Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno was the first comic opera, which opened the Venetian era in the history of opera buffa. Contemporary dictionaries name Carlo Goldoni (text) and Vincenzo Legrenzio ...Ciampi (music) as its authors. The detailed review of the manuscript (preserved in the Estense Library in Modena) undertaken in the article for the first time, reveals the original “pasticcio” nature of this opera. An analysis of the handwriting and various markings shows that the score contains musical material representing two different productions of the opera: the Venice premiere in 1749 and a performance in London in 1755. Ciampi, who wrote about one third of all the musical numbers for the Venetian premiere of the opera in 1749, was apparently joined in his work by other composers. For the London production in 1755 Ciampi added a newly composed portion of musical numbers, however, still almost a quarter of the entire score remained consisting of insertions of music by other composers. The surviving music also makes it possible to establish exactly what material from the Venetian production was used in the parodies on this opera composed in Paris: Bertholde à la ville by Louis Anseaume (1754) and Le Caprice Amoureux, ou, Ninette à la cour by Charles-Simon Favart (1755). The study of Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno expands our understanding of the practices of opera buffa at the early stage of its history.
Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni's stylized Mémoires were written in French during his Parisian exile (1762-93). This article traces the conjoined motifs of exile and of ageing that course through ...these memoirs, positing that at their confluence there emerges a subliminal voice determined to terminate his lifelong exilic self-identification. Resolving to end narrative exile permits the aged Je to relax within his Parisian adopted home, thus fending off the dreaded exile of aged solitude. In celebrating his old age through narration of his memoirs, Je ultimately embraces the physically reduced sphere and the private existence of an everyday, urban octogenarian.
Sculptural images of bound captives at the foot of a triumphant victor date back to antiquity, yet the portraitlike depictions of slaves in Pietro Tacca's Quattro Mori in Livorno (1622-26) were ...unique in transcending their iconographic roots to address contemporary social conditions in Tuscany's most important port. The development of the slave trade in Livorno and the contemporary construction of the Italian coast's most important bagno (slave prison) form the backdrop for Tacca's sympathetic and idiosyncratic treatment of these four Muslim captives.
As artists, what do we seek? I came to UC San Diego’s MFA Directing program to “bring out a depth in my process that would help me create a better theatrical experience of revelation, empathy, and ...contemplation, and find my own signature form.” In preparation to direct my thesis production of Carlo Goldoni’s The Venetian Twins, I embarked on an intense training in the artform of mask performance in New York, Italy, and San Diego. Theater is a living and breathing event that is the intersection between several art forms in one moment in time. I discovered that the use of form must stem from a detailed concept rooted in the larger question with which the artist is wrestling.
Le théâtre du XVIIIe siècle s’affranchit lentement d’une pratique de cour, trouvant une place toujours plus grande à Paris et en province. Dès lors, le public s’accroît tout comme son intérêt pour le ...fait théâtral. Témoignage éloquent de cette « théâtromanie », les écrits portant sur le monde de la scène connaissent un essor inédit auquel participent les Mémoires des hommes et des femmes de théâtre, corpus à peu près ignoré par la critique littéraire. Les commentaires métadiscursifs (les discours qui traitent du discours) des Mémoires permettent d’éclairer au moins deux intentions communes à tous leurs auteurs : celle de défendre la réputation du théâtre, encore chargée d’opprobre au XVIIIe siècle, et celle d’asseoir la mémoire de ces personnages promis à l’oubli en raison de l’éphémérité attachée au théâtre (Chapitre I). S’ils n’entrent plus en dialogue avec l’Histoire comme c’était le cas aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, les mémorialistes du corpus doivent en revanche disposer d’un certain capital social. Tous les Mémoires des praticiens du théâtre font montre de leur ascendance modeste et d’une émancipation sociale que la scène leur a permise (Chapitre II). La valorisation de l’interprétation théâtrale se déploie aussi à partir de sa théorisation, qui se détache de l’actio rhétorique. À l’aune d’un théâtre qui cherche un maximum d’effet de vérité, notamment en demandant aux acteurs de réinvestir leurs propres sentiments dans ceux de leurs personnages, il semble que les Mémoires soient un lieu d’exploration privilégié afin de penser la pratique du théâtre, puisqu’ils mêlent les considérations personnelles et théoriques (Chapitre III). Les Mémoires des hommes et des femmes de théâtre sont pour le moins nombreux, ce qui signale l’importance du corpus dans le paysage médiatique de l’époque, de même que la pertinence de cette étude. Cette dernière se penche essentiellement sur cinq acteurs (Clairon, Dazincourt, Dumesnil, Lekain et Préville), deux dramaturges influents (Goldoni et Marmontel) et un directeur de théâtre (Monnet).
