Lezione d’amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo, April 14 to 25, 2027

Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo: Lezione d'amore, sinfonia di un incontro (A Lesson in Love, Symphony of an Encounter), written and directed by Andrée Ruth Shammah with Milena Vukotic, Federico De Giacomo and Andrea Soffiantini, is on at the Piccolo Eliseo, Via Nazionale 183 (00184 Rome), from April 14 to 25, 2027, and the first performance is Wednesday, April 14 at 20:00. The Piccolo Eliseo is the smaller hall of Teatro Eliseo, at the edge of the Monti district, between Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Venezia: Via Nazionale is served by buses 64, 70, 71, 117, 170 and H, and the hall is a walk from Metro A, Repubblica stop, or Metro B, Cavour stop. Until October 19, 2026 the theater ran a launch promotion, with a single seat price of €20 plus fees on the authorized presale network, and tickets are also sold on the Eliseo's official website and at the box office on Via Nazionale.

Language: performed in Italian. No English version or English surtitles are announced.

Lezione d'amore at the Piccolo Eliseo: dates, times and tickets

Lezione d'amore stays on at the Piccolo Eliseo for almost two weeks, from April 14 to 25, 2027, in the 2026-2027 season of Via Nazionale hall. The play is in Italian.

Opening night and the run

The first Rome performance is Wednesday, April 14 at 20:00. The full schedule, with each day's times, is published by the theater and the authorized presale network: check it before choosing a date.

The launch promotion

The Eliseo website advertised a Promo Lancio valid until October 19, 2026. On the authorized presale network, for the April 14 opening, the promotion offered a single seat price of €20, plus service fees. After that date the regular season prices published by the theater apply.

Where to buy

Tickets are sold from the show page on the official Eliseo website, which links to the authorized presale network, or at the theater box office on Via Nazionale.

Lezione d'amore: what the show is about

Lezione d'amore tells of the meeting between Madame A., an elderly piano teacher who was once a great musician, and a fragile young man called the Listless Youth: 10 movements, as in a symphony, mark out a lesson that becomes a sentimental education.

Madame A. and the Listless Youth

Milena Vukotic is Madame A., and Federico De Giacomo is the Listless Youth, a boy considered unfit for the world. The piano lessons become the ground for an unexpected relationship that, between music and shared silences, turns into an education in life.

Two generations

In the theater's presentation it's the meeting of two generations that hands down a legacy to be kept: two lives that, to the rhythm of the lessons, strike different keys each time, between music and literature, between the anxieties of the past and the inadequacy of the present.

A lesson still to be learned

Shammah, the official note says, writes and directs a lesson in love we're all still trying to learn, and in the meantime the show invites us to listen to its symphony. The subtitle, Symphony of an Encounter, declares the story's musical form.

Harold and Maude

The text, written by Andrée Ruth Shammah with Federica Di Rosa, is inspired by Harold and Maude. Lezione d'amore brings that model, the meeting between an old woman and a young man, into a room with a piano.

The music of Lezione d'amore

The soundtrack of Lezione d'amore spans two centuries: music by Schubert, Beethoven, Debussy, Alban Berg and Sonia Weider-Atherton, alongside original music by Michele Tadini.

The composers

Schubert and Beethoven, Debussy and Berg: the repertoire runs from the early 19th century to the 20th, following the path of a teacher who has lived through great music. Alongside the classics are Sonia Weider-Atherton and Michele Tadini, who wrote the original music.

The creative team

Sets and lighting are by Gianni Carluccio, costumes by Nicoletta Ceccolini, video by Luca Scarzella. It's produced by Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, the theater Shammah founded and runs.

10 movements

The structure in 10 movements recalls the form of a symphony and marks the progress of the relationship. In our opinion it's the key to following the show: each movement is a lesson, and each lesson pushes the line between teacher and pupil a little further.

Who Milena Vukotic is

Milena Vukotic, born in Rome on April 23, 1935, has worked in more than 95 films with directors such as Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Mario Monicelli, Ettore Scola and Bernardo Bertolucci, and in 2024 she received a special David di Donatello for her career.

Piano and dance

The daughter of a playwright and diplomat of Montenegrin origin and of Marta Nervi, herself the daughter of pianist Gemma Luziani, she studied piano, acting and classical dance from childhood in London, Vienna and Paris. She started as a dancer, in the Paris Opera ballet and then in the companies of the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and Roland Petit, and it was seeing Fellini's La Strada that made her choose acting.

