Paying Homage to Actress Eleonora Duse

Issue Date: 
July 9, 2012

 

Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg welcomes Italian actress, pianist, and writer Daniela MusiniPitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg welcomes Italian actress, pianist, and writer Daniela Musini to campus on May 29. Musini was in Pittsburgh to perform Gabriele and Eleonora: A Scarlet Passio in its U.S. premiere, which was hosted by, and held at, Duquesne University. The musical monologue tells the story of the love affair between the man considered to be the leading Italian writer of his time—poet, dramatist, journalist, and novelist Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938—and the internationally celebrated Italian actress Eleonora Duse (1858-1924). The setting for the entire show is Room 524 of the Schenley Hotel, now the University's William Pitt Union. Duse gave the last performance of her life in Pittsburgh in 1924. Sick with tuberculosis and pneumonia, Duse was unable to travel home, and she passed away at the Schenley on April 24 of that year. In 1949, the Italian Sons and Daughters installed a bronze tribute to Duse in the Schenley outside of Room 524. Today the plaque is prominently displayed in the William Pitt Union's Tansky Family Lounge, where this photograph of the Chancellor and Musini was taken.