I Tre Gemelli Veneziani

I Tre Gemelli Veneziani ("The three Venetian twins") is a comic drama in three acts by Antonio Collalto (also known as Antonio Collalto Mattiuzzi - 1717?-1778[1].

The original text

Originally written in Italian when Mattiuzzi was at the Theatre Italien in Paris (1759-1778).

According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani[2], the play was an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 1747 play I Due Gemelli Veneziani ("The two Venetian twins"

Translations and adaptations

Matiuzzi’s original was translated into French by P.-A. Lefèvre de Marcouville as Les Trois Jumeaux Vénitiens; performed for the King at Versailles on 31 December 1773, and in Paris at the Theatre Italienne in 1774. Published in Paris 1777, also in 1792.

Apparently translated into Spanish by an unknown author, as Los Tres Mellizos, and performed in Madrid under that title.

Translated and adapted into English as Three and the Deuce!

Originally written in French when Mattiuzzi was at the Theatre Italien in Paris (1759-1778).

According to the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani[3], this was in its turn an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 1747 play I Due Gemelli Veneziani ("The two Venetian twins", also formally translated and published as The Venetian Twins in English) ; which in its turn had been based on Menaechmi, a Latin comedy by Plautus (which had also been the major source for William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, and to a lesser extent perhaps of Twelfth Night.

See also Menaechmi

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menaechmi.

World Drama by Allardyce Nicoll. 120.

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-mattiuzzi_(Dizionario_Biografico)/

A programme, flyers and photographs held by NELM: [Collection: Rhodes University. Drama Department]: 2006. 6. 5. 2.

Go to ESAT Bibliography