Italian Renaissance Theatre

1400-1650

Background

Growth of trade Merchant class grew in strength and

power Patronage system – wealthy financially

supported artists

Art changed Religious subjects treated secularly More realistic artwork

Giotto’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (1310) Raphael’s Sistine Madonna (1513)

More Background

Literature Humanism

Focused on people rather than gods

Theatre Acting Architecture and Scenic Design Dramatic Criticism

Greek and Roman AGAIN! Revival of teaching Greek Transfer of surviving Greek and

Roman manuscripts to Italy after fall of Constantinople

Publication of all existing plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plautus, Terence, and Seneca

Writings of Aristotle and Horace

Tragedies and Comedies

Continued to write religious dramas Sacra rappresentazioni

Few playwrights tried drama, but never equaled Greek and Roman originals

Written in Italian Based on classical models

Adaptations or mimicking of style

Intermezzi

Short pieces depicting mythological tales

Presented between acts of full-length plays

Developed out of popular court entertainments

Spectacular scenic effects Disappeared in the 1600s

Pastorals Similar to satyr plays At the end of a tragedy Not as bawdy and suggestive as Greek

satyr play Subject is romance

Characters are usually shepherds and mythological creatures

Dealt with lovers who are threatened and/or at odds with each other

Action is serious; ending is happy Example: Aminta (1573) by Torquato Tasso

Opera Only theatrical form of Italian

Renaissance to survive Believed they were re-creating Greek

tragic style Fused music with drama

Libretto, or text, is considered secondary to music Operas identified by composers and not

librettists

Elements of Opera Musical Sections

Aria – solo sung accompanied by orchestra

Duets – songs by two people

Trios – songs by three people

Quartets – songs by four people

Recitative – sung dialogue

Great Composers and Operas Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Richard Wagner (1813-1883) George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935) Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler’s

Sweeney Todd (1978) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ

Superstar (1971) and Phantom of the Opera (1987)

Commedia Dell’arte Means “play of

professional artists”

Usually staged comedies

Improvised presentations Scenarios written

as plot outline – no scripted text

Teatro Olimpico (1584) Oldest surviving Italian Renaissance theater

Designed by Andrea Palladio and finished by Vincenzo Scamozzi

Designed as a miniature indoor Roman theater Elliptical benches connected to scaena Scaena frons designed to look like a street Five openings in the façade

Behind each opening was an alley or street that seemed to disappear into the distance

3-D buildings decreased in size as they were positioned farther from onstage opening

Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy

Teatro Farnese (1618)

Raised horseshoe seating Semicircular orchestra

Additional seating or flooded for aquatic scenes

First theater with a proscenium arch Hides stage mechanisms for scene

changes and special effects

Teatro Farnese in Parma, Italy

Scene Design

Periaktoi Three sided device – turn for new scene

change Flat wings

Series of individual wings on each side of the stage placed in progression from front to back

Used a groove system for scene changes

Pole and Chariot System

Dramatic Criticism

Aristotle and Horace first critiqued drama

Neoclassic Ideals Formulated by Italian critics Believed that they were forming rules

which would force dramatists to imitate the Greeks and Romans

The Rules part 1

Decorum All dramatic characters should behave in

ways based on their age, profession, sex, rank, etc.

Verisimiltude All drama must be “true to life”

Ghosts, apparitions, and supernatural events are forbidden

The Rules part 2

The Unities Unity of Time

Dramatic action in a play should not exceed 24 hours Audiences could not accept long passages of

time as “truthful”

Unity of Place Limits the action of a play to one locale

Unity of Action One central story – no subplots

The Rules part 3

Defined genres very narrowly Tragedy dealt ONLY with royalty Comedy dealt ONLY with common people Tragedy MUST be resolved calamitously Comedy MUST be resolved happily NEVER mix Comedy and Tragedy All drama must teach a moral lesson