Dramaturg Carlo Goldoni: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Carlo Goldoni is an illustrious Venetian librettist and playwright of the 18th century. One of the recognized world classics. In this article we will talk about the biography and work of the famous Italian writer.

Carlo Goldoni: biography

Goldoni was born on February 25, 1707 in Venice in the family of a doctor. His parents dreamed of a legal career for their son, so they forcibly sent the boy to study law. However, Carlo was captivated by the theater since childhood. And when he was sent to study philosophy at the age of 14, he ran away from his teachers and joined a traveling theater troupe. Goldoni did not stay among the artists for long and after 4 years he ended up in a school in Pavia. But he did not stay here for a long time, Carlo was expelled because he wrote a satirical play where he ridiculed his teachers.

In the end, thanks to the efforts of the family, Carlo in 1732 managed to get a doctorate and become a lawyer. However, the future playwright did not practice advocacy for long and spent more time writing. In 1738, the play Momolo cortesan was published, which became the beginning of his dramatic activity. However, the early works of the writer were notespecially successful.

Drama success

In 1748, Carlo Goldoni, whose work was highly valued by that time, became one of the playwrights of the famous Italian troupe Medebak. Soon the writer, together with the troupe, settles in Venice, which accepts Goldoni with enthusiasm. Here he lives until 1762, continuing to improve his writing talent. This period is considered the most fruitful for Carlo. In 1750 alone, he manages to create 16 comedies, among which were such well-known ones as The Antiquary's Family, The Coffee House, The Liar, The Woman's Gossip.

In 1756, Carlo Goldoni moved to another troupe and until 1762 wrote 60 more comedies for her, among them - "The Innkeeper", La Villegiatura, Baruffe Chiozzote. Most of the plays of this period are devoted to the depiction of Venetian life. The playwright managed to do this masterfully, and it is these plays that can still be seen on the stage.

Life in Paris

By 1762, Goldoni realized that the native Venetian public began to give preference to Gozzi's fantastic plays. Not wanting to see his fame fade away, Carlo Goldoni moved to Paris. Before leaving, he wrote one of his most beautiful comedies - Una della ultime sere del Carnevale. This play has become a kind of farewell to his native Venice.

In Paris, the playwright lived for the next 30 years. In France, the writer continued to practice his favorite craft. One of the best has been written here.comedies by the playwright Le bourru bienfaisant. In Versailles on February 6, 1793, at the age of 85, Goldoni died.

Already in his old age, he wrote his memoirs, which became the brightest example of the literary and theatrical world. The last years of his life the great playwright lived in need. He had to give Italian lessons in order to somehow hold out. Despite the fact that the convention gave him a pension, the writer died before he began to receive it.

Innovation by Carlo Goldoni

Photos of paintings depicting the playwright and a monument dedicated to the creator can be seen in this article. Goldonni is a renowned dramatic innovator and reformer. For a long time, Italian theater was represented only by a comedy of masks based on improvisation. By the middle of the 18th century, it was completely outdated, but the attempts that were made to diversify it were clearly not enough.

Only Goldoni managed to change the situation. The playwright went to his goal gradually. His first play, Momolo cortesan, was partly scripted. And by 1750, Goldoni finally departed from the old screenwriting technique. However, the playwright did not dare to completely forget about the comedy of improvisations, so he left the masks most popular and most beloved by the Italian audience: Doctor, Pantalone, Brighella, Harlequin, Colombina, etc. However, all these images were carefully reworked by the writer, and their characters changed.

Changing mask characters

Carlo Goldoni's satire was not as severe as in the classic comedy of masks, whichaffected the characters. The doctor, previously described as a drunkard and talker, became a respectable family man. Brigella, a former swindler and rogue, appears in Goldoni as a tavern owner or a majordomo.

The moralizing nature of the writer's plays in the mask of Pantalone was especially clearly manifested. Previously, the hero was portrayed as a mean, funny and lustful old man. Now Pantalone has changed and become an elderly respectable merchant, the bearer of the best qualities of the Venetian bourgeoisie. He becomes the mouthpiece of democratic ideas, instructs the aristocrats. Says that all people have the same rights.

The bourgeoisie in Italy, propagating their ideals among the people in those years, found in the works of Goldoni both affectionate teaching and encouraging praise. The playwright actively promoted the idea that the bourgeoisie is higher than the degraded nobility in moral and spiritual terms. Such an ideological orientation made the writer's work even more popular among the population.

Afterword

Thus, is the creator of the classic Italian bourgeois drama Carlo Goldoni. The brief biography of the writer presented above testifies to the writer's incredible devotion to his craft. Despite the protests of his family, he became a playwright and became famous as an innovator. Pan-European fame Goldoni owes his desire for realism and truthful depiction of life, which was rare in his time. It is no coincidence that Voltaire called the playwright "a painter of nature." Goldoni is very loved at home. In Italy, inincluding Venice, several monuments were erected to the playwright.