Franco Cuomo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (September 2007) |
 |
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (September 2007) |
Franco Cuomo (22 April 1938, Naples – 23 July 2007, Rome) was an Italian journalist and writer.
Best known for his historical novels set in the Middle Ages, he was short-listed twice for the Strega Award (the most prestigious literary prize in Italy), first with Gunther d'Amalfi, cavaliere templare (Gunter D’Amalfi, Knight Templar) in 1990 and then Il Codice Macbeth in 1997.
Born in Naples, Cuomo earned his degree in law. He then simultaneously worked in journalism and the theatre, moving on fiction and historical studies.
His most recent works included the novels I sotterranei del cielo, Il tatuaggio, and Anime perdute. Notturno veneziano con messa nera e fantasmi d'amore and the nonfiction I dieci examined the Italian scientists who signed the "Racial Manifesto" in 1938 leading to the introduction of racial laws.
Among his other works of fiction are I semidei, a spy story set in contemporary Italy with clear references to many of the major figures involved in Tangentopoli inspired by his work as journalist, Il signore degli specchi on the life of Nostradamus, and Scroll on the legend that Shakespeare may not have been English. He is also the author a five-volume series on the origins of Europe, Il romanzo di Carlo Magno, and a biography of Rita da Cascia, Santa Rita degli impossibili. The latter, rejecting a sort of hagiographic stance, instead reconstructs the mystery in which the medieval mystic was involved surrounding the murder of her husband.
His works of nonfiction include works on idleness (L'ozio), seduction (Elogio del libertino), Oscar Wilde and Victorian era decadentism (Chi ha guardato negli occhi la bellezza), the tragedy of Beatrice Cenci and historical themes concerning the formation and influence of the collective imagination, such as Le grandi profezie (on prophecies from the dawn of human civilization to the modern age) and on knighthood (Gli ordini cavallereschi nel mito e nella storia).
He is the author of a vast theatrical body of works, put on stage and abroad by such directors as Carmelo Bene, Maurizio Scaparro, Sergio Fantoni, and Françoise Petite. Among the latter are: Faust o Margherita (with Carmelo Bene), Romeo e Giulietta (with Carmelo Bene and Roberto Lerici), Compagno Gramsci, Il caso Matteotti, Caterina delle misericordie (Premio Riccione), Nerone (Premio Idi), Giovanna d'Arco e Gilles de Rais (Premio Vallecorsi), Addio amore (Beatrice Cenci) (Premio Fondi), Una notte di Casanova (Premio Flaiano) and the recent Gladiator. Among the awards he won are: the Fregene Prize for journalism (1984), the Premio per la Cultura della Presidenza del Consiglio (1989), the Ravello (1990), the Vanvitelli (1995), and the Blow In (1997).
He translated Utopia by Thomas More and numerous classics for stage productions including Cyrano de Bergerac and Albert Camus’ Caligula, directed by Maurizio Scaparro, as well as works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, Plautus and Musset.
He worked with public broadcaster RAI and was in charge of (or worked as consultant for) a wide variety of radio and television programmes dealing with cultural topics (L'occhio sul teatro and Magico e nero for Videosapere) and ones appealing to a more general audience (Cararai, Cronache del cinema e del teatro, Obbiettivo Europa and Cineteatro).
Over his life he was on the editorial staff of a number of newspapers and periodicals as special correspondent, critic and editor-in-chief of culture sections, as well as co-director of magazines (Fiera and Achab) and author of monographs for specialized magazines (Medioevo and Ulisse 2000).
He frequently appeared as a guest on television programmes on RAI, Mediaset and other broadcasters, taking part in the programmes Stargate, Voyageur, Unomattina, Maurizio Costanzo, Top Secret and SpecialestoriaTG1, as well as others.
