THAR 281 1st Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Last Lecture I General Context Two Parts of Middle Ages a Early Middle Ages aka Dark Ages b High Middle Ages II Liturgical Drama III Mystery Plays IV Morality Plays V Elements of Production VI Popular Art Forms VII Episodic Form Outline of Current Lecture I Reasons for Italian Renaissance II Theatrical Forms Popular Entertainment III Intermezzi and Pastorals IV Opera V Opera Key Terms VI Commedia Dell arte VII Neoclassicism Ideals VIII Theory vs Practice Current Lecture I II III Reasons for Italian Renaissance a Reengagement in creating theater i Greek is now being taught in universities ii Greek playwrights are now being publishes with the printing press iii Big movement of Greek Roman playwrights from Constantinople to Italy iv Dissemination of Aristotle and Homer s ideas Theatrical Forms Popular Entertainment a Opera b Pastorals c Intermezzi d Commedia Intermezzi and Pastorals a Intermezzi short tales based on classical myths IV V VI i Present in between full acts of a long play ii Sometimes related to the play but not always iii Sometimes more interesting to people than the actual play is b Pastorals short romantic performances c Neither of these forms lasted past the end of the Renaissance Opera a Started in Florence b Developed opera because trying to create Greek tragedy the way they thought the Greeks had done it c Most operas are telling the story of a Greek myth d Primary importance is on music e Spreads to France Germany and England i In each of these places it gains its own flavor Opera Key Terms a Libretto text through which music is sung just words not music i Librettist author of a libretto b Lyric a phrase of text meant to be accompanied by music c Score the music of the opera d Aria a sung monologue one person sings by themselves has more melody than recitative e Recitative dialogue that s sung smaller than Aria f Voice Parts i Soprano highest note usually sung by female usually the heroine ii Mezzo soprano alto lower of 2 woman roles usually prostitute or crazy lady iii Tenor highest of men s parts usually a hero iv Baritone when all men sing together it sounds like this usually a romantic lead v Bass lowest of all usually crazy man or a bad guy Commedia Del arte a A traveling self sustaining group of about 10 performers b Probably descended from Greek Roman mimes juggler singers etc c Based on improvisation i Actors take on stock character types and improvise intercations ii Between characters iii Usually comedic iv Masks are big part in differentiating characters v It was a life long commitment for the performers d Can still see some characteristics of it in modern comedies e Pamtalone greedy lonesome old man f Harlequin comic servant usually handy g Il Capitano leader commander shows hypocrisy h Innamorat young lover who s too distracted with love to notice anything else i VII VIII Commedia is much more about physical characteristics of the performer than the role they play Neoclassicism Ideals a Verisimilitude all things must be true to life wanted to make it believable b No violence on stage no fighting c No supernatural things d No soliloquies e One place one time and one action i The biggest place would be a house ii All take place in one spot iii Play had to have a story that was within 24 hours iv Had to have a story that was within 24 hours v Had to be about only one person f Decorum characters should behave as someone of their social status actions had to be morally acceptable g Didacticism has to have a moral must learn lesson from it h Separation of Genre for example comedy should be a comedy and tragedy should be a tragedy i Neoclassicism Theater of theory Theory vs Practice a Theater of theory is based on rules ideals b Theater of practice is more about action
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