A BECOHSmaCTIÛN OP THEATRICAL AND

MUSICAL PRACTICE IN THE PRODUCTION

OF ITALIAN OPERA IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State Universilgr

hjr

THERON READING McGLURE, B. A., A. M.

The Ohio State Ihiversily

1956

Approved hgr:

m d w —— Department of Speech PREFACE

This stady ondertakea to unite in a single field of view all the di^arate elanents of the eighteenth-century entertainment called "the opera seria." Its writer is indebted to Profeasors

Charles J. HcGaw and John H. McDowell of The Ohio State thiiveraity'a

Department of Speech for their guidance in the integration of the many facets of the investigation. The writer is grateful for the suggestions of Professor Noman F. Hielps^ of the School of Music, whose understanding of the musical factors in the eighteenth-century opera was so helpful. The study could not have been undertaken and carried out were it not for the very substantial resources of The

(Xiio State Thtiversity Library's Theatre Collection.

11 TABUS OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE SCOPE OF THE S T C D T ...... 1

II. A NBf IMPULSE IN THE A R T S ...... 7

III. THE OPERATIC COMPANIES...... 15

I?. THE OPERA HOUSE AND ITS AUDIENCE ...... 22

7. THE S T A G E ...... 1*3

71. THE SINGER AS AN A C T O R ...... 8?

V H . THE POSITION OF THE LIBRETTIST...... 95

VUI . THE POSITION OF THE COMPOSER ...... 108

n . THE SINGER...... 120

X. THE OPERA OR C H E S T R A ...... 136

XI. THE BALLET AND THE OPERA BU F F A ...... 12(8

XU. CONCLUSION...... 155

APPENDIX A THE STRUCTURE OF THE OPERA H O U S E...... 159

APPENDIX B SCENE DIRECTIONS FROM NINE LIBRETTI OF META8TASI0 ...... 176

APPENDIX C EXPENSES AND INCOME OF A PRODUCTION AT PADUA IN 1 7 5 1 ...... 187

APPENDIX D PRICES AND WAGES FOR SOME OPERATIC SERVICES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUHT...... 189

BIBUOGRAPHT...... 192

AUTOBIOGRAPHT...... 198

l i l LIST OF PLATES

PLATE PAGE

I. The San Carlo Theatre of Milan ...... 2§

II* La Loge a 1*o pera...... 30

III. Garden Scene ...... $7

IT. Palace S c e n e ...... $9

V. Scene of Royal Apartment ' ...... * 6l

VI. Scene of Royal Audience H a l l ...... 63

VII. Scene of Portress Interior ...... 65

VIII. Cabinet Scene ...... 67

IX. Scene of Coronation H a l l ...... 69

X. Scene Design with Ground P l a n ...... 72

U . Scene Machines (lower v i e w ) ...... 79

XII. Scene Machines (upper v i e w ) ...... 80

XIII, The San Carlo Theatre of Naples ...... l6l

XIV. The Theatre of Turin ...... 1&3

XV. The Theatre of Turin ...... 16L

Z n . Theatre Study with Acoustical Vdll .... l65

XVII. The Theatre of Milan ...... 167

XVIII. The Teatro di Argentina of R o m e ...... 169

XIX. The Theatre of B o l o g n a • 171

XX. The Electoral Theatre of Mannheim ..... 173

X U . The Royal Theatre of Berlin...... 175

isrl CRAPTER I THE SCOPE OF THE STUDT

Opera is the product of a raiJier unstable amalgamation of several

arts. Singing is joined with acting, dancing united with stage-lighting

and costuming, scene painting with orchestration, and poetry is placed

in juxtaposition with the coitç>osition of musical forms. These uneasy alliances have perpetuated themselves for more than three hundred years.

Theatres have been especially built for this hybrid form of entertain­

ment, and an audience for opera has been created, an audience idiich has

continued in existence even to the present day.

Throughout the life-span of the operatic art, one after another

of the constituent elements contributing to its form has pressed forward and taken a dominant position over the others. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the poet made a bid for supremacy over the operatic aggregate, while in subsequent generations the scenogrspher, the singer, the theatrical audience itself, the ballet, the orchestra, the composer, and even the musical leadership, one after the other, have sought to take precedence in this alliance of the arts. It seems that the ele- mdnts making vp the opera can be united only in a rather tenuous and unstable fashion, and, in order to provide a product of unified charac­ ter, one or another of the constituent arts has to take the leadership in forming the whole.

The present study deals with one of the earlier phases of the medium, the Italian public opera of the eighteenth century. The contributions of all the participating operatic elements are surveyed,

and an effort is made to discover which of the conponents have been

given a dominant role, and why. &n investigation is made for the pur­ pose of finding out why the opera of the eighteenth century had such a

very wide popular appeal.

The Italian opera got off to a very vigorous start prior to the middle of the seventeenth century in Venice and in Rome, and then spread to many cities of Europe outside Italy without chaiging its basic charac­ ter. Opera became such a standardized product that, just as the Holly­ wood film fits the projectors and suits the audiences in theatres all over the world today, so was Italian opera able to provide operatic fare and personnel in that day for all the states of Europe save the

French.

This "standardized product," the opera seria, as seen through , the eyes and ears of those contemporazy persons who chose to relate the effect it had on them, will be examined. These chroniclers, of course, were not members of the operatic public for which the operaà were tailored but were, in many cases, more sensitive to the unnatural, the absurd, and the extreme in the manifestations of this form of the­ atrical art. The opera seria wais a sociological phenomenon idiich was designed for the delectation of a certain class of city-dwellers, and the journalists, travellers, artists and critics who have described it are not, in the main, of that group. The subject may be likened to the weather: there is no "normal" weather, but only extremes, and only the extremes are chronicled. The opera, or melodrama per musica, vas calculated to amaze, to intoxicate, and to overwhelm. At its best, l^e opera was a very fine

expression of the spirit of the timesj but, since the Italian schools

could not provide enough operatic artists to satisfy the wide demand for

performers, many productions were understandably deficient in artistic

merit. Unfortunately, critiques of this lower grade of operatic output

are more widely read in the twentieth century; more sympathetic studies, tending to be less colorful, are not brought forward. The best known

description of the eighteenth-century opera, for example, is the essay

II teatro alia mode, by Benedetto Marcello, a composer of great merit in non-operatic fields. At the time his essay was written, Marcello

had worked very little in the cpera and up to that time had not been too successful.

II teatro alia mode, published in 1720, was a satire upon com­

posers, singing masters, and opera in general. The essay was subtitled "an easy and certain method of composing and performing Italian operas in the modem manner," Theatrical and musical historians offer this

diatribe to their readers as a c^sule, but fully adequate summarization of a period in the history of the theatre. The present study undertakes

to present source material of equal standing which may place in much

better perspective the opera of Marcello's day. When possible, the writings of actual workers in the operatic field are cited. These au­

thors were more willing than Marcello to accept the necessarily arti­ ficial mass of conventions needed to unite disparate art forms into a single one. One realizes that even then Coleridge's "suspension of disbelief" was essential in order to enjoy the precarious synthesis of music and story that made an opera.

