• DOI:10.1353/jjq.2013.0072
• Corpus ID: 161160149

“Riders to the Sea”/“La Cavalcata al Mare” by John Millington Synge (review)

@article{Bosinelli2015RidersTT,
  title={“Riders to the Sea”/“La Cavalcata al Mare” by John Millington Synge (review)},
  author={Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli},
  journal={James Joyce Quarterly},
  year={2015},
  volume={50},
  pages={1114 - 1118}
}

• R. B. Bosinelli
• Published 27 August 2015
• Art
• James Joyce Quarterly

T elegant volume, edited by Dario Calimani, is the latest Italian edition of John Millington Synge’s Riders to the Sea, translated into Italian by James Joyce and Nicolò Vidacovich, one of Joyce’s Triestine pupils and a well-known lawyer. Previous publications, after the first appearance of the Italian translation in Solaria,1 include the 1988 edition by E. Fintz Menasce,2 which is listed in Calimani’s bibliography, and the prestigious 1992 Mondadori publication in Poesie e Prose, edited by Franca Ruggieri.3 What makes this 2012 edition particularly interesting is its layout: we not only have Synge’s play on the left-hand page and the JoyceVidacovich translation on the right, but also everything in this volume is bilingual. The thirty-six-page Italian introduction by Calimani is accompanied by an excellent English translation, as are the notes and the bibliography. Such an editorial choice certainly increases the potential readership of the book because it is clearly addressed to both Italianand English-speaking audiences.4 This edition, moreover, is part of an ambitious editorial project that will be completed in the near future. The editor, Calimani, is the chair of English literature at the University of Venice, and he told me that his love for Synge’s play goes back many years (7 June 2013). He shows this affection in his introduction, where he writes: “Riders to the Sea is an artistic jewel that links indissolubly the names of Synge and Joyce as the symbol of a profound affinity of both intellect and sentiments” (60). About fifteen years ago, one of Calimani’s students, a retired surgeon who attended a course on the Irish theater, suggested that a luxury edition of the play, including the Joyce-Vidacovich translation, should be published. The idea was that Calimani would write an introduction and possibly some notes. The surgeon convinced an artist from Genoa, Emanuele Luzzati (1921-2007), to draw a series of serigraphs to illustrate Synge’s play, and he also sponsored the silk printing of a hundred numbered copies.5 The original project was to consist of the publication of a two-book slipcase containing a hardback, illustrated, and luxury volume with Luzzati’s serigraphs and a paperback copy. The idea was to appeal to serious scholars as well as to students and general readers. Unfortunately, the James Joyce estate objected to the publication, and the project was frozen until the copyright expired in 2011. In the meantime, however, the publisher Treviso also lost interest in the project, and it was only recently that Calimani was able to have just the paperback volume printed. I note that the book cover features a beautiful reproduction