I Grotteschi: Miro
Synopsis
- Reading time
- 5 min.
Prepare for the first part of I Grotteschi and read the story of Miro in advance, pared down to its essentials by La Monnaie dramaturge Lalina Goddard.
Who is who
Melancolia is the patriarch of the family. He is the father of Coraggio and the grandfather of Privilegio and Capriccio. A grieving widower who suffers from dementia, he wanders at the edge of the world of the dead.
Coraggio is the son of Melancolia and the husband of Costanza. A mysterious illness put him in a coma. Cared for by Carità, he wakes up at regular intervals and begins to rave.
Costanza lives in unbearable anticipation of her husband Coraggio’s awakening.
In her loneliness, she falls madly in love with Fortuna, the maid. But how long before Costanza realizes that Privilegio, her eldest son, is Fortuna’s lover?
Privilegio is the eldest son of Coraggio and Costanza. He is a violent, power-mad man who abandons his pregnant wife Virtù to conquer the maid Fortuna.
Virtù is Privilegio’s neglected pregnant wife. Despite the many humiliations she suffers, she clings to her unshakeable integrity.
The ephebe Capriccio makes a very different impression than his older brother Privilegio. Initially mischievous and lively, he gradually turns away from the philosopher Sapienza, who until then was responsible for his education, to explore carnal love with Impazienza.
The spider in the web of family intrigues is the governess Esperienza. She guards a dark secret. An attentive confidante and comforting mother figure, she nevertheless has her own agenda. Her two daughters, Impazienza and Fortuna, are the children of an unknown father.
Fortuna is the family’s maid. Driven by greed, she ignores the warnings of her mother, Esperienza, and manipulates her lover Privilegio to achieve her goal: gaining access to the ruling class, regardless of the cost.
Impazienza, Esperienza’s second daughter, flirts openly with the handsome Capriccio. Can Impazienza, who stands in the shadow of her sister Fortuna, control her jealousy?
The nurse Carità, the mistress of the gardener Giudizio, takes care of Coraggio. Strangely enough, however, his condition hardly seems to be improving, on the contrary. Could Carità’s devotion be hiding a darker side to her personality?
The gardener Giudizio, Carità’s lover, is a fickle man: now light-hearted and sensual, now empathetic and serious. Above all, he is guided by his survival instinct.
The philosopher Sapienza provides the family members with sound advice. But in this house, wisdom comes at a price, especially when the powerful start to perceive it as a nuisance.
Prologue
During a lockdown, a wealthy Roman family withdraw to their villa, cut off from the outside world. Virtù, Privilegio’s pregnant wife, confides in the maid Fortuna: she is worried about the fragility of her marriage and her unstable social position. Meanwhile, the philosopher and adviser Sapienza has fun with Capriccio, Privilegio’s younger brother, whom he considers his ephebe (a young man who, according to the ancient Greek ideal, is taken under the wing of an older, wise man).
Act 1
The elderly Melancolia wanders around the garden, bursting with joy at the idea that he is about to marry his beloved. His grandson Privilegio and the gardener Giudizio, overhearing the confused old man, go along with his delusions until Esperienza, the head servant, enters and confronts Melancolia with reality: his wife has long been dead.
Melancolia’s son Coraggio, who runs the family business, has been in a coma for some time due to a mysterious illness. His wife Costanza laments his absence and won’t listen to the comforting words of Esperienza, who tries to tell her that Coraggio is still alive.
Meanwhile, Coraggio’s eldest son Privilegio lies in bed with the maid Fortuna. The two declare their love for each other and, before he leaves, Privilegio promises to divorce his wife Virtù. In the servant’s quarters, Esperienza urges her daughter Fortuna not to move too fast; after all, caution is called for when it comes to such an influential family. Her words have exactly the desired, opposite effect: her rebellious daughter stubbornly resists her motherly advice, triumphantly declaring that love and happiness are smiling upon her.
Esperienza comes across Melancolia in the garden, who is still overcome with grief and begs her to give him access to the underworld. Esperienza regrets that the old man, whom she has known for so long, is slowly losing his mind. She tells him that if he really wants to leave the land of the living, he will have to make the journey alone, and gives him some pills.
Coraggio awakens unexpectedly. The nurse Carità takes advantage of his delirium to introduce herself as a goddess. The still weakened Coraggio becomes so enraptured by the (in his eyes) supernatural event that, exhausted, he again loses consciousness.
Coraggio’s wife Costanza imagines herself to be alone and expresses her passionate obsession with the maid Fortuna, a passion that soon turns to mistrust when she begins to suspect that the young woman is having an affair with her son Privilegio. Carità enters the room and finds her mistress dejected. Because she believes Costanza is mourning the imminent death of her husband, Carità tries to convince her to forget him and to look for a new lover.
Melancolia, who has overheard Costanza’s lamentations, reflects on how money and power bring misfortune, while nature brings people happiness. Giudizio mocks Melancolia’s idealization of the ‘simple’ life, which annoys the head of the family. Coraggio, who has woken from his coma, listens to their conversation before appearing on the scene, reacting with frustration when his own father fails to recognize him.
Meanwhile, Costanza laments her misfortune in the garden, where the young maid Impazienza is waiting for Capriccio. She reminds Melancolia of the tragic love story from his own forgotten youth. As if in a dream, Melancolia sees his beloved Euridice in Impazienza.
Act 2
After Capriccio and Impazienza have made love for the first time, the maid manipulates the naive young man, while the distraught Virtù denounces her unfaithful husband Privilegio. Esperienza advises her to take a lover herself and thus take revenge on her unfaithful husband, but Virtù refuses to demean herself. Sapienza enters and preaches that enduring virtue is preferable to fleeting beauty. Young Capriccio feels uncomfortable in his position as Sapienza’s favourite ephebe and rebels against the philosopher’s old-fashioned world view.
Giudizio and his beloved Carità imagine themselves to be alone and talk about Costanza’s love troubles. They worry about their future in the household and decide that Costanza must be persuaded to leave her husband. Virtù, who listens in on the conversation, mistakenly believes that the two are talking about her (enduring) love.
In the garden, Sapienza contemplates how a world full of pain and suffering lurks behind wealth and grandeur, a moral lesson that the ambitious Fortuna takes as a provocation. Privilegio then reveals his plan to divorce Virtù and marry Fortuna, which Sapienza strongly advises against. Tired of Sapienza’s unwanted advice, the furious Privilegio dismisses him. As he leaves, Sapienza comes across the old Melancolia, who was on the verge of committing suicide. Meanwhile, the frustrated Privilegio assaults Fortuna and orders Giudizio to inform Sapienza of his death sentence.
After Costanza confronts her son about his actions, she reveals her feelings of hopelessness to Fortuna, who emphasizes that she is now Privilegio’s wife and leaves with disdain. The desperate Costanza is left alone and suddenly fears the consequences if Fortuna were presently to succeed in conquering the ‘throne’.
Coraggio, who has been observing his wife and son all this time, can hardly believe his eyes. He feels lonely and deceived; he has apparently traded his undisturbed sleep for a vivid torment.
Giudizio tells Sapienza of his imminent death and promises, as a good friend, to always remain faithfully by his side. While the bath is being run in which Sapienza commits suicide, the family mourns his imminent death.
— Translation: Patrick Lennon