A most vital and difficult part of the study, to be taken up first, is the search for an e^lanation of the unexpected and unusual features encountered in reading the contemporary descriptions of the opera. Nowadays, one’s neighbors expend a substantial part of their income in maintaining automobiles of a power, speed, and size far in excess of utilitarian requirements of transport. In the eighteenth century, the "neighbors" kept boxes at the theatre, attending the per­ formance of the same opera night after night, far in excess of their needs for dramatic entertainment. Both of these phenomena suggest that a hunger is being met through these activities which may be explained only in sociological terms, as the means adopted by an era for giving expression to its nature. So, first of all, an attempt is made here to describe the spirit and the movement of the times idiioh produced the curious phenomenon of the eighteenth-century opera house and its audi­ ence.

The description of this operatic period will be drawn from eighteenth-century sources. As far as possible, the century will be allowed to speak for itself, and no special phase of this musical theatre will be emphasized.

Several types of information are available for this study and are listed in descending order of worth:

1. Statistical data and lists culled from municipal records of the day, and from the newspapers, pro­

vided by modem Italian scholars interested in this field of study. 2. Extracts from letters and autobiogrc^hies of

workers in the field of opera at the time,

which delineate vividly the problems with which

they were faced in bringing their productions

to the stage.

3. Letters and accounts written by foreign tra­

velers . These sometimes include a ccmparison

of the Italian opera with theatrical conditions

at hcmie. As a result, it is necessary to stray from the limits of the thesis in order to pro­

vide a basis for conparisons. The Italian opera is seen, for exanple, through the eyes of

travelers conditioned to the particular idio-

syncracies of the French Opera or of the British theatre.

U. The long-term, century-wide, social and artistic

influences lAich caused the opera to be as it was can be seen only from a distance. Modem

students pride themselves (perhgps mistakenly) on

an ability to conçrehend and to evaluate the

eighteenth-century theatre more objectively and

more correctly than their predecessors of the

nineteenth century might have been able to. So

modem scholars of the baroque influences on the

eighteenth century are examined in the second chapter of the present stn^y.

It is necessary to range up and down the century in a search for information about the melodraiana or opera seria, and to extract those permanent attributes of the opera seria as they show themselves amidst the changing scene. Furthermore, conçarisons are made with two pre­ ceding types of opera, the stile rappresentative and the festival opera, as well as three succeeding styles, the dramatic reform (Gluck- ian), the rococo, and the romantic opera* Parallel trends in the drama provide enlightening points of view.

Thus, the esqpanded resources and the longer perspectives avail­ able to the modem student should make possible a clearer and a fairer view of the eighteenth-century operatic world than has been available in the past. CHAPTER II

A NEW IMPULSE IN THE ARTS

Eapressian of a new iitg>ulse. The baroque theatre gave expression

to a violent reaction against the artistic ideals of an earlier age in

opposing the spirit of calm and quiet in art. The Medieval mind had

idealized the eternal and unchanging^ ^ile the Renaissance glorified

a calmness resulting from a classical poise and balance in artistic works. But movement and activity, the use of the fleeting minutes and

hours, now became a prime urge. The clock, according to Lewis Mumford,^

Was an inçjortant symbol and key to the modem age.

No one artistic medium alone seemed adequate for the expression of this new spirit of motion in art, so several arts were amalgamated into

a form of activity now called "opera.” Motive force, sufficient to in­ troduce and to spread the new operatic medium, came as a result of the reaction in the south of Europe to the northern religious reformation.

A method for the expression of the new spirit was found in the modifi­ cation of the renaissance festival theatrical production by the appli­ cation of revolutionary musical methods, called monody. Obsolescent or less popular elements of the renaissance festival theatre were gradually abandoned and a new lijeatrical f orm was evolved which, now catering to the pubU c instead of to the royal tastes, achieved wide popularity. Thus did the Italian opera develop and prosper, having

^Lewis Muraford, Technics and Civilization, (New York: Harcourt. Brace and Company, 193U), p. l57“ 8

found an underlying spirit (the baroque), a motive power (the Counter

Reformation), a method (monody), and a public.

The baroque style. The classical ideal of repose was displaced

in both the arts and in scientific thought. The idea of musical gravi­ tation or tonaliiy developed simultaneously with Newton's law of gravi­

tation. Scientific method carried into musical coinposition in Johann Sebastian Bach's die kunst der fuge. And there was no nostalgic longing for the classical serenity of antiquity. Angel and bird motifs appeared

in architecture and painting. Sculpture took flight, buildings soared:

the diagonal accent became prominent, and architecture esc^ed from the

spell of the plane. Baroque architecture tried to break through or

dissolve the closed line through backward or forward projection, pro­

ducing light and shade. In music piano and forte, solo and tutti, provided the light and shade which broke up the plane surfaces of

renaissance texture. In architecture outlines were modified with orna­ ment; in music the corresponding tendency kept the melodic line as much in motion as possible, ornamented it with more sustained notes, and

introduced coloratura at important points.

The baroque was an entirely new style, and not as Ruskin would have it, "a grotesque Renaissance," It was characterized by exuber­ ance, dynamic stress, and emotional grandeur. Ccmpnsure and formal equilibrium were saczdLficed at the expense of unrestrained enphasis ipon outward emotion and inward expression. Its name is said to have been derived from the Spanish word barrueco, a large irregularly shcped pearl. The word connotes this greater freedom and irregularity which 2 succeeded the equipoise and restraint of the renaissance.

Expression of the baroque Ijqjulse. The arts were called upon

for the expression of the new spirit, a spirit so active and manifold

that it required a union of the arts for its cong>lete manifestation.

Vocal music was discovered to be the best idiom for the expression of the baroque impulse toward movement, since music moved through the time

dimension with comparative freedom, unimpeded like sculpture, archi­

tecture, or painting, by the use of concrete symbols and static mater­ ials.

Most arts represent something. But how they represent something

is what makes their art form essential aesthetically. Lines and forms

(the "how") are aettjietically more essential than subject (the "some­ thing"), Music can eapress this how without expressing the something, for music does not need to resort to concrete symbols or to imitations of persons or objects, ^ t s lAioh need to use concrete symbols have the disadvantage of diverting the pedestrian mind of the observer from

•the meaning of the ei^pression to the object of the expression. And earth-bound symbols tended to hanper the expansive grandiloquence of baroque modds. Music, unencumbered by the need for symbolic repre­ sentation, was for this reason the most useful of the se-veral art forms employed. Aa a time art (time is an essential ingredient of music's medium) it served the baroque era's new interest, a culture newly aware

2 "Baroque," Encyclopedia Britannica, lU'th edition. Vol. Ill, p. 132. 10 of the passing of time. Music won a dominant place in thedliance of

the arts called "baroque opera."

Second in iirçortance among the several arts enployed in the

amalgam called "baroque opera" was scenography. A type of scene con­

struction and painting was developed in the baroque theatre which freed itself from the closed, "still" architectural symmetry of the Renais­ sance. Baroque scene design had a freedom that was even more pronounced

than that of baroque architecture. Scenic architecture could be free,

open and "in motion" instead of closed and "still," for scenic design could violate the laws of engineering design and create its own environ­

ment of air or ^ace, an environment which could achieve a splendour and

elevation of feeling far beyond the powers of earthbound architecture.

