WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:06.019 opening up a file that at first glance looks 00:00:06.019 --> 00:00:08.640 like a pretty standard biography of an 18th century 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.779 playwright. Right. But once you start reading 00:00:10.779 --> 00:00:13.300 the source material, you realize we are actually 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:17.780 looking at the blueprint for a cultural revolution. 00:00:18.179 --> 00:00:21.140 It's so much more than just one man's life story. 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:25.100 Exactly. We are heading to the canals, the piazzas, 00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:28.239 and the bustling, chaotic theaters of Venice 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:31.620 to talk about Carlo Azzaldo Goldoni. It is a 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:33.920 massive story. And Goldoni is such a fascinating 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:36.439 figure because he didn't just write plays. He, 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:39.399 I mean, he fundamentally rewired how an entire 00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:41.899 nation understood comedy. That's a huge claim. 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:44.240 It is, but it's true. You often hear him referred 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:46.179 to as the Italian Moliere, although, and we'll 00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:47.820 get into this, he was actually quite humble about 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:49.659 that comparison. Oh, I'm sure. I mean, Moliere 00:00:49.659 --> 00:00:51.740 is, that's a high bar. It's the highest bar. 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:54.380 But the title itself really hints at the scale 00:00:54.380 --> 00:00:56.659 of his impact. He is, and I don't think this 00:00:56.659 --> 00:00:58.700 is an exaggeration, the architect of Italian 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:00.899 comedy as we know it today. And when you use 00:01:00.899 --> 00:01:03.140 a word like architect, it implies he had to build 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:06.150 something from the ground up. Or maybe that he 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:07.829 had to bulldoze something that was already there. 00:01:08.269 --> 00:01:10.170 Precisely. That's a perfect way to put it. I 00:01:10.170 --> 00:01:12.290 mean, if we set the scene, we are in the Republic 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:15.430 of Venice in the early 1700s. It's a time of 00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:18.230 decadence, of carnival, of masks. The Venice 00:01:18.230 --> 00:01:21.010 we all picture. Exactly. And the dominant form 00:01:21.010 --> 00:01:23.170 of entertainment was something called commedia 00:01:23.170 --> 00:01:24.750 dell 'arte. And we're going to spend a lot of 00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:28.530 time unpacking that. But in short, it was improvised. 00:01:28.530 --> 00:01:31.950 It was raucous. It relied on stock characters 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:34.700 and slapstick. So not exactly highbrow literature. 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:36.799 Not at all. It was brilliant in its own way, 00:01:36.859 --> 00:01:38.939 don't get me wrong. But by the time Goldoni came 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:42.420 along, it had become, well, often vulgar, repetitive, 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:46.379 and just plain chaotic. Goldoni looked at this 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:48.439 creative mess and decided he wanted to discipline 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:50.939 it. He wanted to take that raw energy and channel 00:01:50.939 --> 00:01:53.379 it into scripted, character -driven works that 00:01:53.379 --> 00:01:56.359 reflected real life. And that is the mission 00:01:56.359 --> 00:01:59.939 we are exploring today. How one man took the 00:01:59.939 --> 00:02:02.579 masks off the actors to show the real human faces 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:05.200 underneath. But what I love about this story 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:07.620 and what really jumped out from the sources is 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:10.659 that Goldoni's own life was arguably more dramatic 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:13.099 than anything he ever put on stage. It really, 00:02:13.139 --> 00:02:15.219 really was. The man lived about five different 00:02:15.219 --> 00:02:17.560 lives. I mean, looking at the source material, 00:02:17.659 --> 00:02:19.560 which is primarily his own memoirs, so we'll 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:21.340 have to take that with a grain of salt, and historical 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:24.539 records, we have everything. We have expulsion 00:02:24.539 --> 00:02:27.719 from school for writing a libelous poem. A classic. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:29.860 We have him burning his own manuscripts in a 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:32.960 fireplace in a fit of absolute rage. We have 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.419 a bitter citywide rivalry that essentially drives 00:02:36.419 --> 00:02:39.530 him into self -exile. And then just to cap it 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:42.509 all off, a truly tragic ending amidst the chaos 00:02:42.509 --> 00:02:45.610 of the French Revolution. It's an incredible 00:02:45.610 --> 00:02:48.069 arc. It is. It's a life of constant reinvention. 00:02:48.210 --> 00:02:50.129 He was a lawyer who didn't want to be a lawyer, 00:02:50.229 --> 00:02:52.090 a diplomat who wanted to be a playwright, and 00:02:52.090 --> 00:02:54.289 a revolutionary who was actually quite conservative 00:02:54.289 --> 00:02:57.050 in his personal values, a man of contradictions. 00:02:57.270 --> 00:02:59.789 So let's unpack this life, starting from the 00:02:59.789 --> 00:03:02.530 very beginning, or I guess what Goldoni claims 00:03:02.530 --> 00:03:05.050 was the beginning, because we have a bit of an 00:03:05.050 --> 00:03:07.689 unreliable narrator. situation here don't we 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:09.969 we certainly do this is one of the most interesting 00:03:09.969 --> 00:03:12.669 things about him much of what we know about goldoni's 00:03:12.669 --> 00:03:15.930 early life comes from his autobiography his memoirs 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:19.150 which he wrote late in life in french right and 00:03:19.150 --> 00:03:21.050 by that point he's had a lifetime to craft his 00:03:21.050 --> 00:03:24.370 own myth exactly and goldoni true to his profession 00:03:24.370 --> 00:03:27.610 was a storyteller first and a historian a distant 00:03:27.610 --> 00:03:30.490 second he paints this picture of himself as a 00:03:30.490 --> 00:03:33.590 born comedian in his own words he describes himself 00:03:33.590 --> 00:03:36.939 as careless light -hearted and resilient against 00:03:36.939 --> 00:03:39.960 fate. So he wants us to see him as this charming, 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:42.780 happy -go -lucky figure who was just destined 00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:45.520 for this stage from the moment he was born. That's 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:47.759 the narrative. But when you dig into the actual 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.280 records, the public documents, the facts don't 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:51.979 always line up with the story he tells about 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:54.560 himself. So where does this story start to fray? 