{{Short description|Form of musical drama typical of Naples}} {{Italics title}} [[File:Mario Merola.jpeg|thumb|right|upright|Mario Merola, the "king of ''sceneggiata''"<ref name="king">[http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/11_Novembre/12/merola.shtml/ è morto Mario Merola – Il Corriere della Sera] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230185014/http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2006/11_Novembre/12/merola.shtml |date=December 30, 2007 }}</ref>]] [[File:Mario Trevi 2010.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Mario Trevi]] [[File:Nino D'Angelo '92.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Nino D'Angelo]]
The '''''sceneggiata''''' ({{IPA|it|ʃenedˈdʒaːta|pron}}, pl. sceneggiate) or '''''sceneggiata napoletana''''' ({{IPA|it|ʃenedˈdʒaːata napoleˈtaːna|pron}}) is a form of musical drama typical of Naples. Beginning as a form of musical theatre after World War I, it was also adapted for cinema; ''sceneggiata'' films became especially popular in the 1970s, and contributed to the genre becoming more widely known outside Naples.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://corrieredinapoli.com/2020/07/01/cantanapoli-la-sceneggiata-di-mario-merola/|title=CantaNapoli: La sceneggiata di Mario Merola|date=July 2020|access-date=15 January 2022}}</ref> The most famous actors who played dramas were Mario Merola, Mario Trevi, and Nino D'Angelo.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sorrisi.com/musica/news/nino-d-angelo-uno-show-per-i-suoi-60-anni/|title=Nino D'Angelo: uno show per i suoi 60 anni. L'intervista|date=13 June 2017|access-date=15 January 2022}}</ref>
The ''sceneggiata'' can be roughly described as a "musical soap opera", where action and dialogue are interspersed with Neapolitan songs. Plots revolve around melodramatic themes drawing from the Neapolitan culture and tradition, including passion, jealousy, betrayal, personal deceit and treachery, honor, vengeance, and life in the world of petty crime. Songs and dialogue were originally in Neapolitan dialect, although, especially in filmic production, Italian has sometimes been preferred, to reach a larger audience. Outside Italy, ''sceneggiata'' is mostly known in areas populated by Italian immigrants. Besides Naples, the second homeland of ''sceneggiata'' is probably Little Italy in New York City.<ref>{{cite book|first=Roberto|last=Caselli|title=Storia della canzone italiana|year=2018|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=srdcDwAAQBAJ&dq=sceneggiata+little+italy+new+york&pg=PT88|access-date=11 December 2022|publisher=Hoepli|language=it|isbn=978-8820384913}}</ref>
==History and evolution== ===The golden age: 1920–1940=== The ''sceneggiata'' has its roots in cheap, popular theatrical performances, and scholars believe that economic considerations were decisive in its development.<ref name="scialo45">Pasquale Scialò, ''La canzone napoletana'', Newton, 1994, pag.45-48</ref> This is also true of the genre's most commonly identified forerunners, such as the works of Pasquale Altavilla (1806–1875), who developed many of his comedies around successful songs to appeal to a larger audience. After World War I, the Italian government increased the taxation of variety shows, thus causing many authors to devise a mixed type of show that would complement songs with dramatic acting, in order to circumvent such duties.<ref name="scialo45" /> This ''escamotage'' is sometimes credited to Enzo Lucio Murolo, who explicitly wrote the song "Surriento gentile" with the intent to create a ''sceneggiata'' around it and bring it to theatres in that form (the ''sceneggiata'' was performed by the Cafiero-Fumo company in 1920).<ref name="isso" />
One of the first known examples of ''sceneggiata'' is ''Pupatella'' (1918), based on the eponymous song by Libero Bovio, and performed by the theatre company led by Giovanni D'Alessio. In the following years the ''sceneggiata'' quickly developed with the advent of dedicated companies, such as that founded by Salvatore Cafiero (formerly a variety show author) and Eugenio Fumo (formerly a popular dramatist), and dedicated venues, such as the ''Trianon'' and ''San Ferdinando'' theatres, that became "temples" of the genre.<ref name="isso">[http://www.scenaillustrata.com/public/spip.php?article994 Isso, essa e o malamente, l'epopea della sceneggiata]</ref> The Cafiero-Fumo company (which starred, among others, Nino Taranto) largely contributed to establishing the genre's parameters. The typical ''sceneggiata'' included monologues, dialogues, songs, dancing, and its plot was centered on strong emotions such as love, passion, jealousy, honor, betrayal, adultery, vengeance, and the fight between good and evil. A standard pattern was that of the "triangle" comprising ''isso'' ("he", the hero), ''essa'' ("she", the heroine) and ''<nowiki>'</nowiki>o malamente'' ("the villain").<ref>[http://www.bella.napoli.it/varie-napoli/il-teatro-napoletano/ Il teatro napoletano]</ref><ref name="isso" />
''Sceneggiata'' remained extremely popular in Naples from the 1920s throughout to the 1940s. This era was dominated by a relatively small number of authors, called ''poeti di compagnia'' ("company poets") who wrote most of the screenplays; those included Enzo Lucio Murolo (1898–1975), Oscar Di Maio, Gaspare di Maio (1872–1930), and Raffaele Chiurazzi.
