Sissi the Empress Comes to Rome: A Myth Rewritten as a Reckoning

Roberto Cavosi’s stage portrait trades the fairy-tale gloss for a bruising, modern Elisabeth of Austria with Federica Luna Vincenti at its fierce center.

Rome has seen its share of icons. Few arrive with a legend as polished, and a psyche as raw, as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known to pop culture as Sissi.

After a run across Italy that has drawn strong audience response, Sissi l’imperatrice (Sissi the Empress) opens at Teatro India for a limited engagement Jan. 27 through Feb. 1, 2026. Written and directed by Roberto Cavosi, the production is anchored by Federica Luna Vincenti, who plays Elisabeth not as a romanticized royal but as a woman trapped inside a story the world refuses to stop telling about her.

[ Read more: https://www.initaly.it/en/evento/sissi-limperatrice-arriva-a-roma-federica-luna-vincenti-tra-ferite-libert-e-poesia-114 ]