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:56.960 What's the first big discrepancy? Well, it starts 00:03:56.960 --> 00:03:58.900 with something small but telling. For example, 00:03:58.979 --> 00:04:01.539 in his memoirs, he claims his father, Giulio 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:05.129 Goldoni, was a physician. Okay, a doctor. Respectable 00:04:05.129 --> 00:04:07.550 profession. Very respectable. Physician sounds 00:04:07.550 --> 00:04:10.610 prestigious, university educated, but historical 00:04:10.610 --> 00:04:14.990 sources, parish records and the like, they suggest 00:04:14.990 --> 00:04:17.629 Giulio was actually an apothecary. Basically 00:04:17.629 --> 00:04:20.519 a pharmacist. Right. Still a skilled and necessary 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:23.120 trade, but it doesn't carry quite the same status 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:26.199 as a physician in 18th century Italy. So he's 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:28.019 polishing the family crest a little bit, you 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:30.759 know. A resume enhancement. A little bit. But 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:33.579 the biggest fact check moment, the one that really 00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:35.920 makes you question everything else, comes with 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:39.500 his grandfather, Carlo Alessandro Goldoni. Ah, 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:43.019 his namesake. The very same. In the memoirs, 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:45.600 Goldoni writes this incredibly touching, formative 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:47.439 narrative about how his grandfather introduced 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:50.079 him to the theater. He describes his grandfather 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.079 building a little puppet theater in the house, 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:54.879 putting on plays, and how he sparked that initial 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.899 flame of passion for the stage. Which is a beautiful 00:04:57.899 --> 00:05:00.459 origin story. It gives him this artistic lineage. 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:03.639 It makes his destiny seem preordained. It is 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:05.560 beautiful. It's a perfect opening act for his 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.860 life. It's also completely impossible. grandfather 00:05:08.860 --> 00:05:11.920 died four years before Carlo was even born. Get 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.529 out of here. Really? The records are clear. The 00:05:14.529 --> 00:05:17.029 man was dead. Okay, so he's literally writing 00:05:17.029 --> 00:05:19.410 a character into his own backstory to make it 00:05:19.410 --> 00:05:21.810 more compelling. That's a very playwright thing 00:05:21.810 --> 00:05:24.529 to do. Exactly. And I think that tells us something 00:05:24.529 --> 00:05:27.350 profound about Goldoni. He wasn't just documenting 00:05:27.350 --> 00:05:30.209 his life. He was crafting a narrative. He was 00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:32.990 a dramatist through and through. He understood 00:05:32.990 --> 00:05:35.790 that a hero needs an origin story, so he gave 00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:38.410 himself one. And it also tells you he had a bit 00:05:38.410 --> 00:05:40.420 of an ego. To put himself at the center of a 00:05:40.420 --> 00:05:42.540 story that starts before he's even born. Oh, 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:45.420 absolutely. But even if the grandfather story 00:05:45.420 --> 00:05:48.480 is complete fabrication, the obsession with theater 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:51.560 itself was very, very real. The sources are clear 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:53.720 on that. Even his parents couldn't stop it. Right. 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:55.980 The sources mentioned that while they tried to 00:05:55.980 --> 00:05:58.439 steer him toward more serious pursuits, law, 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:01.750 medicine, what have you. His toys were puppets 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:04.110 and his books were plays. He was just completely 00:06:04.110 --> 00:06:06.689 consumed by it. And that obsession led to some 00:06:06.689 --> 00:06:09.810 very rebellious behavior early on. We absolutely 00:06:09.810 --> 00:06:12.410 have to talk about the Rimini incident. Please. 00:06:13.050 --> 00:06:14.490 This sounds like something out of a coming -of 00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:16.949 -age movie. It really does. So he's a teenager, 00:06:17.149 --> 00:06:20.990 maybe 13 or 14. His father, trying to give him 00:06:20.990 --> 00:06:23.629 a solid education, places him under the care 00:06:23.629 --> 00:06:26.189 of a philosopher named Caldini in the city of 00:06:26.189 --> 00:06:28.189 Rimini. A philosopher. Okay, so we're talking 00:06:28.189 --> 00:06:31.209 logic, rhetoric. The serious stuff. The idea 00:06:31.209 --> 00:06:33.350 is to give him a grounded, respectable education. 00:06:33.910 --> 00:06:37.209 But Goldoni, he's bored out of his mind. He's 00:06:37.209 --> 00:06:40.970 restless. He finds the philosophy dry and just... 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:45.019 Life draining. And then a company of strolling 00:06:45.019 --> 00:06:47.339 players, essentially a traveling theater troupe, 00:06:47.339 --> 00:06:48.980 comes through town. And he runs away to join 00:06:48.980 --> 00:06:52.300 the circus. Effectively, yes. He completely abandons 00:06:52.300 --> 00:06:54.439 his studies with the philosopher, finds the acting 00:06:54.439 --> 00:06:56.399 troupe, and hops on their boat to get back to 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.220 his mother in Kyutsu. It's this magnetic pull 00:06:59.220 --> 00:07:01.459 of the stage. He just couldn't stay away. Imagine 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:03.800 the scene. A young boy supposed to be studying 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.579 Aristotle, instead floating down the Adriatic 00:07:06.579 --> 00:07:08.860 coast with a bunch of probably very loud and 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:11.399 rowdy actors. It's the first great act of rebellion 00:07:11.399 --> 00:07:14.339 in a life full of them. But his father didn't 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:16.300 give up on the whole serious education plan. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:21.319 Not by a long shot. In 1723, he manages to get 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:24.899 Carlo into the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia. And 00:07:24.899 --> 00:07:28.060 this place sounds intense. What was it like? 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:30.740 Intense is the right word. It was a stern, almost 00:07:30.740 --> 00:07:33.980 monastic institution. They imposed the tonsure 00:07:33.980 --> 00:07:36.560 on students, meaning they had to shave the crowns 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:38.759 of their heads like monks, and they were required 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.540 to wear monastic habits. Wow. So it was basically 00:07:41.540 --> 00:07:44.180 a religious boarding school meant to beat the 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:45.879 worldliness out of you. It was a place designed 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.120 to suppress worldly distractions and enforce 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:51.360 strict discipline, which, knowing Goldoni, seems 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:54.100 like a recipe for absolute disaster. Total mismatch. 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:56.019 You're trying to contain a firecracker. A total 00:07:56.019 --> 00:07:58.170 mismatch. And Goldoni relates in - his memoirs 00:07:58.170 --> 00:08:00.689 that instead of studying theology or law as intended, 00:08:00.930 --> 00:08:03.470 he spent a considerable part of his time hiding 00:08:03.470 --> 00:08:06.209 in his room, devouring Greek and Latin comedies. 00:08:06.209 --> 00:08:08.670 He was physically in a monastery, but mentally 00:08:08.670 --> 00:08:11.209 he was in the Roman Colosseum watching Plautus. 00:08:11.329 --> 00:08:13.730 He was studying. Just not the curriculum they 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:16.430 designed. He was analyzing plot structures while 00:08:16.430 --> 00:08:19.069 everyone else was praying. Exactly. And this 00:08:19.069 --> 00:08:20.870 all comes to a head with the great scandal of 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:23.850 1725. This is the moment that gets him kicked 00:08:23.850 --> 00:08:26.029 out for good. This is the Colosso incident, right? 