Innamorati

The Innamorati are the romantic leads -- "Lovers" would be an accurate translation for their title. The male is the inamorato and the female is the inamorata. Due to old fashioned spelling, it sometimes has two Ns yielding innamorato etc.

In traditional commedia, the romance of the innamorati is the driving plot of the show -- it may be a story of lovers kept separated by circumstance, or it could be a tale of the vecchio and the inamorato competing for the affections of the inamorata, but the love story was the heart of the show and the event that sent the other characters into action.

Old scenari such as those by Flaminio Scala often used two pairs of innamorati in a show, perhaps to add a little more question as to who would find themselves matched with whom. Some shows removed all question of this by giving the couples matching names like Vittorio and Vittoria. Some of the early innamorati appear to have just used the actual first names of the actors playing the parts, such as Isabella Andreini who always played the inamorata Isabella. Respect to these famous actors and to the traditions of the commedia have since made it common to use the names of past innamorati.  

The innamorati are virtually always unmasked, and preferably played by attractive actors to give the show a bit of sex appeal. They would traditionally be costumed in the most fashionable and most lavish outfits that the company could afford, though by the start of the 18th century one began to see them dressed more "theatrically" in outfits similar to those which were worn by Shakespearean actors of the time for plays like Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra. 

The innamorati were known for a tendency to speak in a poetic dialect that wasn't used outside of the arts, similar to one speaking with a trained theatrical accent: an example of this style can be heard in Margaret Dumont in contrast to the Marx Brothers. (I also sometimes call this the Norma Desmond accent, after the mode of speech used by the character from Sunset Boulevard.)

Sometimes the two actors will play their roles straight, in contrast to the ridiculous antics of the zanni and the vecchi around them; on other occasions they may ham it up or parody the comical traits of those who are in love, and play as comedians themselves. 

Innamorati are occasionally used as "filler" characters, like a sibling for an inamorata might be a traditional inamorato character yet in the story he isn't matched with an inamorata or pursuing a romance himself (for an example see Fortunata Isabella where Cinthio is the inamorata Isabella's brother and legal guardian.) Sometimes the innamorati can even be turned into vecchi of sorts (that is, they fulfill the antagonistic roles usually taken by the vecchi.) Part of the characters' decline around the turn of the 18th century saw them being depicted as less love-struck and more as selfish, spoiled or ignorant socialites. One example of this is in The Love for Three Oranges, where lovers Leandro and Clarice become villains seeking the death of the prince. In another play, The Two Harlequins, Isabella is portrayed as little more than a gold-digging party girl, while lover Octavio is so miserly he begins to resemble the traditional portrayals of Pantalone, and there is little mutual love between them. (She actually chooses to marry the vecchio in the end!)  

In the Renaissance, the innamorati were usually the stars of the show; but around the start of the 18th century, the zanni gained in popularity, and the lovers' storyline began to be used as a mere subplot, or even be omitted altogether. The zanni began to see their function expanded into the innamorati roles: around the late 17th century servant-inamoratas began to appear (that is, a traditional servant character like Marinetta might now be the daughter of Pantalone instead of his servant, and so used as an inamorata character.) Stories focused on romances between Harlequin and Columbine became popular subjects, and over time the inclusion of the innamorati began to fall out of favor. By 1900 most popular commedia-type stories seem to have used only zanni in the romantic roles. Modern commedia performances, however, often try to preserve tradition, and so the innamorati parts have been given a sort of revival. They are usually included in any modern troupes or shows.  

FAMOUS INAMORATA NAMES

Isabella

Lavinia

Aurelia

Lucrezia

Flaminia

Celia

Lidia

Valeria

Florinda

Clarice

Angela

Graziosa

Diana

Ortensia

Silvia

FAMOUS INAMORATO NAMES

Flavio

Leandro

Vittorio

Orazio

Cinthio

Fulvio

Lelio

Virginio

Ottavio

Aurelio

Mario

Lindoro

Camillo

Fortunio

Cleandro