Commedia dell'Arte in Context

Showcases cutting-edge research into this most famous tradition of European theatre, presented in English for the first time.

Christopher B. Balme (Edited by), Piermario Vescovo (Edited by), Daniele Vianello (Edited by)

9781108994088, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 December 2020

373 pages
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

The commedia dell'arte, the improvised Italian theatre that dominated the European stage from 1550 to 1750, is arguably the most famous theatre tradition to emerge from Europe in the early modern period. Its celebrated masks have come to symbolize theatre itself and have become part of the European cultural imagination. Over the past twenty years a revolution in commedia dell'arte scholarship has taken place, generated mainly by a number of distinguished Italian scholars. Their work, in which they have radically separated out the myth from the history of the phenomenon remains, however, largely untranslated into English (or any other language). The present volume gathers together these Italian and English-speaking scholars to synthesize for the first time this research for both specialist and non-specialist readers. The book is structured around key topics that span both the early modern period and the twentieth-century reinvention of the commedia dell'arte.

Introduction: commedia dell'arte: history, myth, reception Daniele Vianello
Part I. Elements: 1. Knots and doubleness: the engine of the Commedia dell'Arte Ferdinando Taviani
2. Popular traditions, carnival, dance Riccardo Drusi
3. Notebooks, prologues and scenarios Stefan Hulfeld
4. Between improvisation and book Piermario Vescovo
Part II. Commedia dell'Arte and Europe: 5. Journeys Siro Ferrone
6. France Virginia Scott
7. The Iberian Peninsula María del Valle Ojeda Calvo
8. German-speaking countries M. A. Katritzky
9. Eighteenth-century Russia Laurence Senelick
10. England Robert Henke
11. Northern Europe Bent Holm
Part III. Social and Cultural Conflicts: 12. Commedia dell'arte and the church Bernadette Majorana
13. Commedia dell'arte and dominant culture Raimondo Guarino
Part IV. Opera, Music, Dance, Circus and Iconography: 14. Commedia dell'arte in opera and music 1550–1750 Anne MacNeil
15. From Mozart to Henze Andrea Fabiano
16. Commedia dell'Arte in dance Stefano Tomassini
17. The circus and the artist as Saltimbanco Sandra Pietrini
18. Iconography of the commedia dell'arte Renzo Guardenti
Part V. Commedia dell'Arte from the Avant-Grade to Contemporary Theatre: 19. Stanislavsky and Meyerhold Franco Ruffini
20. Copeau and the work of the actor Marco Consolini
21. Staging Gozzi: Meyerhold, Vakhtangov, Brecht, Besson Franco Vazzoler
22. Staging Goldoni: Reinhardt, Strehler Erika Fischer-Lichte
23. Eduardo De Filippo and the Mask of Pulcinella Teresa Megale
24. Dario Fo, Commedia dell'arte and political theatre Paolo Puppa
25. Commedia dell'arte and experimental theatre Mirella Schino
Conclusion: commedia dell'arte and cultural heritage Christopher B. Balme.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Theatre direction & production [ANF], Theatre studies [AN]