Giovanni Gabrielli (died between 1603 and 1611) was an Italian actor of the commedia dell'arte, who performed under the name Sivello.^[1]

Gabrielli was particularly famous for portraying several characters talking together in different languages.^[1] The 18th-century historian Francesco Saverio Quadrio relates that Gabrielli was able to impersonate women with his voice only, without the benefit of a costume change.^[2] His portrait was engraved by Agostino Carracci.^[3]

His son Francesco Gabrielli was also a well known actor.^[1]

Two works of Gabrielli were published in Bologna in the early 17th century:^[4]

• Villanelle Nuove Composte per Giovanni Gabrielli detto il Sivello (Bologna, 1601)^[5]
• Il Studio, Comedia Nova, Composta per Giovanni Gabrielli da Modona, detto il Sivello (Bologna, 1602)^[6]

• Askew, Pamela (1978). "Fetti's 'Portrait of an Actor' Reconsidered", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 120, no. 899 (February 1978), pp. 59–65.
• Banham, Martin, editor (1995). The Cambridge Guide to the Theatre (new edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521434379.
• Mahon, Denis (1947; reprint 1971). Studies in Seicento Art and Theory. London: Warburg Institute, University of London (1947). OCLC 1966882. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood (1971). ISBN 9780837147437.
• Quadrio, Francesco Saverio (1744). Della storia e della ragione di ogni poesia, vol. 3, part 2. Milan: Francesco Agnelli. Copy at the Internet Archive.
• Rasi, Luigi (1897–1905). I Comici Italiani: Biografia, bibliografia, iconografia, 3 volumes. Florence: Fratelli Boca. Catalog record at HathiTrust.
• Megale, Teresa (1998). "GABRIELLI, Giovanni, detto Sivello". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 51: Gabbiani–Gamba (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.

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