| Carlo Goldoni |
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| 1707 births | |
| goldoni, carlo | |
| 1793 deaths | |
| opera librettists | |
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Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni ( February 25 , 1707 - February 6 , 1793 ) was an Italian Playwright and one of the most famous Italian writers of the period. Along with Pirandello , Goldoni is probably the most famous name in Italian theatre, in his country and abroad. His work is most admired for its ingenius mix of wit and honesty. BIOGRAPHY Memoirs There is an abundance of autobiographical information on Goldoni, most of which comes from the introductions to his plays and from his ''Memoirs''. However, these memoirs are known to contain many errors of fact, especially about his earlier years. In these memoirs, he paints himself as a born comedian, careless, light-hearted and with a happy temperament, proof against all strokes of fate, yet thoroughly respectable and honorable. Such characters were common enough in Italy. Early life and studies Goldoni was born in Venice in 1707, the son of Margherita and Giulio Goldoni . In his memoirs, Goldoni describes his father as a Physician , and claims that he was introduced to theatre by his grandfather Carlo Alessandro . In reality, it seems that Giulio was only an Apothecary , and he was born four years after his granfather's death. In any case, Goldoni was deeply interested in theatre since his earliest years, and all attempts to direct his activity into other channels were of no avail: his toys were puppets and his books, plays. His father placed him under the care of the philosopher Caldini at Rimini but the youth soon ran away with a company of strolling players and came to Venice. In 1723 his father matriculated him into the stern Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia , which imposed the Tonsure and Monastic Habits on its students. However, he relates in his ''Memoirs'' that a considerable part of his time was spent in reading Greek and Latin comedies. He had already begun writing at this time; and, in his third year, he composed a Libel lous poem (''Il colosso'') in which he ridiculed the daughters of certain Pavian families. As a result of that incident (and/or of a visit paid with some schoolmates to a local brothel) he was expelled from the school and had to leave the city (1725). He studied law at Udine , and eventually took his degree at Modena . He was employed as law clerk at Chioggia and Feltre , after which he returned to his native city and began practicing. Educated as a lawyer, and holding lucrative positions as secretary and councillor, he seemed, indeed, at one time to have settled down to the practice of law, but an unexpected summons to Venice, after an absence of several years, he changed his career, and thenceforth he devoted himself to writing plays and managing theatres. His father died in 1731. In 1732, to avoid an unwanted marriage, he left the town for Milan and then for Verona , where the theatre manager Giuseppe Imer helped him on his way to becoming a comical poet as well as introducing him to his future wife, Nicoletta Conio. Goldoni returned with her to Venice, where he stayed until 1743. Theatrical career He entered the Italian theatre scene with a tragedy, ''Amalasunta'', produced at Milan. The play was a critical and financial failure. Submitting it to Count Prata, director of the opera, he was told that his piece "was composed with due regard to the rules of Aristotle and Horace , but not according to those laid down for the Italian drama." "In France," continued the count, "you can try to please the public, but here in Italy it is the actors and actresses whom you must consult, as well as the composer of the music and the stage decorators. Everything must be done according to a certain form which I will explain to you." Goldoni thanked his critic, went back to his inn and ordered a fire, into which he threw the manuscript of his Amalasunta. His next play, ''Belisario'', written in 1734, was more successful, though of its success he afterward professed himself ashamed. He wrote other tragedies for a time, but he was not long in discovering that his bent was for comedy. He had come to realize that the Italian stage needed reforming, and adopting Molière as his model, he went to work in earnest, and in 1738 produced his first real comedy, ''L'uomo di mondo'' ("The Man of the World"). During his many wanderings and adventures in Italy, he was constantly at work, and when, at Livorno , he became acquainted with the manager Medebac , he determined to pursue the profession of playwriting in order to make a living. He was employed by Medebac to write plays for his theater in Venice. He worked for other managers, and produced during his stay in that city some of his most characteristic works. He also wrote ''Momolo Cortesan'' in 1738. By 1743, he had perfected his hybrid style of playwriting (combining the model of Moliere, with the strengths of Commedia Dell'Arte and his own wit and sincerity). This style was typified in ''La Donna di garbo'', the