For a long time I thought about making videos of Italian literature. Italian literature is an extremely vast subject, like the literature of any people and any country. It is not a subject that I am extremely expert on, but I am extremely passionate about it and therefore I would like to share with you a series of literature videos, videos that talk about the authors, moments or most important works in the history of Italian literature. This first video will talk about Carlo Goldoni. It is a video that talks about literature, but it will certainly be an excellent exercise for you to practice listening to Italian. Why did I choose Carlo Goldoni? I chose him because he had a huge impact on the history of literature and especially of Italian theater. Anyone who knows my story a little knows that theater is a very important part of my life and it is no coincidence that I chose Carlo Goldoni to start this series of videos. Carlo Goldoni is a writer and playwright who lived in the 17th century; was born precisely in 1707 in Venice and that was a very particular era because in that period Venice was the fulcrum, the heart, of cultural activity, not only Italian but European. It was the center of all the cultural development of the time and it was a city with a very high number of theaters, so it was an extremely important city from this point of view and Goldoni lived in this city in this very special era. Goldoni went down in the history of literature and theater precisely because of his great reform, a great reform of the theater that we will see together now. Carlo Goldoni initially did not have a theatrical training; in fact he never had a theatrical training. He was a lawyer, he graduated in law and practiced the profession of lawyer for several years, especially in periods of greatest economic difficulty . We talked about a reform that he introduced into the theater; let's see what the situation and the theatrical reality was before Goldoni's reform. Before its reform, what is called "Commedia dell'Arte" was in force. The Commedia dell'Arte is a way of doing theater, a way of making a show with particular characteristics. First of all, the scene and the show were entrusted to the skill and improvisation of the actors. Exactly, the actors improvised because there was no script, there was no document with all the lines for each character; that will be inserted by Goldoni later. The actors had a plot (thus an approximate document of the context and history they had to improvise). But how did they improvise? They actually had points of reference because their characters were stereotypical characters, so each character that the actors played had personality characteristics, character, movement and there was also a repertoire of lines to use for each character. The second feature was that the actors wore masks; there were numerous masks (among the most famous we can mention Arlecchino, Pulcinella, Colombina, Pantalone): they are still very famous masks in the carnival. Each of these masks therefore had a dedicated repertoire of jokes and also particular characteristics. For example, if an actor wore the Harlequin mask, he had a repertoire of lines typical of Harlequin and could use those: Harlequin also had a particular way of moving, particular jokes and stereotyped characteristics of his character and personality, he was a very funny, bizarre but always hungry person. Colombina was a servant figure like Arlecchino and she had characteristics such as cunning, vivacity. Pantalone, on the other hand, was a rich, miserly and grumpy gentleman ; he always complained. So we talked about these stereotypical characters, who repeated the lines, the movements; often they were also very predictable by the audience but the audience loved these scenes which very often were exaggerated; they were far from realistic. Over the years, however, these scenes became repetitive, because the repertoire was always the same, and in this reality Goldoni understood how necessary it was to insert a reform. In the thirties of the 1700s Gottoni wrote his first theatrical comedy, the Belisario, which was very much liked by the manager Giuseppe Imer, who asked Carlo to write theatrical texts for the San Samuele theater in Venice. Here he wrote his first works and began to gradually implement his reform; gradually because it is not possible to overturn a way of doing theater from day to night, it is important to proceed gradually to accustom, not only the actors, but also the public to a new form of art. What are the first things Goldoni did during his time at San Samuele. Earlier we said that the scene was entrusted to the improvisation of the actors. Goldoni begins to insert the characters' lines; initially he inserts only the line of the main character, as for example in the Momolo cortesan (which was another of his first works) up to the work "La donna di garbo" which is the first entirely written work. In this work, La donna di garbo, all the characters have precise lines to learn by heart: there is a written text, the script, complete. Among the main works of this period at the San Samuele we obviously find the Belisario, which was the work that started his theatrical career; in this period we also find the work the Momolo cortesan which I mentioned earlier as a work in which Goldoni has inserted the lines written for the main character. The first part of Goldoni 's reform is therefore the replacement of the approximate plot with an entirely written script , the lines written entirely for all the characters (as happens today, because the actors learn by heart the lines that are part of a script). Between the end of the forties and the beginning of the fifties of the 1700s Carlo Goldoni began working for another Venetian theater, the Sant'Angelo theater and it was here that he added another piece of his reform, what is called the Comedy of Character. . The Comedy of Character will completely replace the Commedia dell'Arte. Goldoni has decided, not only to introduce an entirely written script, but has also decided to eliminate the masks from the theater, to eliminate this component that had been so important during the commedia dell'arte, because according to Goldoni there are an infinity of personalities, of characters; human beings are