Flaminio Scala

Flaminio Scala
Born (1552-09-27)27 September 1552[1]
Rome, Italy
Died 9 December 1624(1624-12-09) (aged 72)
Mantua, Italy
Other names Flavio, Claudione
Occupation Commedia dell'Arte actor, scenario writer, playwright, director, producer, manager, agent, perfumier
Notable work Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative (1611)

Flaminio Scala (27 September 1552 – 9 December 1624),[1] commonly known by his stage name, Flavio,[2] was a sixteenth-century Italian stage actor of Commedia dell'Arte, scenario writer, playwright, director, producer, manager, agent, and editor. Considered one of the most important figures in Renaissance theatre, Scala is remembered today as the author of the first published collection of commedia scenarios, Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative,[3] short comic plays that served as inspiration to playwrights such as Lope de Vega, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Molière.[4]

Life and work

The commedia dell'arte troupe I Gelosi (The Jealous Ones) in a late 16th-century Flemish painting, Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

Scala was born in Rome on 27 September 1552.[1] Little is known about his early life and his aristocratic family, except that his father's name was Giacomo.[2] Scala's career as an actor began sometime prior to 1577 in Florence, where he is thought to have played the role of the innamorato in the Compagnia dei Comici Gelosi ("Company of Jealous Comedians", usually referred to by the shorter name I Gelosi). This stock character made up the male half of the pair of young lovers that were central to the plots of scenarios in Italian Commedia dell'arte. Typically, the innamorati were as much in love with one another as they were with themselves and frequently kept apart by circumstances outside their control. Scala is credited with bringing the famous sixteenth-century actress and poet Isabella Andreini into I Gelosi to play opposite him as his innamorata. The sixteen-year-old wife of the actor Francesco Andreini (whose stage name was Capitan Spavento) went on to become such a celebrated actress in her own right that a new role known as the "Isabella" was created in her honor. Following his work with I Gelosi, Scala was associated as an actor and occasionally as an agent with the i Accesi (Stimulated Ones), i Desiosi, (Desired Ones), and i Uniti (United Ones) from 1579 through 1596.[4]

Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative

Title page of Il teatro delle favole rappresentative, (1611).

In 1611 Scala published the first collection of scenarions of Commedia dell'Arte plays, under the title Il Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative. It has been translated into English by Henry F. Salerno in 1967 as Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte.[5] A new Italian edition edited by Ferruccio Marotti was published in 1976.[6] A new partial translation (30 scenarios out of 50) Richard Andrews was published in 2008.[7]

Scala is represented in the 2007 musical The Glorious Ones with book and music by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The New York production was based on the Francine Prose's 1974 novel of the same name.[8] During the musical's original Philadelphia run, Flaminio Scala was played by Paul Schoeffler. For the New York run, the role was played by Marc Kudisch. In the Canadian premiere by the Toronto Civic Light Opera Co., Scala was played by the company's artistic director Joe Cascone.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Richard Andrews (in the Introduction to Scala 2008) gives Scala's date of birth as 27 September 1552 and states it is based on a will that Scala drew up in 1616 (see p. ix in a preview at Google Books). This date is also given in Cappalletti 2008.
  2. 1 2 Landolfi 1993.
  3. ↑ Scala 1611.
  4. 1 2 Cappelletti 2008.
  5. ↑ Scala 1967.
  6. ↑ Scala 1976.
  7. ↑ Scala 2008.
  8. ↑ Isherwood 2007.

Bibliography

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