Auteur cinema

She debuted in Damiano Damiani's Il sicario, followed by Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits and Toby Dammit, Scola's La terrazza, and three Buñuel films, including The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire. She has also been directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Nagisa Oshima and Ferzan Ozpetek.

Pina Fantozzi

For the general public she's Signora Pina, wife of Paolo Villaggio's accountant Fantozzi: with Fantozzi in paradiso she won the 1994 Nastro d'argento for best supporting actress. She's also the wife of Ugo Tognazzi's Mascetti in Amici miei and its sequel, and for years Enrica in Un medico in famiglia.

Theater

On stage she was one of Rina Morelli's favorite actresses, in Oh, What a Lovely War in 1982 and Pirandello's Right You Are (If You Think So) in 1983, and she has worked with Franco Zeffirelli, Giorgio Strehler, Paolo Poli and Jean Cocteau. She received the Ciak d'oro career award in 2007 and three David di Donatello nominations before the 2024 award.

Who Andrée Ruth Shammah is

Andrée Ruth Shammah, born in Milan on June 25, 1948 to a Sephardic family that fled Aleppo, is a stage director and artistic director of Teatro Franco Parenti, which she founded in 1972 as the Salone Pier Lombardo.

Strehler, Parenti, Testori

She came to the theater in the late 1960s as assistant director at Giorgio Strehler and Paolo Grassi's Piccolo Teatro, where she met Franco Parenti. In 1972 she founded the Salone Pier Lombardo with Parenti, Giovanni Testori, Dante Isella and Gian Maurizio Fercioni, opening on January 16, 1973 with her first production, Testori's L'Ambleto. Macbetto and Edipus followed, completing Testori's trilogy of the scarrozzanti, and L'Arialda.

Running the Parenti

In 1989, on Franco Parenti's death, the Salone was renamed Teatro Franco Parenti and Shammah took over its direction. She has staged Shakespeare, Molière, Goldoni, Feydeau and Pinter, and for La Scala Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, broadcast by Rai in 1988.

The 2000s

In the new millennium Shammah has worked mostly on contemporary authors: Vitaliano Trevisan's Una notte in Tunisia with Alessandro Haber, Antonio Tarantino's Esequie solenni with Ivana Monti, Hanoch Levin's The Labor of Life with Carlo Cecchi in 2014, Ibsen's A Doll's House in 2016, with Filippo Timi in all three male roles, and David Harrower's Knives in Hens with Eva Riccobono, presented in 2019 at the Napoli Teatro Festival and the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto.

Her latest productions

In April 2024 she staged Roy Chen's Chi come me, on young people's mental distress, announcing it as her last production. A year later, though, on April 23, 2025, she premiered Lezione d'amore at the Franco Parenti, a show that had been in the works for years.

Awards and honors

She has been an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic since 2011 and a Knight of the Legion of Honor since 2019. She received the Premio Franco Enriquez for artistic direction in 2013 and, on August 30, 2026, the same award's career prize.

Teatro Franco Parenti, the home of Lezione d'amore

Lezione d'amore is a production of Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, born in 1972 as the Salone Pier Lombardo in the former Continental cinema and named since 1989 after the actor who founded it with Shammah.

The Salone Pier Lombardo

The Salone opened on January 16, 1973 with Giovanni Testori's L'Ambleto, Shammah's first production, and completed the trilogy with Macbetto, on October 21, 1974, and Edipus, on May 27, 1977. Rai broadcast some of those shows.

Cultural projects

At the Parenti Shammah created initiatives such as the Lunedì filosofici philosophy evenings, Processo alla cultura, Religione e potere, and an International Festival of Jewish Culture in 1987 and 1988. In 2011 she received the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award for her work in restoring the theater.

40 years

For its 40th anniversary, in the 2012-2013 season, the Parenti devoted its program to Hamlet, including the Tfaddal project with artists under 40. In 2013 the Premio Franco Enriquez honored Shammah for artistic direction and the theater for its contemporary programming.

Federico De Giacomo and Andrea Soffiantini

Alongside Milena Vukotic are Federico De Giacomo, whom the theater presents as the breakout performer of Chi come me, and Andrea Soffiantini.

The Listless Youth

Federico De Giacomo is the young man of the story. The official presentation names him as the breakout performer of Chi come me, the Roy Chen play Shammah herself directed in 2024 at the Franco Parenti: a director choosing again a young actor discovered in her previous work.

A company of three

Andrea Soffiantini completes the trio on stage. With just three performers, a piano and music, Lezione d'amore is an intimate show, suited to the size of the Piccolo Eliseo.

