Georgetown College. Georgetown University.

Professor Gianni Cicali teaches classes and workshops on Italian theater and opera, as well as literature like Dante. (Photo: Roland Dimaya)
Professor Cicali takes a minute from working to talk about his research outside his office in ICC. (Photo: Roland Dimaya)
Professor Cicali published a seminal work about comic opera in 2005, titled "Attori e Ruoli nell’Opera Buffa Italiana del Settecento." (Photo: Roland Dimaya)

“Early on, the thing that excited me the most…is that theater and spectacle seem to cover reality,” Cicali said. “It has different levels of messages and it allows people to see beyond what things seem to be.”

By Akoto Ofori-Atta

Since he was a young boy, Gianni Cicali, Assistant Professor in the Department of Italian at Georgetown University, has been captivated by theater and spectacle.

“Early on, the thing that excited me the most…is that theater and spectacle seem to cover reality,” Cicali said. “It has different levels of messages and it allows people to see beyond what things seem to be.”

It was while he was in Italy working as a manager for classical musicians that Cicali realized he wanted to devote his educational pursuits to the study of theater. In 2004, he received his Ph.D. in the History of Theater and Spectacle from the University of Florence, and wrote his first book, about roles, society and actor-singers of Italian 18th century comic opera (“Attori e ruolli nell’opera buffa italiana del Settecento”) based on his dissertation. Shortly after, he moved to Canada to begin work on his second Ph.D. in Italian studies from the University of Toronto, which he recently defended successfully. He came to Georgetown after learning of an open position in the Italian department, an opportunity that Cicali said he simply could not pass up.

“Georgetown has an incredible reputation for research and an even more incredible reputation for exceptional students,” Cicali said.

His second Ph.D. dissertation examines a very important fourth century Christian legend titled “The Discovery of the True Cross” (Inventio crucis in Latin), which was later translated into an artistic subject for arts, religious theatrical performances, and sacred plays.  

A sacred play is an Italian theater genre that bases its plots on Biblical stories, the lives of saints or similar religious subjects. Sacred plays often juxtapose different sources or different theatrical layers, from the tragic level to the comic. A sacred play had both educational and religious purposes, but sometimes also political meanings.

“Sacred plays are a kind of religious theater that had a huge impact on Florence from the very beginning of the 15th century,” Cicali explains. “Specifically, Florentine sacred plays, with their religious and educational goals, were highly regarded in the public eye.”  

According to the legend, Empress Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, traveled to Palestine around 326 CE in search of the true cross of Jesus Christ. While many historians agree that she did indeed make this journey, the legend also claims that she tortured a Jewish man in order to have the secret of Christ revealed. This legend was the subject of some fascinating religious plays in the 15th and 16th century, and Cicali examined this piece of work and its relation to anti-Semitism and the political agenda of the Medici family in Renaissance Florence.    

“The Medici family was particularly devout to the cult of the cross,” Cicali said, explaining how the use of these sacred plays helped to advance the Medici’s Christian agenda. “During the Renaissance, they were particularly skilled at advertising themselves and their beliefs through arts, theater, and language.”

Cicali also noted that “The Discovery of the True Cross” is an example of the Medici’s use of power and propaganda—indicative of the relationship between theater and power.

“It was very interesting to see how [the Medicis] used politics to manipulate theater and spectacle and how the public reacted to it,” Cicali said. “It is the relationship between theater and power that was really fascinating.”

Cicali attributes the successful completion of his research to a relatively unknown manuscript titled “The Comedy of the Cross” that he discovered in the National Library of Florence and attributed to Beltramo Poggi, a Florentine writer and playwright of the 16th century. What was most intriguing, Cicali notes, is that characters representing Jews have a different weight in this play than in the other available sacred plays based on the same legend. “Their roles are more interesting and dynamic,” he notes.

“This original text was known, but it was not attributed to anyone, no one studied it, and it was based on the same legend,” Cicali explains.  “Finding it was another key to identifying the anti-Semitic attitudes and nuances that existed in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries.”

It is those kinds of discoveries that give purpose to Cicali’s work, he says.

 “My aim is to bring to light the importance of this text and to merge this text to a wider context, and then to link this text to a sociological context,” Cicali said. “My goal was to make relationships between this legend and its historical roots in arts and society, and the anti-Semitic issues in Italian Renaissance theater.”  

Cicali’s work has lent itself to a continued interest also in 18th century comic Neapolitan theater; a subject he hopes will be the focus of a book.  

“I hope I get to finish it soon,” Cicali jokes as he mentions his obsession with research. “But I plan on doing research in Italian archives about Pietro Trinchera and writing a monograph on this Neapolitan playwright of the 18th century who a had a wonderful sense of humor and was persecuted by the ecclesiastic censorship in 1741. He was a notary, a playwright and a librettist for comic operas (the opera buffa), born and raised in 18th century Naples. I will also base this book on archival research and on rare texts.”  

In the meantime, Professor Cicali’s classes will keep him very busy. Next semester, he will teach advanced language classes, a popular course on madness in Italian literature and theater, Dante’s Divine Comedy, advanced language classes, and an Italian theater workshop where students will stage a play at the end of the year.

“The workshop will challenge students to understand the text, assign roles, and stage a play,” Cicali said. “It will be exciting.”

Cicali notes that conducting research as a professor, as well as teaching his classes at Georgetown, keeps him motivated.

“Being at Georgetown and working in this department has allowed me to be a part of some very stimulating conversations,” Cicali cheerfully said.  “I am very excited to be here.”

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