Commedia Dell'arte

Information about Commedia Dell'arte

This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.
You can assist by [ editing it] now. A how-to guide is available, as is general .
This article has been tagged since September 2007.

“Commedia” redirects here. For Dante's famous epic poem, see The Divine Comedy.

Commedia dell'arte (Italian: "play of professional artists") was a popular form of improvisational theatre that began in Italy in the 15th century and maintained its popularity through to the 18th century, although it is still performed today.^[1] All of their performances were outside with few props, unscripted, and were free to watch, funded by donations. A troupe consisted of 10 people: 7 men and 3 women. Outside Italy, it was also known as "Italian Comedy".

The performances were improvised around a repertory of stock, conventional situations: adultery, jealousy, old age, love, some of which can be traced in the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence, which are themselves translations of lost Greek comedies of the fourth century BC. 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. Previously rehearsed Lazzi and Concetti are other tools used by a commedia troupe.

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 (eccentric servant) 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.

Karel Dujardins set his closely-observed scene of a traveling troupe's makeshift stage against idealized ruins in the Roman Campagna: dated 1657 (Louvre Museum)

Style

Travelling equipaggio 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

The characters of commedia dell'arte evolved and multiplied over time, through the unique influences of different countries. The characters are split into categories: the zanni are the lower-class characters, the vecchi make up the upper-class, and the innamorati are the lovers. Here are a few examples of the characters:

Arlecchino- also known as Harlequin, is a clown. Typically acrobatic and mischievous, he is one of the zanni. He is a servant, and is recognizable by the colorful diamond-shaped patches that traditionally were part of his costume. The part is sometimes substituted with Truffeldino, his son.

Brighella- a rogue, usually of few morals, and always untrustworthy. He is portrayed as fierce, aggressive, and selfish.

Capitano- swash-buckling and bold, but not necessarily heroic. Capitano generally wears the military dress of the period he is acting, everything foppish and overdone. Capitano is usually played as a braggart, a ladies-man, and a cavalier.

Columbina- developed out of Arlecchino, and is his female counter-part. Usually portrayed as clever, crafty, and untamed. She is also a servant and a member of the zanni, and quite often she compels the action. She sometimes is played wearing colored patches in Arlecchino's style.

Dottore- the doctor. Seen as the intellectual man, but generally that impression is false. He is older, wealthy, and a member of the vecchi. Often played as pedantic, miserly, and hopelessly unsuccesful with women.

The Innamorati- are the lovers. The innamorato and innamorata had many different names over time (Isabella was a particularly popular name for the innamorata). They are young, virtuous, and helplessly in love with one another. They wear the most fashionable dress of the period they are acting, and never play in mask. Often seen singing, dancing, or reciting poetry.

Pantalone- a member of the vecchi. Usually quite wealthy, but very greedy. He is the archetypical "old miser." He is concerned with nothing so much as money, and will do anything in order to obtain it. His costume includes red pants, and often a long beard.

Pedrolino- also known as Pierrot, is the loyal servant. He is hard-working, trustworthy, honest, and in every way devoted to his master. He is also charming and likable, and is portrayed wearing a floppy white outfit with a neck ruff.

Pulcinella- is sometimes called "Punch". He is the freak- pitiable, helpless, and oftentimes disfigured. He usually has a hump, a strong limp, or some other obvious physical deformity. In some portrayals he cannot speak, and expresses himself in squeaks or other strange sounds. His personality can be foolish or tricky and shrewd.

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.

The archetypes represented by the five main Commedia characters are so universal to storytelling that they can be compared to a wide range of contemporary characterizations. For example, some of the characters in the contemporary American television series The Simpsons might be considered comparable to Commedia characters: C. Montgomery Burns is comparable to the old and wealthy Pantalone; the bungling policeman Chief Wiggum is comparable to Il Capitano; Principal Skinner could be compared to Il Dottore, the creator of schemes and inventions; and Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson can be compared to Zanni and Arlecchino, respectivly.^[2] In fact the characters of commedia dell'arte are so universal as to be plausibly applied to just about any comedy, contemporary or otherwise, with a large enough cast of characters.

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 acting 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 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. His ballet Petrushka is indebted to the Pedrolino figure. (Both ballets were produced by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.)

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.

Sergei Prokofiev wrote The Love of Three Oranges with commedia stock characters. The commedia technique had a strong influence on its staging.

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 Molière's relationship to the style.

Dario Fo has taken much inspiration from Commedia, by incorporating it with political issues, thus producing Political theatre.

Strong elements of Commedia can also be seen in classic film and television icons such as the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin.

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 in 1947 with the play Arlecchino: Servant of Two Masters.