00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:29.269 This is the infamous Colosso incident. So in 00:08:29.269 --> 00:08:31.389 his third year at the college, Goldoni decides 00:08:31.389 --> 00:08:34.570 to flex his writing muscles. But he doesn't write 00:08:34.570 --> 00:08:37.929 a hymn or a legal brief. He writes a satirical, 00:08:37.990 --> 00:08:41.620 libelous poem called Il Colosso. And who was 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:44.600 the target of this satire? This is where he really 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:47.100 messes up. The targets were the daughters of 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:49.500 specific, prominent local families in Pavia. 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:53.460 He ridiculed them. He used all his wit and cleverness 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:55.639 to mock their social standing, their behaviors, 00:08:55.820 --> 00:08:58.899 maybe even their looks. Oof. In a strict religious 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:01.240 boarding school environment, attacking the daughters 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:04.240 of the local elite families is... that's bold. 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:06.539 It was incredibly foolish. You have to remember, 00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:08.639 these were powerful families. You just didn't 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:11.889 do that. Now, there's also an alternative or 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:14.350 perhaps additional theory mentioned in some sources 00:09:14.350 --> 00:09:17.090 that suggests the expulsion wasn't just about 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:20.070 the poem. There's more to this story. There might 00:09:20.070 --> 00:09:22.710 be. There's a mention of a visit to a local brothel 00:09:22.710 --> 00:09:24.889 with some of his schoolmates. So it might have 00:09:24.889 --> 00:09:28.669 been a combination of literary rebellion and 00:09:28.669 --> 00:09:31.210 good old fashioned moral transgression. It was 00:09:31.210 --> 00:09:33.690 likely both. The poem was the public offense. 00:09:33.909 --> 00:09:35.690 The other stuff might have been the final straw. 00:09:36.009 --> 00:09:38.710 Whatever the exact cause, the result was decisive. 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:41.629 He was expelled from the Collegio Ghislieri and 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:44.789 forced to leave the city of Pavia entirely. It 00:09:44.789 --> 00:09:48.090 was a humiliating exit. He was, for all intents 00:09:48.090 --> 00:09:50.750 and purposes, run out of town on a rail. So he's 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:52.750 kicked out of school. He's run away from a philosopher. 00:09:53.129 --> 00:09:54.889 At this point, you'd think he would just commit 00:09:54.889 --> 00:09:57.210 to the theater full time. But he doesn't, does 00:09:57.210 --> 00:09:59.570 he? He pivots again. He does. And this begins 00:09:59.570 --> 00:10:01.710 the phase of his life we can call the reluctant 00:10:01.710 --> 00:10:04.629 lawyer. Despite everything, he goes back to his 00:10:04.629 --> 00:10:07.309 studies. He feels the pressure of social expectation, 00:10:07.750 --> 00:10:10.929 of his family. He studies law at Udun and eventually 00:10:10.929 --> 00:10:12.909 manages to take his degree at the University 00:10:12.909 --> 00:10:15.330 of Modena. And he wasn't just a student. He actually 00:10:15.330 --> 00:10:18.710 practiced law. He got a job. He did. And he was 00:10:18.710 --> 00:10:21.210 successful at it. He worked as a law clerk in 00:10:21.210 --> 00:10:24.220 Kyoja and Felcher. He held what the sources call 00:10:24.220 --> 00:10:27.059 lucrative positions as a secretary and counselor. 00:10:27.299 --> 00:10:29.840 By all accounts, he had settled down. He was 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.240 building a respectable bourgeois life for himself, 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:34.779 the kind of life his father always wanted for 00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:37.539 him. But the universe, or maybe just his own 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:40.480 restless nature, kept pulling him back. It's 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.620 the classic tension, isn't it? The civility and 00:10:42.620 --> 00:10:44.820 respectability of the law versus the passion 00:10:44.820 --> 00:10:48.159 and chaos of the stage. An unexpected summons 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:50.080 to Venice eventually pulled him back into the 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:52.399 orbit of the theater for good. But before that, 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:54.360 we have to touch on his romantic life because 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:56.679 that was just as chaotic as his academic one. 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:59.820 The outline mentions an unwanted marriage in 00:10:59.820 --> 00:11:02.879 1732. What happened there? Yes. So shortly after 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:05.700 his father died in 1731, Goldoni found himself, 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:07.799 let's say, cornered into a marriage proposal 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:09.879 he really did not want. An arranged marriage 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:13.139 situation. It seems like it. And in true Goldoni 00:11:13.139 --> 00:11:15.740 fashion, he didn't just say no or have a difficult 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:18.600 adult conversation. He fled. He literally left 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:20.059 the town in the middle of the night, escaped 00:11:20.059 --> 00:11:23.000 to Milan, and then on to Verona. He really deals 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.519 with conflict by running away, doesn't he? Runs 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:28.320 away from Rimini, gets kicked out of Pavia, flees 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:31.309 a marriage. Avoidance was definitely a key strategy 00:11:31.309 --> 00:11:33.929 for him in his youth. But that flight to Verona 00:11:33.929 --> 00:11:36.429 turned out to be pivotal because there he met 00:11:36.429 --> 00:11:39.610 a man named Giuseppe Eimer, who was a prominent 00:11:39.610 --> 00:11:41.950 theater manager. And Eimer sees his potential. 00:11:42.210 --> 00:11:45.169 He sees something in Goldoni, the wit, the charm, 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:48.149 the knowledge of plays. He helps him become a 00:11:48.149 --> 00:11:50.370 comical poet for his troupe and perhaps most 00:11:50.370 --> 00:11:52.929 importantly, introduces him to a young woman 00:11:52.929 --> 00:11:56.110 from Genoa named Nicoletta Conio. Who would become 00:11:56.110 --> 00:12:00.470 his wife. Yes. Unlike his previous romantic entanglements, 00:12:00.570 --> 00:12:03.269 this one stuck. They returned to Venice together 00:12:03.269 --> 00:12:05.710 and she became a constant stabilizing partner 00:12:05.710 --> 00:12:09.129 in his very unstable life. She provided the anchor 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:12.139 he needed. But professionally, Goldoni was about 00:12:12.139 --> 00:12:14.159 to face one of his biggest and most dramatic 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:16.360 humiliations. We are talking about the tragedy 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:18.799 of Amala Sunta. The infamous Amala Sunta. So 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:20.879 Goldoni wanted to make a big splash in the Milan 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:23.620 theater scene. He decided to write a tragedy, 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:27.220 a serious, grand musical drama. So he's aiming 00:12:27.220 --> 00:12:29.809 for the highest form of art at the time. Exactly. 00:12:29.970 --> 00:12:32.690 He poured his heart into it. He meticulously 00:12:32.690 --> 00:12:36.090 followed all the classical rules, the rules of 00:12:36.090 --> 00:12:38.909 Aristotle and Horace that he'd studied. He thought 00:12:38.909 --> 00:12:41.049 he'd written a structurally perfect masterpiece. 00:12:41.529 --> 00:12:43.710 He submits it to Count Prada, the director of 00:12:43.710 --> 00:12:46.370 the opera in Milan. And what was the feedback? 