Macchietta (literally "little spot"; Plural: macchiette) is a form of comedy act which was common in Italian theatre between the late 1800s and the second half of the 1900s.

Style

The "macchietta" consisted in comic musical monologues caricaturing stock characters. It was generally committed to the observation of reality, and it sketched characters featuring particular defects or manias, which were further deformed and exaggerated for comical and satirical effects. Every monologue had some music serving as backdrop for the whole performance and the acting was interspersed by brief couplets sung by the comedian.Enzo Giannelli. "Macchietta". Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio Editore, 1990. pp. 954-5.

History

Macchiette were performed in café-chantants, revues and avanspettacolo, and less frequently as part of more elaborate comedy plays. After a golden age between the late 1800s and early 1900s, the genre apparently went out of fashion around 1920, before being resurrected in an amended and updated form in the 1930s, mostly thanks to the duo formed by Gigi Pisano and Giuseppe Cioffi, who created a series of popular macchiette such as "Ciccio Formaggio", "Mazza Pezza e Pizzo" and "Datemi Elisabetta", which were successfully performed by the most popular comedians of the time. Starting from the 1950s, the genre eventually declined and gradually disappeared together with the decline of avanspettacolo.

Actors

Nicola Maldacea Nicola Maldacea (29 October 1870 – 5 March 1945) was an Italian actor, comedian and singer. He himself regarded himself as the person who coined the term. Some of his macchiette had notable poes such as

Trilussa Trilussa, anagrammatic pseudonym of Carlo Alberto Camillo Mariano SalustriSome biographers as Claudio Rendina report ''Marianum'' as his fourth name (Rendina, p.19) ( Rome, 26 October 1871 – 21 December 1950), was an Italian poet, writer an ...

, Salvatore Di Giacomo and Libero Bovio as often uncredited authors. Other well-known artists specialized in this form of entertainment were the Milan-based actor and playwright , the Neapolitans Raffaele Viviani and (creator of the classical macchietta "La risata"), and the Roman Ettore Petrolini.

References

{{Authority control macchietta Theatre in Italy Theatrical genres

Style

History

Actors

Further reading

References