The new house

The new house (La casa nova), the second comedy written by Carlo Goldoni after his return from Rome, (the first wasThe lovers) is on stage at the Teatro India directed by Piero Maccarinelli. The play in three acts in Venetian dialect written in 1760 and performed for the first time in the Teatro San Luca, is inspired by a personal story of the author who at the time had just moved house. Warmly received by the public, the play was subsequently performed many times until the following year.

The stage action begins with the description of a move: the young married couple Anzoletto and Cecilia are about to move to a richer and more luxurious house just at the moment in which they are almost reduced to poverty, having squandered all the assets they had at their disposal. In fact, to maintain the lifestyle of his capricious wife Cecilia, Anzoletto has become up to his neck in debt, thus infuriating his rich uncle Cristoforo who is no longer willing to help him financially. But just when the creditors are about to seize all of Anzoletto's assets, Cecilia - understood her mistakes - manages to convince her uncle Cristoforo to intervene: the uncle then pays his nephew's debts, on the condition that he leaves the new house, which is too large and expensive for his possibilities.

The work, which constitutes one of the masterpieces of Goldoni's mature period, revolves around two central themes in the context of the Republic of Venice at the time: the economic squandering - with entire fortunes dissolved, for example, in the space of a night at the table from gambling - and the lust for luxury of a bourgeoisie who, ashamed of their origins, out of a desire to appear and out of a spirit of emulation, squanders the money accumulated through work by the previous generation who were instead content with a sober and moderate life. In the comedy there are therefore all the subtle reflections and the social and moral analysis of the author.

This edition makes use of the linguistic contribution and adaptation of the Venetian writer Paolo Malaguti in order to make the structure of the work usable without altering it in a language closer to us. The company is made up of ten young actresses and actors graduated from the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts, with the participation of Stefano Santospago who plays the character of uncle Cristoforo in the original Goldoni Venetian language.

Photo credits: courtesy of Claudia Pajewski