Key Takeaways
- Giancarlo Esposito told Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals that his grandfather escaped execution under Mussolini just five minutes before a firing squad because the dictator needed him to locate the Madame Butterfly set.
- Esposito said his grandfather repeatedly landed in jail for drunkenly cursing out Mussolini, then delivered the set after his reprieve and fled with Esposito’s father to join the resistance in the mountains.
- Esposito previously told the story on WTF with Marc Maron in 2020, naming La Scala rather than Naples’ San Carlo Opera House.
Giancarlo Esposito says his grandfather was just five minutes away from execution by firing squad under Benito Mussolini’s regime when an unexpected phone call saved his life.
The actor shared the story on the latest episode of Mythical Kitchen’s Last Meals, which was uploaded on Tuesday (Nov. 10).
Near the 48-second mark in the video linked below, Esposito said that both his grandfather and father worked at an opera house. His grandfather waso responsible for storing, moving and installing opera sets during Mussolini’s rule.
“There's 26 operas in the operatic world, and in Napoli, the opera house in San Carlo was very small. So you can't store all the operas within the opera house,” the actor explained. “They had to be shipped out and put in different warehouses around town.”
Esposito recalled that his grandfather was “a drinker” and would be found “cursing out Mussolini” in the street and put in jail repeatedly, only to be let out. However, his grandfather’s final arrest brought him dangerously close to death.
The dictator wanted to see the opera Madame Butterfly immediately and needed Esposito’s grandfather, who knew where the production’s set was stored.
"Five minutes away from a firing line, they had marched him out and the phone call came in, 'I'm looking for Esposito. Where's Esposito? Where's Esposito?' 'Why? Why?' 'Because I wanna see Madame Butterfly and he knows where the set is,'" Esposito recalled. “[He] literally was saved very close to losing his life. He delivered that set, and then he and my father raced away to the resistance in the mountains and finally left Naples because that call was too close for comfort.”
Esposito previously shared a version of the story on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2020. That version placed the opera sets at La Scala, while his more recent account identified Naples' San Carlo Opera House.
