Azione teatrale (; plural ''azioni teatrali'') is a genre of

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

, popular in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and southern Europe. An ''azione teatrale'' was typically shorter in scale, with few actors, usually no chorus, and either presented in a single act or divided into two parts. These musical plays were usually presented for dignitaries in their private palaces, or in the aristocratic theaters of their hosts. Dedicatory in nature, the plots as perfected by the leading light of The Enlightenment stage,

Pietro Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Met ...

, revolve around the trial and personal struggle of an individual to overcome hardship, privation, or temptation on his road to being a better man. Larger works, with more charterers, festive choruses, and often involving historical or mythological characters, were called a '' festa teatrale''. Examples of the genre include

Traetta Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic ref ...

's ''Armida'' (1761), Mozart's ''

Il sogno di Scipione ', K. 126, is a ''dramatic serenade'' in one act ('' azione teatrale'') composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, which is based on the book ''Somnium Scipionis'' by Cicero; has been set to music several times. Mo ...

'' (1772) and

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...

's '' L'isola disabitata'' (1779).

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

's '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' (1762) also belongs to this genre, though in many ways it is atypical. The long-term influence of this type of stage work can be felt in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' '' A Christmas Carol'', in which Scrooge is confronted and offered a way to live to his full potential. As such, it is very much based on Metastasio's ''

.''

References

*''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages, Opera genres {{opera-stub

See also

References