first Italian comedy of its kind. Move to France and death In 1757, he engaged in a bitter dispute with playwright Carlo Gozzi , which left him utterly disgusted with the tastes of his countrymen; so much that in 1761 he moved to Paris, where he received a position at court and was put in charge of the Theatre Italien . He spent the rest of his life in France, composing most of his plays in French and writing his memoirs in that language. Even though his works became extremely popular in Italy, he could never be induced to revisit his native land. Among the plays which he wrote in French, the most successful was '' Le Bourru Bienfaisant '', produced on the occasion of the marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in 1771. He enjoyed considerable popularity in France, and when he retired to Versailles the King gave him a pension. However, he lost this pension once the French Revolution broke out. The Convention voted to restore his pension the day after his death. It was restored to his widow, at the pleading of the poet André Chénier . "She is old," he urged, "she is seventy-six, and her husband has left her no heritage save his illustrious name, his virtues and his poverty." GOLDONI'S IMPACT ON ITALIAN THEATRE Goldoni relates in considerable length in his ''Memoirs'' the state of Italian comedy when he began writing. At that time, Italian comedy revolved around the conventionality of the Commedia Dell'Arte , or improvised comedy. Goldoni took to himself the task of superseding the comedy of masks and the comedy of intrigue by representations of actual life and manners. He rightly maintained that Italian life and manners were susceptible of artistic treatment such as had not been given them before. In this project, Goldoni was entirely successful. His works are a lasting monument to the changes which he brought about: a dramatic revolution that had been attempted but not achieved before, by men whose talents were unequal to the task. Goldoni's importance was rather in giving good examples than precepts. Goldoni says that he took for his models the plays of Molière, and whenever a piece of his own succeeded he whispered to himself, "Good, but not yet Molière." The great Frenchman was the object of his idolatry. However, Goldoni's plays are gentler and more optimistic in tone than Molière's. It was this very success that was the object of harsh critiques by Carlo Gozzi, who accused Goldoni of having deprived the Italian theatre of the charms of poetry and imagination. The great success of Gozzi's fairy dramas so irritated Goldoni that led to his self-exile to France. It is somewhat remarkable that Goldoni should have been the only one of his many talented countrymen to win a European reputation as a comic writer. In tragedy other names have appeared since the death of Vittorio Alfieri , but Goldoni still stands alone. This may be partly explained by the absence in comedy of a literary style which at the same time was national. Goldoni gave to his country a classical form, which, though it has since been cultivated, has never been cultivated by a master. THEMES In Goldoni's plays, written while he was still in Italy, there is a complete lack of Religious and Ecclesiastical subjects. This is surprising considering his staunch Catholic upbringing. He gives no thoughts to death or repentance in his memoirs, or in his comedies. Indeed, after his move to France, his plays take a clear Anti-clerical tone, and often satirize the hypocrisy of monks and of the Church . Goldoni was inspired by his love of human kind, and the admiration he had for his fellowman. His wrote, and was obsessed with, the relationships humans had with one another, their cities and homes, the Humanist movement, and the study of Philosophy . The moral and civil values that Goldoni holds to be of utmost importance in his plays are those of rationality, civility, humanism, the importance of the rising middle-class, a progressive stance to state affairs, honor and honesty. Goldoni had a typically middle-class dislike for arrogance, intolerance and the abuse of power. Goldoni's main characters are no abstract examples of human virtue, nor monstrous examples of human vice. They occupy the middle ground of human temperament. Goldoni maintains an acute sensibility for the differences in social classes between his characters as well as environmental and generational changes. Goldoni pokes fun at the arrogant nobility and the pauper who lacks dignity. LANGUAGE As in other theatrical works of the time and place, the characters in Goldoni's comedies spoke originally either the literary Tuscan language (which became modern Italian ) or the Venetian Dialect , depending on their station in life. However, in some printed editions of his plays he often turned the Venetian texts into Tuscan, too. WORKS Tragedies
Tragicomedies
Comedies
Melodrama
Cantatas and serenades
Oratorios
Religious plays
Performances
Poetry
Intermezzos
Books
Translations
''Archifanfaro'' translated by W.H. Auden with an introduction by Michael Andre in Unmuzzled OX REFERENCES
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