Innamorati
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Innamorati (Italian: lovers) are young lovers, stock characters of the commedia dell'arte.
The characters are composed of generous portions of lust, romance, vanity, and poetry, and very little sense. The lovers come in obvious pairs who, through much trial and tribulation, are united at the end of the play. They are so vain that they are usually more in love with themselves and the idea of being in love than with their actual lover. The innamorato, like most men of that era, went armed, and unlike Il Capitano, was not a coward; some of the characters are notably rash in their willingness to fight. (Sometimes one of the innamorato in a scenario holds the rank of captain; he will still have the character of the lover rather than il capitano.)
In larger troupes there may be multiple pairs of lovers which must be untangled by the action of the plot. One device to make sure that nobody could miss who belonged with whom was to dress each pair of lovers in similar colors and/or to name them with masculine and feminine versions of the same name such as Flavio and Flavia or Ottavio and Ottavia.
The innamorati typically wore no masks and were dressed in the latest fashions unless the scenario forbade it. They were often called upon to sing, play an instrument, or recite poetry with some skill. Although the characters of the innamorati were foolish, the appropriate language was filled with ornate poetical phrasing, so that the actors playing them required both study to master the appropriate imagery and quick wits to deploy them, more so than the other parts.
Comic effect could be achieved by the action of zanni or careful composition of the piece to portray a comically bad performance.
References
- John Rudlin, Commedia dell'Arte: An Actor's Handbook, ISBN 0415-047706
- Maurice Sand, The History of the Harlequinade
