Luca Micheletti at the theater is done in seven

How does he manage to be casually – and effectively – eclectic?
Coming from a family of artists, one of those who passed customs, habits and tools of the trade from father to son, I started as a child: I saw – and I did in turn – a bit of everything, at 360 degrees, on and off the stage.

“Matter of life and death”

Why were your parents called “I guitti”? He doesn’t give the idea of ​​something of rank…
“Guitti” is proudly declared! Our tradition does not begin in 1975, when my father and mother founded a modern-style company, but dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, when my grandparents’ grandparents toured Italy with mobile wooden stages, as in clowns by Ruggero Leoncavallo. There were about fifteen of them, they even stopped for 40 evenings, offering different shows for 40 evenings, from The blind woman of Sorrento And Nobody’s children to Victor Hugo and D’Annunzio. It was the poorest theater, that of the “scarrozzanti” as Giovanni Testori called them, which continued until the Second World War. For certain segments of the population it represented the only access to “high” culture.

A story that deserves a book.
In fact I am about to collect the stories that we still hand down to each other, a “mythology” to be preserved especially now that my father, unfortunately, has passed away.

The wandering life will not have easily reconciled with school.
I was very absent indeed, but on the other hand I had infinite possibilities of meeting people and with those particular human beings who are the actors, often egocentric and fragile. I peeked at them in the dressing rooms, I learned from them how to put on my make-up, fun for a child… But my parents called me to order, they invited me not to joke with these games which seemed like games: for me, theater immediately became a matter of life or of death.

Graduated with honors

Tough.
I learned the same discipline that was imparted to my father, my father’s father, my great-grandfather… A discipline that has continued to accompany me. It is no coincidence that I got to graduate (in Theater Sciences, with honors, ed) and to obtain a doctorate in Italian studies, while working. Like my four brothers, I was a very precocious actor.

Ever had a dream that wasn’t about the stage?
At the end of high school I liked chemistry… But it didn’t last long (laughs).

Replaced by what?
I was not yet of age when I started directing in Scapino’s mischief by Molière: I had the role of Scapino, and my father was Geronte. Directing papa wasn’t trivial, it was a delicate affair as was remembered in other theatrical dynasties, such as the De Filippos or the Rames. For a decade I was more a director than an actor.

Thank you Humbert

How did the music arrive?
In 2013 – at the end of the very long tour (almost three years) of The resistible rise of Arthur Ui – Marco Bellocchio saw me at Argentina in Rome: he needed actors who could sing for a short film based on clowns, and there – it was Brecht – I sang. “How are you doing with opera?” he asked me. “I can try”. I looked for a coach, I found him in Mario Malagnini, who still follows me: he was the one who suggested that I seriously embrace a career as a baritone. I knew music: as a child I played the piano and at the age of eight I started playing the saxophone in the band of Travagliato, the town in the province of Brescia, where he continues to live.

Ah, it sounds too…
I would have preferred the clarinet, like my bosom friend. They were finished and they assigned me the sax, but I became passionate and years later I created my own jazz group.

How does he manage to keep everything together now?
Planning ahead: I have a long time to study, I start a year in advance. I would find it hard to give up something: I continue to define myself as an actor who sings (Verdi called them actors) and a director. The balance is delicate, however my calendar seems to prove me right.

Until what date are you busy?
To 2027. With interesting challenges, such as the debut in the role of Rodrigo in July Don Carlo at the Royal Opera House in London.

Wife & colleague

Do you have predilections?
I love everything about Molière, the author-fetish of “I guitti”: he too came from traveling companies and eventually became an author for the king! The misanthrope is one of his symbolic texts, and even Don Giovanni has an important “Molierian” precedent (the figure, which appeared in 1632 in a comedy by Tirso de Molina, was taken up by Molière and made immortal by Mozart, ed).

What will this umpteenth Don Giovanni be like at the Maggio Fiorentino?
The director, David Pountney, will set the opera during the Prague Spring, the reading will be more political. In Sydney David McVicar had described the libertine as a ferocious man, a cruel manipulator. In London Kasper Holten had imagined him as a boy from a good family hooked by her spleen. With Chiara Muti, in Turin, he was once again a predator. The password of this character is: elusiveness. Don Giovanni runs after his destiny, and we run after him… It is the opposite of Marcello, one of the most empathic roles in the baritone repertoire. He is the key phrase of the Bohème: “O beautiful age of deceptions and utopias! One believes, hopes, and everything appears beautiful!”.

To his youth these words do not apply. And, to top it all off, she just had a daughter. Why did you call her Arianna?
We loved this name, it has its own reference work (theAriadne in Naxos by Richard Strauss, ed) and this is important (smiles)and is the wife of Dionysus, the god of the theatre.

His wife, Elisa Balbo, is a soprano, often on tour. She doesn’t expect an easy situation.
Elisa is already on stage, a few months after giving birth. Yes, it will be managed well, but – given the experience I have behind me – it doesn’t scare me that much…

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