Editing Carlo Goldoni (section)

=== Theatrical career ===
[[Image:Statua di Carlo Goldoni (Firenze).JPG|thumb|Monument to Goldoni in [[Florence]] (sculpted by [[Ulisse Cambi]])]]

Goldoni entered the Italian theatre scene with a [[tragedy]], ''[[Amalasunta]]'', produced in Milan. The play was a critical and financial failure.

Submitting it to Count Prata, director of the opera, he was told that his piece "was composed with due regard for the rules of [[Aristotle]] and [[Horace]], but not according to those laid down for the Italian drama." "In France", continued the count, "you can try to please the public, but here in Italy it is the actors and actresses whom you must consult, as well as the composer of the music and the stage decorators. Everything must be done according to a certain form which I will explain to you."

Goldoni thanked his critic, went back to his inn and ordered a fire, into which he threw the manuscript of his ''Amalasunta''.

His next play, ''Belisario'', written in 1734, was more successful, though of its success he afterwards professed himself ashamed.

During this period he also wrote [[librettos]] for [[opera seria]] and served for a time as literary director of the [[Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo|San Giovanni Grisostomo]], Venice's most distinguished [[opera house]].<ref name="cgt">Banham (1998, 433).</ref>

He wrote other tragedies for a time, but he was not long in discovering that his bent was for [[comedy]]. He had come to realize that the Italian stage needed reforming; adopting [[Molière]] as his model, he went to work in earnest and in 1738 produced his first real comedy, ''L'uomo di mondo'' ("The Man of the World"). During his many wanderings and adventures in Italy, he was constantly at work and when, at [[Livorno]], he became acquainted with the manager Medebac, he determined to pursue the profession of playwriting in order to make a living. He was employed by Medebac to write plays for his theatre in Venice. He worked for other managers and produced during his stay in that city some of his most characteristic works. He also wrote ''Momolo Cortesan'' in 1738. By 1743, he had perfected his hybrid style of playwriting (combining the model of [[Molière]] with the strengths of ''[[Commedia dell'arte]]'' and his own wit and sincerity). This style was typified in ''La Donna di garbo'', the first Italian comedy of its kind.

After 1748, Goldoni collaborated with the composer [[Baldassare Galuppi]], making significant contributions to the new form of '[[opera buffa]]'. Galuppi composed the score for more than twenty of Goldoni's librettos. As with his comedies, Goldoni's ''opera buffa'' integrates elements of the Commedia dell'arte with recognisable local and middle-class realities. His operatic works include two of the most successful musical comedies of the eighteenth century, ''Il filosofo di campagna'' (''The Country Philosopher''), set by Galuppi (1752) and ''[[La buona figliuola]]'' (''The Good Girl''), set by [[Niccolò Piccinni]] (1760).<ref name="cgt"/>

In 1753, following his return from Bologna, he defected to the [[Teatro San Luca]] of the [[Vendramin]] family, where he performed most of his plays to 1762.