Just as there were no real women on Shakespeare's stage, there were no Jews, Africans, Muslims, or Hispanics either. Even Harold Bloom, who praises Shakespeare as 'the greatest Western poet' in The Western Canon, and who rages against academic political correctness, regards The Merchant of Venice as antisemitic. In 2014 the satirist Jon Stewart responded to Shakespeare's 'stereotypically, grotesquely greedy Jewish money lender' more bluntly.
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Let's start with the Venetian costumer, Stefano Nicolao, because I was just about to write about him, but instead ran out to the supermarket before it closed. I dashed into the Billa, and who should be standing in the produce section, but Stefano Nicolao.
Here was our conversation:
Cat: I was just about to write about you, and here you are. I was going to write that only a man with coglioni can cry in front of an audience. And everyone clapped! When you spoke about your great appreciation for your family... it made me cry, too.
Stefano: You have to understand that I hadn't seen many of those people for 10, 20 years. And that moment... as I was speaking about my family and the culmination of 40 years of work, it just hit me...
Cat: After your speech, after the food, right before the show, I found myself sitting in the theatre next to your aunt. She told me that your mother supports you, sacrificed for you. She said that your father supports you; your daughter loves your work; she said that your wife was your assistant. She said the entire family was involved. Your aunt said that all this family energy lifts you up, up, up... and I was so moved to hear it. Because it'
s the opposite for me... and I imagined how different life would be to have the support of an entire family... to have all that extra energy instead of doing things on one's own. That's another reason why I was crying.
(Stefano's made costumes for Elizabeth, The Merchant of Venice, Casanova, etc., etc.)
We spoke in further detail, and then agreed that we must shop before the store closed (it was just about to close, and we were both just beginning to shop), so I zipped off past the jams.
HOW WE ARRIVED AT THAT CONVERSATION
I had an invitation to go to the Theatre of San Gallo to celebrate 25 years of the Nicolao Atelier di Stefano Nicolao, and then afterwards, to see Carnival The Show. I had been curious about Carnival, The Show, because I'd seen the advertising around town. To me, it sounded very touristy; not something that locals would be interested in. So, this is something I would not ordinarily attend, except that there was the Venetian costumer, Stefano Nicolao, before the dinner and the show. I honestly did not know what to expect... and I wasn't going to stay after Stefano Nicolao... except the dinner I was supposed to attend got confused, so at the last minute I decided to gulp down some food and stay for the show.
WITH THAT CAVEAT, I sampled some of the food after the mob had already gnawed at it, and I found it to be bland and ordinary, but served in attractive plastic tumbler things... Well, the appetizers were fine. There was plenty of wine/soda/water to drink. There were so many people attacking the food at the same time that I didn't try too hard to get any, but the little I got was lacking in flavor.
THE SHOW, on the other hand, I really enjoyed. It was unexpectedly good -- the actors were good; it was professional and enjoyable. It made me miss Venice and the way life used to be. It reminded me of a theatrical production I did long, long ago in Southern California. It was an outdoor dinner theatre, and I was playing the part of Karen Andre in Ayn Rand's play, The Night of January 16th. The food was equally strange... I can't remember, like a box lunch dinner, but the show itself was good in a dinner theater kind of way. (I was on trial for killing my lover and 12 people from the audience sat on stage as jurors and had to vote whether I was innocent or guilty every night.) Now, Carnival, The Show, has absolutely nothing in common with the Ayn Rand play except in terms of a dinner-theatre feeling. So, if you have ever been to a dinner theatre production in America, it is sort of like that.
There is a very thin plot, which is that the Atelier, or the studio of this costumer, is creating the costumes for Marchesa Luisa Casati, who lived in Palazzo dei Leoni, which is now the Guggenheim. She was having a grand ball, and running around declaring: "I want to be a living work of art." So, the actors are creating costumes and reminiscing. They say at the beginning that it is not in chronological order. It's a hodge-podge of Venetian history and I just LOVED it. Really. It was strangely moving. I sat next to another journalist, and we both were laughing and crying at the same times. There were lots of Venetians there that night because of Stefano Nicolao, who would not normally be there, so, it was a special night. I cannot judge how it is normally, but based on my experience, I would say: go there for the show, but don't expect great food.
It's a history of Venice show, and I think, actually, we should require ALL VISITORS to watch the show upon arrival. If they watched the show and made an effort to understand it, I am quite sure they would enjoy Venice a lot more.
Ciao from Venice,
Cat
P.S. I did immediately spot an error -- they have a printed Timeline in the program, and they say that "Venice was founded in 421 (conveniently on St.. Mark's Day, April 25)." Well, Venice (as we all know:) was founded on Friday, MARCH 25, 421 at the stroke of noon right downstairs at Rialto at San Giacometto. And another marvelous coincidence is that Stefano Nicolao, too, was born on March 25th!
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