The restless eyes of an audience in the theatre could be led out and

beyond the restrictions of the Renaissance proscenium frame to archi­

tectural interior and exterior vistas made endless by suggestion. Thus, there could be produced in an audience ecstasy b o m of grandiloquence.

An onlooker who craved magnificence of mood and elevation of spirit could

get it with his own imagination because stage architects knew how to transcend the limiting frame of Renaissance theatre.

The other arts eitployed in the baroque theatre were either less malleable than vocal music and scenogrqphy or were more subject to the restraints of tradition. Dancing held to its renaissance geometric con­ structions, costume followed the dance, acting retained its old ccmven- tions, and poetry became the servant of music. The orchestral art, it will be seen, was better able to lead the theatre out of the baroque than into it. 11

The role of the Counter Reformation* Motive power for the

intensified form of artistic activity, expressive of the new baroque

spirit, has been attributed to the militant Counter Reformation of the

Roman Catholic Church. The old church of quiet devotion could not

attract the errant worshippers away from the new forces inherent in the Reformation, It was insç^ropriate to the general new spirit of

movement that was abroad. So the Church, which could not and would

not make a fundamental change in itself to ad^t itself* to the new

spirit, went theatrical, decking itself out with all the outward as­

pects of the baroque, and actually took the lead in the new form of

eaqpression. Elaborately exciting processions led to churches with high vaulted arches of a mighty architecture. There, richly decked

clergy reenacted the passion of the Son of God before scintillating altars ornamented with gold and silver, surrounded by statues and pic­

tures. In Rome, the Jesuits, militant leaders in the Counter Reforma­

tion, q)onsored the opera, an expression of this new movement.^

Antecedents of the opera. The opera was derived from early

Italian mystery plays, the maggi (the rural form) and the sacra rappresentazione (the urban, developed with all its rich resources in Florence). Prelude, parts of liturgy, a Te Deum, some laudi, dances

of all sorts, secular songs, and artistic part-songs mingled with

instrumental interludes were gathered together into these sacra rappresentazione. Material was found in the egloghe rappresentative.

3 Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization, (New York: W. W. Norton and Conpany, Inc., l9hl77 pp. 5'lH-5^ 12 a product of the renaissance interest in bucolic aspects of antiquity, and subjected to new-found Aristotelian rules to produce the favola pastor^e, of which Tasso's Armlnta and Guarini's Pastor Fido are the models» The courtly and elaborate intermezzi united music and scenic display in subjects from classical antiquity. This material was not self-consciously "set" to music as the rausic-historians would have one believe, for when the playful and graceful recitation in these forms assumed a little of the pathetic, its dialogue and lyrical choral parts swung naturally into music.

Monody. The antecedents enumerated above provided the material for the combination of the arts now called "baroque opera," and the experiments at the end of the sixteenth century of a group of Florentine noble amateurs produced the method for the combination of lyric poetry and music. This method was called "monodic song," an intoning of the lyric poetry calculated to give more immediate expression to the "affec­ tions" than Renaissance polyphonic music could. In their stile espres­ sivo, as the Florentines called their new invention, the passionate accents of the texts found an equally passionate echo in the music, capable of conveying most delicate shades of human passion and feeling.

The Florentine academicians were no more interested in creating a new drama than in finding a new musical-vocal style for the poetically inclined singer. The Florentines felt that Greek drama, which they were attempting to revive in an authentic manner, was lyrical, and seemed to demand song. It was the lyric element that evoked music, rather than the dramatic. The opera thus had an inheritance of rich variety, a 13

splendotir of media, and a lyric method. The dramatic irpnlee was of minor inportance, for the Counter-Reformation playwright was interested

in the reaction of the audience, not the action of the drama.

Festival opera and the public opera. The reaction of the audi­ ence was immediate, and genuine, for the seventeenth-century opera

fascinated the baroque mind. Here the baroque appetite for movement

was nourished with movement. Angels in flight, derricks to afford the

Gods a comfortable passage between Heaven and Earth, and ingenious

mechanisms for floating whole choirs of saints and angels across the stage on cardboard clouds were devised so that secular entertainment might keep pace with ecclesiastical. An exanqple is Cesti's opera,

Bomo d'oro (Vienna, 1666) which contained sixty-seven scenes and epi­ sodes. Only royalty or the church could afford such elaborately mounted productions; the occasion of the conposition and performance of the Pomo d'oro was the marriage of the Austrian Eirperor Leopold I and Princess Margarets of Spain.

The public opera of this study, a musical drama presented without the benefit of such substantial royal subsidy, was much different in character. The appetite of the public for the richly colorful was to be appeased by much less expensive means. The Republic of Venice had no court; when opera took root in Venice, it chose the more modest form. In place of three-score of scenes, a half-dozen sufficed. Earth-bound heroes from legendary history replaced the dieties, for the heroes could remain on the surface of the earth, or stage, and elaborately expensive machinery for carrying dieties off to the heavens could be dispensed lit with. Fine effects of massed personages and grand ballets were dis­ carded for the sake of economy.

The public opera established itself firmly in Venice, for the baroque found a ready home in this city which was already existing under a seductive oriental sensualism, a result of its old trade links with the East. Baroque opera, essentially seductive in its appeal, found in Venice a natural habitat. A city whose economy was slowly dying of old age, Venice had already rejected the platonic humanism embraced by the other Italian cities. In this respect, Venice was the antithesis of Paris, lAiich was to sponsor a new humanism (that of the

Encyclopedists) and so rejected the Italian opera.

The public opera had its inception in Venice in 1637, enjoyed in a modified manner the rich inheritance of the seventeenth-century baroque festival opera, and then developed conventions which became established and practices which became widespread throughout the first half of the eighteenth century. The opera's popular success was so great that some twenty thousand different operatic productions were staged in Europe during the sixteenth century. CHAPTER III

THE OPERA COMPANIES

Opera conpanies of Ihe eighteenth century were crganized quite differently from those of the present day. Although only a single

opera was staged each season, that one opera had to be created out of

whole cloth, and a complete new company assembled for each new work. For this reason an opera manager's duties were those of an organizer,

rather than of an artistic director. His metier is remembered even to

the present day in its title, "impresario."

Formation of the opera companies. A company was freshly re­

cruited each year for a theatre's season of opera. Villeneuve, finance minister of Tuscany, in 1756 told how this was done at most of the theatres :

An impresario or a company undertakes to mount an opera for the carnival. They call from various Italian cities singers and dancers, \tho, arriving ty different routes, unacquainted with one another, find themselves united into a group. A maestro di capella is brought in from Naples or Bologna which have the best music schools. He arrives about a month ahead of the opening date of December 26. He is given the libretto -rfiich has been selected. He composes twenty- five or twenty-six arias with accompaniment and thus the opera is in existence, for he does not bother to notate the recitatives. He gives the arias as he finishes them, to the actors, Wio learn them with ease, most of them being highly trained musicians. As for recitative, they do not bother to study them; a reading over will do; t h ^ will merely repeat the words given them by the prcmpter, in a louder voice, and the harpsichord keeps them on pitch. There are five or six rehearsals, and thereupon in less than a month the opera is pre­ sented on stage.^

]"Cited by Henri Bedarida, in "L'Cpera italien juge par un amateur français de la musicologie," Melanges de musicologie (Paris: E. Droz, 1933), Vol. III, p. 191. 15 16

Under such conditions, starting from the beginning with each new production--that is, with new personnel, new music, and perh^s a new libretto, a coitçany clearly could not undertake more than one new opera

each season. There was almost no carry over of singers from one season to the next, and each opera was precisely tailored to the voices of a

particular set of virtuosi. There was no "repertory" in the opera

seria. Thus the work of even an eminent conqposer was seldom presented

more than one season at one place. However, once a production was

mounted it would be repeated twenty to thirty times during the carnival

and the audience could have the opportunity to become thoroughly famil­ iar with it.

