Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte (Italian: "play of professional artists" also interpreted as "comedy of humors"), also known as Extemporal Comedy, was a popular form of improvisational theater which began in Italy in the 15th century (1400s) and maintained its popularity through to the 18th century (1700s), although it is still performed today. All of their performances were outside with few props, unscripted and were free to watch, funded by donations. In a troupe there were 10 people: 7 men and 3 women. Outside Italy, it was also known as "Italian Comedy".
the4 characters were mostly gay due to the lack of women on set so most o of lost Greek comedies of the fourth century BCE. These characters included the ancestors of the modern clown. The dialogue and action could easily be made topical and adjusted to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, mixed with ancient jokes and punchlines. Characters were identified by costume, masks, and even props, such as the slapstick. Lazzi and Conchetti are also used.
The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati are in love and wish to be married, but one vecchio (elder) or several elders, vecchi, are preventing this from happening, and so they must ask one or more zanni for help. Typically it ends happily with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness all around for any wrongdoings. There are countless variations on this story, as well as many that diverge completely from the structure, such as a well-known story about Arlecchino becoming mysteriously pregnant, or the Punch and Judy scenario.
Style
Traveling teams of players would set up an outdoor stage and provide amusement in the form of juggling, acrobatics, and, more typically, humorous semi-improvised plays based on a repertoire of established characters and a rough storyline. Troupes would occasionally perform directly from the back of their traveling wagon, but this is more typical of Carro di Tespi, a kind of traveling theatre that can be traced back to antiquity.
The characters
Characters were portrayed by actors wearing masks, although the innamorati (or lovers) did not wear masks. Like their English contemporaries (Shakespeare), the Italians dressed male actors en travesti -- in women's clothing and wigs. Unlike the boy players of English renaissance theatre this was for humorous purposes, rather than as a result of social constraints.
In some cases, the characters were also traditionally considered as respectively representing some Italian regions or main towns. Often they are still now symbolic of the related town.
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Arlecchino, 1671 -
Brighella, 1570 -
Columbina, 1683 -
Dottore, 1653 -
Pagliaccio, 1600 -
Pantalone, 1550 -
Il Capitano
The influence of commedia
The commedia dell'arte, with its stock situations, stock characters and improvised dialogue influenced many other forms of drama, including pantomime and Punch and Judy.
Quite notably, many if not the majority of comic plays from roughly the 15th-18th centuries have clear influences from the commedia dell'arte, including spinoffs from the traditional characters. Some examples include Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, in which Bianca and Lucentio as innamorati "beguile the old pantaloon", and Katherina and Petruchio enact a Punch and Judy plot; Beaumarchais' Le Barbier de Séville, which features a traditional plot, innamorati (The Count and Rosine) the zanni Brighella (Figaro) and the vecchio Dottore (Doctor Bartholo); and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, with Roxanne as innamorata and Cyrano as Il Capitano/innamorato.
Molière was strongly influenced by commedia, as he had come in contact with traveling Italian actors in the provinces and worked alongside a troupe in Paris for two years. Harpagon in The Miser (1668) was modeled on Pantalone, and there are many other stock characters in Élise, Frosine, Valère, and La Flèche. The playwright was also a lead actor, and performed in the comedic style, with a love for physical humor.
Aspects of commedia dell'arte also passed into the silent tradition of mime. The Bohemian actor Jean-Gaspard Deburau (1769 -1864) brought the new forms of mime to Paris in the 1830s. He standardized the French image of Pierrot.
Stravinsky wrote music for a ballet entitled Pulcinella, regarded as the first of his neo-classical period.
Pierrot Lunaire, the famous and ground-breaking song-cycle by Arnold Schoenberg, draws extensively from commedia dell'arte, or at least, the poems do, originally by Albert Giraud.
Ruggiero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci draws heavily on commedia dell'arte characters and situations.
Richard Strauss used several of the characters in his opera Ariadne auf Naxos.
The characters and tropes of the commedia have also been used in novels, notably Scaramouche, the 1921 historical novel by Rafael Sabatini, but also in more recent sword and sorcery and literary works, such as Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories and Midori Snyder award-winning novel The Innamorati.
The rock band, Queen, often drew on the themes and imagery of commedia dell'arte, most notably in "Bohemian Rhapsody", the video for "It's a Hard Life" (the intro the song itself is based on the aria "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci!), and the cover of the album Innuendo.
Agatha Christie's Harley Quin is a mystical, detective-like character. The characters of the commedia feature prominently in "Harlequin's Lane", the final episode of Christie's series of short stories featuring Quin. A similarly-named character is part of the DC Comics Batman universe, but apart from her costume there is no direct reference to the forms of the commedia.
The current NBC drama Studio 60 contains references to a recurring comedy skit involving commedia dell'arte, and there was some confusion at one point as to Moliere's relationship to the style.
Dario Fo has taken much inspiration from Commedia, by incorporating it with political issues, thus producing Political theatre
Commedia today
Commedia dell'arte has experienced periods of dormancy and revival since its inception. Commedia had all but disappeared when it was revived by Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro of Milan.
Current American commedia dell'arte troupes include The Dell'Arte School in Blue Lake, Tutti Frutti in San Francisco and i Sebastiani in New England.
In England, the Ophaboom Theatre Company specializes in work rooted in commedia dell'arte traditions, updated for modern audiences. The troupe has performed (in several languages) throughout the British Isles and across Europe since 1991.
In Paris Carlo Boso, a former actor of Giorgio Strehler and his Piccolo Teatro, keeps the tradition of the Commedia dell'Arte alive in directing classical commedia plays as well as improvised stories with his company "Le Mystère Bouffe".
In Rome Marco Luly, with his company Luoghi dell' Arte (www.luoghidellarte.com), keeps the spirit of commedia alive, traveling the world with his shows and workshops.
In Vienna Markus Kupferblum, an Austrian theatre and opera director and founder of the Company "Totales Theater", introduces the rules and the structure of the Commedia dell'Arte plays as well as the hierarchy of its characters into contemporary theatre and opera.
In Arezzo, Italy, there is a school where Commedia is still taught to both Graduate and Undergraduate college students. The Accademia del'Arte trains actors with different professional commedia and physical theatre companies.
See also
Further reading
- The Innamorati by Midori Snyder is a novel with the commedia as its central conceit. ISBN 0-312-86924-X
- One version of The Love Of Three Oranges is subtitled "A Play For The Theater That Takes The Commedia Dell'arte Of Carlo Gozzi And Updates It For The New Millennium". The authors are Carlo Gozzi and Hillary DePiano. ISBN 1-4116-1032-6
- Flamino Scala's Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative, translated into English by Henry F. Salerno as Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte. ISBN 0-87910-133-4
- The Commedia dell'Arte by Kenneth Richards and Laura Richards is an overview of Commedia dell'arte. It provides many original documents in translation including scenarios, lazzi and descriptions of characters, players and companies by contemporaries. ISBN 0-631-19590-4