00:12:47.049 --> 00:12:50.409 It was devastatingly polite, but... absolutely 00:12:50.409 --> 00:12:52.889 brutal. Count Prada sat him down and told him 00:12:52.889 --> 00:12:56.409 essentially, my dear Goldoni, your play is perfect 00:12:56.409 --> 00:12:58.769 according to the ancient Greek and Roman rules, 00:12:59.090 --> 00:13:02.110 but it completely fails the Italian rules. What 00:13:02.110 --> 00:13:04.370 on earth does that mean, the Italian rules? It 00:13:04.370 --> 00:13:06.690 meant that Goldoni had written a play for textbook, 00:13:06.889 --> 00:13:09.830 not for a living breathing stage. Prada explained 00:13:09.830 --> 00:13:12.450 that in Italy, you don't just write a play in 00:13:12.450 --> 00:13:14.690 a vacuum. You have to account for the specific 00:13:14.690 --> 00:13:16.830 actors you have. You have to write for the composer 00:13:16.830 --> 00:13:18.750 who's setting it to music. You have to consider 00:13:18.750 --> 00:13:22.389 the stage. So it's like a director today telling 00:13:22.389 --> 00:13:25.789 a screenwriter, great script, but our star actress 00:13:25.789 --> 00:13:28.149 refuses to say that line. We can't afford that 00:13:28.149 --> 00:13:30.629 explosion. And the composer hates the rhythm 00:13:30.629 --> 00:13:33.289 of that speech. That is the perfect modern analogy. 00:13:33.590 --> 00:13:36.509 The theater was a collaborative, practical, and 00:13:36.509 --> 00:13:39.490 often ego -driven machine, not an abstract literary 00:13:39.490 --> 00:13:42.809 exercise. Goldoni had ignored all the practical 00:13:42.809 --> 00:13:45.169 realities of production. And Goldoni's reaction 00:13:45.169 --> 00:13:47.490 to this critique is one of my favorite details 00:13:47.490 --> 00:13:50.509 in his entire biography. He doesn't argue. He 00:13:50.509 --> 00:13:53.049 doesn't go back and rewrite it. No. His reaction 00:13:53.049 --> 00:13:55.610 is pure theater. He goes back to his inn. He 00:13:55.610 --> 00:13:58.009 orders a fire to be built in the brazier. And 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:00.490 he throws the entire manuscript of Malasanta 00:14:00.490 --> 00:14:02.909 into the flames one page at a time. That is so 00:14:02.909 --> 00:14:05.490 incredibly dramatic. It's theatrical. Even in 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:08.139 his moment of failure, he's a dramatist. But 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:10.919 it was a purging. It was a symbolic act. He realized 00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:14.039 the old way, or rather his purely academic approach, 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:17.159 wasn't going to work. He needed to adapt to the 00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:19.179 real world of the stage. And he did adapt pretty 00:14:19.179 --> 00:14:21.299 quickly. He wrote a play called Bellisario in 00:14:21.299 --> 00:14:24.440 1734, which was a huge hit. It was very successful, 00:14:24.539 --> 00:14:27.440 yes. Though interestingly, Goldoni later claimed 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:29.720 in his memoirs to be ashamed of it. Why, if it 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:31.799 was a hit? I think because it was still playing 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:34.840 by the old rules of melodrama and spectacle, 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:38.019 it was a success with the audience, but perhaps 00:14:38.019 --> 00:14:40.779 it didn't meet the high artistic standards he 00:14:40.779 --> 00:14:43.740 was starting to develop for himself. He was beginning 00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:45.899 to see that he didn't just want to participate 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:49.200 in Italian theater, he wanted to fix it. This 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:51.360 brings us right to the core of our deep dive, 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:54.639 the theatrical revolution. To really understand 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:57.519 what Goldoni did, we have to understand what 00:14:57.519 --> 00:14:59.870 he was fighting against. You mentioned Commedia 00:14:59.870 --> 00:15:02.129 dell 'arte earlier. Let's really break down what 00:15:02.129 --> 00:15:03.990 that was, the status quo he was trying to tear 00:15:03.990 --> 00:15:06.789 down. Okay, so Commedia dell 'arte, which means 00:15:06.789 --> 00:15:09.269 comedy of the artists or comedy of the profession, 00:15:09.509 --> 00:15:12.450 was the dominant form of comedy. It had been 00:15:12.450 --> 00:15:14.669 around since the 16th century. It wasn't based 00:15:14.669 --> 00:15:17.370 on scripts. It was based on canovacci, which 00:15:17.370 --> 00:15:19.549 were basically loose plot outlines. So there 00:15:19.549 --> 00:15:21.850 was no dialogue written down? Very little, if 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:24.669 any. The canovaccio might say, Arlechino enters, 00:15:25.049 --> 00:15:27.590 sees Pantalon's money bag, and devises a plan 00:15:27.590 --> 00:15:30.220 to steal it. And that's it. The actors would 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:32.500 have to improvise the entire scene. Wow. So every 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:34.629 performance was different. Every single night 00:15:34.629 --> 00:15:37.090 was different, and the actors played stock characters. 00:15:37.409 --> 00:15:39.950 These weren't unique individuals, they were archetypes. 00:15:40.110 --> 00:15:44.090 You had Arlecchino, the foolish, acrobatic servant. 00:15:44.269 --> 00:15:47.190 Harlequin, in English. Right. Then you had Pantalone, 00:15:47.549 --> 00:15:50.350 the old, greedy Venetian merchant. Il Dottore, 00:15:50.529 --> 00:15:53.070 the pompous, know -it -all academic from Bologna 00:15:53.070 --> 00:15:55.649 who spouts fake Latin. The boastful soldier, 00:15:55.850 --> 00:15:59.149 Il Capitano. The young lovers, the innamorati, 00:15:59.269 --> 00:16:00.909 who were the only ones who didn't wear masks. 00:16:01.210 --> 00:16:03.740 So if you went to see a show, You knew exactly 00:16:03.740 --> 00:16:05.899 who these characters were before they even opened 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:07.740 their mouths? Just by their costumes and their 00:16:07.740 --> 00:16:10.240 masks? Exactly. And the humor came from their 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:12.240 interactions in a lot of physical comedy called 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:15.559 latsy pre -rehearsed comic bits. An actor playing 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:18.220 Arlecchino might have a famous lasso of the fly 00:16:18.220 --> 00:16:20.320 where he'd spend five minutes trying to swat 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:22.639 a fly. It sounds kind of like a live action cartoon. 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:25.639 That's a great way to think about it. But by 00:16:25.639 --> 00:16:27.980 Goldoni's time, the tradition was getting tired. 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:31.000 The improvisation often descended into repetitive 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:34.480 gags, lazy and vulgar jokes, and the plots were 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:37.659 these incredibly convoluted situations. It was 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.159 what they called a comedy of an intrigue, focused 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:42.679 on ridiculous situations rather than recognizable 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:45.460 human behavior. And Golgoni looked at this and 00:16:45.460 --> 00:16:48.559 thought, what? We can do better. He thought, 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:51.879 this isn't life. His great revolutionary goal 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:55.279 was to supersede the comedy of masks with representations 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:58.500 of actual life and manners. He believed that 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:01.179 Italian life, the real interactions of shopkeepers, 00:17:01.299 --> 00:17:03.539 gondoliers, noblewomen, and servants in Venice, 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:06.559 was worthy of art. He wanted to put a mirror 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:08.779 up to society. He wanted to show real behaviors, 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:11.279 not just these cartoonish caricatures. Precisely. 