The impresario. Charged with the assembling and coordination of

all the Operatic forces was the general manager, or "impresario,"

Managers of operatic enterprises have been pictured as arrogant, fopp­

ish, inçractical fellows onto whom all the ills of the art were and

still are blamed. The Count Francesco Algarotti, friend of Voltaire

and of Frederick the Great, and a connoisseur in art and music, com­ plained about those holding the managerial posts. "Opera has dwindled

into a languid, badly connected, improbably, grotesque and monstrous aggregate."^ Algarotti thought that the poet should be put in charge,

as commercial imprésarios were almost never qualified. He felt that

the art suffered from free enterprise productions, and should always be sponsored by a prince.

^Francesco Algarottiÿ Essay on Opera and a Sketch of His Life, Richard Northcott, editor (Lond.cn: IRie Press Printers, LÎ3., l9l7), p. 20, 17

The robust constitution of the operatic institution, as a

whole, maintaining many scores of establishments through the century, belied the criticism and witticisms directed at the operatic managers

and inçresarios. Both Dittersdorf and Leopold Mozart emphasized that

in order to get on in court, a commoner was obliged to undertake great e:;q)enditures in dress. An inç»resario was utterly dependent upon the

good will of the nobility to keep his enterprises solvent, ïhe number

of mouths he was expected to feed was suggested in these colorful lines

from the Goldini play, L'impresai'io delle S m i m e :

NIBIO - This is an eîqpert scene-painter, who will make thesetting and bring with him all his students and work­ men,.there are the painters and the stagehands. These are in charge of illumination. This man is foreman of the twenty-two theatre workers, good people experienced in the opera house. These are the three porters. Here are the two pages who bear the trains of the women. Here is a skillful prompter, able to cue the words and the music. Here are two women to sell tickets. Here are those who must assist in the boxes, to give out and re­ cover the keys. These men are able to represent the bear. These others make the lion. And these others, strong aid robust as you see, are assigned to the claque, ALI - Must I take all this mob to Smyrna? NIBIO - All are needed there.3

In most of the theatres presenting opera seria, financial res­ ponsibility and risk was undertaken by a group of sponsors, rather than by a single iagiresario. Responsibility for all the details of operation of the productions were in the hands of a general maiager.

In the Sermanic territories the manager (still called impresario though without the burden of financial risk) was himself supervised by

^Carlo Goldoni, "L'Inpresario delle Smime,” Opere congilete (Venice: Edition of the Municipality of Venice, 1913), Vol. M i l , pp. 2U6-U7. 18

an "intendant” or royal represeAtative from the nobility. This func­

tionary enjoyed a position of dictatorial power over the operatic îçparatus.

In most cases the monarch himself was quite active in the manage­

ment of this most royal of hobbies. If a theatre were known as "Imper­ ial," its manager could expect a fine salary. The singer was the focal point about whom a H the operatic activities were centered. Management's principal concern was the

singer, for it was the fine art of singing that drew eighteenth-centery patrons to the theatre. Michael Kelley, leading tenor of the opera at

Vienna and immortal as the result of his creation of tenor roles in

Mozart's operas, has contributed many observations on professional oper­ atic life,

Bologna was the mart, after carnival season, "to which,” recorded Kelley, "actors from all parts of Italy resorted, to make their future

engagements. The laige Cafe de Virtuosi was filled with them from morning to night, and it was really amusing to see them swarm round a manager the moment he entered.”^ The operatic world knew only cities, and hardly recognized national boundaries. Kelley wrote that;

While at Bologna, Signor Tambourin, the great theatri­ cal broker, offered me two engagements for the autumn and the carnival; one for Barcelona in Spain and the other for Warsaw; both of which I was obliged to decline on account of my engagement at Venice.^

Süchael Kelley, Reminiscences (London; Henry Colburn, 1826), Vol. I, TO. 121-22, %bid., pp. 188-89. 19

When playing at Gratz, Kelley fell ill, and the stage manager had to travel to Venice for a replacement, while the theatre substi­

tuted burlettas.

Signor Camigli, a rich jeweller, was also manager of ■the Pergola Theatre in Florence. Further, he was a sens ale (a broker) and furnished

every Italian opera in Europe with singers, dancers, composers, etc.,

for \diich he received a percentage from both mmager and singer. Con­ tracts were honored. At Trieste, severe penalties were assessed for

failure to carry out agreements, Kelley wrote that in Venice guarantee money was required of an inpresario: ...proposing to take the theatre; he was conçielled to give in a list of his performers, their salaries, &c. together with every estimated eapense attending his proposed arrangements; and then was forced to give se­ curity, or actually deposit money to the amount so stated, before he could procure a license to open the doors.°

The lot of the inpresario was a hard one. Only the excitement,

the encounters with persons of all ranks, and the prominence of the post conçjensated for this most difficult and conplicated artistic

metier. Yet, while the names of the great singers, composers, and stage designers are still remembered, only a caricature remains of

those holding that very iiqportant post of management.

The opera seasons. Operas were presented in the carnival season, from December 26 or even earlier, until Lent, During Lent the opera houses were in many cases used for oratorio productions. In most opera houses an "Ascension season" would follow, beginning on the day after

%bid., p. 126. 20

Easter and lasting until summer. Some cities enjoyed autumn opera seasons also, from October first to mid-December.

In cities idiich had no separate theatre for opera buffa a tra­ velling conpany might be invited, in some cases with a subvention, to occupy the theatre for the spring season, or to serve as a special attraction during a trade fair. In royal theatres in the Germanic areas operas might be given only on certain week nights, but in the Italian opera houses, perform­ ances ran through the week. There were no performances on Fridays, for religious reasons, and, in 1777> the intendant of the theatre at

Trieste was threatened with excommunication if he continued to ignore the rule against opening the tlieatre on Sunday.

The wide dissemination of cperatic activity. Operas successful

^t Venice found their way in subsequent seasons to other cities, being materially reconstructed to suit the talents belonging to the new theatre. Twelve hundred different operas were perfoimed in the score of theatres of Venice during the ei^teenth century. Each parish in the city had a theatre, which was generally constructed in the vicinity of the parish church, and named after it. Venice had so many theatres because it had been fashicmable in the seventeenth century for each of the wealthier citizens to own a private theatre in connection with his palace, just as today the wealth^, have swimming pools. There were so many opera houses that the city finally forbade the construction of more, without official sanction. 21

Villeneuve, in the carnival season of 1756, counted more than

fifty opera houses operating in Italy and more than one hundred, if the

burlettas (buffa operas) were included. In the l?80's there were forty

opera houses within the bounds of the Papal state.

