Pictures (by the Associazione Grupporiani) of the 2023 production of the Blue Monster (Il mostro turchino), by the marionette company Carlo Colla & Figli, based on the fairy tale play of Carlo Gozzi. This production features Harlequin in place of Truffaldino. It is based on the oldest script in the Colla archives, written by puppeteer Giuseppe Fiando in 1815, but never produced before the 21st century.
Since you've been reblogging stuff on "the love for the three Oranges", I wanted to share with you this:
Carlo Gozzi, author of the original canovaccio that this opera is based on, actually wrote a sequel for this fairy tale play, "l'Augellin Belverde" (the fairgreen bird).
It's based on a neapolitan tale by Pompeo Sarnelli "la 'ngannattrice 'ngannata", with elements from Straparola's "Ancillotto, re di Provino"(III fable of the IV night)
In it, the previously unmentioned mother of the sickly prince, Tartagliona (the Empress from Tarot), is unhappy with a foreign daughter-in-law, and thus tricks the court into believing she gave birth to two dogs, which leads her to be imprisoned. Meanwhile, the actual royal children, Renzo and Barbarina, are picked up by Truffaldino and Smeraldina (who got married off-screen) and raised by the couple. When they grow up, they are helped by Calmon, king of Statues, in being recohnized by their father, freeing their mother and breaking the curses on their lovers.
It was Gozzi's penultimate fairytale play, and is considered his most definitive piece in the depiction of his anti-enlightenment philosophy. Famous modern adaptations include 1982's "l'oiseau vert" by Benno Besson for the Comédie de Genève
Or the Broadway production by Julie Taymor, with soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal, from '96 to 2000.
So THAT's L'Oiseau Vert! I had heard about it before but never knew much about it. There's a lot of colored birds that just float around in the fairytale world...
Thank you for all this info, I didn't know about it!
It is so interestng that we had such a rich and complex world of fairytale stage adaptations, throughout countries and centuries, yet the stuff that remains is mostly... Well the Sleeping Beauty ballet and the Hansel and Gretel opera, and other not-really-adaptations like the Swan Lake. You have sort-of Into the Woods today, thanks to Americanism, but still... There's so much more around.
Propaganda in support of the authors is accepted, you can write it both in the tag if reblog the poll (explaining maybe that is propaganda and you want to see posted) or in the comments. Every few days it will be recollected and posted here under the cut.
The propaganda here are in order from left to right, first Carlo Gozzi and then Guid Cavalcanti
Carlo Gozzi propaganda by @girlboccaccio
Do you like theatre?
Do you like opera?
Are you interested in commedia dell'arte?
Do you like fables with dubious morales, fairy tales with dark hidden meanings, plays inspired by 16th morally ambiguous short tales and The thousand and one nights?
If yes you should take two second and vote for Carlo Gozzi (yeah the funky guy in b/w on the left).
Without him we couldn't have masterpieces like Puccini's Turandot and The Love for Three Oranges by Sergei Prokofiev. He was a great admirer of spanish literature and theatre. He defended commedia dell'arte and funky plays when this manners of making theatre were dying. Immaculate yeah? He wrote an autobiography named Useless Memories, truly cunty, right? He was a rate A+ hater when he decided to start shitting against the king of the new modern way of writing theatre, Carlo Goldoni. He died in a Country that stopped existing in the last decade of his life (The Not So Serene Republic Of Venice) and lost all his friends in exile. He was the bitch of the venetian intellectual life. He was the bitch of the coolest italian actresses of the time. He was friend with Francesco Algarotti, the loveboy of Frederich the Great.
Fella, if you love the 18th century, you have only one choice in you hand: vote Carlo Gozzi.
Propaganda in favor of Guido Cavalcanti by @eresia-catara
May I add further propaganda for Guido: He's a noble, he disdains aristocrats, he was Florence's number one Server of Cunt, he was the city's faggot, he was heretical, he went on a random pilgrimage but interrupted it and managed to be buried in a church anyway, he had an archenemy who sent some men to murder him on said pilgrimage, he came back and tried to murder him back in plain daylight, he gave zero fucks about politics, he got exiled because he was considered a menace for the city. He SAW DANTE's poetical talent, encouraged it, shaped it, and through him the whole of italian literature. Think about it. Also they became besties until they evolved to a tormented psychosexual haunting dynamic (see break-up poem) where Dante himself actually exiled him. In the 13th century his poetry anticipates so many of the literary themes of the XXth century, going from fragmentation of the self (his is basically vivisection and dispersion of his parts), to dissociation from one's own mind and body, lack of identity, irony, desecration, his poetry is full of schizophrenic-like hallucinations, reading them is truly a trip, and yet his language is profoundly meoldic and sweet. And there's also gender-fuckery. and theater, of course, because his poems develop like a scene from a theater (adding layers to the dissociation). So really he has it all guys.
