ROME (SAR News) – Don Bosco the Musical designed by director of famous Italian musicals had its premiere, October 18, at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome.
Celebrated singer Marcello Cirillo plays the lead role of Don Bosco. The twenty-member cast includes Our Lady, Don Bosco’s mother Mamma Margaret, co-foundress of the Salesian Sisters, Mary Mazarello, Cardinal and his secretary, Devil and a group of 12 boys and girls.
“We decided on this new venture because Don Bosco is so very much up-to-date,” said Piero Castellacci, the show’s director. Castellacci has a high reputation in the world of Italian theatre, for successful shows including the life of St. Francis of Assisi, Cristo 2000, and Mother Teresa.
“Don Bosco was a priest who lived among the people, on the streets. A priest who taught values and saved youngsters from a life of crime,” the director added.
“One hundred and fifty years ago, Don Bosco dreamed a charter of rights for
adolescents forced to work at an early age, making him a sort of forerunner of trade unions today.
“He was a priest who lived among the people, you may call a street priest, with a simple heart and great humility so much so he named the Order he founded the Salesians after Francis de Sales, a French bishop lived in the sixteenth century.”
Though it all sounds very pious, equally renowned producer Elia Faustini has
ensured that the show does not lack the glitz and glamour needed to sustain audience interest in a 135-minute musical.
The music and lyrics were designed by Castellacci based on a text by Renato Biagioli, in collaboration with Olimpio Petrossi (producer of several Italian chart-buster audio albums).
The choreography is by super dancer Claudio Meloni and the lights and sound
is by internationally acclaimed Pepi Morga.
The company has shows lined up all over Italy during this season.
150th years: The year 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian congregation.
Rector Major Father Pascual Chávez declared it “an year of grace” which should help the Salesians to remember their origins and destinations to which the Salesian Family is called. In the same year the relics of Don Bosco, enclosed in a special urn, will begin a pilgrimage through the 8 regions of the congregation, thus initiating the process of preparation for the celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco in 2015.
The Don Bosco Musical will be one of the popular ways of getting to know the
genius of Don Bosco – the father and friend of youth.