There were theatres all over Europe supplied with talent from

Italy, In Germany, only the city of Bremen lacked an opera house. The Germanic lands allowed themselves to be drawn into the sphere of

this Italian ate culture, in part as a gesture against their political

rivals, the French. France was the only country into which the Italian opera could not penetrate. Vernon Lee has pointed out that it did not

occur to the French to set up an Italian opera house because the French did not want the music and drama subservient to the human voice. The

French accepted Italian music only when "it was offered them by Gluck cunningly tinged with French declamation."^

Conclusion. The wide dissemination of Italian opera throu^out Europe can be attributed in part to two important factors: a large pool in Italy of extremely coupe tent operatic artists, and a very active and enterprising (if artistically less admirable) system of management practices. Cpera was manifestly a going concern in Europe throughout the eighteenth century.

^Vernon Lee, Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy (London: T. Fisher Unwin, l907T, p. 117• CHAPTER IV

THE OPERA HOUSE AND ITS AUDIENCE

The architecture of an Italian opera house presents so many bizarre and puzzling details that one cannot understand its structure at all until it is visualized with its public present in full force, active within its walls. The operatic edifice was built around the activity of audience and performers within, and was closely tailored to the functions for which it was intended.

The opera house. The Italian opera houses were in most cases built by nobles and wealthy civic leaders who formed themselves into a sort of academy, each retaining a certain number of boxes and a voice in the management. Members were obliged to share deficits when thQT occurred. Their theatre was the heart of the social life of a city, and the architectural planning of its structure reflected this fact. As each noble or civic leader cwne-d a share of the theatre, and wished to have tangible evidence of this ownership to show to his fellow townsmen, a unique form of building was evolved.

Each shareholder received possession of a small room, or suite of rooms. A large public room was operated for gambling purposes, the profits accruing to the corporation, and there were food and refresh­ ment concessions. Each evening of the carnival season, members of this social "club" of shareholders would establish themselves in their respective apartments, and then visit about, with their friends and acquaintances in other apartments or palcfai. Each apartment had an opening or balcory looking out upon a ballroom, at one end of which

22 23 was a stage where opera, ballet, and c^era buffa performances were

given each evening for those who cared to enjoy them.

On the floor of this hall were a number of seats where those not fortunate enough to have sufficient social or political rank to

own fpartraents could rent places for the evening to enjoy the enter­ tainment as well as the refreshments, gambling and social life. Travellers have described one of the more eminent of these theatres, the San Carlo, in Milan, as rebuilt in 1737 (see Plate I).

Michael Kelley tells of the pit, or parterre, now called "the orchestra." There are sixteen rows of seats and forty seats in each row; they are fitted vç» with stuffed cushions and rests for the arms> like chairs. V/hen any one takes a place for the night, he re­ ceives a key of it, and when he leaves the theatre, he looks the seat up again, and returns the key.l

Kelley continued with a description of the boxes.

Each box contains twelve persons, who have commodious chairs, &c.; at the back of each of those, on the principal tiers, is a small room, where the confectioner and pages of the propri­ etor wait, and distribute sweetmeats and ices to the conpany in the boxes, and any of their friends in the pit, -vdiom they choose to recog­ nize.

Lalande, a French visitor, learned that at the San Carlo "There were 70 boxes belon^ng to the principal families, who are not allowed to get rid of them without the king’s permission, and are obliged to pay the inpresario a large sum each season.

Kelley, op. cit.. Vol. I., p. 47- ^J. A* Fuller-Maitland, citing J. J, LeFrancaise Lalande, Voyages d'un Française en Italie. "The Age of Bach and Handel," The Oxford History of Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901-1905), Vol. IV., p. 2Ü1. 2U

Plate I. The San Carlo Theatre of Milan. A typical eighteenth-century theatre. Note the extreme length of the stage, and its sloping floor, designed principally for deeply constructed perspective scenic effects, and not the painted, relatively shallow perspective of the Bibienas’ period. Thus the eighteenth century, like the twentieth, inherited the stage-structure of the century before it.

The social function of the rest of the opera house is apparent, with the very large social rocHiis at the front of the building, and the orientation of the boxes as much toward the audience opposite as in the direction of the stage,

Plate from the Storia e descrizione de’ principal! teatri anti chi e modeml, by Pierre Francese Patte (Milan: Giulio Ferrario, 1830). Table I, figure 2,

See Appendix A for plates and descriptions of other theatres from the same source. ir\ CM

r ' T m Z E E Œ Œ C H . FT' fIJ piiirm~^nrr' i m i n x ^ O T J J J i i x mri: J T i j ÿ O l V |jmixrxjxij.:ci. pmmrTiri' m^inr:

T 26

The auditorium of the San Carlo was long, 7U' wide and 68' high* The palchi or boxes were arranged in several layers, or

tiers, in a horse-shoe shape, with the stage at the open end. Above

these tiers of boxes was a loggione or gallery for poorer citizens and

servants. As the city grew, through the century, the additions to the ranks of the affluent caused this balcony to be remade into additional

ranks of boxes, so that finally there were in six ranks, one hundred

and eighty boxes, thirty on each level, and a central royal box.

The theatre at Trieste was completed in 1707, having then three rows of boxes. By 1792 there were eighty boxes in four ranks. Villi- neuve recorded that "in a city like Florence where one may count more than 500 noblemen and there there is but one grand theatre, several

join together to rent a box, others borrow one. At Piacenza boxes were granted in ownership to patricians only. At Trieste a box could be handed down through inheritance, but bad credit could cost a gentle­ man his box. One could not be transferred at will without permission of the theatre's governing bocfy. Ownership of a box was of the great­ est inport an ce, since for social standing a merchant was obliged to have a box at the theatre and a villa in the country. At Turin the boxes were not held in ownership, but were rented by the season. It was in some cities not enough to have a box at a single theatre.

Kelley mentioned that at Venice "La Signora de Pétris had boxes at all the theatres whither I used to acconpany her whenever she went to them."^

^Bedarida, op. cit., pp. 191-92. %elley, op, cit., p. 189. 27

A well organized system of seat reservations was in force in

some theatres. Mozart complained in a letter to his father: "I tried to get a reserved seat in the third circle six days before hand, but

they were all gone."^ Unused boxes were often turned over to the

management by their owners for resale.

In many of the theatres, the only seats for sale were in the platea, or orchestra. "Cultured ladies did not sit there"j one did

not dress too well down there, as those in the loges might throw any­

thing down, spit, and annoy those following the libretto with the li^t of a candle. But, sometimes the plate a was preferred, even when one

possessed rank. One could see better there than in the loges. Special

rows of seats were reserved for military officers. The severest critics

among the audience, said Kelley, were the abbes, "who sit in the first

row of the pit, each armed with a lighted wax t«per in one hand, and a book of the opera in another, and should any poor devil of a singer miss a word, they called out 'bravo, bestia" (bravo, you beast).

It was considered good breeding to judge ihe opera by the opinion of those in the pit. If the conçoser happened to be presiding at the harpsichord and any passage in the music struck the audience as simi­ lar to one of another composer, one might hear the cry, "Bravo Paesiello!" or "Bravo, Sacchini!" if they thought the passage was stolen from them. In Venice, gondoliers and others were admitted free.