Guido Cavalcanti propaganda by @girldante
GUIDO CAVALCANTI PROPAGANDA
ABBIAMO:
LA DISSOCIAZIONE SCHIZOFRENICA:
IL COMICO, IL SIMPATICO BURLONE, IL MEMATORE ANTE LITTERAM:
Photos from the iconic production of THE KING STAG by Carlo Gozzi at ART in Boston. Directed by Andrei Serban, the designs and choreography were by Julie Taymor.
Il principe Taer osserva con orrore come, grazie alla maledizione del genio Zelou, abbia preso il suo posto come Mostro Turchino nella spelonca. Questo dopo aver sentito da lui che la sua amata Dardanè va incontro ad atroci pericoli, e che la sua matrigna cattiva ha preso il controllo del regno. La rimpatriata se l'aspettava proprio diversa!
Ho voluto disegnare la scena della metamorfosi, dalla fine del primo atto dell'ottava fiaba teatrale del Gozzi. Il Mostro Turchino andò in scena nel 1763, e adatta una fiaba d'autore "orientale" (o meglio, tre fiabe collegate) di Thomas-Simon Guelette, l'Histoire d'Outzim-Ochantey Prince de la Chine, l'Histoire du Gulguly-Chenamé e l'Histoire du Centaure Bleu, tratti dalla raccolta les Mille ed un quarto d'ora. Visto che il principe separato dalla fidanzata sparisce un po' dagli intrecci di lei fino alla fine dei racconti, Gozzi lo fa trasformare nel mostro da catturare, dando ai due una prova di fedeltà per riavere il vero aspetto di Taer. Dato che nella fiaba originale il mostro era un centauro, gli ho dato un po' di quei tratti.
Deutsch und English under the cut
Prinz Taer sieht mit Grauen, wie der Fluch des Geistes Zelou ihm seinen Platz als blaues Ungeheuer in der Grotte nehmen lässt. Und das, nachdem er gehört hat, dass seine geliebte Dardanè großen Gefahren entgegen geht, und dass seine böse Stiefmutter die Macht im Land an sich gerissen hat. So hat er sich den Rückweg nach Hause nicht vorgestellt!
Wollte mal die Verwandlung vom Nede des ersten Aktes von Gozzis achtem Theatermärchen zeichnen. Das blaue Ungeheuer wurde 1763 in Venedig dargestellt, und bezieht sich auf (drei!) Kunstmärchen vom Franzosen Thomas-Simon Guelette, l'Histoire d'Outzim-Ochantey Prince de la Chine, l'Histoire du Gulguly-Chenamé und l'Histoire du Centaure, aus der Märchensammlung Tausend und eine Viertelstunde. Da der Prinz in diesen Geschichten aus den Geschehnissen seiner Freundin eine Weile aussteigt, hat Gozzi ihn im Hauptmonster zum fangen gemacht. Aus diesem Märchen geht auch Ludwig Tiecks Das Ungeheuer und der verzauberte Wald aus. Und wo doch das Ungeheuer ursprünglich ein Kentaur war, hab ich ihm dieses Aussehen gegeben.
Prince Taer looks in despair at his transformation into the blue monster, due to the curse of the genie Zelou, who made him take his place in the dark cave. Just after finding out that his girlfriend Dardanè is gonna face great danger, and that his evil stepmother took over the kingdom. He did not expect this for his trip back home!
Wanted to draw the transformation scene from the end of the first act of Gozzi's eighth Fairytale Play. The blue monster came out in 1763 and took inspiration from (three) fairy tales by Thomas-Simon Guelette, l'Histoire d'Outzim-Ochantey Prince de la Chine, l'Histoire du Gulguly-Chenamé and l'Histoire du Centaure, from the collection the thousand and one quarters of an hour. Since the prince of these stories kind of leaves the princess's plot for a while, Gozzi made him the main monster to catch. I aslo made him a centaur, due to him being that in the french tale.
