Carlo Goldoni

Carlo Goldoni, who lived from February 25, 1707, to February 6, 1793, was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice who transformed Italian theatre by moving it away from the improvised Commedia dell'arte toward realistic comedies of middle-class life. Blending the influence of Moliere with Commedia dell'arte tradition and incorporating Venetian vernacular and regional dialect, his plays offered audiences images of themselves, dramatizing the values and conflicts of the emerging middle classes; his most celebrated play is The Servant of Two Masters (1745), frequently adapted internationally, alongside The Mistress of the Inn (1751) and The Boors (1760). He also contributed significantly to opera buffa, collaborating with the composer Baldassare Galuppi, and moved to Paris in 1761, where he continued writing, mainly in French, until his death.