Gennaro Sacco, słynny Coviello, i jego trzy sztuki

Abstract

This article analyzes three plays published by Gennaro Sacco, a dell’arte actor-playwright who visited the Polish royal court in 1699. Sacco became famous for his role as Coviello. He initially performed in Naples, then in the northern part of the Apennine Peninsula, and, like many Italian actors, he offered his talent to various European rulers (in Celle, Warsaw, Madrid). We hardly know anything about his stay at the Warsaw court of king Augustus II; there are no sources that would reveal the repertoire or the names of troupe members. What is extant, however, is the dramatic text of Commedia smascherata, ovvero i comici esaminati, published in Warsaw. The analysis of this play against the background of its two predecessors, published by Sacco in Italy more than a decade earlier, contributes to our knowledge of role structure, distribution, and variation in dell’arte theater. It also helps iden­tify the impact of local conditions on the work of travelling Italian dell’arte artists.

Keywords

• gennaro sacco
• coviello
• commedia dell’arte
• comic types
• repertoire
• character variation
• role distribution