"Imaginary Imperialism": Goldoni Stages China in 18th Century Italy

Abstract

While Carlo Goldoni's fame among theatre scholars rests primarily or even solely on his prose comedies, fully one third of his theatrical production was written for the musical stage. 1 Over a period spanning most of his life, the Venetian dramatist produced eighty librettos for musical works ranging from intermezzi to comic and serious operas. These works articulate Goldoni's social reform project, i.e. his desires and prescriptions for middle class agency, every bit as vigorously as the bourgeois plays. Moreover, the conventions of musical theatre in eighteenth-century Italy permitted Goldoni to extend his ideological program promoting the middle class beyond the usual reach attained by his prose theatre. Brilliantly exploiting the performance practices of comic opera, his privileged musical genre, Goldoni compellingly campaigned for liberal bourgeois values not only in his native Venice, but also world-wide.

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