Summer cares and worries: that wicked Rodomonte
In this month of August, things have happened that have aroused lively emotions and anxieties. As once…
Editorial by Stefano Lavorini
Tania Giordano. Collage and studies for the exhibition "I furiosinnamorati", Museum of Contemporary Art of Palazzo Riso, Palermo, 2016.
As when Ludovico Ariosto, in the great poem, Orlando furioso, becomes an extraordinary epic poet of chivalrous deeds and, following an extraordinary fantasy, he imagines an incredible universe, full of wonderful fables. Innumerable stories that, in a timely manner, are abandoned and at times returned to - weaving the great canvas of the work.
Of the plot twisted into a thousand adventures, of the exploits of the champion Orlando who, for love of the pagan Angelica - love obviously unrequited – starts out along the road of fury and madness, it is not worth attempting a summary.
But just as the main female character, the initial driving force of the story, who claims the right to decide her own destiny and not fall helpless prey to the desires of her contenders, becomes the unwitting protagonist of a form of feminism, in the same way the bold and gallant errant knights, according to chivalrous epic, looking to our times, correspond to successful men of business, the social world….in politics.
In short, alsoin this chronicle, allusions to current times are certainly not lacking...
However, it should be added that the happy ending, which smiles on the Ruggero-Bradamente couple, does not embrace the figure of the only totally negative hero of the tale, this being Rodomonte.
Knight on a par with the loftiest of paladins, he is the author of all kinds of misdeeds: Ariosto describes him as a conceited and arrogant brawler, with no respect for any value. Unlucky with women - Doralice prefers his equal Mandricardo, and Isabella has him kill her, rather than agreeing to become his lover – he has the worst of it fighting with the "furious" Orlando.
Rodomonte, however, reappears in the finale, the banqueting tables already decked to celebrate the wedding of the couple of destiny, with the aim of ruining the poem's happy ending.
Yet this is but a passing thrill, which merely for an instant puts off the inevitable triumph of good:
«Loosed from the more than icy corse,
To font of fetid Acheron, and hell’s foul repair,
The indignant spirit fled, blaspheming loud;
Erewhile on earth so haughty and so proud»
It is a story from other times, after all, I repeat.
Yet it would only take a little bit of imagination, a bit of lending one's ear, perhaps replacing the names of the protagonists, to create a tale of today.
With a new epilogue? Who knows?
