Carlo Goldoni – Reform of Italian comedy
Carlo Goldoni stands in the wings of the Teatro San Luca on a crisp Venetian evening, the year 1753. Beyond the velvet curtain, lantern light dances on the ornate Baroque balconies where Venice’s mingled…
Podcasts · In this section
Enlightenment and Romantic Theatre
Episodes on Goldoni, Lessing, and Schiller examine theatrical reform, dramaturgy, comedy, idealism, and the changing public stage of the Enlightenment and Romantic eras.
Friedrich Schiller – The idealist stage
A cold January night in 1782 at the Mannheim Court Theatre. The chandeliers’ flames flicker as a restless audience packs the hall – students in threadbare coats jostling beside merchants and minor nobles. A…
Gotthold Lessing – Dramaturgy begins
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing sits in a dimly lit box of the Hamburg National Theatre on a late September night in 1767, his pulse quickening with anticipation. On stage, the final act of his new…