^Emily Anderson, editor. The Letters of Mozart and His Family (London: Macmillan and Cong)any. Limited, 193877 Vol. Ill, p. Il5^» Kelley, op. cit., p. 60. 28 and given standing room under the boxes and at the side of the parterre,

They were very noisy, pounding their feet and shouting applause. The audience was not restricted here, since "the freedom cf Venice" had to be preserved. The audience in the platea (or parterre) of French thea­ tres were not given seats, as a seated audience was found to be so much less alive and responsive than a standing one. All the Italian opera houses, on the other hand, seated those on the main floor. This was, evidently, a theatrical art which required the use of the sensibilities, not the mind.

Performances of minor arias were ordinarily ignored; these were called "arias di sorbetto" during which one ate sherbets Giuseppe Baretti, who described the customs of Italy to British readers, dis­ closed that "we fix our eyes, for instance, a moment or two on the scenes and the dresses, when they happen to be new and superlatively well imagined....similarly we pay a-little attention to the singers.,, but not much,"^ Baretti suggested that the reason people were in­ attentive and somewhat noisy at the opera is that since there was such a plethora of musical activity in Italy, no one performance was deemed very in^ortant. At the same time, people liked to be where good music was. The dramatic content.of the operas was of so little inport that the second or third act of an opera could be presented prior to the first, if it was so requested by some nobles who could not spend the entire evening at the theatre. Algarotti surmised that the "chatting

^Giuseppe Baretti, An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy (London: T. Davies, 1768), Vol. I., p. 312. 29

Plate II. La Loge a L'Opéra, ty J. M, Moreau (I7la-I8ll*). MaskT V5I7 1 (I92ii), p. 170. Note the netting which may be drawn, and behind which occupants of the stall could preserve an anonymity idiile enjoying the opera, and the curtain which might be lowered in the front of the box to provide conç>lete privacy. Plate II.

m s m m ....

:r<

W k f w 31

of the audience, visits to one another's box, supping and gambling is

merely the audience's reaction against the actors' lack of dramatic o ' sincerity on the stage.” This observer, a resident of the more seri­

ous Berlin, could not understand that drama, per se, would be out of

place in the playful atmosphere of the opera house, ilnd the over-

familiar libretto has no great power to excite. Many members of the

audience went to the theatre night after night, Friday excepted. It

seemed that there was no place else for ladies to go. Added to this,

there was the chance of winning at the gaming tables, and the oppor­ tunity to leam the latest scandal, all in a setting which made everyone a little excited, giddy and glamorous.

Evenings at the theatre were as colorful as the audience could

make them. Kelley pictured the elegance. "The etiquet was, that the band in the orchestra as well as the conçany in the boxes and pit,

should be full dressed. Bags and swords were the order of the day,"^

and, "as it was the custom for the ladies the first night of the opera

to go in grand gala, the boxes and parterre were a perfect blaze of

diamonds, and every part of the house was crowded.

The opera house was a veritable Garden of Eden for the women.

BouUet, a theatrical architect, summing up a century of theatre in

1801, declared that theatres should be designed with the tastes of

^Algarotti, op. cit., p. 3U. %elley, op. cit., p. 16. lOjbid., p. ll»it. 32 women in mind, for it is the women, he believed, who keep the theatre

alive. They recognize that it is in the theatrical setting that they can appear quite glamorous— there, at their best. Their interests,

too, are fed by the theatrical life. The scandal and gossip about the personal life of those connected with the opera were in no small mea­ sure responsible for the interest and continued attendance by the public.Regulations, inpossible to enforce, restricted the social

intercourse between performers and the boxholders. The diary of Count Zizzendorf, intendant (governmental supervisor) at the Trieste opera,

described the visits of the artists to the boxes. His own served as

a tribunal for the resolving of disputes. "A soprano came into loge to inplore my protection, to be excused from singing the duet.

She said that she was melancholy, that she wanted to marry....and that she is amazed at the way Fabiani and Vaglioni abase their art in the ballet of the rose."^^

Monnier described the atmosphere in Venice. "While waiting for the curtain to rise, it was the fashion to see who could make the biggest fool of himself. There was a mania for individuality. People didn't try to be alike, as at Paris and London. There was a taste for the diminutive. Small matters preoccupied everyone.One heard the

^ L e Gen BouUet, ^ss^d sur L'art de construire de theatres, leurs machines et leurs mouvements ÇParis: Chez Bollard, iBoi), p.' 81i. ^Carlo L. Curiel, Il teatro S. Pietro di Trieste, 1690-1801 (Milano: Archetipografia dî^Mllano, Î937), pp. 90-91. ^■%hillippe Monnier, Venice in the Eighteenth Century (London: Chattoo and Windus, 1910), p. 33. 33

63!pression, “He had the good taste not to be an eniqrolopedist."^^

It puzzled de Brosses that "it is not enough that everyone

should make conversation and shout at the top of their voices and that

they should applaud with shouts not the songs, but the singers that

they apparently had just been ignoring.Audiences became tired of

the minor incidents in the over~familiar operas, so played cards or

gossiped until the principal arias appeared. Each rendering of a

principal aria was differently presented; that is how the patrons

could hear their opera twenty or thirty times and enjoy it. This ex­ plained, too, the mixture of utter indifference and utter rapture. Mozart wrote to his father that he couldn't give a sound opinion

about an opera he had attended for he had talked most of the time.

An audience's attitude toward the music of an opera was at

times not unlike a patron's feeling for a cafe orchestra. Not too

much attention was demanded of the listener. This too ejçlains the

four to six hours duration of an evening of opera and ballet.

Applause. Mozart declared that the only test of an opera's

success was the number of encores, ihat is, repetitions of airs, de­ manded and received by the audience. Kelley cited one instance in which almost every piece was encored, thus doubling the length of the performance, necessitating the Ençeror's forbidding encoring of that

opera in subsequent Viennese performances of it. The public was auto­

cratic in exercising its power to maintain a hubbub until an air it

^Ibid., p. 89.

^^Gited by Fuller-Maitland, pp. cit., p. 278, 3k

liked was repeated. An attempt T%r the virtuoso Quadagni to deprive an

audience of this privilege was described by Doctor Burney:

...His determined spirit of supporting the dignity and propriety of his dramatic character, by not bowing acknowledgement, when applauded, or destroying all theatrical illusion by return­ ing to repeat an air, if encored at the termina­ tion of an interesting scene, he so much offended individuals, and the opera audience in general, that, at length, he never gppeared without being hissed...his enemies, knowing him to be passion's slave, frequently began an encore with which they knew he would not conç>ly, on purpose to enrage the audience.

in edict issued in Modena in 1792 against excessive applause was a result of a controversy between followers of a tenor and those

of a soprano. Several persons were arrested. In Vienna the Emperor

discouraged excessive applause: he was to decide the value of the

singing. The traveller De Brosses noted that in Milan, despite appar­ ent inattention, gentlemen of the parterre had long wooden slats with which they struck as hard as they were able on the benches, to express their admiration. Too, t h ^ had friends in the upper level of boxes who, at this sign, threw "millions" of leaflets bearing a sonnet printed on silk or colored cards. These praised the virtuoso or prima donna who had just finished singing. Those in the loges extended themselves half-way out of their boxes to catch them.

