by InTrieste
Interviews: president of the Rossetti theater, Francesco Granbassi; Artistic director, Paolo Valerio
At the crossroads of Mitteleuropa and the Adriatic, Trieste’s Rossetti Theater has long stood as a cultural lighthouse. On Wednesday, the historic playhouse—formally the Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia—announced its 2025–26 season: a sweeping and ambitious program blending global icons and local memory, classic drama and cutting-edge experimentation.
From Cats in its original West End staging to a parallel dramatic and operatic production of Romeo and Juliet, and from Tennessee Williams to contemporary playwrights like Stefano Massini and Davide Enia, the Rossetti is betting big on theatrical breadth and emotional depth.
Curtain Up With History, Curtain Down With Love
The season opens in October with Trieste 1954, a powerful, memory-laden tribute to the city’s complex 20th-century history. Written and performed by Italian artist Simone Cristicchi and directed by Rossetti’s artistic director Paolo Valerio, the piece mixes music, archival footage, and narrative to recall Trieste’s nine years as a “suspended city” between World War II and its reintegration into Italy.
The season’s closing statement, also directed by Valerio, is nothing short of operatic—literally. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet will be staged in tandem both as a spoken play and an opera (set to Gounod’s score), alternating performances on the same set at the Rossetti and the neighboring Teatro Lirico G. Verdi. The experiment, blending audiences and disciplines, aims to foster what Valerio calls “an education in feeling.”
Big Names, Big Questions
A cavalcade of high-profile talent runs through the season. Peter Stein, the legendary German director, returns with Chekhov’s one-acts in Crisi di nervi, starring Maddalena Crippa. Stefano Accorsi brings a modern Odyssey to life, while Luca Marinelli stars in La cosmicomica vita di Q, based on the stories of Italo Calvino. Elisabetta Pozzi and Tommaso Ragno lead Mourning Becomes Electra under the direction of Davide Livermore.
There is also a turn toward the poetic and political. Alessio Boni interprets Claudio Magris’s meditations on time in Il vetro della clessidra, and Ariella Reggio stars in Argo, a hauntingly personal story of postwar exile, adapted from Maria Grazia Ciani’s novel.
Shakespeare features prominently, including Otello, staged by Giorgio Pasotti with TV star Giacomo Giorgio in the lead, and Romeo and Juliet, which anchors the season’s thematic exploration of youth and empathy.
Musical Theater With a Global Beat
Rossetti continues to position itself as Italy’s top destination for international musical theater. In a major coup, the original English-language Cats—in Trevor Nunn’s celebrated production—will launch its Italian tour in Trieste before moving to Monte Carlo and Milan. Also returning is The Rocky Horror Show, while Italian-language productions of Aggiungi un posto a tavola and We Will Rock You will bring familiar energy to local audiences.
Neri Marcoré stars twice: first in the comic musical Sherlock Holmes and again in Gaber. Mi fa male il mondo, a tribute to the iconic Italian singer-songwriter Giorgio Gaber.
A Deep Local Pulse
While the Rossetti draws star power, its roots in Trieste remain strong. A new original piece, SvevoJoyce#ZenoBloom, imagines an intellectual encounter between Italo Svevo and James Joyce, co-written by University of Trieste professors Laura Pelaschiar and Paolo Quazzolo. Meanwhile, the memory of psychiatrist Franco Basaglia returns in Quelli di Basaglia… a 180°, a collaboration with the acclaimed Accademia della Follia.
The theater also invests in emerging voices. Young playwright Pietro Giannini’s La traiettoria calante, about the Morandi Bridge collapse, blends civic grief with poetic urgency. Under-35 ensembles like Teatro dei Gordi and Collettivo l’Amalgama receive prominent space in the season’s Scena Contemporanea program.
Dance and the Planet
In dance, the highlight is a new production by Momix, Bothanica Season 2, which uses surreal, athletic choreography to reflect on environmental fragility. Additional performances include the Georgian National Ballet and Ukraine’s Classical Ballet company in The Nutcracker.
A European Capital in the Making
As Trieste prepares to co-host GO! 2025, the European Capital of Culture project alongside Slovenia’s Nova Gorica, the Rossetti’s season positions the city not merely as a stage, but as a crucible of cross-border creativity.
The theater’s educational and outreach programs remain robust, offering dialogues, backstage tours, and collaborations with the University of Trieste, local museums, and the British School FVG.
“Intrattenersi”: The Art of Engaged Entertainment
The season’s slogan—Intrattenersi, or “to entertain oneself”—evokes not just diversion, but attention, engagement, and shared experience. It’s an ethos reflected in every part of the Rossetti’s programming: from Shakespeare’s Verona to the streets of postwar Trieste, from under-30 monologues to West End musicals.
The 2025–26 campaign launches its subscription season on June 10. More information is available at www.ilrossetti.it.
