Giorgio strehler biography

Strehler was one of the most significant figures in Italian theatre during his lifetime, described by Mel Gussow as "the grand master of Italian theater" and "one of the world's boldest and most innovative directors".

Giorgio Strehler was.

He switched parties to the Independent Left , for which he was a Senator from to , representing Lombardy. Strehler was born in Barcola , Trieste. Olimpio was one of the finest horn players of his day and the impresario of the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi , Trieste 's Opera House. When he was seven, his grandfather died and he moved to Milan with his mother and grandmother.

As a child, Strehler was not impressed by theater. He found it "false" and decided it did not have the power to stir one's emotions as film did. His opinions changed one hot summer night while on his way to the cinema. He noticed a sign advertising the air-conditioning posted by the Odeon Theater. He walked in for some relief from the weather to see a performance of Carlo Goldoni 's Una delle ultime sere di Carnevale being given by a company from Venice.

He went every evening for the next few days to see more plays by Goldoni. Newly inspired by the theater, he applied and was accepted to the theater school Accademia dei Filodrammatici. During the war, Strehler went into exile in Switzerland. After the war, he became a theater critic for Milano Sera but he preferred making theater rather than writing about it.

A few days later, they staged Carlo Goldoni 's long forgotten Arlecchino: Servant of Two Masters commedia dell'arte , which would go on to become the longest running play in Italian theater. In that same year, he also directed Giuseppe Verdi 's La traviata at La Scala , the first of many opera productions he would direct.