The Emperor’s Tomb / La Cripta dei Cappuccini

The Emperor’s Tomb (La Cripta dei Cappuccini), the first part of the trilogy Incapable of dying (Nezmožni umreti / Inabili alla morte), is produced by Mittelfest and is part of the official GO! 2025 programme.

In Joseph Roth’s The Emperor’s Tomb, directed by Giacomo Pedini, Natalino Balasso plays the main character of the famous novel – the young Slovenian nobleman Francesco Ferdinando Trotta. The parable follows European history in the first half of the 20th century, from the First World War to the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and up to Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938.

Trotta is an awkward bon vivant who, amid dissolute friends, decadent nobles, failed soldiers, tyrannical mothers, adventurers and frauds, is swept up by both inner turmoil and historic events in a time of great change and a crumbling Central European world.

Performed in Italian with Slovenian and English surtitles.

Italian translation Laura Terreni
Adaptation Giacomo Pedini and Jacopo Giacomoni

Directed by Giacomo Pedini

Dramaturg Jacopo Giacomoni
Set design Alice Vanini
Costumes Gianluca Sbicca and Francesca Novati
Music Cristian Carrara
Performed in a recording by FVG Orchestra
Conductor Paolo Paroni
Lights Stefano Laudato
Sound and phonics Corrado Cristina
Assistant director Francesca Lombardi
Language coach Francesco Borchi

Franz-Ferdinand Trotta Natalino Balasso

Joseph Branco Nicola Bortolotti
Count Chojnicki Primož Ekart
Manes Reisiger/Baron Kovacs Francesco Migliaccio

Mrs. Trotta Ivana Monti
Bubi Kovacs/doc. Grünhut/Sentinel Alberto Pirazzini
Elisabeth Kovacs Camilla Semino Favro
Jacques/Adolf Feldmann/Jadlowker Giovanni Battista Storti
Kurt von Stettenheim/Jan Baranovitsch/Soldier/Friar Simone Tangolo
Jolanth Szatmary Matilde Vigna

Stage director Alberto Antonel
Stagehand Elisabetta Ferrandino
Chief electrician Ivan Bortolus
Electrician Enrico Mansutti
Props master Gaia Agozzino
Make-up and hairstyling Nicole Tomaini
Video services Entract Multimedia
Tailoring and assistant personnel Servizi Teatrali srl
Scenes made at Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione workshop
Costumes by Bàste srls
Staging director and coordinator Stefano Laudato

Production Associazione Mittelfest

Photo © Luca A. d’Agostino – Phocus Agency

After its premiere at the Teatro Verdi in Gorizia on 11 May 2024, the performance opens the three-day marathon of the Incapable of dying (Nezmožni umreti / Inabili alla morte) project on 16, 17 and 18 September 2025.