In this golden era of the ''sceneggiata'', the genre was also exported abroad, especially in communities of Italian immigrants of Neapolitan origin. New York City's Little Italy, most nostably, became a sort of second homeland of the ''sceneggiata'', with notable companies such as Maggio-Coruzzolo-Ciaramella, Marchetello-Diaz, and that led by Gilda Mignonette (1890–1953), the so-called "Queen of Emigrants".<ref>[http://www.ildiscobolo.net/MIGNONETTE%20GILDA%20HOME.htm Gilda Mignonette]</ref>
Besides being performed in theatres, ''sceneggiate'' were adapted for film since the early years of cinematography. The prominent ''sceneggiata'' movie studio was Miramare Film, founded by Emanuele Rotonno, that between 1919 and 1927 produced over 100 largely successful movies. This era of ''sceneggiata'' films, by the way, established a tradition of movies based on hit songs, which remained in Italian film making long after the decline of ''sceneggiata'' itself. One of the best known developments of this tradition is the ''musicarello'' subgenre that became popular in the 1950s–1960s in Italy, whereby many popular singer and singer-songwriters (e.g., Gianni Morandi, Al Bano, Adriano Celentano, Little Tony, and others) would also be actors in movies linked to their major hits.
===Revival: 1970–1990=== [[File:Mario Merola - Sgarro alla Camorra.jpeg|thumb|Mario Merola in ''Sgarro alla camorra'' by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti (1973)]]
The ''sceneggiata'' almost disappeared across World War II. In 1969, a single theatre in Naples (the Teatro Duemila) was continuing this tradition.
Nevertheless, in the 1970s the genre had a new boost. While this revival was mostly driven by successful ''sceneggiata'' films starring popular singers/actors such as Mario Merola, Mario Trevi, and Nino D'Angelo, ''sceneggiata'' also reappeared in theatres. Merola, in particular, became so popular with movies such as ''Sgarro alla camorra'' or ''Zappatore'' (the most successful ''sceneggiata'' film ever) to earn the title of "king of sceneggiata".<ref name="king" /> Especially outside Naples, Merola is by far the best known representative of the ''sceneggiata'' genre and he is often mentioned to refer to ''sceneggiata'' through antonomasia.
''Sgarro alla camorra'' (i.e. "Offence to the Camorra", 1973), in particular, written and directed by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti and starring Mario Merola at his film debut, is regarded as the first ''sceneggiata'' film and as a prototype for the genre.<ref name=fvf>{{cite book|last=Roberto Poppi|title=I registi: dal 1930 ai giorni nostri|year=2002|publisher=Gremese Editore, 2002|page=180|isbn=8884401712}}</ref><ref name=Curticrime>{{cite book|last1=Roberto Curti|title=Italian Crime Filmography, 1968–1980|date=22 October 2013|publisher=McFarland, 2013|isbn=978-0-7864-6976-5}}</ref> It was shot in Cetara, province of Salerno.<ref name=Curticrime>{{cite book|last1=Roberto Curti|title=Italian Crime Filmography, 1968–1980|date=22 October 2013|publisher=McFarland, 2013|isbn=978-0-7864-6976-5}}</ref>
The revival era of ''sceneggiata'', too, had its "company poets", who worked either for theatres, films, or both. Prominent representatives of this generation of ''sceneggiata'' authors include Alberto Sciotti (1925–1998), Aniello Langella (1919–1995), Francesco Martinelli, Elena Cannio, and Gaetano Di Maio (1927–1991).
==Canons of ''sceneggiata''== The canons within which the themes brought to the stage by the authors of the Neapolitan sceneggiate are well defined, such as love, betrayal, honor - sometimes the underworld -, summarized in the trinomial of protagonists:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.corriere.it/spettacoli/cards/mario-merola-re-sceneggiata-che-fu-scaricatore-porto-inviti-casa-bianca-traduzioni-arabo-avvisi-garanzia/esso-issa-o-malamente.shtml|title=Mario Merola: il re della sceneggiata che fu scaricatore di porto tra inviti alla Casa Bianca, traduzioni in arabo (e avvisi di garanzia)|date=11 November 2019 |access-date=20 December 2022|language=it}}</ref> * ''isso'' ("he"), also called "tenor", the positive hero; * ''essa'' ("she"), also called "first female singer", the heroine; * '''o malamente'' (the villain), the antagonist.
==In popular culture== *A scene from ''Senza Mamma'', a ''sceneggiata'' written by Francis Ford Coppola's grandfather Francesco Pennino, is featured in Coppola's ''The Godfather Part II''. *The Italian pornographic film director Mario Salieri released his ''Sceneggiata napoletana'', in which sexual activity with background music takes over the role of the form's usual musical interludes.
==Footnotes== <references/>
{{Italian film genres}} {{film genres}}
Category:Culture in Naples Category:Drama genres Category:Film genres Category:Theatrical genres Category:20th-century theatre Category:Cinema of Italy