Goldoni: Volume One

by Carlo Goldoni, Goldoni, Robert David MacDonald (Translator)

Overview

Carlo Goldoni (1707 – 1793) was one of the most prolific and versatile playwrights of his century, even though most of his vast output deals with life confined to a few square miles of Northern Italy. This new edition contains two comedies about women surviving precariously in a man's world, but each taking a distinctly different approach to her problems. Mirandolina believes open dealing is essential; Valentina wants to have her cake and eat it, and uses intrigue to further her interests. Both are eager to win some kind of equality in a world in which they have no equality, only certain advantages, and almost come to grief. But these are worldly comedies and Goldoni does not deny us the satisfaction of seeing the women triumph.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781870259484
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/31/1999
Series:	Oberon Modern Playwrights , #1
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Carlo Goldoni (1707-93) was an Italian dramatist born in Venice who wrote over 200 comedies, tragedies and tragicomedies in his lifetime. Goldoni settled in Paris in the 1760s, directing the Comédie-Italienne there. In 1783 his company moved to a new theatre on the street now known as the Boulevard des Italiens; they merged with the Théâtre Feydeau to form the Opéra-Comique in 1801. His works include tragedies: Rosmonda (1734), Griselda (1734); tragicomedies: Belisario (1734), Rinaldo di Montalbano (1736); and comedies such as The Servant of Two Masters (1745) and The Mistress of the Inn (1751).

Robert David MacDonald (1929–2004) was born in Elgin, Scotland. After originally training as a musician, he worked as a Director, Playwright and Translator. As an Assistant Director, he worked at both the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and for the Royal Opera House. In 1971, he became Co-Artistic Director of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, where he directed fifty plays and wrote fifteen for the venue before his retirement in 2003. The plays that he wrote for the Glasgow Citz include The De Sade Show (1975), Chinchilla (1977), Summit Conference (1978), also seen in the West End with Glenda Jackson and Gary Oldman, A Waste of Time (1980), Don Juan (1980), Webster (1983), Britannicus (2002) and Cheri (2003). As a translator, MacDonald translated over seventy different plays and opera from over ten different languages including The Threepenny Opera, Tamerlano, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, The Marriage of Figaro, Orpheus and The Human Voice, Conversation at Night, Shadow of Angels, The Balcony, The Government Inspector, Tasso, Faust I and II, Ibsen’s Brand and Hedda Gabler, Lermontov's Maskerade, Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, Molière's School for Wives and Don Juan, Pirandello's Enrico Four, Racine's Phèdre, Schiller's Mary Stuart, The Maid of Orleans and Don Carlos, Chekhov's The Seagull, Verne's Around the World In Eighty Days, Wedekind's Lulu and Goethe’s Clavigo. His adaptation of War and Peace ran for two seasons on Broadway and received an Emmy award when shown on U.S television. The Finborough Theatre has previously presented Robert David MacDonald’s versions of Rolf Hochhuth’s Soldiers (2004) and The Representative (2006)

Editorial Reviews

British theatre owes a huge debt to MacDonald” —The Sunday Times

From the Publisher