Come on, Mrs Battisti!

Last winter, the Club Armonia decided to publish an interesting historical research on Ernesta Bittanti Battisti, edited by Professor Beatrice Primerano of the University of Trento. The decision was taken not only to raise awareness of this exceptional figure in our local history, but also to pay homage to her on the 150th anniversary of her birth and to keep alive the memory of Cesare Battisti, who was a member of Club Armonia at the club's inception.

L’entusiastico accoglimento di questa pubblicazione, ha poi spinto il Club Armonia a curarne un adattamento teatrale, pensato e realizzato però in modo tale da poter essere utilizzato televisivamente, vuoi per l’ampia diffusione di tale modalità di comunicazione, vuoi per i limiti imposti allo spettacolo in genere dalla pandemia in corso.

The enthusiastic response to this publication prompted Club Armonia to prepare a theatrical adaptation, designed and produced in such a way that it could be used on television, both because of the widespread use of this form of communication, and because of the limits imposed on entertainment in general by the current pandemic.

As a result,

“CORAGGIO, SIGNORA BATTISTI !” (Come on, Mrs Battisti!)

is a special story about an extraordinary woman, which is also a cross-section of Trentino's history in the first half of the 20th century.

Ernesta Bittanti thus recounts herself and her times through the voices and interpretations of four different women who, precisely for this reason, are able to offer a plurality of views on the human and intellectual story of this anticipator of many instances of modernity, but also of this fearless fighter for her ideals and the proud widow of a figure as great as he is complex - Cesare Battisti and his human and political drama.

Mrs Battisti went through the most ferocious and violent phases of the "short century", bearing the wounds of a cruel destiny and keeping intact her dignity as a woman and as intellectual - one of the first ones in Italy - that clearly emerges from the pages of Beatrice Primerano and from Renzo Fracalossi's dramaturgy. 

The work is also accompanied by many period images, for which we thank the Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino, the Department for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento and Professor Vincenzo Calì, curator of Battisti's archive. Finally, special thanks to Beatrice Primerano, Mediocredito Trentino Alto Adige/Südtirol and Ernesta Bittanti's grandchildren, Mimma and Marco Battisti, for their kind collaboration and suggestions.