A curious fact about Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo, April 14 to 25, 2027

The best curious fact links the character to the actress. Madame A. is a piano teacher who was once a great musician, and Milena Vukotic studied piano from childhood and is, on her mother's side, the granddaughter of pianist Gemma Luziani. Before becoming an actress she was a ballerina in Paris, and music runs through her whole training. So the role seems written for her, and in fact it was born with her: Vukotic has been Madame A. since the Milan premiere in April 2025.

The second curious fact is a date. The show premiered at Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan on April 23, 2025, Milena Vukotic's 90th birthday, since she was born in Rome on April 23, 1935. In April 2027 the tour arrives in her hometown right around her 92nd birthday, which falls during the run at the Piccolo Eliseo.

Third curious fact: Lezione d'amore almost didn't exist. In 2024 Andrée Ruth Shammah had announced that Chi come me would be her last production, and then, in 2025, she decided to stage this project, in the works for years. So the Rome audience is seeing a show born after an announced farewell.

The Piccolo Eliseo, Teatro Eliseo's second hall

The Piccolo Eliseo is the smaller hall of Teatro Eliseo on Via Nazionale: about 265 seats, carved out of the theater's old foyer lounge and devoted since the 2000s mainly to contemporary drama.

From the Arena Nazionale to the Eliseo

It all began in 1900 with an open-air wooden theater, the Arena Nazionale. On September 24, 1910, in its place, the masonry Teatro Apollo opened, with a reinforced concrete structure by Giovanni Antonio Porcheddu's firm. In May 1918, under Mentore Clerici's management, it took the name Eliseo.

The Ridotto

As early as 1912 the Ridotto, the foyer lounge, was separated from the rest of the building and run as a café chantant, the Sala Apollo. In October 1977, under Giuseppe Battista's management, it was rebuilt and renamed the Piccolo Eliseo.

The 2026-2027 season

After the long closure that began in March 2020, the Eliseo announced the 2026-2027 season of the Piccolo Eliseo, run by Viola Produzioni. The program includes, among others, Gabriele Pignotta's Toilet and Lucia Calamaro's Turbati come siamo.

Something nobody tells you about Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo, April 14 to 25, 2027

What's rarely remembered is the thread that ties Milena Vukotic to the Eliseo through Rina Morelli. Vukotic was one of Rina Morelli's favorite actresses, and Rina Morelli, in the Eliseo's golden years, was part of the house company with Andreina Pagnani, Gino Cervi and Paolo Stoppa. Returning to Via Nazionale means, for the actress, stepping onto a stage tied to one of her mentors.

The second thing concerns Andrée Ruth Shammah and Giovanni Testori. On February 23, 1961, at the Eliseo, Testori's L'Arialda was seized for obscenity during the run by Luchino Visconti's company. 15 years later, in 1976, Shammah would direct L'Arialda in Milan, at the Salone Pier Lombardo she had founded with Testori himself. The director now brings a show of her own to the theater that saw that play's scandal.

Finally, a practical detail: the Piccolo Eliseo has its own entrance on Via Nazionale, separate from the main hall's. Check the hall name on your ticket so you don't line up at the wrong door on nights when both are open.

How to get to the Piccolo Eliseo

The Piccolo Eliseo is at Via Nazionale 183 and the simplest way there is by bus: Via Nazionale is served by lines 64, 70, 71, 117, 170 and H, linking it to Termini station and Piazza Venezia.

By metro

On Metro A get off at Repubblica and walk down Via Nazionale for about 10 minutes, and on Metro B get off at Cavour and walk up toward Via Nazionale through Monti.

From Termini

From Piazza dei Cinquecento, the lines running down Via Nazionale drop you near the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, a few steps from the theater. On foot, via Piazza della Repubblica, it takes a quarter of an hour.

By car

Driving isn't recommended: parking is hard and access rules for the center should be checked before setting out. If you have to drive, look for a parking garage around Termini.

My tip for Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo, April 14 to 25, 2027

My tip is to choose one of the performances around April 23, the day Milena Vukotic turns 92. Something special won't necessarily happen in the hall on her birthday, but seeing the show in those days, in the city where the actress was born, adds meaning to the evening. Buy early: the Piccolo Eliseo has about 265 seats, and a show with a star so loved by Rome audiences can sell out.

The second tip is to come prepared on the music. Listening beforehand to some Schubert, Beethoven and Debussy, the composers named in the credits, lets you recognize them when they enter the story. If you know Harold and Maude, which inspired the show, you'll have one more point of reference.

