Melbourne to feature Leo Gullotta in "Reading Sicily"

Melbourne - Melbourne is getting ready to welcome Leo Gullotta, who will be featured in "Reading Sicily", a solo voice performance on ancient and modern Sicilian prose and poems. The performance, to take place on April 29, is a reflection steming from the ancient image of Mother Earth.

It is a musical storytelling which starts from the origins of literature on the Island of the Cyclops and accompanies the audience to modern times. It is a journey between myths and everyday life, between a medley of smiles and public denunciation. The solo voice is Leo Gullotta's who, being acquainted with the language of illustrious contemporary writers, will take the audience across the pages of literary masterpieces and verses of famous poems. In between readings, he will tell his own story, giving accounts of his everyday life, his adolescence and key moments of his career.

Mr Gullotta will be accompanied on stage by original scores of Maestro Germano Mazzocchetti, composed expressly for this performance. The music will mark diverse chapters of this poetic journey, merging literary voices of a remote past down to the present. The dramatic journey, masterfully developed by the director of the piece, Fabio Grossi, pays tribute to the writings of Giovanni Meli, Tomasi di Lampedusa, Luigi Pirandello, Luigi Capuana, Pippo Fava, Ignazio Buttitta, Andrea Camilleri, and many more Sicilian authors. Born in Catania in 1946, Leo Gullotta was the youngest of six sons of a confectioner. He realised he had a vocation for acting at the age of 14 when he watched actor Vittorio Gassman acting as Adelchi. Following a few stints in university drama clubs, Mr Gullotta started acting in Catania's Teatro Stabile, where he started to work next to great artists such as Ave Ninchi, Salvo Randone and Turi Ferro. He later moved to Rome where he started working for the dubbing industry.

It was also in Rome he was initiated to comical comedies and cabaret. Mr Gullotta made his feature film debut with Nanny Loy's 'Caffe Express', next to Nino Manfredi. He later acted in 'Il Camorrista' by Giuseppe Tornatore, for which he was awarded the first David di Donatello award as Best Supporting Actor. Mr Gullotta kept on working for Mr Tornatore both as a film actor and a voice actor, in films such as 'Cinema Paradiso'. For Maurizio Zaccaro's 'Il carniere' (1996) he was awarded his second David award as Best Supporting Actor. In 'Un uomo perbene', by the same director, he was awarded his third David statuette at the Venice Film Festival in 1999. He also received the Globo d'Oro della Stampa Estera as Best Actor in 2000.