Tommaso
Salvini (1 January 1829 –
31 December 1915) was an Italian actor. Salvini was born in Milan.
His father and mother were both actors. His father was involved in the Bon and
Berlaffa Company and the actor who was to play Pasquino fell ill. Instead of
closing the theatre for the night his father asked the young Salvini to play
the role. In his autobiography, he writes that "when I perceived that some
of Pasquino's lines were amusing the audience, I took courage, and, like a
little bird making his first flight, I arrived at the goal, and was eager to
try again … It is certain that from that time I began to feel that I was
somebody."
In 1847 Salvini joined the company of Adelaide Ristori, who was then at the beginning of her career.
It was with her as Elettra that he won his first success in tragedy, playing
the title role in Alfieri's Oreste at
the Teatro Valle in Rome. Salvini fought in the First Italian War of
Independence in 1849, but otherwise devoted his life to acting.
In 1853, however, he took a year off because "he rarely felt adequately
prepared for a role". During this time, he prepared roles in great
depth. Salvini's most famous role was Othello, which he played for the first
time at Vicenza in June 1856. His other important roles included
Conrad in Paolo Giacometti's La
Morte civile, Egisto in Alfieri's Merope,
Saul in Alfieri's Saul, Paolo in Silvio Pellico's Francesca da Rimini, Oedipus in Niccolini's
play of that name, Macbeth and King Lear. The core of his acting method came from his
studies. While visiting Gibraltar, for example, he spent time studying the
Moors and found one particular man whom he based his Othello on. Instead of
relying on a mustache, which was the traditional way of depicting a Moor, he
tried to copy "gestures, movements, and carriage" to depict the
character.
Salvini acted frequently in England, and made five visits to the United
States, his first in 1873 and his last in 1889. In 1886, he played Othello to
the Iago of Edwin Booth. He always
delivered his lines in Italian while the rest of the company spoke English
(except during his first tour, when he had an Italian company). According to
the New York World (27 October 1885), "had he spoke Greek
or Chocaw, it would have been much the same. There was that about him that was
universal, and had he remained mute and contented himself with acting alone his
audience could scarcely have failed to understand, so faithful was his
portraiture of human instincts and their action" Salvini's
acting in Othello greatly inspired the young Russian
actor Constantin Stanislavski, who
saw Salvini perform in Moscow in 1882 and who would, himself, go on to become
one of the most important theatre practitioners in
the history of theatre. Stanislavski wrote that Salvini was the "finest
representative" of his own approach to acting. Salvini retired from the
stage in 1890, but in January 1902 took part in the celebration in Rome of
Ristori's eightieth birthday. Salvini published a volume entitled Ricordi,
aneddoti ed impressioni (Milan, 1895). Some idea of his career may be
gathered from Leaves from the Autobiography of Tommaso Salvini (London,
1893). He died, aged 86, in Florence. Salvini was so confident in his talents as an actor
that he was once quoted as saying, "I can make an audience weep by reading
them a menu. Salvini made at least one recording for Zonofono in 1902 of "Il sogno" from Saul.
Listed in a contemporary Zonofono celebrity catalogue recently found. His son
Alessandro (aka Alexander Salvini) (1861–1896), also an actor, had several
notable successes in America, particularly as
d'Artagnan in The Three Guardsmen. Another son, Gustavo Salvini,
was a stage actor. Gustavo's sons, Tommaso's grandsons, were Alessandro Salvini (1890–1955)
and Guido Salvini (1893–1965). Alessandro acted in movies dating back to silent
pictures and Guido directed and wrote for films in the sound era.