Azione teatrale

Azione teatrale (Italian for 'theatrical action'; plural azioni teatrali) is a genre of opera, popular in Italy and southern Europe. An azione teatrale was typically shorter in scale, with few actors, usually no chorus, and either presented in a single act or divided into two parts. These musical plays were usually presented for dignitaries in their private palaces, or in the aristocratic theaters of their hosts. Dedicatory in nature, the plots as perfected by the leading light of The Enlightenment stage, Pietro Metastasio, revolve around the trial and personal struggle of an individual to overcome hardship, privation, or temptation on his road to being a better man.