In an academic setting, as a demonstration of facets of commedia dell'arte and use of its traditional masks, this "exclusive performance" might have been more appropriate. Presented for the public after much hype and without an accompanying lecture, it did neither the genre nor Antonio Fava credit. Fava has been working with students at Riverview High School and Florida State University's Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training who apparently learned enough about his work to better appreciate his take on Pulcinella.
In seven "Pictures" going from a musical introduction through Pulcinella's search for the ideal life partner to a final Prayer, Fava proved adept at movement and gesture in the baggy white outfit and hook-nosed brown mask identifying his character type. Unfortunately, his Pulcinella, a stock roguish Neapolitan low comedy clown, lacked language - both the dialect funny to those who understand Italian and enough English to clarify certain things for most listeners here. Though he claimed it not necessary to know the words of a Neapolitan song, but rather the passion, neither came through.
Joking about some German used by Catherine (pretty, lithe Ursula Volkmann), Pulcinella's funny translations regaled a limited number of listeners. Most effective of the skits involved Pulcinella and "Everyday" woman slapsticking each other, her trysting with a broom of a lover, and Pulcinella's reactions to being cuckolded. A few excursions into the theater and joking with downfront audience, once with a gift of a bouquet of onions, were in the commedia spirit and enjoyed.
The last skit brought on Death with a comically revealed white mask. If, according to the accompanying program, Fava "is regarded as the world's best-known performer of Commedia," this show failed to demonstrate he is the simply best.
