Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Theatre & Performing Arts
Venice is a theatre, and whenever you arrive, you're just in time for a show. Sit on any
campo
(square), and the
commedia dell'arte
(archetypal comedy) and
opera buffa
com-
mence, with stock characters improvising variations on familiar themes: graduating uni-
versity students lurching towards another round of toasts, kids crying over gelato fallen into
canals, neighbours hanging out laundry gossiping indiscreetly across the
calle
. Once
you've visited Venice, you'll have a whole new appreciation for its theatrical innovations.
HISTORIC PERFORMANCE VENUES
Teatro La Fenice
Opera in a blaze of glory.
Palazzetto Bru Zane
Leading interpreters of Romantic music raise the frescoed roof.
Interpreti Veneziani
Baroque among masterpieces in Chiesa di San Vidal.
PietÃ
The Venetian baroque composer Vivaldi's work played at the orphanage where he was musical director.
Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista
Arias in Venice's frescoed halls of power.
Commedia dell'Arte
During Carnevale,
commedia dell'arte
conventions take over, and all of Venice acts out
with masks, extravagant costumes and exaggerated gestures. It may seem fantastical today,
but for centuries this was Italy's dominant form of theatre. Scholars attribute some of
Molière's running gags and Shakespeare's romantic plots to the influence of
commedia
dell'arte
- although Shakespeare would have been shocked to note that in Italy, women's
parts were typically played by women. But after a couple of centuries of
commedia
dell'arte
, 18th-century Venice began to tire of bawdy slapstick. Sophisticated improvisa-
tions had been reduced to farce, robbing the theatre of its subversive zing.
Comedy & Opera Buffa
Enter Carlo Goldoni (1707-93), a former doctor's apprentice, occasional lawyer, and
whipsmart librettist who wrote some serious tragic opera. But of his 160 plays and 80 or so
libretti, he remains best loved for
opera buffa
, unmasked social satires that remain ripe and
delicious: battles of the sexes, self-important socialites getting their comeuppance, and the
impossibility of pleasing one's boss.
