Massimo Ciavolella
Professor of Italian, University of California, Los Angeles

"Isabella Andreini and Commedia dell'Arte in Italy"

Thursday, 4 May 2006
4:00 p.m.
L140 Chazen

Sponsored by the Center for European Studies
and the Department of French & Italian

Massimo Ciavolella studied at the Universities of Bologna, Rome, and British Columbia, where he received his Ph.D. in classical, medieval and Renaissance studies. He taught for many years at Carleton University (Ottawa) and at the University of Toronto before coming to his present positions as Professor and Chair, Department of Italian, and Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was the co-founder and co-editor (1970-1991) of Quaderni d'italianistica (the official journal of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies), and he is currently co-editor with Professor Luigi Ballerini of the University of Toronto Press’ "Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library," a collection that will include 100 Italian major texts in English translation. Author of a broad stream of articles, reviews, encyclopaedia and dictionary entries, etc., he has also written and co-edited several books, including La malattia d'amore dall'antichità al Medioevo (Rome: Bulzoni, 1976); Saturn from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1992); Eros and Anteros: Medicine and the Literary Traditions of Love in the Renaissance(Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1993); Scrittori, tendenze letterarie e conflitto delle poetiche in Italia (1960-1990). (Ravenna: Longo, 1993); Italian Studies in North America (Ottawa, Dovehouse, 1994); La lotta con Proteo. 2 volumes (Florence: Cadmo, 2001); Ariosto Today. Contemporary Perspectives(Toronto University Press, 2003); and Culture and Authority in the Baroque(Toronto University Press, 2005).

About the lecture: Isabella Andreini was the most famous actress of the commedia dell'arte. As Isabella Canali, she was the leading lady of the Compagnia dei Gelosi, where she met fellow actor Francesco Andreini, whom she married at the age of sixteen. In 1603 she became the first woman to perform on a French stage, at the court of Henri IV. At the time, in many European countries, women were not allowed to appear on stage. Isabella was also a poet and author of a pastoral play; a book of songs, sonnets, letters, and other verse was published after her death. Isabella Andreini brought a new, fuller dimension to the role of prima donna innamorata (romantic female lead). Her talent and beauty, combined with intelligence and culture, revolutionized the Italian stage, particularly with such plays as La Pazzia d'Isabella, in which she played a woman who spoke several languages. Her death at age 42, while giving birth to her eighth child, prompted her husband's retirement from the stage, and inspired numerous elegies. She was given an honorary funeral in Lyon, and her image appeared on a coin minted in her honour in 1604.