When this past July Brianna Coppolino stepped inside the Temple of Concordia of Agrigento, Sicily after her performance in the musical Il Risveglio degli Dei/The Reawakening of the Gods, she was inspired by the Doric columns preserved since the 5th century BCE to recite the verses of a poem of hers. “This powerful show, enchanting location, and magical time of the day all spoke of poetry to me,” she remarked.
Brianna performing on the Via Sacra (Sacred Road) leading to the Temple of Concordia, respectively before and after dawn
Brianna Coppolino, graduate student in the Voice Program of the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, was one of the winners of a paid international internship that took her to the Southern tip of Italy – the World Heritage site of The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento – to perform in a modern musical about ancient Greek myths and deities presented in July and August 2025 for several days at dawn (see recap).
Brianna says goodbye to director Savatteri before leaving Sicily
Brianna came to this experience with some fluency in Italian and a background in opera that required a certain level of adaptation to a musical. “Brianna was up to the task: her refined voice and dramatic presence on stage led me to first create a new role just for her, a wailing mother incarnating the drama of pain during the Trojan war; later, I felt comfortable in assigning her the closing solo, the goddess Fate” (See video below) – Maestro Marco Savatteri, creator and director of Risveglio, remarked. “Like the other interns from Montclair State University, Brianna gave us a sense of the international reach of the show and we were pleased to have her vocal expertise – as well as psychological introspection, philosophical inquiry and gentleness – as part of our company in Risveglio, but also other shows like Scopri il teatro.”
Brianna performs in Scopri il teatro, an interactive show about the history of the local theater entitled to Noble-Prize-winning writer Luigi Pirandello, originally from Agrigento (Photo by Colin Keys)
Prof. Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies), designer and co-organizer of the internship program with Prof. Lori McCann, coordinator of the Voice program at MSU, was struck by the director’s and company’s ability to smoothly embrace new members and highlight their talents: “It’s an extraordinary emotion to see a student from our campus on such a unique stage in Sicily. This internship is the perfect example of how an interdisciplinary collaboration supported by donors (thank you, Mr. Inserra along with Angelo and Marie Cali) can provide a very enriching and eye-opening experiences to our students.” Fiore commented. “Over lunch one day, Brianna told me that working in Agrigento taught her that, while the U.S. is about planning and organization ahead of time, in this company she quickly realized that spontaneous creation can also work: it’s a sign of listening to individual performers and a precious opportunity to make something unexpected, unplanned. Maestro Savatteri did not have a part for Brianna before her arrival because he had to create one ad hoc on site,” Fiore concluded.
Marco Savatteri is scheduled to visit our campus this Oct. to relay the Summer 2025 internship experience along with Brianna and other students, and to present the Summer 2026 edition as well as a Reading on campus designed to acquaint with Il Risveglio (see program of events). “I look forward to walking through the memories of an unforgettable experience for me as a singer and a person active within a professional company in a delightful foreign town that through regular tours I learned to discover and love for its artistic beauty and layered history. All these visits prompted the writing of new poems,” Brianna added.
Video: Footage and editing by Colin Keyes
And in Agrigento, there are powerful memories of Brianna’s stay. Flora Contrafatto, a member of the Savatteri company who shared the apartment with her, fondly remembers the days spent together: “We had a special routine that grew organically for us: while cooking and setting the table, we would sing our parts in the musical. It did not feel like rehearsing, but rather weaving the musical into the fabric of our lives, spontaneously.”
Short link: tinyurl.com/BriannaAG
This internship is the perfect example of how to “combine business with pleasure,” or as the Greeks would put it τὸ χρήσιμον καὶ τὸ ἡδύ (to chrēsimon kai to hēdy), which in Italian is “l’utile e il dilettevole” (MSU students – Brianna Coppolino, Emma Mason, and Mia Grizzuti – at the Temple of Concordia with MSU professors Lori McCann and Teresa Fiore, along with Maestro Savatteri, and then at the natural park beach of Torre Salsa with Prof. Fiore)