Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty. His plays offered his contemporaries images of themselves, often dramatizing the lives, values, and conflicts of the emerging middle classes. Though he wrote in French and Italian, his plays make rich use of the Venetian language, regional vernacular, and colloquialisms. Goldoni also wrote under the pen name and title Polisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade, which he claimed in his memoirs the "Arcadians of Rome" bestowed on him.
Brighella is a comic, masked character from the Italian theatre style commedia dell'arte. His early costume consisted of loosely fitting, white smock and pants with green trim and was often equipped with a batocio or slap stick, or else with a wooden sword. Later he took to wearing a sort of livery with a matching cape. He wore a greenish half-mask displaying a look of preternatural lust and greed. It is distinguished by a hook nose and thick lips, along with a thick twirled mustache to give him an offensive characteristic. He evolved out of the general Zanni, as evidenced by his costume, and came into his own around the start of the 16th century.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1750.
The Barber of Seville or the Useless Precaution is a French play by Pierre Beaumarchais, with original music by Antoine-Laurent Baudron. It was initially conceived as an opéra comique, and was rejected as such in 1772 by the Comédie-Italienne. The play as it is now known was written in 1773, but, due to legal and political problems of the author, it was not performed until February 23, 1775, at the Comédie-Française in the Tuileries. It is the first play in a trilogy of which the other constituents are The Marriage of Figaro and The Guilty Mother.
The Venetian Twins is a 1747 play by Carlo Goldoni, based on Plautus's Menaechmi.
The Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Harlequins in history. His earliest drafts had large sections that were reserved for improvisation, but he revised it in 1789 in the version that exists today. The play draws on the tradition of the earlier Italian commedia dell'arte.
The Boors, also known as The Cantankerous Men, is a comedy by Carlo Goldoni. It was first performed at the San Luca theatre of Venice towards the end of the Carnival in 1760. It was published in 1762. The 'boors' are four merchants of Venice, who represent the old conservative, puritanical tradition of the Venetian middle classes, who are pitted against Venice's "new frivolity".
La Surprise de l'amour is a three-act romantic comedy by French playwright Marivaux. Its title is usually translated into English as The Surprise of Love. La Surprise de l'amour was first performed 3 May 1722 by the Comédie Italienne at the Hotel de Bourgogne in Paris. In this play, a man and a woman who've sworn off love are tricked by their servants into falling in love with each other.
Like Water for Chocolate is a 1992 Mexican romantic drama film in the style of magical realism based on the debut novel of the same name published in 1989 by Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. It earned ten Ariel Awards including the Best Picture and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film became the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever released in the United States at the time. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
The Antiquarian's Family, or The Mother-in-law and the Daughter is a comedy by Venetian author Carlo Goldoni, first published in 1749.
Le baruffe chiozzotte is a play by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni, first performed at the Teatro San Luca in Venice in January 1762. It deals with the comic struggles between two groups of fishermen in the lagoon-mouth village of Chioggia brought on by the love affairs of the younger generation. Written in Venetian, the comedy is intensified by the presence of a hapless young Venetian official, who is helpless to enforce order on the sly inhabitants he is supposed to keep under control.
La vedova scaltra is an updated opera-buffa in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to a text by Mario Ghisalberti, after Carlo Goldoni's original play first given in 1748.
The Green Bird is a 1765 commedia dell'arte play by Carlo Gozzi. It is a sequel to The Love of Three Oranges. The main plot of The Green Bird has several similarities with the widespread tale The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird.
Gl'innamorati is a comedy play by Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni. It was published in 1759.
La putta onorata is a comedy play by Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni. It was published in 1748. It is rooted to the styles of the commedia dell'arte. The play was applauded in the theater Sant'Angelo in the carnival of 1749 for 22 nights in a row.
La capricciosa corretta is a comic opera in two acts composed by Vicente Martín y Soler. The libretto is by Lorenzo Da Ponte and has a plot which has a slight similarity to William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew, but is not based on it. The story takes place over a 24-hour period and examines the marriage of an older man to his vain and capricious second wife whose antics make her husband, stepchildren, and servants miserable until she is finally brought to heel through the machinations of her husband's major domo. The opera premiered under the title La scuola dei maritati at the King's Theatre in London on 27 January 1795 to considerable success. It was later performed throughout Europe under the alternative titles Gli sposi in contrasto, La moglie corretta, and La capricciosa corretta—the title used by Da Ponte and the one by which it is known today.
Alguna vez tendremos alas is a Mexican telenovela produced by Florinda Meza for Televisa in 1997.
Truffaldino from Bergamo is a 1976 Soviet two-part television musical film directed by Vladimir Vorobyov, based on the play Servant of Two Masters by Italian writer Carlo Goldoni and featuring music by Alexander Kolker. The film follows a commedia dell'arte format about the quick-witted Harlequin Truffaldino as he is caught up in a love story between a Turinese fugitive and his lover.
L’Étourdi ou les Contretemps, also known in English as The Bungler, is a five-act theatrical comedy by the French playwright Molière. After premiering in Lyon in 1655, it appeared at the Théâtre du Petit-Bourbon in Paris in November 1658. The plot follows a servant's schemes to help his wealthy employer win the affections of a poor young woman.
The Liar is a musical comedy in two acts with a book by Alfred Drake and Edward Eager, music by John Mundy and lyrics by Mr. Eager. It was produced on Broadway in 1950.