In addition to sonnets, flowers and gifts were bestowed on

^^Charles Burney, A Gener^ History of Music From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time (1709), Frank Mercier, editor (New York'; Harcourl* Brace, and Coup any, 1935Tj Vol. II, p. 877. 35

visiting virtuosi. At benefit nights, prices were raised and generous additional contributions were solicited. Before the performance began,

the recipient stood in costume in the lobby beside a table on idiich a

silver bowl lay between two torches. There the virtuoso accepted the greetings, bowa, and contributions of the audience.

In addition to enthusiastic applause, an organized opposition

to singers, composers, and operas was sometimes in evidence. Mozart, in a letter, related that one of his operas had been opposed by a group

in the opera house: "Can you believe it, but yesterday there was an

even stronger cabal against it than on the first evening! The idiole first act was accotrç>anied by hissing. But, indeed, they could not prevent the loud shouts of 'bravo* during the arias.

Royalty at the opera. On the continent outside of Italy, the Italian opera was generally under the sponsorship of the royal house­

hold. This social background for the opera, differing from Italy's,

manifests itself in several ways. Doctor Burney wrote that in Berlin: The performance of the opera begins at six o'clock; the King, with the princes and his attendants, are placed in the pit, close to the orchestra. The Queen, the princesses, and other ladies of distinction, sit in the front boxes; her majesty is saluted at her entrance into the theatre and at her depart­ ure thence by two banks of trumpets and kettledrums, placed one on each side of the

^^Curiel, op. cit., p. 28. iBitaderson, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. I487. 36

housej in the upper row of boxes... The king being at the whole expense of this opera, the entrance is gratis, so that anyone, who is decently dressed, may have admission...It is one of the widest theatres I ever saw, though it seems rather short in proportion. 19

The weekly routine, common when court was in Berlin, was as follows: Sund^, the Queen had a great court Monday, opera Tuesday, a ridotto, or masqued ball, in the opera house Wednesday, a French play at the court theatre Thursday, the princess dowager had a drawing room Friday, another opera Saturday, day of rest.

At Padua in 1736, for a Royal visit, there was erected aspecial staircase covered with tapestries, which led from the plaza directly to the first level of boxes in the opera house.

Tibaldi cites the inport an ce of the royal patron to the operatic establishments :

■This man assuredly does not love music" affirmed President de Brosses indignant after having seen the king chattering in his box for half of the opera performance and then sleeping the other half. The great San Carlo theatre was named after this monarch. Carlo III. The Neapolitan nobility, who had permanent ownership of the boxes in the San Bartolommeo theatre, which was now deemed too small, underwrote much of the expense of the San Carlo in order to ensure that thqy would have boxes

19 Cedric Howard Glover, editor. Dr. Charles Burney's Continental Travels (London: Blackie and Son, Limited, 1927), p. É16. ^°Ibid., p. 213. 37

in the new theatre. It was opened in 1737j the King contributing one third of the 100,000 ducat cost, 21

The Royal visits made a theatre brilliant and contributed ma­

terially to its attractiveness. In Vienna the Emperor attended nearly

every performance of the opera, and the theatre would close when the monarch was out of town. Upon the death of the Empress in November, 1776, the theatres closed. Torino reopened in January; Milan, Vienna and Trieste reopened in February.

Joseph II sent the German coitpany of Felix Bemer around his

realm in 1781; in a vain attempt to encourage the use of the German

language in the outposts of the Austrian Empire. This company sou^t

to attract by the ençjloyment of marvels of stage machinery and trick­

ery, which the Jtalians had discarded generations past, preferring

vocal trickery and sensuous enjoyment.

Each of the continental courts had coitposers and virtuosi in permanent engagement. The monarchs were willing to release these

artists for other temporary opera posts, for the reason indicated in

a letter Leopold Mozart wrote to his son: "This will not prevent you from undertaking a journey to Italy, for every great Lord, \dio really loves music, regards it as a personal honor if someone in his service makes a reputation for himself." 22

The fancies of Royalty were scrupulously catered to. Sir

Horace Mann complained that the Princess in Florence made them wait

21uary Tibaldi Ghiesa, Cimarosa e il suo tenpo (Milano: A. Garzanti, 19U9), p. kO. ------22Anderson, op. cit., p. 1*68. 38 an hotir and a half for a performance* She then "was received at the door by a crowd of cavaliersj behaved stiff, and went away before the second danc e . The hapless manager in Padua during the visit of the

Grand Duke of Russia in 1781* had to go to the eaqsense of "gala" limit­ ing night after night lest the royal personage should take it upon himself to drop in to the opera.

Admission to the opera house. While charges for admission were not exacted in some of the royal theatres, in the public houses the door fees were vital to the continuance of the opera seasons. An admission fee was assessed upon even those who "owned" boxes therein. Non-box owners then would be dependent upon die hospitality of those friends who did have pal chi, would be obliged to rent a seat in the platea, or take a box for the evening, de lalande noted that at the Aliberti Theatre in Rome "the places were allotted by a masked official who took tickets at the door, and the concealment of idiose identity was supposed to remove all danger of favoritism.Tickets at Trieste were elaborately engraved with a scene.

In Padua, in 17i*l, a gentleman and his servant attençited to enter the theatre without paying. Refused admission, he drew a gun which failed to fire, and his servant was killed by a soldier's return fire. Yet at Trieste, the house was sometimes "papered" in the modern manner to ensure that a virtuoso would not lose face from lack of popu­ lar interest.

Ci ted by Fuller-îîaitland, pp. cit., p. 283. % b i d . , p. 280. 39

The theatres had several sources of income: 1. Box rent 2. Ticket sales 3. Balls U* Concessions on the sale of coffee, vine, libretti, table settings, playing cards, candles for those who wished to follow the libretto; melons, peas, chestnuts, and pears, 5. The ridotto (gambling) rooms adjoining the box corridors.

In some cities the theatre was the only place gambling was legally allowed. This provided the theatre with a necessary form of

subsidy. When the Enpress Marie Teresa of Austria in 1753 banned such

gambling, the theatre of Trieste was threatened with closing, due to

loss of gambling income; and other theatres in the Italian territories were hard hit. Eventually the gaming resumed.

Acoustics of the opera house. The description of the opera house auditorium and its public should not be concluded without a short discussion of a vitally important theatrical matter, the acous­ tics, CoUqr Cibber in London was disposed to attribute the entire Italian opera craze in that oily, which lasted some forty years, to the construction of a theatre whose excessive reverberation, unsuited to the Spoken drama, resulted in its devotion to musical pursuits to save its owners' investment.

The opera audiences in Italy, on the other hand, placed a higher value on the poetic text of their Italian libretti and the claidty of musical e3q>ression of their Italian singers than did the British, so an Italian public opera house was evolved which, idiile fulfilling the needs of the society which created i^ also provided a theatre of super­ ior acoustical properties. hP

The aooustics of the San Carlo opera house of Naples was crit­ icized on the point of its great size. B u m ^ wrote "Neither the voices nor the instruments can be heard distinctly,..not one of the present voices is sufficiently powerful for such a theatre, idien so crowded and so noisy."

