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Period: 1500 to
Renaissance Italy (1500-1800)
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1545
Sebastiano Serlio Published "Architettura"
Sebastiano Serlio published "Architettura" to illustrate how to make a good space for performing within a preexisting space. He added illustrations of his versions of Vitruvius's tragic, pastoral, and comic settings. He was basically giving people a visual for how to make a setting for a scene with what they have. We continue to do this today for plays and musicals; We just use a stage most of the time now (Brockett, O. G., Ball, R. J., Fleming, J., & Carlson, A., p. 117). -
A New Form of Opera
A new form of opera originated from the enjoyment of "intermezzi" in an attempt to re-make a mix of music and speech that was found in Greek tragedy. This soon became very popular because it combined everything from music, dance, special effects, drama, and spectacle. This became a good middle ground for the picture-frame stage and popularizing perspective scenery (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., "Intermezzo"). -
The First Opera
The first opera, "Dafne", was written by Ottavio Rinuccini and Jacopo Peri. It was performed at the pre-Lenten Carnival of Palazzo Corsi. This opera may not have been the first, but it was the first on record. It consisted of 6 scenes and a prologue. It was produced by the Camerata Fiorentina (The Italian Renaissance - An overview of theatre: The History of Italian Theatre, StudyMode.com). -
Commedia dell'Arte
"Commedia dell'arte", short for "commedia dell'arte all'improvviso", is professional and public unlike a lot of theatrical activity in Renaissance Italy. It is comedy that is actually improvised. They do not know quite when or where commedia dell'arte was created, but by 1600 it was popular in Italy, Spain, and other European countries. This was viewed by anyone, not just royalty (Brockett, O. G., Ball, R. J., Fleming, J., & Carlson, A., p. 120). -
Italian "Intermezzi"
An "intermezzi" is the entertainment between scenes or acts. These were just small performances like songs, dances, and more. By 1600 these became very popular. Later these actually inspired the English "masques" (Brockett, O. G., Ball, R. J., Fleming, J., & Carlson, A., p. 119). -
The Building of Teatro Farnese
The Teatro Farnese is the oldest surviving theatre with a permanent proscenium arch. This type of stage is also called the "picture frame stage". To this day this type of stage is the most commonly used. This type of stage made it easier to see the scenes and the full picture (Brockett, O. G., Ball, R. J., Fleming, J., & Carlson, A., p. 117). -
Opera Becoming Public
An opera house in Venice made what was once only available to a select few people who were royalty or had a name for themselves, available to the general public. This ended up being very successful and there ended up being three more public opera houses in Venice, which was a huge deal (Brockett, O. G., Ball, R. J., Fleming, J., & Carlson, A., p. 119). -
"Manual for Constructing Theatrical Scenes and Machines"
The "Manual for constructing theatrical scenes and machines" was published by Nicola Sabbattini. He described how lighting worked and how to dim the stage lights and move them around. He also covered how the wings were moved in and out and how they changed the scenery. He really just talked about stage machinery (Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., "Nicola Sabbatini"). -
The Death of Italian Theatre
By 1750, Italian theatre started to become less popular and theatre started to become more popular in places like France and England. Opera in Italy remained pretty popular, but the rest started to die off and by 1800, it was dead. This picture shows an old theatre that has fallen apart over the years representing the death of Italian theatre. -
Death of "Commedia"
"Commedia" was a comedic and fairytale-like form of theatre that was performed for over two hundred years prior to its downfall. This form of theatre became out of date after so long and some found it to be too predictable and the eighteenth century was more refined and found the humor too unrefined for their taste. "Commedia" would later come to resurface in the twentieth century, but until then it would no longer be practiced (Brockett, O. G., Ball, R. J., Fleming, J., & Carlson, A., p. 123).