Third tip: in a hall this intimate every seat is close to the stage, so even the cheaper ones work. Check current prices on the authorized network, since the launch promotion ended on October 19, 2026.

Another well-known fact, yet one rarely mentioned

Everyone knows Milena Vukotic as Signora Pina in Fantozzi. Far fewer know she started as a classical ballerina in Paris, in the Opera ballet and then with the Marquis de Cuevas and Roland Petit companies, and that what made her give up dance for acting was seeing Fellini's La Strada. A few years later she would be directed by Fellini himself, in Juliet of the Spirits and the Toby Dammit episode.

A second fact, known to scholars and rarely mentioned: in 1964 it was Lina Wertmüller who cast her in Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca, the TV drama with Rita Pavone. And in 1974 she starred in Nel mondo di Alice. Vukotic's career thus spans 60 years of Italian television, from black-and-white dramas to Un medico in famiglia, where she played Enrica until 2016, to the final of Ballando con le stelle in 2019.

The director also holds a little-remembered record: the Salone Pier Lombardo, founded by Shammah in 1972, was born in the former Continental cinema in Milan. A theater carved out of a cinema: the same transformation many 20th century halls went through, in reverse, in Rome.

The right photo to take at Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo, April 14 to 25, 2027

No photos in the hall: filming disturbs the actors and the audience, and the show's rights are protected. The right photo is taken outside.

The first is the Teatro Eliseo facade on Via Nazionale, with the main hall and, a little farther on, the Piccolo Eliseo entrance: from the opposite sidewalk, with the signs lit, you can frame both. In April, coming out of the evening shows, a lit Via Nazionale offers a long perspective toward Piazza Venezia.

The second is the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, on the same side of the street, with its 19th century facade: a photo to take before the show, in the sunset light. The third, if you like contrasts, is the stairway leading down into the Monti district, where the trattoria lights announce the after-theater dinner.

Via Nazionale and the Monti district

The Piccolo Eliseo faces Via Nazionale, the great 19th century axis between Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Venezia, at the edge of the Monti district and at the foot of the Quirinal.

Palazzo delle Esposizioni

On the same side of the street is the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, opened in 1883 to a design by Pio Piacentini: an afternoon at an exhibition and an evening at the theater make a full day.

Toward Piazza della Repubblica

Heading up you reach Piazza della Repubblica, with the Baths of Diocletian, and a little farther Palazzo Massimo alle Terme holds frescoes and bronzes from the National Roman Museum.

Monti and the Forums

Heading down toward Via Cavour you enter the Monti district, with workshops, stairways and small squares, and toward the Imperial Forums you reach Trajan's Markets.

Some important events that happened here in history

The Eliseo's history coincides with a century of Italian theater. In 1900 the Arena Nazionale, an open-air wooden stage, on September 24, 1910 the Teatro Apollo, with Porcheddu's reinforced concrete structure, in 1912 the separate Ridotto that became the Sala Apollo, and in May 1918 the name Eliseo. In 1935 the Grande Compagnia Spettacoli Eliseo was formed with Anna Magnani, and on January 5, 1938 the theater reopened in its current form, with Vincenzo Torraca as director for almost 40 years.

On January 30, 1945, with the war not yet over, Luchino Visconti made his debut as a stage director with Cocteau's Les Parents terribles. His Italian drama company staged A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and Three Sisters, and on February 23, 1961 Testori's L'Arialda was seized for obscenity. In the 1950s and 1960s came Proclemer and Albertazzi, the Compagnia dei Quattro and Strehler's Piccolo of Milan.

In October 1977 Giuseppe Battista took over management, the Ridotto was rebuilt and the Piccolo Eliseo was born, while the main hall opened with Romolo Valli and Giorgio De Lullo's Henry IV. In the 1980s and 1990s artistic direction passed to Rossella Falk and Umberto Orsini, and from the 2000s the Piccolo Eliseo opened up to new playwriting. In 2015 the theater reopened with Luca Barbareschi, who bought it in 2018, and from March 2020 it stayed closed for a long time, until the 2026-2027 season.

Who has passed through Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic at Piccolo Eliseo, April 14 to 25, 2027

Almost the whole Italian stage of the 20th century has passed through the Eliseo. In the 1930s Ettore Petrolini, Totò, Macario and Anna Magnani, and among the greats of drama Emma Gramatica, Maria Melato, Angelo Musco and Paola Borboni. The house company brought together Andreina Pagnani, Gino Cervi, Rina Morelli and Paolo Stoppa, and the De Filippos performed Natale in casa Cupiello there in 1936.

