Teatri di formazione: Actio, parola e immagine nella scena gesuitica del Sei-Settecento a Milano (review)

In the last thirty years, theatre studies have grown increasingly interdisciplinary. Exploring the nature and function of theatrical performance now demands serious scholarly engagement with the material and immaterial contexts of production. It has become clear that the shape of the ephemeral moment of performance is accessible only via the scaffolding built around "the empty space"—a scaffolding composed of extant texts, iconography, designs, descriptions, etc. that must themselves be interpreted within a larger historical frame. Such exploration not only deepens our understanding of particular theatrical moments but also underscores the various ways in which performances both reveal and construct particular cultures.

In her engaging Teatri di formazione, Professor Giovanna Zanlonghi undertakes such a study of performance and culture by examining the Jesuit theatre in Milan during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She skillfully situates Jesuit theatrical practice within the political, philosophical, spiritual, and aesthetic currents of the age, thereby clarifying how the theatre served as a medium through which Jesuits both engaged early modern Milan and also constructed their own corporate culture. The Jesuit theatrical enterprise offered both student performers and citizen spectators a kind of laboratory in which to experiment with ways of seeing and being in the world. As the title of the volume makes clear, Jesuit theatre was indeed formational—for actors and audience alike.

Zanlonghi does not confine her research and analysis to the interior of the college theatres. Excitingly interdisciplinary, Teatri di formazione relates formal Jesuit theatrical production to the theatricality of Milanese public events for which the Jesuits bore some creative responsibility, such as the funeral display memorializing Spain's Philip III. In particular, Professor Zanlonghi's grasp of Jesuit rhetoric and spirituality facilitates her integrative reading of Jesuit theatre and theatricality even as it fosters a sophisticated appreciation of the dynamic relationship between and among "action, word, and image" in Jesuit pedagogy.

The author divides the volume into two parts. In the first segment centering on the period of Spanish control in the seventeenth century, significant civic events are placed in conversation with the theatrical productions staged at the Brera, the Jesuit college in Milan. In addition to providing enlightening historical and cultural information about the Milanese mise en scène, Professor Zanlonghi engages little-known Jesuit dramas such as the tragedy of Hermengildus. In the process, she succeeds in laying bare the connections between the city and the college, between civic virtue and education, between aesthetics and spirituality. Perhaps the most compelling chapter in this first section is the fifth, wherein Zanlonghi discusses the foundational elements of Jesuit culture in the Cinque and Seicento: image, stage, and prudential reason. She uses the theology of Karl Rahner to elucidate the Jesuits' integrating anthropology and their commitment to educating the whole person.

In the second part of the volume, Professor Zanlonghi charts the changes in Jesuit theatre and theatricality taking place during the Austrian age of the eighteenth century. Considering the interaction between the Jesuits and influential thinkers such as Ludovico Muratori, she reminds us that Jesuit education during this period was itself undergoing revision to keep pace with changing times. Though there continued to be some Jesuit contribution to events of civic importance, Jesuit theatricality in this period migrated to the stages within the colleges (the Brera and the College of Nobles) in performances mounted at particular times during the academic year (i.e., Carnival and end-of-term). Zanlonghi offers a compelling discussion of the developments in Jesuit thought regarding rhetoric and poetry in the age of reason. Continuing to champion the integrative understanding of the human person—not only rational but also physical, affective, and spiritual—the Jesuit theatre of the eighteenth century established potent connections between the pursuit of beauty and ethical action in the world.

Teatri di formazione is meticulously researched and documented. Professor Zanlonghi's notes provide a wealth...