One of the most successful and performed of Carlo Goldoni’s works, La locandiera, according to Antonio Latella, is based on «the theme of inheritance, which is the cornerstone of everything – explained Latella –. Sitting at her father’s side on his deathbed, Mirandolina inherits the Inn, as well as the order to marry Fabrizio, the head server at the Inn. With this work, I believe that Goldoni sought to make a powerful and extreme artistic gesture, a gesture that is shockingly contemporary; above all, we are dealing with the first Italian work to have a woman as its lead character, yet Goldoni goes further, dismantling every type of mechanism, elevating a woman formally at the service of her customers to a woman capable of defeating the entire male universe, and above all a woman who annihilates the aristocracy with her skills. In one fell swoop, Mirandolina manages to do away with a knight, a count, and a marquis. By choosing her server to be her husband, she makes a political choice, takes her role as head of all the servers, ennobles merchants and artists, and turns the Inn into a place where the entire theatrical history of our country is re-written, a history that in some sense concerns us all.»
Sonia Bergamasco brings life to a Mirandolina that differs from what tradition has often presented, underscoring the depth of Goldoni’s approach. «Often, – continues Latella – we have belittled the cultural and artistic work that Goldoni achieved with this piece. We have re-dimensioned it, succumbing to the obvious and reducing femininity to what men want to see, a game of seduction. However, Goldoni made this his testament, a grand civil and cultural operation. Our mediocrity has never been worthy of Goldoni’s works, and it is highly likely that I will not be, either. However, my hope is that I am able to pay tribute to a maestro who, with Goldoni, was able to rewrite a part of Italian theatrical history; Massimo Castri.»