With Visconti came Ruggero Ruggeri, Arnoldo Foà, Franco Zeffirelli, Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman, then Anna Proclemer and Giorgio Albertazzi, Giorgio Strehler, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Romolo Valli and Giorgio De Lullo. In the 1980s and 1990s, Rossella Falk, Umberto Orsini and Gabriele Lavia, with Monica Vitti in The Odd Couple directed by Franca Valeri and Mariangela Melato as Medea for Giancarlo Sepe.

In April 2027 Milena Vukotic comes through Via Nazionale, having worked with Zeffirelli and Strehler, two names from this theater's history, along with Andrée Ruth Shammah, a pupil of Strehler's Piccolo, Federico De Giacomo and Andrea Soffiantini. And with them Madame A. and the Listless Youth, two characters who meet at the piano and change each other's lives.

How to plan the evening

The Piccolo Eliseo is in a well-served area full of options for before and after the theater.

Before the show

With the 20:00 start of the first performance, a hearty aperitivo or an early dinner is best, and on Via Nazionale and toward Piazza della Repubblica there are bars and quick spots, while the Palazzo delle Esposizioni has an in-house café.

After the show

The best choice for dinner afterward is the Monti district, with trattorias, osterias and small places a few minutes' walk away. On Friday and Saturday, booking is wise.

April 25

The last performance falls on Liberation Day: there may be ceremonies and transit detours in the center, so check routes before heading out.

Accessibility and practical information

The Piccolo Eliseo is a hall of about 265 seats in a historic building: for wheelchair access, reserved seats and services, contact the box office before buying.

Reduced mobility

In the historic theaters of the center, access to the smaller halls may involve stairs or alternative routes: if you have specific needs, mention them when booking. A taxi to Via Nazionale entrance is the most comfortable option.

Phones and filming

In a hall of about 265 seats, with music and silences that are part of the story, even a vibrating phone can be heard: switch it off before the start and don't film the stage.

Recommended age

Lezione d'amore deals with fragility, old age and growing up with delicacy. In our opinion it's suitable for young people from 13 or 14, especially those who study music.

April in Rome: theater and spring

Mid-April is one of the nicest times to go to the theater in Rome: the days are getting longer, and Via Nazionale, as you leave the hall, invites a stroll.

Mild evenings

April temperatures are pleasant by day and cool in the evening: a light jacket is enough for the walk back toward Termini or Monti.

A spring of drama

In the same days the center's theaters offer other plays: if you're staying in town a few days you can pair Lezione d'amore with a show at the Quirino or the Sala Umberto, a few minutes away.

Frequently asked questions about Lezione d'amore

When is Lezione d'amore on at the Piccolo Eliseo?

Lezione d'amore with Milena Vukotic is on at the Piccolo Eliseo in Rome from April 14 to 25, 2027. The first performance is Wednesday, April 14 at 20:00, and the times of the other performances are published by the theater.

How much are tickets for Lezione d'amore?

For Lezione d'amore at the Piccolo Eliseo the theater offered a launch promotion until October 19, 2026, with a single seat price of €20 plus fees on the authorized network. After that date the regular prices published by the Eliseo apply.

Who is in the cast of Lezione d'amore?

Lezione d'amore stars Milena Vukotic, Federico De Giacomo and Andrea Soffiantini. Text and direction are by Andrée Ruth Shammah, with Federica Di Rosa as co-writer, and it's produced by Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan.

What is Lezione d'amore about?

Lezione d'amore tells of the meeting between an elderly piano teacher, Madame A., and a fragile young man, the Listless Youth. In 10 movements, between music and silences, their relationship becomes a sentimental education, and the text is inspired by Harold and Maude.

Where is the Piccolo Eliseo?

The Piccolo Eliseo is at Via Nazionale 183, in the smaller hall of Teatro Eliseo, between Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Venezia. You get there by buses 64, 70, 71, 117, 170 and H or by Metro A, Repubblica stop, and Metro B, Cavour stop.

What music do you hear in Lezione d'amore?

In Lezione d'amore you hear music by Schubert, Beethoven, Debussy, Alban Berg and Sonia Weider-Atherton, alongside original music by Michele Tadini.

Final tip on Lezione d'amore

My final tip: take the chance to see Milena Vukotic, at 92, in a role that unites the two passions of her life, music and theater, in the city where she was born. Choose a date around April 23 and devote the evening to Via Nazionale and the Monti district, between an exhibition at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and dinner after the show. In our opinion Lezione d'amore is the most delicate show of the Roman theater spring.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

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