a nightgown and panties that ended up inside wool socks. It was the costume of the most beautiful, bitterest comedy, funnier, more sentimental, more intense, more melancholy, more festive, more poignant than history.”
47 years have passed since then, but the memory of De Filippo is more than vivid in him. Additionally, she worked with Eduardo in his last two years on stage and continued with the company for another 12 years. The choice to bring on stage Christmas at the Cupiello house comes from the desire «to return to that house of the 1940s, to feel the post-war cold softened by the preparations for the nativity scene». Again, he underlines «Concetta’s desperate power, her tears in the face of the danger of family disintegration, the desire to embrace the tender importance of Luca Cupiello in the face of the disillusioned promises of life».
Christmas at the Cupiello housethe plot of the play
Christmas at the Cupiello house it is a great classic, a comedy capable of telling the present although it was written in 1931. It is the power of works that become universal. The plot unfolds over five days starting from December 23rd in the bedroom and dining room of the Cupiello house.
The protagonists are Luca Cupiello and his wife Concettathe latter struggling with her husband’s quirks. Luca wants to make a nativity scene, but Concetta and her son Tommasino consider it an anachronistic tradition. Also present in the house are Pasqualino, Luca’s brother, who is angry and in conflict with his nephew Nennillo; and Ninuccia, Luca and Concetta’s daughter, in crisis with her husband Nicolino and in love with Vittorio, a friend of Nennillo. Furthermore, Ninuccia is planning to leave home with her lover.
On Christmas Eve everyone is gathered at the Cupiello house, including Vittorio, whose presence adds tension to the already heavy atmosphere. An escalation of arguments and clashes begins which affects Luca’s healthvictim of a stroke. Forced to bed, he would like his family to make peace, until on his deathbed he asks his son Tommasino: “Do you like the nativity scene?”, who after much reticence finally replies “yes”.
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