Promotion of book | C. Goldoni: Le Baruffe Chiozzotte

Book Promotion | C. Goldoni: Le Baruffe Chiozzotte
Publishers: Dubrovačke ljetne igre and Matica hrvatska
Translated and adapted by Morana Čale

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Ponašijenčene

Translation, Dubrovnik localization, and foreword by Morana Čale

The latest Croatian adaptation of the celebrated comedy Le baruffe chiozzotte (1762) by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni (Venice, 1707 – Paris, 1793) was translated and localized into the Dubrovnik dialect in 2025 by Morana Čale for a production at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, directed by Krešimir Dolenčić. This adaptation fits into the long-standing Dubrovnik tradition of “frančezarije” (above all adaptations of Molière) and “talijanarije,” spanning from the Baroque period to the 20th century. In particular, it continues the line initiated by Frano Čale through his Dubrovnik localization of Goldoni’s La bottega del caffè, first staged at the Festival in 1978, followed by Goldoni’s comedies Moskar and Gospar Tomo Brontulalo iliti Fastidiozi starežina.

On Croatian stages, The Fishwives’ Quarrels achieved fame thanks to the ingenious yet never-published translation-localization into the Split dialect by Ivo Tijardović, which later inspired equally successful though unpublished theatrical adaptations into the dialects of Vis, Kvarner, and Dubrovnik. Unlike the earlier Dubrovnik version of Le baruffe chiozzotte, created collectively by the acting ensemble and director Joško Juvančić and closely following Tijardović’s witty Split adaptation—at the cost of significantly diverging from the original—Morana Čale’s translation-adaptation is the first since Tijardović’s to return directly to Goldoni’s original text in the Venetian dialect characteristic of the town of Chioggia.

In the author’s foreword intended for readers of the comedy, Goldoni—following both Italian and classical comic traditions—emphasized that the essence of comedy lies in accurately imitating “nature.” He pointed out how crucial it is, for intelligibility, comic effectiveness, and successful theatrical communication, that audiences perceive the language of the comedy as convincingly suited to the social class and origins of the characters, while at the same time finding it familiar and naturally accessible. As he himself noted, he strove to imitate as faithfully as possible the speech patterns of the fishermen, sailors, and common people of Chioggia.

Just as Tijardović perceptively applied Goldoni’s insight, Morana Čale likewise strives for an equivalent effect in her translation-localization. Naturally, determining what is “natural” and how authentic Dubrovnik speech ought to sound becomes a challenge in the 21st century. Aware that modern-day Dubrovnik residents have sought in various ways to revive their “true” dialect from oblivion—an ideal that, like any historical idiom, inevitably eludes the grasp of nostalgia—the translator and localizer turned to the linguistic reserves of literary, comic, and dramaturgical culture, above all, though not exclusively, to the still-living legacy of Marin Držić, with which the City, long intertwined with theatre, continues to live and breathe.

The book was published jointly by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and Matrix Croatica Dubrovnik Branch, edited by Jelena Obradović Mojaš.