Italian Opera and the Concept of “Canon” in the Late Eighteenth Century

This essay shows that in Italy for much of the eighteenth century, canonic recognition was granted to the librettist of a famous opera but not to the composer, who was seen as an artisan rather than an intellectual. But the unique long-term popularity of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona (1733) led to the honoring of composers in subsequent generations both in musical and in dramatic terms. Even though a stable authorial canon of opera composers failed to establish itself in Italy prior to the triumph of Rossini, strong respect emerged for composers such as Niccolò Jommelli, Niccolò Piccinni, and Giovanni Paisiello, which, together with the rising fame of leading singers, laid the groundwork for the Italian operatic canon of the nineteenth century. This chapter is paired with Michel Noiray’s “The practical and symbolic functions of pre-Rameau opera at the Paris Opéra before Gluck.”

8. Gioachino Rossini, Voice Assemblies In The Opera IL Barbiere Di Siviglia

In Naples, Gioachino Rossini creates some of his works for representations in other cities. The best known, the Barber of Seville or Useless Precaution, opened on February 20, 1816, atTeatro Argentina in Rome. The booklet, a version of Pierre de Beaumarchais’s eponymous novel, was rewritten by Cesare Sterbini, being a variant other than that already used by Giovanni Paisiello. Moreover, since then the work has enjoyed a great popularity, contributing to this triumph and the extremely short period in which it was conceived: two or three weeks. Later, Rossini claimed that he had created the work in just twelve days. The opening, initially bearing the title of Almaviva, was not successful, as the admirers of Paisiello, extremely indignant, sabotaged the show by whistling and shouting throughout the first act. However, shortly after the second performance, the work became so appreciated that the fame of Paisiello’s work was transferred to Rossini, the title The Barber of Seville becoming an inalienable Rossinian heritage. Il Barbiere was not Rossini’s favourite work. Ironically, it won the status of classical opera much later, at the end of the Rossini’s career. Today we clearly consider its status as the first in the history of the work, often overlooking the radical impact it had at the time of the opening, when it shocked and provoked a large audience of unknowing persons. The speed of his writing could explain the dramatic drop in intensity felt in the second half of the second act.

Cantatas in Honor of San Gennaro

No saint in the Catholic hagiographic tradition has served as a more vivid symbol of martyrdom, veneration, or of God’s profound grace toward a community than San Gennaro (Saint Januarius), the patron saint of the Kingdom of Naples. This essay studies the history and culture surrounding the veneration of San Gennaro. I focus on the longstanding cultivation of cantatas as a vehicle for veneration and for the promotion of catechism and post-Tridentine ideology. The first part of the essay traces political, social, and religious currents that contributed to the growth of the cult. The second part considers late eighteenth-century cantatas by Giovanni Paisiello and Domenico Cimarosa that were created for the Feast of the Traslazione. These works adopt strategies of poetic narrative and musical expression that reflect thematic elements associated with the annual feast. They also represent a musical turning point, incorporating innovative aria types, a widespread use of accompanied recitative and large choral ensembles, and distinctive instrumental sonorities. The Traslazione cantatas thus offer an opportunity not only to examine contemporary cultural currents in early modern Naples, but also to broaden our understanding of the cantata genre and of two leading operatic innovators of the late eighteenth century.

Le mélange du sacré et du profane dans les livrets de tragédies lyriques du librettiste Nicolas-François Guillard (1752-1814)

Nicolas François Guillard (1752-1814) was one of the best librettists of the Tournant des Lumières. The libretto of Proserpine by Quinault, set to music by Lully at the end of the seventeenth century, was adapted by Guillard and once again set to music by Giovanni Paisiello in 1803. Six years later, in 1809, La Mort d’Adam, adapt-ed by Guillard from Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’ Der Tod Adams (1757), was set to music by Jean-François Lesueur. These rewritings, with religious or sacred topics staged for a secular theatre by Guillard, are very different from the original works and tend to be family dramas: he then transforms them into secular works with secular content. Human sacrifices are present in these works but seem to feature here for family reasons and not only for religious purposes. Divinities are presented by the librettist as human beings, whose family roles are predominant. The sacred and the profane are mixed in these two librettos, changed into hybrid works. Guillard seems to use the same model to adapt historical, mythological or religious works, which means that the role and the impor-tance of the religious in the works staged at the Académie Impériale de Musique in the period of the Tournant des Lumières has to be examined.

ORIENTAL TYRANNY IN THE EXTREME WEST: REFLECTIONS ON AMITI E ONTARIO AND LE GARE GENEROSE

This is a study of eighteenth-century operatic representations of slavery in America, focusing primarily on two Italian comic works: Ranieri de’ Calzabigi’s libretto for Amiti e Ontario (1772) and its adaptation, Le gare generose, or ‘The Contests in Generosity’ (1786), set by Giovanni Paisiello. Significant changes between the two are interpreted in relation to these works’ original cultural and political contexts, reconstructed through the examination of contemporary dramatic, journalistic and other non-fictional literature. As an operatic theme, in the late eighteenth century, slavery challenges the long established assumption of the westward migration of progress and civilization.