Il Gattopardo

The Sicilian Prince Don Fabrizio di Salina is an old school patriarch – influential, cultivated, steadfast. But the political changes of the 19th century are turning his respected aristocratic family upside down: his nephew Tancredi has joined the freedom fighter Garibaldi, and the middle classes have entered the family in the form of the young Angelica. How does the new world order affect individual longings? Can a world whose power lies in the hands of a tiny few really change? In Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s richly atmospheric novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), ambience and storytelling, descriptions of locations and family psychology merge. Together with her ensemble, Pınar Karabulut creates a sweeping and evocative portrait of an age that feels vividly multidimensional in the impressive stage designs of Michela Flück, the splendid costumes of Sara Valentina Giancare and the elegantly composed soundscapes of Daniel Murena.

Jury Statement

“Evenings of theatre like Pınar Karabulut’s adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) have become rare. Together with stage designer Michela Flück and costume designer Sara Valentina Giancare, Karabulut brings aristocratic Sicily in the era of the Risorgimento back to life in a magical way. The opulence of the rooms and costumes and the almost seamless psychological playing of the ensemble draw the audience deep into the 19th century, where they can lose themselves in the beauty of this world in decline and in the melancholy noblesse of Prince Don Fabrizio played by Markus Scheumann. At the same time, they can also recognise symptoms of our own changing times. Karabulut sticks closely to Lampedusa’s novel and by doing so keeps our own crisis-torn reality in view. Scheumann’s concluding monologue is not only a dying man’s moving assessment of his life. It is also a warning not to be like Don Fabrizio and to fight for what exists.”
– Sascha Westphal for the Theatertreffen-jury

Tothe video statement (in German)

ProgrammeBooklet (pdf, 5 MB)