Nicola Maldacea

File:Nicola Maldacea, macchietta, set of photography by Luca Comerio.jpg]]

Born to an elementary schoolteacher with origins in Cosenza, Nicola Maldacea embarked upon his theatrical career in his hometown, making his debut at a very young age on the stages of variety shows and café-chantants.{{cite book|author=Nino Masiello|title=Tempo di Maggio. Teatro popolare del '900 a Napoli|date=1994|publisher=Tullio Pironti|isbn=8879371304|language=it|page=35}}

Possessing a robust vocal prowess, Maldacea initiated his career as a canzonettista (a traveling singer of popular songs), performing in venues across the province of Naples. This eventually led him to write for theatrical companies helmed by Eduardo Scarpetta and Gennaro Pantalena, affording him the opportunity to gain recognition and eventually play at the Salone Margherita (it) in Naples.{{cite book|author=Vittorio Paliotti|title=La Macchietta|date=1977|page=13|language=it|publisher=Bideri}}

The recitative style he adopted during his performances prompted Maldacea to provide a satirical interpretation conducive to caricaturing the characters he embodied. This gave birth to the macchiette genere, which Maldacea himself described as follows:{{cite book|author=Sergio Lori|title=Il varietà a Napoli|location=Rome|publisher=Newton & Compton|pages=8-9|language=it|quote=Come un disegnatore, mi ripromettevo di dare al pubblico un'impressione immediata schizzando il tipo, segnandolo rapidamente, rendendone i tratti salienti. Da ciò l'origine della parola macchietta, che è propria dell'arte figurativa: schizzo frettoloso, che renda con poche pennellate un luogo o una persona in modo da darne un'impressione efficace con la massima spontaneità caricaturale}}

{{Blockquote|Like a draftsman, I committed myself to give the audience an immediate impression by sketching the character, marking it quickly, highlighting its distinctive features. Hence the origin of the word 'macchietta,' which belongs to the figurative arts: a hasty sketch that, with a few strokes, conveys a place or a person in such a way as to provide an effective impression with the utmost caricatural spontaneity.|Nicola Maldacea}}

In this context, critical reception leaned toward favorability praise. The Gazzetta Musicale di Milano (Musical Gazette of Milan), published by Ricordi in December 1903, rendered the following portrayal:{{cite magazine|magazine=Musica e Musicisti. Gazzetta Musicale di Milano|number=12|date=December 1903|publisher=Ricordi & C|title=Nicola Maladacea|language=it|quote=La macchietta non è cosa facile: richiede un grande spirito d'osservazione e d'intuito, una giusta misura ed una perfetta dizione. Maldacea sul palcoscenico è un cinematografo vivente: è il caricatuista e la caricatura. [...] il tipo unicamente vero per la riproduzione della macchietta [...] la voce, la scena, lo studio meticolosamente preciso nell'imitare, nei più minuti particolari, il personaggio che incarna; una rapidità prodigiosa nel cambiare truccatura, abiti accessori: insimma egli è un trasformista uso Fregoli, un dicitore compito.}}

{{blockquote|Macchietta is no easy feat: it requires keen powers of observation and intuition, a sense of proportion, and perfect elocution. Maldacea on stage is a living cinematograph: he is the caricaturist and the caricature. [...] The only true type for reproducing the macchietta, [...] the voice, the stage, the meticulously precise study in imitating, in the smallest details, the character he embodies; prodigious speed in changing makeup, clothing, accessories: in short, he is a masterful transformist, like Fregoli, a consummate monologist.|Gazzetta Musicale di Milano (1903)}}

In the era preceding the outbreak of the First World War, Maldacea garnered acclaim within the theaters Southern and Northern Italy, solidifying his status as one of the preeminent comedy actors in the country. Among his most renowned portrayals were characters and macchiette such as "Il Conte Flick", "'O jettatore", "il Superuomo", "'O Rusecatore" and "l'Elegante" with music composed by Vincenzo Valente and Salvatore Gambardella. These macchiette were frequently written by authors such as Salvatore Di Giacomo, Trilussa, Rocco Galdieri, and others, who frequently wrote specifically for Maldacea.{{cite magazine|title=La Macchietta satirica e Nicola Maldacea|pages=37-40|author=Federico Petriccione|magazine=Comoedia|publisher=Rizzoli|date=January–February 1931|number=1|location=Milan|language=it}}

He also appeared in cinema, in more than sixty films from 1935 to 1956.

Maldacea passed away in Rome on March 5, 1945. The city of Naples transferred his remains from Rome to the Cemetery of Poggioreale, Naples.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|author=Nicola Maldacea|title=Memorie di Nicola Maldacea|location=Naples|publisher=Bideri|date=1933|language=it}}
• {{cite book|author=Sergio Lori|title=Il varietà a Napoli|location=Rome|publisher=Newton & Compton|date=1996|isbn=888183460X|language=it}}
• {{cite book|author=Francesco Possenti|title=I teatri del primo Novecento|publisher=Orsa Maggiore Editrice|date=1987|language=it}}
• {{cite book|author=Andrea Jelardi|title=In scena en travesti - il travestitismo nello spettacolo italiano|contribution=Vittoria Ottolenghi|location=Rome|publisher=Edizioni Libreria Croce|date=2009|language=it}}
• {{cite book|author=Antonio Sciotti|title=I Divi della Canzone Comica|location=Naples|publisher=Arturo Bascetta Editore|date=2021|pages=191-220|language=it}}

• {{IMDb name|0539174}}

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Category:1870 births

Category:1945 deaths

Category:Italian male film actors