#CdAHistory We went through an early play about courtesans and their customers, and solved some major problems about whose servant was whose, and about when it is night and dawn. It was a great session!

#CdAHistory We are going through a play that is brutally vague on so many plot points it is harder than ever to put the story together. Fortunately there are three other versions of this play that are a little more detailed. Thus I have some translating to do from other collections.

#CdAHistory my Intro to Commedia dell'Arte class starts in a few minutes. Hopefully I get some folks attending. This event is a busy place.

#CdAHistory We went through "The Riddles" tonight. It could be a fun play. I'm curious about she all the mocking gifts being given were green and white. In related news, I an preparing to start transcribing an 800 page manuscript that was penned by many different scribes, some of whom were sloppy.

#CdAHistory Today is a tedious day of photoshopping images of manuscript pages to reduce the impact of bleed-through and otherwise make it easier to transcribe. I am in a state of mind where this repetitive task is therapeutic.

#CdAHistory Today we went through a second pass on a farcical play from the early days of Commedia dell'Arte. We had some lingering issues the previous session, but I think we solved them all today.

#CdAHistory There was a popular character in the late 1500s and later called Bertolino. I've been trying to find what made him so popular, and how to explain it. I realized today that he must have been a lot like the title character in the TV series "Shoresy". More in first reply ->

#CdAHistory The UK Group is going through a play i Sebastiani performed this Summer, and even so, we are finding little things that are ways to improve the play.

#CdAHistory I'm taking my first look through the scenarios in Biancolelli-9328 (in Paris). 65 scenarios technically, but some of them are just a few scenes long, and have only 3 or 4 characters. It will be a while before I see details.

#CdAHistory The European group is going through the play "The Uppity Wives", and they are amazing! This is a glorious session, and so much fun!
This group meets weekly at 18:30EET, 17:30CET, 16:30GMT Mondays for a two hour session.

#CdAHistory The UK group went through a play with a lot of people in disguise as each other and a lot of pronouns to resolve, and we came away with a nice clear fun play. Yay!

#CdAHistory We just did a scenario with the European group that somehow we'd skipped over with the US group. It was one of the plays with the most ambiguity concerning the story, but it got solved. I'm very happy with this result. It was a tragedy that takes place in Cyprus.

#CdAHistory Today is getting better! We are doing the Eastern European scenario workshop, and two of our earlier regulars have returned now that their lives are back in better order (one had to handle the death of a parent, and related since November).

#CdAHistory As I go through, reworking the plays we did 5 or 6 years ago (Flaminio Scala), and performed decades ago, I'm reminded of how fun those plays were. I like the ones I'm working on from the other collections too, but I'd forgotten how much I liked these.

#CdAHistory my current tedious task is going through the plays in my first two books, and changing them to better reflect how I now see they should be written, including some recurring names, and some things about the Turks, and slaves. 70 such plays. I'm hoping to do three per day for a few weeks.

#CdAHistory the UK group went through one of the messier plays and solved everything. It's a relief to solve those issues.

#CdAHistory We went through a 2nd pass on a play that seemed problematic before today, and we found the things that made it magic. This will be a fun play to perform! In it, Pantalone gets to be especially grouchy.

#CdAHistory I'm just starting to look at a scenario in the Vatican library, and one of the props is a bag with a live cat in it. I will be interested to see how this prop is used.

#CdAHistory I've started translating a scenario, "The Metamorphosis of Pulcinella" from about 1730 (very late), but it has a LOT of notes attached about how the players played it that year. One of those notes is a sample monologue by the Dottore. I'm pleased that it sounds like my work.

#CdAHistory A few scenes into act one of the play I'm working on now, and the maidservants and young male lovers are trying to figure out how one of the female lovers can get an abortion. I don't know the date of the manuscript, but it is probably between 1650 and 1750. I might know better later.

#CdAHistory Tomorrow, I will finish the first pass of translation on all of the scenarios where I've found other transcriptions published (not counting another 65 I'll get at the end of January), so great progress. After that I have about 170 left to transcribe. 2026 will be busy.

#CdAHistory I just finished my first translation pass on a scenario that is about a man named Don Giovanni, who is careless about 'taking the honor' of young women, and in the end goes to hell. This is an early telling of this story, but I doubt it is the earliest.

#CdAHistory I am continuing to go through plays from some later collection. Most of these plays are operas (no music given, just scene outlines). I've found 17 of these that have already been transcribed, so I'm translating those as my first pass at the scenarios. Very different.

#CdAHistory I just finished my first translating pass at a play outline called "The Atheist Blasted by Lightning". It's a little moralistic, and ends with choirs of Angels and Demons singing about the pleasantness of heaven, and the torments of hell.

#CdAHistory I have started going through a collection of commedia dell'arte scenarios (Ciro Monarcha) that seem to reflect a much later time in history. I haven't found a concrete date for them yet, but interestingly, not many of them are comedies.

#CdAHistory I've started my first pass translating a Commedia dell'Arte Heroic Opera that represents the highlights of "Orlando Furioso". The character list is about 45 people, and the props list looks to be over 100 objects. Not a show you can bring in a wagon and perform on a platform stage.

#CdAHistory The EET group just went through a scenario and we found quite a few things needing some changes. It was a great session, PLUS we recruited a new guy to join us.

#CdAHistory I am currently going through a play called "The Honest Courtesan". There is no obvious courtesan in the cast list, nor has one appeared through act 1. I'm curious to learn where the play gets its name.

A man and a woman standing in front of a banner for the Canadian International Council, Victoria branch. The woman has grey hair and glasses and is wearing a black suit and pink shirt. The man has on a suit and tie and has grey hair. Both are smiling.

I had fun today talking about my book to members of the thriving Victoria branch of the Canadian International Council.

What an impressive group! Informed, engaged and intensely interested in Canada’s place in the world.

#hedidnotconquer #cdahistory #history #books @dundurnpress.bsky.social

#CdAHistory I'm working on a play, and there is a scene in which Magnifico and Coviello are doing something, and where in most previous plays, they might be called 'i vecchi' (the old men), or 'i buffoni' (the clowns), here they were called 'i stupidi' (you probably translated that correctly).