#electa

Novelli A-Z, Edited by Paola Bonani, «Enciclopedia», Electa, Milano, 2025

The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus feels heavier than The Agamemnon.

Years after the murder of Agamemnon, it follows Orestes returns from exile to avenger his father, reunites with his sister, Electra, and they plot the deaths of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

And much like it's prequel, the play's morality never stays black and white.

We see the fallout of Agamemnon's death. The household is haunted by his ghost, Orestes is exiled, and Electra is treated no better than a slave. So what follows next is believed to be the House of Atreus's restoration.

There's debate on whether Clytemnestra's grief reaction to hearing of her son's supposed death is genuine, but personally, the trilogy keeps exposing how she uses the roles of mother and lady of the house to her benefit.

While she claims she sent Orestes away for his own safety in The Agamemnon and that Phocis is an ally of Argos, she never brought him back after her revenge. And the nurse Cilissa claims her joy was hidden behind grief. (I swear, she deserves an Oscar.)

She pleas to Orestes that she's his mother, how she raised and nursed him, but Cilissa previously revealed that she was the one who did so.

Hot take, but if nurturing makes a parent, then Cilissa was more of Orestes' mother than Clytemnestra herself.

And yet, despite all of this, the play succeeds in making matricide never feel easy.

One of the play's saddest parts is how Orestes is encouraged to sever his relationship with his mother completely, to define himself only as Agamemnon's son, so that their emotional bond is destroyed to clear his guilt.

And after killing Clytemnestra, a disoriented Orestes returns to the chorus and begins unraveling as they celebrate their city's 'liberation':

"All that’s been done and suffered, all my bloodline grieves me, in my defiled, unenviable victory." - Line 1016-1017

There's no real victory here.

Agamemnon killed his daughter Iphigenia, so Clytemnestra avenged her by murdering him, and then Orestes avenged him by murdering his own mother. Every act of violence had a reason behind it, but it did them no good. It was just passed to the next person.

And Orestes' "choice" was never fully his own to begin with.

He explained how Apollo threatened him with disease, madness from the Furies, and a lonely death if he failed to avenge Agamemnon. While he said he would have done it anyway, he was still cornered.

A god didn't just command him. He threatened to pick one life to be destroyed: his or his mother's.

And the cruel part is Apollo's warnings still happen.

The Furies appear as Orestes’ mind begins to slip, and he’s driven to madness, running out of the stage.

Salvatore Ferragamo 1898-1960

Stefania Ricci

Ferragamo Museo

Electa, Milano 2023, 512 pagine, 22x32cm, ISBN 9788892824508

euro 72,00

email if you want to buy [email protected]

Una monografia aggiornata, frutto del lavoro di quasi quattro decenni dell’Archivio e del Museo Ferragamo, sull’opera straordinaria di Salvatore Ferragamo, esempio eclatante di come la moda sia non solo bene di consumo ma anche racconto della società contemporanea e generatore di cultura, e dunque possa essere oggetto di studio e ricerca. Un libro iconico su uno dei grandi protagonisti del Made in Italy nel mondo.

Sono trascorsi cent’anni da quando Salvatore Ferragamo aprì nel 1923 il suo primo importante negozio a Hollywood. Non era solo un locale dove eseguire riparazioni oppure eccezionalmente creare qualche scarpa su misura, come i suoi precedenti negozi a Bonito in Italia e a Santa Barbara in California, ma un vero e proprio punto vendita di lusso ubicato in uno dei più vecchi e più eleganti esercizi della città, conosciuto come Hollywood Boot Shop. Il negozio a due piani, all’angolo tra Hollywood Boulevard e Las Palmas Boulevard, godeva di una posizione invidiabile poiché si trovava di fronte al Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, di recentissima costruzione, dove erano organizzati spettacoli teatrali e venivano presentate tutte le première dei film, come The Ten Commandments per la regia di Cecil B. DeMille, che proprio a Ferragamo aveva affidato il disegno e la realizzazione delle scarpe dei protagonisti. I clienti di Salvatore sono le attrici e gli attori del cinema, i produttori e i registi, che non possono più fare a meno delle calzature eleganti e confortevoli dello “shoemaker to the stars”.

Per ricordare il centenario dell’Hollywood Boot Shop è nata l’idea di questo libro, che accompagna una mostra in cui, attraverso le calzature, i documenti, le fotografie e i filmati conservati nell’Archivio Ferragamo, si ricostruisce la storia del grande artigiano, con le tappe fondamentali della sua vita e del suo lavoro e i suoi straordinari successi.

You got an hour till show time!” The bar owner bellows into the cramped dressing room- which was probably a utility closet hastily changed. The Gorgons stood cramped, back to back, Electa with her keyboard in arms, peering around the instrument to the owner, narrowing her eyes into a steely glare.

“We know how to tell time, asshole, thanks!” She flashes him a ‘gotcha’ hand sign that quickly shifts into her middle finger when he turns away. “Tell me this is the first and last time we play here,” She sighs, twisting her head the best she could to look up at her two bandmates. Daphne tuned her guitar, listening to the notes she plucks one by one, and Mo stares ahead dazed, a joint held loose between her lips. “Hello? Isle to Daph and Mo.” She calls, waving a hand.