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:13.680 But he was incredibly smart about it. He knew 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.480 he couldn't just destroy a comedian overnight. 00:17:15.779 --> 00:17:18.019 The audience loved the masks. The actors had 00:17:18.019 --> 00:17:20.519 built their entire careers on them. So he developed 00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:22.779 a kind of hybrid style to ease them into his 00:17:22.779 --> 00:17:24.940 new vision. How did that work? What was the first 00:17:24.940 --> 00:17:27.539 step? He started by taking the stock characters 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:29.700 that everyone knew and loved like Arlecchino 00:17:29.700 --> 00:17:32.119 and Pantalone, but he began writing down their 00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:34.720 lines. He would write out just the main character's 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:37.200 part at first and let the others improvise around 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:39.420 it. So he's slowly introducing the idea of a 00:17:39.420 --> 00:17:42.960 script. He's slowly taking control. Then he started 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:45.930 giving them psychological depth. He'd give Pantalone 00:17:45.930 --> 00:17:48.890 a reason for his greed or Arlecchino a moment 00:17:48.890 --> 00:17:51.769 of cleverness. He forced the actors to memorize 00:17:51.769 --> 00:17:54.069 speeches rather than just making up jokes on 00:17:54.069 --> 00:17:56.089 the fly. That must have been a huge battle with 00:17:56.089 --> 00:17:58.190 the actors. I mean, imagine telling a brilliant 00:17:58.190 --> 00:18:00.789 improv comic that from now on they have to stick 00:18:00.789 --> 00:18:03.230 to a script. It was a massive struggle. The actors 00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:06.210 resisted constantly. They felt constrained. They 00:18:06.210 --> 00:18:07.930 felt he was taking away their creative freedom. 00:18:08.150 --> 00:18:12.210 But Goldoni persisted. And by 1743, with the 00:18:12.210 --> 00:18:15.509 play La Donna di Garbo, The Woman of Grace, he 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.269 had perfected it. This is considered the first 00:18:18.269 --> 00:18:21.349 true Italian comedy of this reformed kind. The 00:18:21.349 --> 00:18:23.450 actors were all speaking his words and the characters 00:18:23.450 --> 00:18:25.750 were three -dimensional people. He had finally 00:18:25.750 --> 00:18:28.069 taken off the masks, metaphorically speaking. 00:18:28.369 --> 00:18:30.609 We keep mentioning Molière. It's clear Goldoni 00:18:30.609 --> 00:18:33.730 saw him as the gold standard. He openly adopted 00:18:33.730 --> 00:18:36.309 him as a model, right? He did. Molière was the 00:18:36.309 --> 00:18:39.400 benchmark for literary comedy in Europe. Goldoni 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:41.400 used to whisper to himself, according to his 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:43.279 memoirs, whenever one of his plays succeeded, 00:18:43.559 --> 00:18:47.200 good, but not yet Moliere. He was constantly 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:49.700 chasing that level of literary respectability 00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:52.440 and psychological insight. But there is a distinction 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:55.019 between them. The sources are careful to point 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:57.259 out that Goldoni wasn't just copying Moliere. 00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:01.119 No, not at all. The expert consensus, and Goldoni's 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:03.759 own work really bears this out, is that Goldoni's 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:07.420 tone was gentler, more... More humane, maybe. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.900 Moliere's comedy can be incredibly biting, cynical, 00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:14.160 sometimes deeply misanthropic. He really exposes 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:16.400 the darkness in human nature. He can be quite 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:19.319 cruel to his characters. He can. Goldoni, on 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:21.799 the other hand, was more optimistic. He genuinely 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:24.019 seemed to like people, even with all their flaws. 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:26.519 He satirized their foolishness, their vanity, 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:28.819 their greed, but he rarely condemned them entirely. 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:31.640 There's a warmth and a fundamental sunniness 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:33.640 in Goldoni that you don't always find in Moliere. 00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:36.079 Let's talk about the work itself, the sheer volume 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:39.339 of it is staggering it is absolutely immense 00:19:39.339 --> 00:19:43.000 we are talking about over 200 works tragedies 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:48.440 tragic comedies comedies and over 50 opera librettos 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.880 not to mention poetry and other writings he was 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:54.680 a machine how is he so prolific well he had to 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.069 be He wasn't a nobleman with a patron. He was 00:19:57.069 --> 00:19:59.089 a professional writer who lived off his pen. 00:19:59.390 --> 00:20:02.210 He worked with different theater managers, first 00:20:02.210 --> 00:20:05.309 Girolamo Medebac in Venice and Livorno, and later 00:20:05.309 --> 00:20:07.769 the powerful Vendraman family who ran the T -Trust 00:20:07.769 --> 00:20:10.470 San Luca. And they demanded new material constantly. 00:20:10.750 --> 00:20:12.670 And he had to churn these plays out to make a 00:20:12.670 --> 00:20:15.089 living. This wasn't a hobby. Not at all. There 00:20:15.089 --> 00:20:18.849 was one famous or infamous season 1750 to 1751 00:20:18.849 --> 00:20:21.430 where he got into a kind of public bet. with 00:20:21.430 --> 00:20:24.250 his audience and promised to deliver 16 new comedies 00:20:24.250 --> 00:20:27.170 in a single year. 16 brand new plays. That's 00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:28.750 more than one a month. That sounds completely 00:20:28.750 --> 00:20:31.269 impossible. And everyone thought it was. But 00:20:31.269 --> 00:20:34.950 he did it. He delivered all 16. It's an unimaginable 00:20:34.950 --> 00:20:37.609 level of output for a playwright today. And what's 00:20:37.609 --> 00:20:39.509 more, some of them were masterpieces that are 00:20:39.509 --> 00:20:41.769 still performed. Okay, let's highlight some of 00:20:41.769 --> 00:20:44.589 those specific masterpieces. The one everyone 00:20:44.589 --> 00:20:46.809 has probably heard of, even if they don't know 00:20:46.809 --> 00:20:49.329 it's Goldoni, is The Servant of Two Masters. 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:53.440 Il Servatore di Due Padroni, written in 1745. 00:20:54.019 --> 00:20:56.440 This is the perfect example of that hybrid style 00:20:56.440 --> 00:20:59.079 we were just discussing. It features the character 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:02.319 Trufaldino, who is a version of Orlechino, the 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:05.619 classic zanny or servant character. He's perpetually 00:21:05.619 --> 00:21:08.039 hungry, he's not the brightest, and he ends up 00:21:08.039 --> 00:21:09.660 getting hired by two different masters at the 00:21:09.660 --> 00:21:12.180 same time without either of them knowing. It's 00:21:12.180 --> 00:21:14.839 a classic farce setup. How does he keep them 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:16.910 from finding out about each other? Through a 00:21:16.910 --> 00:21:19.289 series of increasingly frantic and hilarious 00:21:19.289 --> 00:21:22.289 schemes, he's constantly running back and forth, 00:21:22.309 --> 00:21:24.509 mixing up letters, serving two dinners at once. 00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:27.289 It's a masterclass in physical comedy and intricate 00:21:27.289 --> 00:21:30.630 plotting. But what Goldoni does is elevate it 00:21:30.630 --> 00:21:33.789 with brilliant, witty dialogue and a scripted 00:21:33.789 --> 00:21:36.529 structure that keeps the pacing absolutely relentless. 