A Preliminary Study of the History of Sephardic Theatre in Italy

This article presents the results of a preliminary inquiry into the theatrical activity of Sephardic Jews in Italy from 1492 to the 18th century. Through archival investigation conducted on catalogues of manuscripts and published books from Italian libraries, as well as on documents produced by Sephardic communities, the study focuses on three case studies: the communities in Venice, Naples, and Tuscany. Concerning the Venetian community, literary witnesses to the dramatic activity in the Ghetto are collected and analyzed, including Ester by Salomon Usque and Leon Modena. Concerning the Neapolitan community, the reasons for the absence of Sephardic cultural traces are clarified. The only extant Judeo-Spanish plays produced in Italy come from Pisa and Livorno, testifying to the prolific activity of Iberian Jews in Tuscany. Finally, a list of Hebrew dramatic works written by Italian authors of Sephardic origin is provided in order to reflect on the very categories of ‘Sephardic’ and ‘Italian.’

The Chorus in New Tragedy

This chapter brings together known and possible fourth-century choral tragic texts, analysing and evaluating the chorus’ dramatic activity in the later Classical period. Beginning with the Rhesus once attributed to Euripides, it examines the innovations and dramatic potential of this tragedy’s chorus in performance. In particular it highlights the unique instances of a fragmented choral voice, a striking independence in the chorus’ character, and the use of separated strophic pairs for dramatic structure. There follows an evaluation of the possible fragments of fourth-century tragic choral speech or song, and closer consideration of three such fragments all incidentally linked to the tragedian Astydamas. In these fragments the chapter views further signs of activity, choral interaction with actors, and literary play. A final section introduces a comparison with lyric poetic composition in the fourth century, taking Philodamus’ Paean to Dionysus as an illuminating example of sophisticated and potent choral performance in the fourth century.

Notable in situ surface transformation of Cu2O nanomaterials leads to dramatic activity enhancement for CO oxidation

Irrespective of the initial states, the pure Cu(i) surface of Cu2O would in situ transform into a stable Cu(i)–Cu(ii) composite surface during the first catalytic run of CO oxidation, resulting in dramatic activity enhancement.

Dramatic activity of a Bi2WO6@g-C3N4 photocatalyst with a core@shell structure

Here we report a Bi2WO6@g-C3N4 core@shell structure which was prepared by a combined ultrasonication–chemisorption method with enhanced photocatalytic degradation.