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 Copenhagen, Denmark in Tivoli Gardens "Pantomimeteater" performs every summer.
In Dublin, Ireland, the Corn Exchange theatre company, under the artistic directorship of Chicago native, Annie Ryan, works in a "renegade" Commedia dell'arte style, to much acclaim.
In Mainz, Germany, Teatro d´Arte Scarello , Mr. Scarello was many years Actor of the "old and historical Traditional Commedia-Family - I Carrara" (generation with 500 years of Theater).
In Paris, France, 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, Italy 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, Austria, 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 Corfu, Greece, the commedia dell' arte is played every Easter. To be more precise, during the Holy Week the Petegolezza (gossip in Corfiot dialect) are played in the streets satirizing contemporary culture.
In Arezzo, Italy, there is a school where Commedia is still taught to both Graduate and Undergraduate college students. The Accademia dell'Arte trains actors with different professional commedia and physical theatre companies.
In Spain and Amsterdam, the international theatre company called Teatro Punto trains, teaches, and performs a unique form of Commedia dell'Arte inspired by various masters such as Jacques Lecoq. Teatro Punto was founded in Paris in 1998 with creators from Italy, England, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Holland and Spain. Nowadays we can find two types of Commedia dell'Arte: the one that reconstructs and the one that allows the evolution of Commedia dell'Arte and the Tradition. The first type is an execution of the Commedia made in the same way as they did between the XVI – XVIII centuries. The second type is the most interesting for us, because we apply and respect all the principles from the Commedia dell'Arte with complete freedom of inventing and elaborating. This Commedia of continuity is the one working in the reality of today. Our goal is keeping the archetypes alive, archetypes that represent the human values. Teatro Punto has conceived their own personal approach to Commedia dell 'Arte allowing the student actor to discover the vital force locked into the masks. Their point of departure is that the actor is at the service of the mask: this apparently banal notion actually has far-reaching effects on the performers own practice and their relationship to the public.^[3]

References

1. ^ See the Commedia timeline.
2. ^ "Commedia dell'Arte", American University, 02-28-2000.
3. ^ "Teatro Punto". Retrieved 08-20-2007.

Events

1402: Ottoman and Timurid Empires fight at the Battle of Ankara resulting in Timur's capture of Bayezid I.
1402: The conquest of the Canary Islands signals the beginning of the Spanish Empire.

..... Click the link for more information.

The 18th Century lasted from 1701 through 1800 in the Gregorian calendar.

Historians sometimes specifically define the 18th Century otherwise for the purposes of their work.
..... Click the link for more information.

Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and one who is not his or her spouse. Some legal jurisdictions have defined it as "crime against marriage",^[1] opposed to infidelity.
..... Click the link for more information.

Jealousy typically refers to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that occur when a person believes a valued relationship is being threatened by a rival. This rival may or may not know that he or she is perceived as a threat. The opposite of jealousy is compersion.
..... Click the link for more information.

Titus Macchius Plautus, generally referred to simply as Plautus, was a playwright of Ancient Rome. He is believed to have been born in Sarsina (a city in Umbria) around 254 BC. His comedies are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature.
..... Click the link for more information.

Publius Terentius Afer, better known as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic. His date of birth is disputed; Aelius Donatus, in his incomplete Commentum Terenti, considers the year 185 BC to be the year Terentius was born^[1]
..... Click the link for more information.

Clowns are comic performers, stereotypically characterized by their colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, and unusually large footwear. Clowning, in its most basic form, can be described as one form of drama without a fourth wall, however there are other types of
..... Click the link for more information.

Satire (from Latin satura, not from the Greek mythological figure satyr^[1]) is a literary genre, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision,
..... Click the link for more information.

costume can refer to fat people running around fattly wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to
..... Click the link for more information.

mask is an artefact normally worn on the face, typically for protection, concealment, performance, or amusement. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes.
..... Click the link for more information.

theatrical property is any object held or used on stage by an actor for use in furthering the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger "props" may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table.
..... Click the link for more information.

The whip or slapstick is a percussion instrument consisting of two wooden boards joined by a hinge at one end. Typical dimensions of each board are 40cm long and 15cm wide. When the boards are brought together rapidly, the sound is reminiscent of the crack of a whip.
..... Click the link for more information.

Lazzi (from the Italian lazzo, a joke or witticism) is a piece of well-rehearsed comic action commonly used in the Commedia dell'arte. Most English-speaking troupes use the Italian plural "lazzi" as the singular and "lazzis" for the plural.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Innamorati (from the Italian innamorato, lover, the one who is in love) are young lovers, characters of the Commedia dell'arte.

The characters are composed of generous portions of lust, romance, vanity, and poetry, and very little sense.
..... Click the link for more information.

Vecchio (plural vecchi). A category of aged, male characters from the Italian Commedia dell'Arte. The primary members of this group are Pantalone, Il Dottore and Il Capitano. The word means "old one" or simply "old" in Italian.
..... Click the link for more information.

For the Italian rugby player, see .

Zanni (from the Italian, dialectal nickname for Giovanni) was the archetype of the comic servant characters of the Commedia dell'arte.
..... Click the link for more information.

Harlequin (Arlecchino in Italian) is the most popular of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'Arte.

Although illustrations of Arlecchino have only been dated as far back as 1572, the character had existed before then.
..... Click the link for more information.

Punch and Judy is a popular puppet show featuring Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Punch and one other character.
..... Click the link for more information.

Juggling is a form of object manipulation. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, where the juggler throws objects through the air. Jugglers often refer to the objects they juggle as props
..... Click the link for more information.

Acrobatics (from Greek Akros, high and bat, walking) is one of the performing arts, and is also practiced as a sport. Acrobatics involves difficult feats of balance, agility and coordination.
..... Click the link for more information.

Carro di Tespi was a travelling Italian theatrical company that was formerly supported by the Fascist regime. It was started in 1930 to bring opera to the masses.
..... Click the link for more information.