Commedia dell'arte

Abstract

Commedia dell’arte refers to Italian professional theater which came into existence in the 1540s when itinerant players formed themselves into companies. Originally formed from servant-master actor duos, made up of Zannis (impoverished porters) teamed up with Pantalones (new merchant class), they offered clever bawdy buffoon style entertainment exposing the inequities of the new servitude of waged labor. Over time the stock Zanni role expanded to include specialized versions such as Arlecchino, Pedrolino, Brighella, and others who were pitted against the Venetian merchant, Pantalone, and the Bolognese professor/lawyer, Dottore. The commedia dell’arte took shape as a full-fledged art form when female performers were admitted on the professional stage in the 1560s. These women were skilled in all the fine arts, excelling as orators in the prima donna innamorate (female lovers) roles. Along with the female performers, educated gentlemen joined to take the male innamorati (male lovers) roles, and with the addition of the maidservant, the Spanish Capitano, and other miscellaneous characters, the troupes reached the standard ten members. Playing as an ensemble, together they developed a new improvised style of acting. Famous mostly for their romantic comedies featuring wily servants and brilliant female heroines, they used derisive laughter to expose the oppressive treatment of their father/masters in the household and in the society at large. Their repertoires expanded to include performances in all the genres. Top acting companies created a theater of such excellence that their fame swept across Italy, France, Spain and other parts of Europe, even coming to England in the 1570s and 1580s. During the golden age from the 1560s to the 1630s several performers gained fame for their unique character masks and range of artistic inventions. The important contributions of the diva Isabella and the Andreini family dynasty, including Virginia Ramponi Andreini, and Flaminia Scala are highlighted. At a certain point, in the early seventeenth century, the troupes became less dependent on touring and began to combine their methods of improvising with the performance of published scripts. The commedia dell’arte led the way in bringing literary, cultural, and dramatic modules to the theaters of England, France, and Spain through transnational exchanges which shaped early modern European theater. Although it is considered to have ended in the 1750s with the conflicting reforms of Goldoni and Gozzi, it has had a profound influence on the development of modern theater in many different areas such as music, dance, and opera.