00:21:36.970 --> 00:21:38.809 This is the play that's been adapted so many 00:21:38.809 --> 00:21:41.730 times. So many. Listeners might know the hit 00:21:41.730 --> 00:21:44.569 play One Man, Two Governors, which was a huge 00:21:44.569 --> 00:21:46.930 success at the National Theatre in London and 00:21:46.930 --> 00:21:49.930 then on Broadway. That is a direct modern adaptation 00:21:49.930 --> 00:21:53.069 of Goldoni. That's incredible. From 1745 Venice 00:21:53.069 --> 00:21:56.009 to modern Broadway, the core jokes still land. 00:21:56.430 --> 00:21:59.269 They do. Another key work which shows a different 00:21:59.269 --> 00:22:01.789 side of him is The Mistress of the Inn or La 00:22:01.789 --> 00:22:05.730 Locandiera from 1751. This is less about slapstick 00:22:05.730 --> 00:22:07.710 and more about character. Who is the mistress? 00:22:07.990 --> 00:22:09.930 The protagonist is a woman named Miranda Lena. 00:22:10.369 --> 00:22:12.609 She's strong. She's clever. She's an independent 00:22:12.609 --> 00:22:15.329 business owner running an inn in Florence. And 00:22:15.329 --> 00:22:17.890 she is surrounded by men account, a marquee, 00:22:17.890 --> 00:22:20.170 a cynical knight who are all trying to win her 00:22:20.170 --> 00:22:22.279 affection. And how does she handle them? She 00:22:22.279 --> 00:22:24.559 masterfully manipulates all of them. She plays 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:26.460 on their vanity, their class pretensions, their 00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:28.980 egos, all to teach them a lesson about the nature 00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:31.480 of women and love. It's a brilliant character 00:22:31.480 --> 00:22:34.880 study, a masterpiece of feminist wit, long, long 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:37.279 before that term even existed. And we can't forget 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:39.579 his contribution to music. He wasn't just writing 00:22:39.579 --> 00:22:42.539 plays. He was a major force in opera. Specifically, 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:45.660 opera buffa, or comic opera. This is a crucial 00:22:45.660 --> 00:22:47.619 part of his legacy that sometimes gets overlooked. 00:22:48.430 --> 00:22:50.369 He collaborated extensively with the composer 00:22:50.369 --> 00:22:53.470 Baldassare Gallupi. Gallupi, that's a big name 00:22:53.470 --> 00:22:55.569 in Baroque music. A huge name. They were like 00:22:55.569 --> 00:22:58.710 the Rodgers and Hammerstein of 18th century Venice. 00:22:58.990 --> 00:23:02.069 They produced over 20 librettos together. And 00:23:02.069 --> 00:23:04.750 Goldoni brought his same reforming zeal to opera. 00:23:05.049 --> 00:23:07.549 What was comic opera like before him? Before 00:23:07.549 --> 00:23:10.809 Goldoni, comic opera was often just silly little 00:23:10.809 --> 00:23:13.410 interludes performed between the acts of a grand, 00:23:13.549 --> 00:23:16.430 serious opera. They were trifles. Goldoni took 00:23:16.430 --> 00:23:19.049 them seriously. He integrated elements of commedia 00:23:19.049 --> 00:23:22.230 with recognizable local and middle class realities. 00:23:22.329 --> 00:23:23.950 And characters singing about real life problems, 00:23:24.150 --> 00:23:26.930 money, love, social climbing. Exactly. Not just 00:23:26.930 --> 00:23:29.490 gods and ancient kings. Their biggest hit was 00:23:29.490 --> 00:23:32.269 Il Filosofo di Campagna, The Country Philosopher. 00:23:32.349 --> 00:23:34.890 It was a massive success all over Europe. It 00:23:34.890 --> 00:23:36.650 showed that opera could be funny, it could be 00:23:36.650 --> 00:23:39.069 musically sophisticated, and it could be socially 00:23:39.069 --> 00:23:41.210 relevant. He helped create a whole new genre. 00:23:41.529 --> 00:23:44.289 Speaking of social relevance, let's dive deeper 00:23:44.289 --> 00:23:47.160 into the themes of his plays. You mentioned he 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:49.940 wanted to show real life. In 18th century Venice, 00:23:50.099 --> 00:23:53.339 that meant dealing with class. Absolutely. Goldoni 00:23:53.339 --> 00:23:55.900 is, in many ways, the first great dramatist of 00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:58.579 the emerging middle class, the bourgeoisie. His 00:23:58.579 --> 00:24:01.299 plays are filled with merchants, shopkeepers, 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.180 lawyers, and their families. He dramatizes their 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:07.099 lives, their values, their conflicts. And what 00:24:07.099 --> 00:24:08.980 were those values that he seemed to champion? 00:24:09.740 --> 00:24:12.960 Rationality, civility, humanism, a strong sense 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:17.039 of honor, and above all... honesty. Goldoni championed 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:19.619 the very bourgeois idea that a person's worth 00:24:19.619 --> 00:24:22.259 wasn't defined by their noble title, but by their 00:24:22.259 --> 00:24:24.559 character and their behavior. So he was taking 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:27.720 shots at the old aristocracy. He was, but very 00:24:27.720 --> 00:24:30.559 carefully. He really disliked arrogance, intolerance, 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:32.700 and the abuse of power. So he would often poke 00:24:32.700 --> 00:24:35.140 fun at the arrogant nobility, showing them as 00:24:35.140 --> 00:24:37.480 out of touch or vain or obsessed with their lineage. 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:40.299 But, and this is very important, he also poked 00:24:40.299 --> 00:24:43.390 fun at the pauper who lacks dignity. So he wasn't 00:24:43.390 --> 00:24:45.190 a radical trying to overturn the whole social 00:24:45.190 --> 00:24:47.650 order? Not at all. He was a humanist criticizing 00:24:47.650 --> 00:24:50.410 bad behavior wherever he saw it, whether it was 00:24:50.410 --> 00:24:52.730 in a palace or in the street. He believed in 00:24:52.730 --> 00:24:55.109 a well -ordered society where everyone knew their 00:24:55.109 --> 00:24:57.569 place but also acted with decency and respect. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:00.859 His characters aren't monsters of vice or saints 00:25:00.859 --> 00:25:03.680 of abstract virtue. No, and that's the key to 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:05.880 their realism. They occupy the middle ground 00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:09.240 of human temperament. They are flawed, but fundamentally 00:25:09.240 --> 00:25:12.039 relatable people trying to get by. There's also 00:25:12.039 --> 00:25:14.259 a fascinating linguistic aspect to his work. 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:16.079 We're reading this in English, obviously, but 00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:18.519 the original language he used on stage was a 00:25:18.519 --> 00:25:20.900 kind of battleground. It absolutely was. You 00:25:20.900 --> 00:25:23.240 have to remember, Italy wasn't a unified country 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:26.200 yet. The language varied wildly from region to 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:29.960 region. The proper literary language was Tuscan, 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.880 the language of Dante. But in Venice, people 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:35.440 spoke the Venetian dialect. And Goldoni used 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:39.279 this on stage. He used it brilliantly. His characters 00:25:39.279 --> 00:25:42.150 spoke based on their station in life. The local 00:25:42.150 --> 00:25:44.710 Venetians, the gondoliers, the servants, the 00:25:44.710 --> 00:25:48.109 shopkeepers, they all spoke in a lively, authentic 00:25:48.109 --> 00:25:51.890 Venetian dialect. The educated characters, or 00:25:51.890 --> 00:25:53.869 characters from other parts of Italy, would speak 00:25:53.869 --> 00:25:57.329 in the more formal literary Tuscan. So he was 00:25:57.329 --> 00:26:00.089 basically code switching on stage. Yes. And in 00:26:00.089 --> 00:26:02.730 doing so, he helped legitimize the use of vernacular 00:26:02.730 --> 00:26:05.309 in high art. He showed that the everyday language 00:26:05.309 --> 00:26:07.369 of the people could be beautiful and expressive 00:26:07.369 --> 00:26:10.589 and worthy of the stage. Although it is interesting 00:26:10.589 --> 00:26:12.450 to note that later on, for the printed editions 00:26:12.450 --> 00:26:15.130 of his plays, he often translated the Venetian 00:26:15.130 --> 00:26:18.029 parts into Tuscan to reach a wider national audience. 