La polemica intorno alla messinscena di Vita di Galileo di Strehler

This article reconstructs, through the documents filed in the Historical Archive of the Piccolo Teatro, the controversy which involved the theatrical institution during the staging of Vita di Galileo in april 1963. Part of the catholic world of Milan considered the performance offensive for the religious sensibility and judged the artistic and cultural orientation of the Piccolo Teatro as unsuitable to its role of public service. Criticisms and pressures pushed Grassi and Strehler to introduce some modifications in the most discussed scenes of the show and in the program of 1962/1963 Season. The idea that a theatre managed by the public administration should respect a cultural pluralism seems, in the context of the debate, to stand against the principle of autonomy of the artistic expression. The conflict between opposed opinions shows the difficulty in balancing pluralism and autonomy in a model in which the role of the public theatre is entrusted, in the city, to a single theatre body.