View source for Azione teatrale

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{{Language with name/for|it|'''Azione teatrale'''|theatrical action|paren=left}}; plural {{lang|it|azioni teatrali}}) is a genre of [[opera]], popular in [[Italy]] 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]], 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 [[Tommaso Traetta|Traetta]]'s ''Armida'' (1761), [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''[[Il sogno di Scipione]]'' (1772) and [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]]'s ''[[L'isola disabitata]]'' (1779). [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]]'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]]' ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'', in which [[Ebenezer Scrooge|Scrooge]] is confronted and offered a way to live to his full potential. As such, it is very much based on Metastasio's ''[[Il sogno di Scipione]].''

==See also==
*[[:Category:Azioni teatrali]]

==References==
{{Wiktionary|azione|teatrale}}
*''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992),  782 pages,  {{ISBN|0-19-869164-5}}

{{Opera genres}}

[[Category:Azioni teatrali| ]]
[[Category:Opera genres]]


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