Laura Morante at Pergola Theatre with Io Sarah, io Tosca

From November 9 to 14, the actress will play the role of the legendary Sarah Bernhardt

From Tuesday 9 to Sunday 14 November 2021 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Laura Morante in Io Sarah, io Tosca will be Sarah Bernhardt, the legendary actress to whom Victorien Sardou dedicated the famous drama transformed into a libretto by Illica and Giacosa and set to music by Puccini. 

Io Sarah, io Tosca (ph Ada Masella)

Reality and fiction end up mixing in a game of mirrors that opens glimpses of truth in the fascinating legend of this tenacious and vulnerable woman, untamable and refined, cynical and generous, who was the first diva of world fame.

On stage, together with Laura Morante, the young musician Mimosa Campironi, who interacts, comments and dialogues only with the sound of her piano and with her singing, in a continuous flow of recitation, action and music that is compelling, exciting and at times even amusing.

Io Sarah, io Tosca by Laura Morante tells the story of Sarah Bernhard in the days before the debut of La Tosca. The text is constructed in three pictures: the first, on November 3, 1887, at the beginning of rehearsals; the second two weeks later; the third at dawn on November 24, the day of the first performance.

"I embarked on a long journey, through the vast amount of books dedicated to Sarah Bernhardt, starting with her autobiography, which is as revealing of her character as it is imprecise, elusive and lacunose with regard to the not always edifying events that contributed to making her a very famous actress and woman - both acclaimed and harshly criticized, but constantly at the center of the stage - and especially with regard to the facts of her private and sentimental life. The more I went on in my exploration, the more I became convinced that the confrontation between Sarah and Tosca, through the largely mysterious and unconscious dialectic that is always created between a character and the actor who plays him, could operate a progressive and fascinating unraveling of Sarah's personality, that jealousy, passion, anger, devotion, rebellion did not belong only to the fiction of Sardou's drama, but also to its first masterful interpreter," said Morante.