00:26:18.410 --> 00:26:21.349 What about religion? Venice was a staunchly Catholic 00:26:21.349 --> 00:26:24.140 state. Did that feature heavily in his plays? 00:26:24.500 --> 00:26:26.740 Surprisingly, almost not at all. It's one of 00:26:26.740 --> 00:26:28.299 the most striking things about his work in Italy. 00:26:28.519 --> 00:26:31.279 He virtually ignores religious and ecclesiastical 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:34.079 subjects. Despite his very Catholic upbringing 00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:36.380 and education, you don't see themes of death, 00:26:36.539 --> 00:26:39.980 sin, repentance, or theology. No priests or monks 00:26:39.980 --> 00:26:42.059 as main characters. That seems like a very conscious 00:26:42.059 --> 00:26:44.660 choice. It almost certainly was. He wanted to 00:26:44.660 --> 00:26:47.059 focus on the social world, the here and now, 00:26:47.140 --> 00:26:49.819 the human comedy, not the divine one. However, 00:26:50.019 --> 00:26:52.359 and this is a fascinating shift, later in his 00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:54.640 life when he moved to France, his tone changed. 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:57.980 In France, he took on a much more direct anti 00:26:57.980 --> 00:27:00.579 -clerical stance. He wrote plays that openly 00:27:00.579 --> 00:27:03.160 satirized the hypocrisy of monks and the institutional 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:06.240 church. It's as if leaving Italy freed him to 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:08.640 address topics that were too sensitive back home. 00:27:09.059 --> 00:27:11.200 Okay, so Gildoni is at the height of his powers 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:14.099 in Venice. He's reformed the theater. He's writing 00:27:14.099 --> 00:27:17.339 hit after hit. But success, as we know, often 00:27:17.339 --> 00:27:20.079 breeds jealousy and backlash. And in the late 00:27:20.079 --> 00:27:23.519 1750s, a major challenger appears on the scene. 00:27:24.500 --> 00:27:27.220 This rivalry is legendary. Carlo Gazzi versus 00:27:27.220 --> 00:27:29.799 Carlo Goldoni. It sounds like a heavyweight title 00:27:29.799 --> 00:27:31.299 fight for the soul of the Nietzschean theater. 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:33.240 That's exactly what it was. It was an ideological 00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:37.059 war. Gazzi was a nobleman, an intellectual, and 00:27:37.059 --> 00:27:40.059 he was a fierce, passionate defender of the traditional 00:27:40.059 --> 00:27:42.720 commedia dell 'arte. He hated what Goldoni was 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:45.099 doing to it. What was his specific accusation? 00:27:45.180 --> 00:27:47.579 Why did he hate Goldoni's new realism so much? 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:50.160 Gazzi's argument, which he made very publicly 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:52.940 and very aggressively, was that by removing the 00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:55.680 masks and focusing on the mundane realities of 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.359 middle -class life, Goldoni was depriving the 00:27:58.359 --> 00:28:00.440 theater of the charms of poetry and imagination. 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:03.180 He thought Goldoni was making theater boring. 00:28:03.339 --> 00:28:05.240 He thought Goldoni was making it pedestrian. 00:28:05.619 --> 00:28:08.380 Too realistic. Gazzi believed that theater should 00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:10.920 be about magic, fantasy, poetry, and the bizarre. 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:14.599 He wanted spectacle, not sociology. So in response, 00:28:14.839 --> 00:28:17.039 Gazzi doubles down on the fantasy. He does, in 00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:19.619 the most spectacular way possible. As a direct 00:28:19.619 --> 00:28:22.079 challenge to Goldoni, Gazzi started writing these 00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:25.400 fiabe, titatrali, theatrical fables, or fairy 00:28:25.400 --> 00:28:28.579 dramas. These were wild, magical plays based 00:28:28.579 --> 00:28:31.240 on children's fairy tales, filled with monsters, 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:33.940 talking animals, sorcerers, and epic journeys. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:36.440 And the painful part for Goldoni was, they were 00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:38.980 Hugely successful. They were massive, sensational 00:28:38.980 --> 00:28:42.160 hits. The Venetian audience, which had been lapping 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:44.680 up Goldoni's realism, suddenly went crazy for 00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:47.339 Gazzi's escapist fantasies. So the public taste 00:28:47.339 --> 00:28:49.569 just shifted on a dime. They started drifting 00:28:49.569 --> 00:28:52.349 away from Goldoni's realism and flocking to Godsey's 00:28:52.349 --> 00:28:55.950 magic. Yes. And Goldoni took this very, very 00:28:55.950 --> 00:28:58.730 personally. He was, in his own words, utterly 00:28:58.730 --> 00:29:01.069 disgusted with the tastes of his countrymen. 00:29:01.190 --> 00:29:03.789 He felt betrayed. He felt that he had worked 00:29:03.789 --> 00:29:06.609 for decades to elevate their theater, to give 00:29:06.609 --> 00:29:09.109 them truth and art. And in the end, they just 00:29:09.109 --> 00:29:11.309 wanted cheap fairy tales. And this bitterness, 00:29:11.450 --> 00:29:14.690 this feeling of rejection. led to a pretty drastic 00:29:14.690 --> 00:29:18.609 decision. It did. In 1761, Goldoni had had enough. 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:21.619 He packed his bags. He accepted an invitation 00:29:21.619 --> 00:29:24.940 to work in Paris. He left Venice, a city he had 00:29:24.940 --> 00:29:27.619 defined for two decades. He left Italy for good. 00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:30.500 That is such a huge move. He was in his mid -50s 00:29:30.500 --> 00:29:32.539 at this point, right? To start over completely 00:29:32.539 --> 00:29:35.140 in a new country, a new language. It was an incredibly 00:29:35.140 --> 00:29:37.579 bold and probably heartbreaking move. But Paris 00:29:37.579 --> 00:29:39.740 was the cultural capital of Europe, and he saw 00:29:39.740 --> 00:29:41.819 an opportunity. And initially, it went very well 00:29:41.819 --> 00:29:44.019 for him. He received a position at court. He 00:29:44.019 --> 00:29:46.240 was put in charge of the Teatro Italian in Paris. 00:29:46.460 --> 00:29:48.039 And he even had to switch languages professionally. 00:29:48.589 --> 00:29:51.809 Yes, he started composing plays in French. And 00:29:51.809 --> 00:29:54.690 he wrote his famous memoirs in French. Imagine 00:29:54.690 --> 00:29:57.089 the incredible skill that takes to be the absolute 00:29:57.089 --> 00:29:59.509 master of Italian and Venetian dialect comedy 00:29:59.509 --> 00:30:02.450 and then to pivot and try to conquer the French 00:30:02.450 --> 00:30:05.170 stage in French. Did he have any big hits in 00:30:05.170 --> 00:30:08.539 France? Did he succeed? He did. His play Le Bourou 00:30:08.539 --> 00:30:11.059 Bienfaisant, which translates to something like 00:30:11.059 --> 00:30:13.720 The Beneficent Bear or The Grumpy Saint, was 00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:16.720 a major success in 1771. It was even performed 00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:18.980 at the celebrations for the royal wedding. Which 00:30:18.980 --> 00:30:21.619 royal wedding? The marriage of the Dauphin, the 00:30:21.619 --> 00:30:25.059 future Louis VI, to a certain Austrian archduchess 00:30:25.059 --> 00:30:28.339 named Marie Antoinette. Wow. So Goldoni was right 00:30:28.339 --> 00:30:30.319 there at the very center of the French royal 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:32.299 circle just before everything fell apart. Right 00:30:32.299 --> 00:30:34.359 at the peak of the Ancien Régime. And he was 00:30:34.359 --> 00:30:36.920 rewarded for it. He got royal patronage. He retired 00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:39.559 to Versailles in 1769 with a generous pension 00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:42.220 from the king. He was even teaching Italian to 00:30:42.220 --> 00:30:44.759 the royal princesses. It really seemed like the 00:30:44.759 --> 00:30:47.460 perfect, comfortable, prestigious end to a very 00:30:47.460 --> 00:30:50.559 tumultuous life. But history had one more massive, 00:30:50.680 --> 00:30:53.319 brutal twist in store. The French Revolution. 