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Liuzzo Law Secures Visa for Roberto Benigni

Master artists frequently re-invent themselves as creativity takes them in new directions. But few artists have distinguished themselves in such seemingly dissimilar endeavors as Italian comic Roberto Benigni.

He's widely known in America as not only the winner of an Academy Award for his film "La Vita E' Bella," but also as the only recipient of the award who has ever walked on the tops of the theater seats to reach the stage to accept the Oscar.

However, not only is Benigni widely acknowledged as a comic genius in the U.S. as well as his native Italy, he's also a serious student of early Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
And he took the unprecedented step of organizing a traveling show called "Tutto Dante" that found him in cities around Italy reciting from memory large excerpts of Dante's Divine Comedy, followed by learned commentary on the text. One such mesmerizing stop was in Florence's Piazza Santa Croce, where a statue of Dante flanked Benigni as he recited the poet's celebrated verse.

Benigni then decided to bring the show to the U.S.. Attorney Annalisa Liuzzo prepared his petitions, and secured a visa for him by citing his “extraordinary and outstanding talent.”  Benigni performed "Tutto Dante" to a sold-out audience at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York at the end of May. Benigni, a native of Tuscany like Dante, also performed the show in Boston and several other American cities.