Antonio Petito (22 June 1822, in Naples – 24 March 1876) was an Italian

stage actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He was a notable Pulcinella performer, and an important figure of Neapolitan theater in the 19th century. Petito was the son of another Pulcinella, Petito Salvatore and Donna Peppa. It was his father who initiated him with wearing a mask during a theatrical performance at the Teatro San Carlino in Naples. Petito first performed at the

Teatro San Ferdinando Teatro San Ferdinando is a theatre in Naples, Italy. It is named after King Ferdinand I of Naples. Located near Ponte Nuovo, it is to the southeast of the Teatro Totò in the western part of the neighborhood of Arenaccia. Built in the late eight ...

in 1831. Petito was not only known for his acting facial expressions, but also for his work as a playwright despite being illiterate. Unable to write well, he used assistants, mostly commonly Giacomo Marulli. After his death, the San Carlino theater remained open for only a short time, having lost its most well known performer. '' Neapolitan Carousel'' is a

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

Italian comedy film about Antonio "Pulcinella" Petito. In 1982, the RAI dedicated a seven-part television drama, ''Petito story'', to him. He was the great grandfather of Enzo Petito, a character actor in

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

classic 1966

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

film '' The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''.

References

* Petito, Antonio. ''Memorie artistiche; presentate e trascritte da Giuseppe A. Pastore'', Lecce, Edizioni del Grifo, 2006. * Frascani, Federico. ''Le burle atroci di Antonio Petito; autobiografia del leggendario Pulcinella'', Napoli, Arte tipografica, 1998. * Piscopo, Ugo. ''Maschere per l'Europa: il teatro popolare napoletano da Petito a Eduardo'', Napoli, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1994. {{DEFAULTSORT:Petito, Antonio 1822 births 1876 deaths Italian dramatists and playwrights 19th-century Neapolitan people 19th-century Italian male actors Italian male stage actors 19th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights 19th-century male writers