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.
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.
Examples of the genre include Traetta's Armida (1761), Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione (1772) and Haydn's L'isola disabitata (1779).
The long-term influence of this type of stage work can be felt in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which Scrooge is confronted and offered a way to live to his full potential.