- Performer Name:
- Performance Venue:
- Performance Date:
- Author:
- “D”
- Date Written:
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- The New Monthly Magazine
- Article Title:
- The Theatres of Rome
- Page Numbers:
- 47: 31-34
- Additional Info:
- Publisher:
- Henry Colburn
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Date Published:
- 1836
Text:
[31] But when the reader sees the words "Italian stage," he will be disappointed if he expects to find amusing accounts of plots and traits of character, or pointed extracts drawn from the pieces of the day. Scarce any such dramatic performances can be found to exist in Italy, and the meaning of the expression "Italian stage" comprehends a great deal of the opera, a great deal of the ballet—that is, pantomime acting, or the unwritten drama—something of Punch and broad caricature, but a small proportion of the legitimate drama. In fact the Italians, though highly imaginative and susceptible of excitement, are not a dramatic people. They have scarcely a comedy which rises above a sketch; and their literature, though older than that of either England, France, or Germany, boasts fewer good tragedies than are possessed by any one of those nations.
[…]
He [i.e., the typical Italian] is really more thoroughly pleased with an accomplished improvisatore, than by a tragedy of Alfieri; […] Expression and simplicity are the two greatest objects, to attain which the fine arts in Italy are at present directed.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- CB