Carlo Gozzi

Carlo, Count Gozzi (Italian: [ˈkarlo ˈɡɔddzi]; 13 December 1720 – 4 April 1806) was an Italian (Venetian) playwright and champion of Commedia dell'arte.

Early life

Gozzi was born and died in Venice; he came from a family of minor Venetian aristocracy, the Tiepolos. At a young age, his parents were no longer able to support him financially, so he joined the army in Dalmatia. Three years later, he had returned to Venice and joined the Granelleschi Society. This society was dedicated to preserving Tuscan literature from the influence of foreign culture; it was particularly interested in handing down traditional Italian comedic performance: the Commedia dell'arte.

Personal life

His feuds with Carlo Goldoni and Pietro Chiari between 1756-1762 were legion. They argued over the changing style of Italian theatre and Gozzi's concern about losing Commedia dell'arte.

He was the titular protector of the actress Teodora Ricci. When Pier Antonio Gratarol, a member of Venetian society whom Gozzi's Draghe d'Amore was partially based on, had an affair with her, Gozzi was instrument in Gratrol's exile.

The writer Gasparo Gozzi was his brother.

His collected works were published under his own superintendence at Venice in 1792, in 10 volumes.

A number of twentieth-century stage works were inspired by Gozzi's plays. These include treatments of Turandot by Karl Vollmöller and Bertolt Brecht, operas based on the same story by Ferruccio Busoni, and, more famously, Giacomo Puccini, Sergei Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges, Alfredo Casella's La donna serpente and Hans Werner Henze's König Hirsch. He shares his tomb with his brother Gasparo Gozzi at the San Michele cemetery on the Isola di San Michele.