PIZZICHI D'AMORE. L'Amore di Don Perlimplino nel giardino di Donna Belisa

On the upcoming **January 3rd**, in **Mottola**, the play considered the "greatest" among the lesser works of Federico García Lorca will be staged, an "erotic alleluia in four scenes and a prologue." The comedic intent—perpetually teetering between farce and drama—should not distract from its underlying complexity: the text is a meditation on faceless pain, on the deformation that arises from the entanglement of passions.

The theatrical work was first staged in 1933 after clumsy accusations of pornography. The storyline seems very simple at first glance: the elderly Don Perlimplín, owner of flocks and lands, succumbs to the allure of marriage when Belisa's mother introduces her to him. The man, lacking any carnal experience, falls under the influence of a servant and this matchmaking mother.

The marriage takes place, and the union of body and soul yields devastating outcomes; called to a "duty" he cannot fulfill, Perlimplín pays the price for amorous desires, yearning for Belisa with voyeuristic impulses. The farce soon turns into a tragedy.

The girl's betrayals (including the multiple ones on the wedding night) mark his fate as an "unusable" husband, too mature to guarantee—and ensure for himself—the joyous gusts of sex. Perlimplín manages to understand, accepts, lives love as a "deep cut in the throat."

To have Belisa, perhaps all that's left is a stroke of genius, an unconventional yet finely imaginative plan. And this is where the link between farce and drama lies. Enamored with a mysterious suitor, the young woman longs for an encounter with the flesh she does not know. Perlimplín, resigned to an unequal relationship ("you are young and I am old... what can we do?"), listens to the confidences of this lovely bride, seems to feed on the fiery ardor of her insides. Alone, yet calm, he prepares the last "triumph": he makes Belisa believe he is taking her to her beloved and there, in the garden of delights, he appears as a shadow bearing the semblance of the unknown.

The husband and the lover are the same person. The protagonist kills himself in an extreme act of love. With a dagger in his chest, he awakens the young woman's soul: she is unaware, confuses the man with his ghost, but within her—finally—the "gift" of compassion penetrates. "Now Belisa has a soul!" exclaims Don Perlimplín as he dies.

It is the triumph of fiction over reality, the elegant snub to the custodians of the norm.

The spectacle, organized by the **Circolo Carlo Schiavone**, is a production by **Eco Ente per la Comunicazione**, sponsored by the **City of Mottola, Department of Culture**, and is part of the Mottola Christmas events calendar. Starring **Mimmo Capozzi, Grazia Colucci, Enza De Caro, Angela Genco, Nunzia Gentile, Giorgio Larato, Carmela Milano, Ottavio Pastore, Marilena Pugliese, Rosaria Risplendente**. **Directed by Angelo Maurizio Vacca.**

**Free admission preferably by reservation, with voluntary offerings.**

**Info and reservations 3454225728**

**January 3, 2025
Anita Lupoli Auditorium of the Manzoni-Bosco Comprehensive Institute.
Mottola
8:00 PM**