Paolo Grassi. Lettere 1942-1980

This book brings together the rich collection of letters, notes and observations written between the 1940s to the 1980s by Paolo Grassi, one of the most cultivated and intelligent event organisers in Italy in the twentieth century.
Grassi was one of the strongest supporters of the need to have a theatre in Italy that was also and above all a public service, characterised by a repertoire that had a high level of culture but that was also oriented to the larger public, in particular the popular classes; according to a well-known remark of his "theatre, if it wants to continue to be culture, has to achieve something for man and society every day".
In 1947 he founded and directed, together with Giorgio Strehler, the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, the first repertory theatre and municipal theatre body in Italy.
Grassi was to direct the "Piccolo" for twenty-five years, until May 1972, when he was asked to manage the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; this then, was the beginning of a close collaboration with Massimo Bogiankino and Claudio Abbado committed to bringing La Scala to its highest artistic levels and more an integral part of Milan and the Lombardy region.
At the end of 1976, he left Milan and moved to Rome where he became President of RAI between 1977 and 1980. He was elected President of the editorial group Electa, where he resumed, with great passion, his publishing activities. He died in London in 1981, at age 62.
He received many awards for his artistic endeavours: the Legione d'Onore, the Ordre Arts e Lettres and the Ordre National du Mérite, honours conferred by the French government, and the Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica Federale received from the Italian government.