A playwright with the revolutionary spirit

That Bob Dylan has broken his silence and accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature and said he hopes to return to China are indeed good news. His desire to visit China again - he toured the country in April 2011 - has thrilled his fans who were overwhelmed by his live performances in Beijing and Shanghai more than five years ago.

Of course, there is no end to the debate on whether Dylan deserves the prize.

But amid the hullabaloo over Dylan's credibility as a poet rather than an eminent songwriter, the news of the death of another songwriter, albeit Italian, has been literally consigned to the margins of the media. The Italian stalwart, however, was more than a songwriter; he was an accomplished playwright, theater director, actor, stage designer, painter and political campaigner all rolled into one. In fact, he was the most political playwright of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht.