Spectacle, Exoticism, and Comedy in Gozzi's Turandot

Theatre as Cultural Bellwether and the Rise of Commedia dell'Arte

Theatre has always been something of a bellwether for cultural progress and change. Societal issues have been dealt with explicitly in stage plays since the time of the ancient Greeks, and trends in performance styles and subject matter have consistently provided a clear representation of societal mores and cultural values at any given place and time. During the Dark Ages, for example, there was essentially no theatre aside from Church-inspired and Church-approved drama recounting certain Biblical stories, primarily those related to Jesus' passion. This reflected society at large, in which literacy and learning had stagnated and very little cultural or technological progress was made throughout much of Europe. With the Renaissance came the return of drama — indeed, one of the high points in theatrical writing and performance — just as the period was one of the most productive in other areas of progress: political liberation, the emergence of scientific understanding, and more.

Of course, the Renaissance could not last forever, and drama went through many different phases in different regions of the world. In Italy, the style known as commedia dell'arte emerged in the latter part of the Renaissance. Though its popularity waned as plays became more sophisticated and less slapstick throughout much of Western civilization, the form remained popular for several centuries. One of the last — perhaps the last — great commedia entertainers, and one who helped transition Italian theatre into something more modern, was Carlo Gozzi.

Commedia dell'arte is all about the spectacle of performance, with exaggerated characters often wearing masks and nearly — or entirely — nonsensical plots that almost always end happily, however improbably, with the good guys winning and the bad guys appropriately punished. Gozzi took this style, which relied on stock characters, standard (if outrageous) plot twists, and improvisation on the part of the actors, and transformed it into something more recognizable as a modern play: a clear and deliberate plot structure, scripted lines for the actors, and more realistic and human motives for the characters portrayed (Opera America, 2012). The larger-than-life characters and events remained, however, and though more reasonably motivated, the plot was still quite complex, bawdy, and gaudy. Turandot serves as an excellent example of Gozzi's work, standing as a strong representation of the continuing traditions of high theatre while at the same time becoming more grounded in the realities and perspectives of more modern society and theatre.

Spectacle: Visual Grandeur and the World of High Theatre

One of the key elements of high theatre and the commedia dell'arte style is the spectacle of the dramatic presentation. The visual aspects of costumes, sets, and — to a lesser degree in the pre-electricity era — lighting all contribute to the feeling of grand transport and the otherworldliness of high theatre. While Gozzi strived to create characters that were more realistic than those in older, more traditional commedia dell'arte, he still captures the feel of their visual spectacle as well as other visual elements of commedia in Turandot.

At the very outset of the play, several traditional commedia dell'arte characters such as Pantalone appear in a full procession, stopping in front of a row of bloody heads. While the visual impact of this will vary from production to production, it is clear that Gozzi intended the audience's first view to be arresting both in terms of its violence and in the heightened quality of the characters who enter. He describes the scene as: "One of the city gates of Pekin. Over the gate, planted on iron poles, a row of severed heads with shaven crowns" (I. i.). The view of royal life and of other elements of the plot is made quite rich through this and other such descriptions, and the costumes and scenic elements of an authentic production must necessarily present a dazzlingly beautiful and intricate visual display in order to achieve the effect Gozzi was attempting to create. By crafting such a transport-conducive scene, Gozzi remained true to the style of high theatre.

Exoticism: Transporting the Audience to an Otherworldly Setting

Many plays of the Renaissance, in Italy and elsewhere, dealt with the societies in which they were presented. Most commedia dell'arte plays and examples of high theatre did not involve radically different cultures or lands, so the sometimes exotic setting and characters of Turandot cannot be listed as a standard element of high theatre. This does not mean that this aspect of Gozzi's masterpiece is unrelated to high theatre, however; the connection is simply more subtle and complex than the connection apparent in elements such as spectacle. High theatre, as noted above, is about creating a world apart from the audience and transporting the audience there — and Gozzi achieves this spectacularly.

By creating such an exotic setting for Turandot — which, even though based on actual tales from China and/or Persia, is heavily adapted by Gozzi — the playwright helps establish a feeling of otherworldliness. It is in the characters' descriptions of and interactions with this exotic setting that the transportation of the audience is achieved (Opera America, 2012). When Calaf meets his friend Barak by chance in the city, for example, the latter describes how he started "Before the gates of Astrakhan, and fled / Close followed by the Sultan of Taschkent" (I. ii.). The strange place names and the existence of a Sultan are both highly exotic elements, and the extreme nature of the action they inspire is remarkable in itself. Yet the way these elements are spoken of and referenced by the characters creates a familiarity of the strange that helps transport the audience to this exotic world. This sense of transport is the definitive feature of Carlo Gozzi's high theatre.

Conclusion

Gozzi's Turandot is a triumph of high theatre and commedia dell'arte. Helping to bridge the gap between older and more modern drama through a realistically rooted script, this play still manages to truly transport an audience through its use of spectacle, exoticism, the intricacies of its plot, and its comedy. This is high theatre at its finest.

References

Gozzi, C. Turandot. Accessed 4 March 2011. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26730/26730-h/26730-h.htm

Opera America. (2012). Gozzi and his Turandot. Accessed 4 March 2012.