Leonardo Mancini on Carmelo Bene's Poetic Sources and Unfinished Projects

Leonardo Mancini, a research fellow in Performing Arts at the University of Verona, discusses his book 'Carmelo Bene: fonti della poetica' (Mimesis, 2020). The interview, conducted by Davide Dal Sasso, explores Bene's turn to the melodrama starting with Byron-Schumann's 'Manfred' in 1979, a shift that received less critical attention. Mancini examines Bene's rejection of representation, his focus on voice and declamation, and the concept of 'phonè' as a means to transcend language. He highlights Bene's unfinished projects, such as Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' (1968) and Schumann's 'Scenes from Goethe's Faust' (early 1980s), which reveal a 'pars construens' of his poetics. Mancini also discusses Bene's critique of writing as a 'funeral' of orality, his emphasis on labor ('chi non lavora non esiste'), and his use of interruption and 'suspension of the tragic' in performances like the televised 'Manfred', where Bene tears pages from the script. The interview underscores Bene's connection to a historical tradition from Diderot to Meyerhold and his pursuit of a sacred dimension in theatre, as articulated in his 1981 essay 'La voce di Narciso'. Mancini warns against reductive readings of Bene's provocations, advocating for a broader perspective that continues his excavation of theatrical possibilities.