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  • The Rise of the Diva on the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell’Arte Stage by Rosalind Kerr
  • Julie D. Campbell (bio)
The Rise of the Diva on the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell’Arte Stage. Rosalind Kerr. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. xiii + 232 pp. $65. ISBN 978-1-4426-4911-8.

In her new book on the rise of the iconic commedia dell’arte diva, Rosalind Kerr notes that in 1625, when Giovan Battista Andreini “proclaimed in La ferza that the most marvelous feature of the commedia dell’arte was the miraculous presence of the actresses, they had been established members of the companies for over sixty years” (147). Through feminist interpretations of fetishism, celebrity theory, and cultural analysis, as well as close readings of contemporary sixteenth- and seventeenth-century primary and secondary sources, Kerr considers the roles of the serva and the prima and seconda donna. She also analyzes what is known of the four most documented divas of the era, Flaminia of Rome, Vicenza Armani, Vittoria Piissimi, and Isabella Andreini, commenting especially on how they were marketed to audiences.

Situating the rise of the actresses within the context of the effects of the Council of Trent, Kerr posits that it “seems logical that this phenomenal change likely occurred as a result of the severe economic and social upheavals that left many women without other means to earn a living” (20–21). She suggests that these circumstances support the long-held notion that actresses migrated from the courtesan class onto the stage. Kerr notes that the first record in Italy of a woman signing a theatrical contract was one Donna Lucrezia of Siena, who signed in her home in the campo Marzio of Rome, was designated “domina” and lacked a surname—both marks of a courtesan; thus, historians have suggested that she provided a case in point. Kerr observes, however, that when women on stage became regarded as performers, “they were no longer equivalent to prostitutes or courtesans who sold their bodies directly”; instead, they became “metonymic substitutes” who acquired the status of “fetishes whose sexual availability is contingent and ambiguous” (42).

Kerr notes that the commedia dell’arte “capitalized on the mass appeal of this new class of talented woman” as part of its marketing strategy (68). Actresses, like courtesans, broke “the taboo against females appearing in public spaces,” and they acquired “a certain notoriety” reflected in the fact that “the public called them by their first names, or by the first names of the characters they typically played” (8). Through Lacanian analysis of the actresses’ male and female performances, [End Page 234] especially drawing on examples from Flaminio Scala’s scenarios, Kerr considers the erotic principles at work in popular public reception of these women on stage.

In the second chapter, Kerr addresses the pornographic bawd, providing an in-depth study of the roles of the serva, the maid. Surveying such texts as the prologues for “La fantesca grassa” (The Fat Maid) and “La ruffiana” (The Procuress), along with scenarios from Scala and eleven visual works, Kerr suggests that since widespread prostitution “had accustomed male spectators to view the female body as an image for visual consumption, the commedia dell’arte enhanced that demand by offering glimpses of naked female bodies and simulated sexual acts on stage” (37).

Referring to the foundational work of Louise George Clubb, Kerr points out that one of the “most striking new theatregrams she identified was the giovane innamorata, the young marriageable female, negligible in Plautus and Terence, who becomes a staple figure in the cinquecento genre” (40). The innamorata role was the star turn for the virtuose—women gifted in eloquence, humanist education, and musical ability, who had prodigious memories and charismatic presence. Referring to the courtesan origins of actresses, Kerr suggests that the virtuose provided audiences “privileged glimpses of female performers not previously seen outside the private salons of the cultured patrons or those who could afford their services” (68). She also engages with the work of sociologist Chris Rojek on the nature of celebrity to consider ways that one might read the “feelings of recognition, awe and wonder’” (9) that were articulated during the period about the...

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