Piccolo Teatro, ''Harlequin Servant of Two Masters''

Milan

The scenography of the first edition, which was staged only two months after the foundation of the Piccolo Teatro, was entrusted to Gianni Ratto, one of Strehler's very first collaborators.The size of the stage was so small that it could hardly contain all the actors at the same time, while the minimal stage layout ...

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... cited the naive simplicity of the street performances of the first commedia dell'arte.A callesella in Venice and a couple of interiors, including the house of Pantalone, were represented in turn with two pairs of wings and a painted muslin backdrop.And the meta-theatrical platform was already present and, on the stage of the Piccolo Teatro, it symbolized the typical ones used by the commedia dell'arte in the streets with an identical and deliberately naive modality.

Following its enormous success, the show was resumed in subsequent seasons and in 1952 the scenography was updated by Ratto himself, who kept the lines already drawn.In 1954 Ratto was invited to Brazil to direct an important company, Strehler thus entrusted the staging of the new 1956 edition ...

... to a very young set designer with whom he would collaborate periodically in the following five decades: Ezio Frigerio.The evolution of the staging of Strehler's Harlequin has similarities with that of Goldoni's Servant, who wrote it in the form of a canovaccio for an important comedian, so that he would recite it

... and completed the writing only in subsequent editions.At the time of Goldoni, the success of the commedia dell'arte required that it be reformed and ennobled, to be revitalized and passed on to the future.Something similar happened to Strehler's Harlequin, in which, during the re-editions ...

... the stage space expands and acquires importance compared to its debut.The leap is noticeable in particular with the passage from Ratto to Frigerio, from 1952 to 1956, which accompanies the definitive international consecration of the show.But Frigerio himself will continue the elaboration of the Harlequin for almost fifty years.

As it happened with Goldoni's canovaccio, the décor of Strehler's Harlequin also departs from the essential staging of 1947.With Frigerio, the stage layout of the commedia dell'arte continues to be mentioned, but at a more symbolic than formal level.The use of painted ASC - Sceno muslin backdrops remains, but these are suspended ...

... in the form of Brecht curtains to the wooden structure which, in the commedia dell'arte, was intended to hang the muslin backgrounds.The structure is equipped with three cables along which as many Brecht curtains are made to slide to perform the scene changes.

Maestro Ezio Frigerio left us on February 2, 2022.
We remember him with one of his most famous scenographies.
Have a good journey Maestro, arrivederci!

In 1947 Giorgio Strehler had the brilliant intuition to entrust Harlequin with the role of protagonist of one of Goldoni's most famous comedies, in view of planned international tours he wanted to leverage the extraordinary notoriety abroad of Bergamo's character.
It was not a success, but a triumph: the Harlequin of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan is the most famous and seen Italian theater show in the world.
The initial one was followed by the editions of 1952, 1956, 1963, 1973, 1977, 1987, 1990, 1997, 2003.

Harlequin Servant of Two Masters

Comedy in three acts

Text

From The Servant of Two Masters
by Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)

First night

Venice, Teatro San Samuele, 1746
Milan, Piccolo Teatro, 24/7/1947

Scenography

Ezio Frigerio (1930-2022)

Costume design

Franca Squarciapino

Masks

Amleto Sartori
Donato Sartori