{{Short description|Italian form of comedy act}} {{Italics title}} [[File:Popuin, macchietta camogliese di fine Ottocento, 1.tiff|thumb|"Popuin", ''macchietta'' from Camogli, Liguria, late nineteenth century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.agenziabozzo.it/camogli_ieri/CAMOGLI_ANTICA_web/Camogli_Foto_Antiche_1852_Popuin_macchietta_camogliese_con_fiore_1900c.htm|title=Popuin|website=Agenzia Bozzo|author=Marcello Bozzo}}</ref> The caption ironically asserts: "Popuin wishes a happy Easter and offers the most beautiful flower of his youth!".]] '''''Macchietta''''' (English: "little spot"; {{plural form}}: ''macchiette'' or ''macchiettas'') is a form of comedy act which was common in Italian theatre between the late 1800s and the second half of the 1900s.
==Style== The ''macchietta'' consisted in comic musical monologues caricaturing stock characters. It was generally committed to the observation of reality, and it sketched characters featuring particular defects or manias, which were further deformed and exaggerated for comical and satirical effects. Every monologue had some music serving as backdrop for the whole performance and the acting was interspersed by brief couplets sung by the comedian.<ref name=curcio>Enzo Giannelli. "Macchietta". Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio Editore, 1990. pp. 954-5.</ref>
==History== ''Macchiette'' were performed in ''café-chantants'', revues and ''avanspettacolo'', and less frequently as part of more elaborate comedy plays. After a golden age between the late 1800s and early 1900s, the genre apparently went out of fashion around 1920, before being resurrected in an amended and updated form in the 1930s, mostly thanks to the duo formed by Gigi Pisano and Giuseppe Cioffi, who created a series of popular ''macchiette'' such as "Ciccio Formaggio", "Mazza Pezza e Pizzo" and "Datemi Elisabetta", which were successfully performed by the most popular comedians of the time.<ref name=curcio/>
Starting from the 1950s, the genre eventually declined and gradually disappeared together with the decline of ''avanspettacolo''.<ref name=curcio/>
==Actors== [[File:Nicola Maldacea, macchietta, set of photography by Luca Comerio.jpg|thumb|A series of photographs by Luca Comerio in which Nicola Maldacea performs in some of his most famous ''macchiette'']] Nicola Maldacea was among the first actors to adopt the genre, and he is regarded as the figure who mostly helped to canonize the ''macchietta'', if not its inventor.<ref name=curcio/><ref name="Dizionario">{{cite book|last1=Stefania Chiocchini|title=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani|publisher=Treccani, 2014|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nicola-maldacea_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/|chapter=Maldacea, Nicola}}</ref> He himself regarded himself as the person who coined the term.<ref name="Dizionario"/> Some of his ''macchiette'' had notable poets such as Trilussa, Salvatore Di Giacomo and Libero Bovio as often uncredited authors.<ref name=curcio/>
Other well-known artists specialized in this form of entertainment were the Milan-based actor and playwright {{Interlanguage link multi|Edoardo Ferravilla|it}}, the Neapolitans Raffaele Viviani and {{Interlanguage link multi|Berardo Cantalamessa|it}} (creator of the classical ''macchietta'' "La risata"), and the Roman Ettore Petrolini.<ref name=curcio/>
==Further reading== * {{cite book|last1=Vittorio Paliotti|title=La Macchietta|publisher=Bideri, 1977}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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macchietta Category:Theatre of Italy Category:Theatrical genres