Scienze umanistiche (Department of Humanities)

In so-called Spanish Italy, or the Italian territories subject to the Spanish rule (the State of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily) during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the theater was often used in feast-day celebrations to underline the bond with the ruling nation, and to engender acclaim for the Spanish monarchy. Celebrations were an integral part of the complex web of political relationships. The Senate (civic government) of Palermo was throughout the seventeenth century paying for musicians performing in outdoor improvised venues on the feast days. Out of these performances was created the serenata, a musical genre specifically designed to celebrate power and glorification of the Spanish monarchy, which was often composed for the precisely determined performance location. In 1679 was established a permanent ensemble for such performances (“nuova cappella”), and in 1682 was constructed the permanent theater (“teatro marmoreo”), designed by the architect Paolo Amato (1634–1714). The use of this theater for the performance of commemorative serenatas is confirmed in printed librettos and in images until the 1740s. Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, serenatas were performed in Palermo at the Maredolce quarter, where the nobility took their promenades on the day of Ferragosto (15 August). The apparato there was a temporary structure which bore several notable points of resemblance to the “teatro marmoreo”: it fulfilled the function of a set, it extended over two levels, it had a curvilinear main façade; it boasted a balustrade which ran right around the building, and small boxes for the musicians. As they were linked to specific events, performances of serenatas were irreproducible events, what might be also a reason for the fact that there are preserved only few surviving scores relative to the number of performances indicated in other sources.

Discusses the notions of national identity, national music and popular music as they emerged in Italian music periodicals during the years 1840–1890, in relation to the process of Italy’s political unification and the dissemination of foreign operas such as French grands opéras in the years 1840–1870 and Wagner’s Musikdramen from 1871 on. Essays and articles by relevant critics and musicians, such as Abramo Basevi and Francesco D’Arcais are discussed. Articles by lesser known journalists such as Pietro Cominazzi and Mattia Cipollone are also taken into account. The use of words like “national” and “popular” is analysed when referring to Italian opera, to its history and to the operas by foreign composers.

In 1992, during the 15th Conference of the International Musicological Society, a round table about «Spanish and French Theater in Italian Opera of the Seventeenth Century» took place in Madrid. It was a seminal moment in the discussion about the influence of Spanish Siglo de Oro Theater on the Italian Opera of the Seventeenth Century. This influence is today beyond question and is being revealed as an important aspect to understand both the success of Venetian Opera and the dissemination of Siglo de Oro Theater outside Spain. This article aims at illustrating and discussing the results of twenty years of scholarly research on the subject; it also suggests new paths of investigation.

Giacinto Andrea Cicognini’s Giasone, set to music by Francesco Cavalli (Venice, S. Cassiano, 1649), is probably the most popular opera of the entire 17th Century. Its author is considered one of the most prolific and successful dramatists and librettists of his age. The existence of two versions of Giasone however - the libretto set to music by Francesco Cavalli and a prose text intended to be staged (or read) as a play - has not yet been fully explored. The same is also true of another work by Cicognini, Gli amori di Alessandro e di Rossane. Both plays, like almost all Cicognini’s works, were published only after his death.

Giasone was extraordinary popular, so we can easily suppose that the dramatic version was published for commercial reasons. In contrast, the libretto of Gl’amori was published only posthumously, in 1651, and the preface warns us that Cicognini had written only the first act and two scenes of the second act; and the prose version («opera tragicomica») was not issued until 1661 by Giacinto Pezzana in Venice and Eredi di Grisei e Piccini in Macerata.

The prose Giasone, called «opera» on the title page, had five editions between 1664 and 1689, in Bologna, Venice and Parma. A year before the first of these editions (in 1663), the Roman printer and bookseller Bartolomeo Lupardi announced his intention to publish «Giasone, which has astonished Fame itself» in the form of a play. Lupardi was eventually responsible for a complete Cicognini edition in ten volumes, but no copy of his prose Giasone has survived.

The existence of prose versions of these two works raises important questions: Who wrote them? What was the intended audience? Were they conceived to be read or to be acted?

Moreover, a comparison between the prose and musical texts may help us to enter the world of a Seventeenth century dramatist, and to understand the different strategies involved in writing texts intended for musical setting and those conceived as spoken dramas.

Il testo si propone di tracciare un quadro d'insieme della vita musicale in Sicilia - in particolar modo a Palermo - nel XVIII secolo e di sottolinearne alcuni aspetti, quali i generi musicali più diffusi, le occasioni e i luoghi in cui si faceva musica, le testimonianze rimaste (iconografiche, documentarie). Verranno inoltre esaminati i rapporti tra la Sicilia ed altri centri siciliani ed italiani, cercando di valutare la posizione della capitale siciliana nel contesto musicale italiano ed europeo.

La influencia del teatro español del Siglo de Oro en la ópera italiana del siglo xvn es una cuestión todavía abierta. Sobre ella se han preguntado, entre otros, Lorenzo Bianconi -que en definitiva considera marginal el influjo español directo 1 -, Paolo Fabbri -que ha identificado los puntos más relevantes 2 -, y más recientemente Maria Grazia Profeti, que en cambio está convencida de una fuerte presencia española en el teatro musical italiano 3 .

... Però come ho una scrittura e che sono galantuomo prima di tutto, io farò tutto quello che devo fare, e se devo fare il Profeta a Parma, sarà una cessione del diritto dell'I. e R. impresa, che rispetterò naturalmente, ma senza cambiare le cose scritte. ...

JUAN FRANCISCO PACHECO, V DUCA DI UCEDA (MADRID, 8.VI.1649-VIENNA, 25.VIII.1718) apparteneva all'alta nobiltà spagnola e fu un personaggio di spicco del mondo politico-diplomatico a cavallo tra la fine del XVII secolo e l'inizio del XVIII, ossia in anni cruciali per gli equilibri politici europei. Viceré di Sicilia dal 1687 al 1696 e ambasciatore a Roma dal 1699 al 1709, fu coinvolto in prima persona nelle complesse vicende della guerra di successione spagnola tra Filippo d'Angiò e l'arciduca Carlo d'Austria, e finì con l'esserne travolto. Dopo una lunga militanza borbonica, nel 1711 passò -per motivi non del tutto chiariti-al partito austriaco, ritrovandosi quindi dopo il trattato di Utrecht in esilio e privato dei suoi beni. Si spense a Vienna nel 1718.

How the Baroque idea of 'meraviglioso'  (wonder)  is reflected in modern performances of seventeenth century opera? Is it still important for  audience, performers and directors ? This paper aims at exploring the different meanings that the 'meraviglioso'  assumed in the seventeenth century art and culture; moreover modern stagings of Francesco Cavalli's operas are discussed.