This dissertation provides a chronological account of the representation of the melancholic-hypochondriac in Carlo Goldoni's comedic works up to his definitive departure for France in 1762 with an ...emphasis on the status of the figure as a patient. By gradually integrating diverse etiologies of the disease into the backstories of his characters, Goldoni transforms the traditional figure from a static character-type deserving of derision into an individual worthy of empathy and social reintegration. As the etiologies evolve, so too do the therapeutic responses warranted. In Goldoni’s hands, the delusions from which the hypochondriac suffers become fertile ground for a reflection on the therapeutic or “corrective” value of theater, in which the distinction between “honest” and “dishonest” simulation is explored, as doctors and patients become actors, and invalids learn to heal themselves through the mirror of theatrical performances. Attention is paid to points of contact between Goldoni's representations and selected medical texts of the period, primarily from the Italian tradition. Starting with Bartoli, who employs theatrical terms to describe the malady, Chapter 1 considers the figure of the imaginary invalid and hypochondriac within the context of understudied early intermezzi and drammi giocosi, genres that formed an Italian theatrical background out of which the invalid emerged in later Goldonian comedies. Chapter 2 examines first the earliest example of hypochondria in Goldoni's corpus, his intermezzo, L'ippocondriaco (1735), after which the figure temporarily disappears and is replaced with melancholics in the following comedies: La vedova scaltra (1748), La Pamela fanciulla (1750), L'erede fortunata (1750) and Il padre di famiglia (1751). These works illustrate the diverse collection of etiologies of melancholy used by Goldoni. Lastly, the chapter attends to performative aspects of the representation of the malady seen in La finta ammalata (1751) where the question of feigned illness reemerges in conjunction with the notion of “honest” simulation. Chapter 3 focuses on two distinct versions of the melancholic genius in works devoted to literary figures: Il Molière (1751) and Torquato Tasso (1755). Along with Il vecchio bizzarro (1754) these plays present a rehabilitated melancholic-hypochondriac worthy of sympathy and admiration. Chapter 4 features Goldoni's final comedies before his departure to Paris, in which one finds the last fully developed examples of melancholy and hypochondria in his Italian works. In Il medico olandese (1756), the reintegration of the patient is feasible through companionship and a kind of self-reflexive talk therapy. Goldoni explores the melancholic mania that arises from an obsession with fashion among the Venetian bourgeoisie in the Trilogia della villeggiatura (1761). With Una delle ultime sere di carnovale (1762) Goldoni bids farewell to Venice and returns to an example of the female hypochondriac who closely resembles the early imaginary invalids from musical theater.
This thesis aims to establish two connections. The first one is that the drawing with the intention of creating stage costumes, namely as a preparation for the future work of producing the costumes, ...is a work of art itself, and this fact is the reason of the importance of this kind of drawing. The second one is the link between the phenomenon of the fashion costume and the clothes used on the stage, or, as we say today, the scene costumes. This binding is made in both directions, i.e., how the fashion, considered to be the clothing referred to specific time and place, can influence the creation of stage costumes, since this helps to compose the character in a way comprehensible by the public; and, in the opposing sense, the stage costume, which creates certain archetypes that become a reference in the imagination of the public. This resulted in the option to pay special attention to the Commedia dell´Arte, where the importance given to the clothes in establishing certain characters (Arlechino, Pantalone, Columbine), made them easily identified by the public, even to those with little knowledge of the Commedia, as well, in other way, the dissemination of some local or special fashion by other places, since some characters (i. e. the Innamorati) reflected the wear of high class of the epoch, and they had to be understood as this.
Venetian playwright and pioneer of modern theatre Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) led a ‘double life’ as a librettist, authoring nearly as many libretti as comedies- libretti which, born from the same mind ...and the same hand that brought forth his famous, and famously controversial, overhaul of the practices of comic theatre, could not but push the limits of the standing tradition to open a new chapter in opera history. Goldoni became one of the first to give shape to the dramma giocoso per musica , an innovative, realistic, and enduring new genre with intimate connections to prose comedy that met with overwhelming international success, becoming the foundation for the works of future generations, including W. A. Mozart and his Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Perhaps because of his stature and influence as a comic playwright, Goldoni has rarely been considered as an innovator in the musical sphere. This study aims to shed new light on his primary role in the evolution of Classical opera, and on the legacy of his innovations in the European musical tradition.
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