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Period: 1550 BCE to
Commedia dell' Arte
Commedia dell' Arte (comedy of the craft of improvisation) was a type of comedy used in Italian theatre. This was an extremely successful type of theatre throughout not only Italy but throughout the whole world it was also extremely beloved by all types of people including high class and regular working people. -
15 BCE
De Architerctura by the Roman architect Vitruvius n
Italians were very new to the idea of theatre because they needed someone in power to basically request or allow for performances of this nature so this is what they went off of when it came to how theatre looked and was performed as well as genre to the settings for comedy, tragedy and pastoral. -
1545
Sebastiano Serlio and his publishing of Arcchitettura
Sebastiano Serlio was one of the original people that thought of different ways to get theatre performances out to the public and that was because Italy consisted of no public theatres at the time. When Serlio published Arcchitettura he was showing that it was possible to make a performance space out of something as simple as a regular room. -
Period: 1575 to
Commedia and commedia troupe's
These were the years when Commedia was at it's peak it was kind of the top of the theatre game. Commedia troupe has usually ten to twelve people mostly consisting of men and a few women. These workers were usually paid on a salary. Commedia would hang around for a while but this time span was definitely its peak -
Intermezzi
Intermezzi was used by the Italians to try and create a new type of theatre. They used it in operas around 1590 and it led to opera becoming a lot more popular. All Intermezzi was is a type of compliment that compared similarities between a myth and to honor the person being commemorated throughout the festival. -
Period: to
The big growth of opera popularity
As i mentioned before a lot of this was attributed to Intermezzi but Opera picked up when they started combining different elements like music, drama, dance, spectacle and special effects according to our book. Opera also became the main request of people in Italian power for their private endeavors that were closed to the public. -
Teatro Farnese
Teatro Farnese located in Parma, Italy was built in 1618 and to this day it is the oldest theatre in the world with a permanent proscenium arch used. This type of stage was built for the sheer purpose of keeping people in the crowd from seeing behind and into the backstage. -
Public Theatres in Italy
The first public opera house in Italy was opened in 1637. This opera house was located in Venice and was called the Venetian opera house. The success for them was quickly noticed and they decided to open 3 more houses just like them. They all went by the name "The Venetian Opera Houses". -
Period: to
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni was born in 1707 and died in 1793 he was one of the best and well known Italian comic dramatists. He began writing in Venice around 1734. His biggest rival was a man by the name Carlo Gozzi. Gozzi believed that fairy-tale's and improvisation was important for commedia while Goldoni believed that the regular amount of improvisation was not enough and it should be emphasized. -
Downfall of commedia
Commedia hung around for a long time becoming one of the most known and successful types of theatre throughout all of Italy. But by about 1775 it had all but fizzled away. People have thought that this was due to it being basically overused. The style stayed out for a while until it made a return in the mid to late 20th century.