all different and it is right to leave room for the personality, emotions, ambitions, characteristics of each individual person. The masks were therefore a prison for all of this because they had stereotyped and fixed characteristics and personalities. With the introduction of the Comedy of Character the characters no longer wore masks; each character had his own personality, his own emotions, characteristics different from any other character and also his own psychology, his own dramas and his own problems. This is a great reform and it is in this period that Carlo Goldoni writes his most famous, most recognized work, which is "The Innkeeper", where masks are completely absent. In the next video we will talk in detail about this work that talks about an innkeeper, that is the owner of an inn, very smart, very lively and very reminiscent of Colombina's mask , but does not wear any mask. This innkeeper enjoys making guests fall in love with her inn, but we'll see this story in detail in the next video. Among the main works of this period at the Sant'Angelo theater we obviously mention "The innkeeper" and another work is "The comic theater". This is a great example of theater in the theater, it means that it is a theatrical performance that represents a theatrical performance, therefore it is theater within the theater, where you see the actors struggling with this new form of theater in which they must have their own personality they have to memorize the lines and therefore it is a theatrical performance that represents a new vision of theater, a new way of doing theater. Carlo Goldoni's third period, in the 1950s and 1960s, takes place at the San Luca theater, another Venetian theater and it is here that his reform continues. From the Comedy of Character he develops the Commedia di Ambiente, that comedy that had already begun in some works but which here reaches its apex, reaches the highest point: here the scenes and characters were dropped in a real life, there was a lot of realism within his works, the audience could see real-life scenes that also took place outside the theater. The plots, that is the stories of the shows, concerned the social context of that time and were set in places of real life such as squares, living rooms, shops and so on. An example of a work that is part of this period is "I rusteghi", a comedy that speaks of four rusteghi, who are four men, who are very attached to the values of their generation, to the values of work, of the family and that instead they contrast their wives and children who instead have slightly more libertine ideas, fight for new freedoms, and therefore have somewhat different ideas. There is therefore this clash between these two different factions and Goldoni's work is a critique of the upper middle class, represented by the rusteghi, because they are characters who are too tied to ancient values, are obtuse, conservative and therefore people with which is difficult to reason and speak many times. Goldoni lived the last part of his life in Paris, where he tried to introduce this new form of making comedy, this new Commedia d'Ambiente, but he was not very successful. The public was still very attached to the old Commedia dell'Arte. In Paris he wrote the Memoires, an autobiographical book where he contains all his memories and it is here that he died in poverty. To close this video let's now see the language used by Goldoni. Goldoni wrote works entirely in Venetian, entirely in Italian and also in Tuscan, because he lived part of his life in Tuscany. One of the characteristics that differentiates Carlo Goldoni from the authors of the Commedia dell'Arte is monolingualism. During the Commedia dell'Arte the masks represented characters from different parts of Italy at that time and therefore also spoke completely different dialects, often incomprehensible to each other. Therefore, not only the words, which very often were incomprehensible, communicated , but also the movements, the verses and therefore the onomatopoeias and so on. Goldoni, on the other hand, has inherent monolingualism, so the works were always written in Venetian or Italian; he used an average Italian who could be understood among people from different regions to ensure therefore an understanding for everyone but also to guarantee the success of his shows in several areas of Italy. To summarize Goldoni's reform, we said that Goldoni first of all inserts the script (the text written in full with all the lines for all the characters), eliminates the masks and gives each character a personality, a psychology, particular characteristics. that differentiate it from all the others. He places his works in a real environment , he represented scenes of daily life that the public could see and experience even outside the stage. Of course, as with all reforms, it also encounters numerous obstacles. First of all the actors: the actors were professional actors, used to improvise on the basis of stereotyped and fixed characters, and therefore many actors had a hard time adapting to this new form of theater. Another obstacle was the public, the public was used to these surreal, exaggerated and sometimes even vulgar scenes, was fond of the Commedia dell'Arte, for this reason Goldoni had to gradually insert the parts of his reform. Another difficulty encountered by Goldoni, despite his great success, was the economic difficulty because, for many managers who asked Goldoni to work for them, earnings were more important, money was more important than entertainment, than making art. than to entertain the public and this was an idea that Goldoni had a hard time accepting. Ultimately Goldoni stages a new way of doing theater, stages not only the crisis of the nobility but also the real life of the bourgeoisie, often in a funny way, in a comical way but almost always with a happy ending. This video was about the life and works of a very important character in the world of Italian literature and theater. I hope it has been interesting for you to get to know this character or deepen his knowledge and I also hope it has been a good or an excellent exercise in understanding Italian for you. In the next literature video we will talk about Carlo Goldoni's most important work which is The Innkeeper. See you in the next video.