Goldoni: Two Plays

Ranjit Bolt has come up with a marvelously robust and colloquial translation.

Préface
Two plays from Italy's greatest playwright, Carlo Goldoni, are here brought to life in vibrant translations by British playwright and translator Ranjit Bolt.

Auteur
Carlo Goldoni (1707-93) was an Italian dramatist born in Venice who wrote over 200 comedies, tragedies and tragicomedies in his lifetime. Goldoni settled in Paris in the 1760s, directing the Comédie-Italienne there. In 1783 his company moved to a new theatre on the street now known as the Boulevard des Italiens; they merged with the Théâtre Feydeau to form the Opéra-Comique in 1801. His works include tragedies: Rosmonda (1734), Griselda (1734); tragicomedies: Belisario (1734), Rinaldo di Montalbano (1736); and comedies such as The Servant of Two Masters (1745) and The Mistress of the Inn (1751). Born in Manchester in 1959, Ranjit Bolt was educated at Perse School and at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an investment analyst and advisor for eight years, before concentrating on theatre translation from the end of 1990. Ranjit Bolt's acclaimed translations for the theatre, many of which are published by Oberon Books, include works by Molière, Seneca, Sophocles, Corneille, Beaumarchais, Brecht, Goldoni and Zorilla.

Texte du rabat
In the year of the bicentenary of the death of Carlo Goldoni, one of Italy's most brilliant dramatists, two of his greatest comedies are brought to life in Ranjit Bolt's vibrant translations.

The Venetian Twins is a classic tale of mistaken identity and the ensuing confusion. The play was given its premiere at the Royal Shakespeare Company in a production directed by Michael Bogdanov which enjoyed huge success in Stratford and London.

Mirandolina is one of Goldoni's best known works and this translation was produced at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh.