STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
bagordi, masks or travesties with inappropriate costumes, Commedie, Giudiate, Burattini and
any kinds of performances (spiritual ones included) on stages, carts or afoot, both got by heart or
improvised. There are various punishments for violators in the course of the carnival’ 259 .
Italian opera companies when bringing the performances from Italy across Alps as far as the
new courts and aristocratic estates, they had to play and sing outside, since no appropriate opera
buildings were available. This is the case of Prague Coronation opera for Charles VI (1723) by
Fux, or Orlando Furioso by Bioni in Kuckus (1724). There was a unique chance for the noncourt
people to see it which in Kuckus-Spa continued till 1738. The principal performers of both
London theatres were engaged for the patriotic masque by Arne which was given in an open-air
theatre at the Prince’s residence at Cliveden on 1 August 1740. C.P.E. Bach’s remark that ‘it
was seldom that a musical master passed through [Leipzig] without getting to know my father
and playing for him’ must refer to performances of the collegium musicum, which took place on
Wednesdays between 4 and 6 p.m. in the coffee-garden ‘before the Grimmisches Thor’ in the
summer. Originally military music served in army but after the new hautbois spread across
Europe the new ensembles of French hautbois played outside and inside. A band of six young
‘Hautboisten’, led by a French musician played at Zeitz castle in 1698 and was sent to Vienna at
the request of the Habsburg court in 1700.
The 19 th century parades were the important mode of communication in a stratified and
conflicted society. S. Davis covers the period between 1790 and 1860, but she mostly analyzed
the parades in 50s. The streets were never truly open to all for parades. For example women
rarely appeared in parades; black could serve as musicians but risked injury if they paraded in
support of issues they deemed important. Moreover, some parades were used to sustain bigotry
and injustice just as others were used, especially by working people, to strive for greater
socioeconomic or political justice 260 .
Jazz music and minstrel shows belong to the street arts as well. Battles of bands (battle of
music) were events at which bands attempted to outplay one another in the manner of a Cutting
contest. Such trials of skill originally occurred spontaneously when New Orleans bands,
engaged in open-air advertising (or “ballyhoo”), encountered one another in the street; the
wheels of the wagons on which the musicians rode were tied together to prevent either from
escaping before the contest was decided. The attention these competitions attracted led
promoters to set up similar events for financial gain.
Jean Caspard Deburau (1796-1846) created in Paris the old-new pantomime ideal of
melancholic Pierrot figure in the white floppy costume. Born in Bohemia he innovated the
traditional commedia dell’arte principle and incorporated it into the French and world theatre
practice.
German spoken drama dominated the repertory at the Town Theatre of Bratislava for most of
the century, a rare exception being during the directorship of Ferenc (or János) Pokorny (1830–
259 Il Pro Governatore Generale di Roma, Cardinale di Santa Cecilia, dietro espresso ordine del Pontefice, proibisce
a chiunque di organizzare o eseguire (in pubblico o in privato) qualsiasi tipo di divertimento carnevalesco. In
particolare si vietano: Festini, Balli, Moresche, Bagordi, Maschere o travestimenti con abiti impropri,
Commedie, Giudiate, Burattini e qualsiasi tipo di rappresentazione (anche spirituale) su palchi, carri, o a piedi,
«tanto imparate a mente, quanto all'improviso». Essendo banditi tutti i tipi di divertimento per tutto il corso del
Carnevale, si prevedono diverse pene per i trasgressori.
Papa, In Roma, Nella Stamperia della Rev. Cam. Apostolica. 1689; Ibid. 7.2.1689m HERLA A175.
260 Davis, Susan G.: Parades and Power: Street Theatre in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia, Temple University
Press, Philadelphia 1986.
150
PE 375.307