Goldoni (English spelling) Carlo Goldoni

Italian playwright. He rejected the stereotypical characters of the traditional commedia dell'arte (masked improvisational comedy), broke away from vulgar farce, and offered character comedies based on the 18th century rational spirit and civic reality, contributing to the innovation of theater. Born in Venice on February 25th. He studied law at the University of Padua in 1731 and became a lawyer, devoting himself to playwriting while traveling around Italy. In 1748 he left the legal profession and became a resident playwright for the Medevac Theater and then the San Luca Theater, where he rapidly put on stage masterpieces in both common and Venetian dialect. His representative works include "The Two Masters at Once" (1745), "The Coffee House" (1750), "The Innkeeper" (1753), "The Piazza" (1756), "The Countryman" (1760), "The Riot at Chioggia" (1762), and "The Fan" (1763), and various productions of these works are still performed today.

His works take equality as a given, satirizing the military, courts, and aristocracy, while at the same time sympathizing with the feelings of ordinary people in their daily lives, and defending women's rights and the work of farmers and fishermen. As a result, he was politically oppressed by conservative groups, and artistically rejected, particularly by playwrights Chiari and Carlo Gozzi. In 1762, he reluctantly moved to France at the invitation of the "Italian Theatre" in Paris. From 1764 onwards, he taught Italian to the children of the royal family at the Palace of Versailles, but retreated to Paris due to the French Revolution, and died there on January 6th or 7th, 1793. His French-language "Memoirs: My Life and Theatre" is considered a valuable document in the history of Western European theatre.

[Masami Satoi]

"The Goldoni Theatre" edited and translated by Minoru Tanokura (1983, Miraisha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イタリアの劇作家。在来の仮面即興喜劇（コメディア・デラルテ）の類型的人物を排して、卑俗な茶番劇を脱し、18世紀の合理的精神と市民的リアリティに基づく性格喜劇を提供し、演劇の革新に貢献した。2月25日ベネチアに生まれる。1731年パドバ大学で法律を修めて弁護士となり、イタリア各地を遍歴するかたわら劇作に精進する。48年法曹界を離れ、メデバック劇団、続いてサン・ルカ劇場の座付作者となり、共通語およびベネチア方言による傑作を矢つぎばやに舞台にのせた。代表作に『二人の主人を一度にもつと』（1745）、『コーヒー店』（1750）、『宿屋の女主人』（1753）、『広場』（1756）、『田舎者(いなかもの)』（1760）、『キオッジャ騒動』（1762）、『扇』（1763）があり、現在もさまざまな演出により上演されている。

　作品は平等を自明の理として、軍隊、法廷、貴族に対する風刺、対照的に女性の権利や農民、漁民の仕事の擁護など庶民の生活感情に共感を示す。このため保守層から政治的圧迫を、とくに劇作家のキアーリやカルロ・ゴッツィからは芸術的にも排撃され、1762年にはパリの「イタリア劇団」の招きに応じて不本意ながらフランスへ移住。64年以降ベルサイユ宮で王室子女のイタリア語教授を担当するが、フランス革命のためパリに退き、93年1月6日または7日、同地で没。フランス語による『回想録――わが生涯と演劇』は西欧演劇史上貴重な文献とされる。

［里居正美］

『田之倉稔編訳『ゴルドーニ劇場』（1983・未来社）』

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