00:30:53.779 --> 00:30:55.700 Goldoni is living this comfortable retirement 00:30:55.700 --> 00:30:58.160 on a pension from the king. And then the king 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:00.720 is overthrown and the entire system that supports 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:03.619 him is dismantled. Exactly. The new revolutionary 00:31:03.619 --> 00:31:06.480 government saw his pension as a relic of royal 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:09.559 extravagance. The revolution stripped him of 00:31:09.559 --> 00:31:12.160 his royal pension. He was seen as a dependent 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:15.359 of the old corrupt regime. And so suddenly in 00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:18.660 his 80s. Goldoni was plunged into poverty. Complete 00:31:18.660 --> 00:31:20.880 poverty. It is absolutely heartbreaking. The 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:23.279 man who championed the values of the rising middle 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:26.099 class and the importance of honesty ends up a 00:31:26.099 --> 00:31:28.180 penniless victim of a revolution that claimed 00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:30.480 to support those very things. The ironies are 00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:33.259 just devastating. It gets worse. He died in poverty 00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:37.039 on February 6, 1793. But the tragic irony gets 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:39.940 even sharper, even more painful. How so? The 00:31:39.940 --> 00:31:42.579 day after he died, the National Convention, the 00:31:42.579 --> 00:31:44.680 revolutionary government, actually voted to restore 00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:47.539 his pension. A motion was brought to the floor. 00:31:47.740 --> 00:31:50.640 They recognized his immense artistic contribution 00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:53.500 to France and Italy. That's incredible. They 00:31:53.500 --> 00:31:55.960 voted to restore it on February 7th, the day 00:31:55.960 --> 00:31:58.599 after his death. Oh, wow. A day too late. One 00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:01.660 day too late for him. However, the story has 00:32:01.660 --> 00:32:05.640 a small, bittersweet coda. The pension was restored 00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:09.519 to his widow, Nicoletta. The poet, André Chenier, 00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:11.839 who would himself be guillotined a year later, 00:32:11.900 --> 00:32:14.019 by the way, pleaded her case to the convention. 00:32:14.730 --> 00:32:16.549 And his words are haunting. They're quoted in 00:32:16.549 --> 00:32:19.109 the sources. What did he say? He said, she is 00:32:19.109 --> 00:32:22.289 old. Her husband has left her no heritage, save 00:32:22.289 --> 00:32:24.829 his illustrious name, his virtues, and his poverty. 00:32:25.089 --> 00:32:27.750 His illustrious name, his virtues, and his poverty. 00:32:28.289 --> 00:32:31.490 That is a powerful and perfect epitaph. It really 00:32:31.490 --> 00:32:33.670 sums up his entire life. He gave everything to 00:32:33.670 --> 00:32:35.809 his art. He enriched the culture of Italy and 00:32:35.809 --> 00:32:38.549 France beyond measure. But he didn't enrich himself. 00:32:38.809 --> 00:32:41.569 He died with nothing but his name. So as we wrap 00:32:41.569 --> 00:32:43.970 up this deep dive, how do we summarize the incredible 00:32:43.970 --> 00:32:46.269 legacy of Carlo Goldoni? What was the lasting 00:32:46.269 --> 00:32:48.730 impact? I think most fundamentally, Goldoni gave 00:32:48.730 --> 00:32:51.750 Italy a classical form of comedy. He took a tradition 00:32:51.750 --> 00:32:54.109 that was based on improvisation, which is wonderful, 00:32:54.369 --> 00:32:56.490 but also fleeting. It disappears once the show 00:32:56.490 --> 00:32:59.230 is over. And he turned it into literature. He 00:32:59.230 --> 00:33:01.609 created plays that could be read, studied, translated, 00:33:01.789 --> 00:33:04.150 and performed for centuries. He moved theater 00:33:04.150 --> 00:33:06.670 from being just a momentary performance to being 00:33:06.670 --> 00:33:09.769 a lasting text. Exactly. And in doing that, he 00:33:09.769 --> 00:33:12.269 proved that comedy could be about real people 00:33:12.269 --> 00:33:15.609 in real life. He paved the way for modern sitcoms, 00:33:15.609 --> 00:33:18.170 for domestic dramas, for any kind of storytelling 00:33:18.170 --> 00:33:20.869 that finds the humor and the pathos in the everyday 00:33:20.869 --> 00:33:23.759 struggles of normal people. Without Goldoni, 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:26.180 we don't get that crucial shift toward realism 00:33:26.180 --> 00:33:28.559 in Italian culture. And as we've seen with things 00:33:28.559 --> 00:33:31.640 like One Man, Two Governors, his jokes, his situations, 00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:35.220 they still land. 250 years later, people are 00:33:35.220 --> 00:33:38.039 still laughing at the comic predicaments he constructed. 00:33:38.380 --> 00:33:40.599 That is the ultimate test of a great comedian, 00:33:40.700 --> 00:33:42.680 isn't it? Does it still play? With Goldoni, the 00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:44.960 answer is a resounding yes. It just makes you 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:47.900 think about the cost of that innovation. We discussed 00:33:47.900 --> 00:33:50.759 it. He achieved his artistic revolution. He changed 00:33:50.759 --> 00:33:53.390 the art form forever. but he ended his life in 00:33:53.390 --> 00:33:56.509 exile, feeling rejected by his home city and 00:33:56.509 --> 00:33:58.789 died poor, caught in the gears of a political 00:33:58.789 --> 00:34:00.910 storm he had absolutely nothing to do with. It's 00:34:00.910 --> 00:34:03.769 the tragedy often hidden behind the comedy. The 00:34:03.769 --> 00:34:06.609 so -called Italian Moliere had a life that was, 00:34:06.609 --> 00:34:08.829 in the end, far more tragic than many of his 00:34:08.829 --> 00:34:11.030 plays. So here is a final thought for you to 00:34:11.030 --> 00:34:13.809 chew on as we finish. Goldoni spent his entire 00:34:13.809 --> 00:34:16.750 career trying to remove the masks from the actors 00:34:16.750 --> 00:34:20.269 on stage. He wanted to show real life with all 00:34:20.269 --> 00:34:22.889 its imperfections, all his flaws. He fought against 00:34:22.889 --> 00:34:25.329 the stylized fake personas of the Comedia dell 00:34:25.329 --> 00:34:28.269 'Art. Right. His whole project was about authenticity. 00:34:28.469 --> 00:34:31.269 So in today's world, a world where we are all 00:34:31.269 --> 00:34:34.170 obsessed with curating our identities with social 00:34:34.170 --> 00:34:37.070 media filters, edited photos, carefully crafted 00:34:37.070 --> 00:34:39.429 online personas that show only our best side. 00:34:39.849 --> 00:34:42.489 Are we just? putting the masks back on? That 00:34:42.489 --> 00:34:44.690 is a very provocative question. You're saying 00:34:44.690 --> 00:34:47.289 we've created a kind of digital commedia dell 00:34:47.289 --> 00:34:49.989 'arte for ourselves. Maybe. I think Goldoni might 00:34:49.989 --> 00:34:52.690 argue that true comedy, and maybe true humanity, 00:34:52.909 --> 00:34:55.889 only happens when we show our actual faces. When 00:34:55.889 --> 00:34:58.010 we let the audience and each other see the flaws, 00:34:58.130 --> 00:34:59.849 the awkwardness, that middle ground of human 00:34:59.849 --> 00:35:02.170 temperament you mentioned. Maybe what we need 00:35:02.170 --> 00:35:03.989 is a new Goldoni to come along and remind us 00:35:03.989 --> 00:35:05.750 that the most interesting and funniest character 00:35:05.750 --> 00:35:09.710 we could ever play is just ourselves. i think 00:35:09.710 --> 00:35:12.230 he would absolutely agree the mask whether it's 00:35:12.230 --> 00:35:15.550 made of leather or pixels hides the truth and 00:35:15.550 --> 00:35:18.409 for goldoni truth was the only thing worth watching 00:35:18.409 --> 00:35:21.030 thank you for joining us on this deep dive into 00:35:21.030 --> 00:35:23.489 the incredible life of carlo goldoni we will 00:35:23.489 --> 00:35:24.110 see you next time