Gordon Craig, on the other hand, attests to the excellent acous­ tical properties of the one theatre in Italy which was finer and larger than the San Carlo, namely, the Teatro Famese in Parma. This theatre, however, is not a public opera house of the type under study here. It is of an earlier sort.

The American acoustical engineer, V e m Knudson, presents this evaluation of the opera houses, "The public opera houses of the eigh­ teenth centuiy with the flat or nearly flat ceilings were nearly always satisfactory acoustically since the audience was brought nearer the stage, and the entire floor (and most of the walls) was covered with highly absorbtive material (the audience) thus keeping reverberation 26 time down to a low value."

The predilection of the Italians - for highly-pitched music re­ quired a theatre of low reverberation time of three seconds or less.

The musical ears of the late nineteenth-century music lovers, on the other hand, were to demand a theatre of much greater reverberation time. The Wagner Festival House at Bayreuth is cited as outstanding

^^Glover, op. cit., p. 70. ^ ^ e m 0. Knudson, Archi^ctural Acoustics (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1932), p. $L$. ill

for that later music, bringing out the deeper-toned wind and string

instruments, and low pitched male voices. All these are at their best in the Wagner theatre because of its resonance. Knudson further e3q>lained that the modem

exclusion of several balconies leaves a large unbroken surface on the rear wall which is often concave, to reflect sounds back to the stage...,use of hard plaster or other fireproof materials for the walls and ceiling lead to excessively long periods of reverberation.

In the older type of theatre with three or four balconies it was possible to seat an audience of 2000 or even 3000 in an auditorium having a volume of 200,000 cubic feet, whereas in the modem theatre with a single balcony the volume required to accommodate the same number of auditors may be of the order of 1+00,000 to 500,000 cubic feet.^7

The intimacy of this Italian type of theatre, of large seating

capacity despite its small dimensions, is suggested ty a story (prob­

ably apocryphal) of the monk in a first-level box at Trieste who in­ watching the stage, leaned over the edge of liis box and had his beard ignited by a candle in the contrabass player's music desk.

The eighteenth-century architects and musicians enjoyed a number of bizarre ideas about the acoustical properties of theatres. Their

belief that the theatre should be bell-shaped, with the ducal box at

the end to xdiich the clapper should be attached, because a bell is so resonant, resulted only in a very poor visibility of the stage.

Sigizzio solved this problem in his Formaglio Theatre in Bologna. Eadi

box there was a little higher and further out than the one before it, providing each with a clear view.

^7ibid., p. 523. hZ

Some felt that the baroque architectural motif, resembling the

amplifying flare of a horn or shell, was responsible for good acous­

tics, Algarotti claimed that the opposite was the fact. Modem

students of acoustics consider that the baroque style was beneficial,

but for a different reason: baroque detail tended to break up the

resonant plain and arched surfaces which cause excessive resonance.

Conclusion. The eighteenth-centuiy opera house, the social

center of the Italian upper classes, is shown to be a reflection, in architectural form, of the interests and artistic appetites of its builders. The rather irrational behaviour of its habitues reflects

the Italianate tastes and inclinations, their rejection as long as

possible of the new iupulses of the enlightenment in favor of the

thoughtless sensual enjoyments and social intercourse they preferred.

The influence of Royalty showed itself principally in the Ger­

manic extensions of the Italian operatic exports, and materially affected the otherwise rather standardized practices of these "city clubs,"

The architecture, acoustics, and lighting of these theatres

demonstrated the audience-centeredness of the opera houses; even the boxes were turned in upon themselves, providing better visibility of one another than of the stage. CHAPTER V

THE STAGE

Baroque scenic expression. The public which patronized the

eighteenth-century opera found on its stage satisfaction of an appe­

tite for a baroque splendour and a persistent Italianate taste for a poetical mixture of post-Renaissance antiquarianism combined with an

almost Gothic Medieval romanticism. That these appetites were being satisfied is shown in the fact that there were scores of opera houses in successful operation.

The visual aspect of the public opera stage was of course a

vitally inportant factor in this musical art, and without an under­ standing of the stage settings and their contribution to the whole of

the operatic entertainment, no clear corrprehension of the phenomenon

is possible. Excellent histories cover the development of opera, yet idien the visual aspect is not dealt with and understood, the late baroque opera remains a curiously unrewarding and puzzling phenomenon.

For a clearer understanding of the staging itself, three con­ cepts should be accepted and comprehended:

First, the baroque era was of itself a veritable mise-en-scene. The whole of art was conceived in theatrical terms. Mattheson (1728) demanded the theatrallsche, even in religious music, whose arias, he maintained, were "to excite virtuous empotions." He believed that

"All that produces an effect upon men is theatrical."^ The public in

Icited by Romain Rolland, Romain Holland's Essays on Music, David Ewen, editor (New York: Allen, foune and Heath, Inc., 19W*), p. 5k*

1*3 Venice made a stage of their city, inhabiting its cafes, gambling houses, and gondola-landings in masks. The scene designers were hap­

piest when one could not tell where the auditorium of the theatre left

off and the settings began. The theatres were almost more brilliantly

lighted than the stages for the real drama, which drew the audience,

took place in the opera house rather than before the settings. The

churches were mise-en-scene, the worshipers a part of the total drama, reenacting in most brilliant fashion the death and rebirth of the early manifestation of their God. James Laver, the modem examiner of these

historical schemes of values, has shown that art was supplied with backgrounds which were stage settings, representing and symbolizing

values and meanings far beyond their more visual iJiçort, Laver has pointed out that "decor is always baroque, and baroque is the theatre in flower, that is at its most theatrical, when it invades every d^art- raent of life."^

Second, unlike the designers of the succeeding century, those of the eighteenth thought of man as distinct and separate from nature, not

as a part of it. The dieties and heroes inhabiting the music dramas deigned to dwell only in an environment which was as far from the natu­ ral as ingenuity and engineering skill could then imagine. Country scenes are not seen, despite the bucolic ancestry of this dramatic form. Even the occasional garden scenes were geometrically planned settings possessing all the accumulated virtuosic skill of architectural engineering.

2James Laver. Drama, Its Costume and Decor (London: Studio Publica­ tions, 19$i 5, p. 18. kS

Third» the system of stage decoration was invented for the

opera» and the present-day linçjing utilization of its descendants gives an extremely distorted concept of the meanings and values in­

herent in its conventions and usages. Like the present motor car»

Wiose engine-hood is a convention idiich is a constant reminder of the long-vanished horse» and now suggests and demands beneath it a vast

unused reserve of horse power, so does the modem stage misuse the old

conventions of scenogrspl^. Formerly used merely to suggest a real

scene, while being principally devoted to the e:3q3ression of the basic

spirit of the drama through symbols, the stage decoration in the sub­ sequent centuries has instead been employed to represent directly a reality, essentially without expression.

The eighteenth-century stage setting was a necessary part of the expression of the baroque spirit. Just as the natural human voices had been found inadequate for the expression of baroque aspirations,

normal architectural engineering was found too earthbound for the ambitious baroque eye. Baroque stage decor satisfied the baroque

taste J supplying an environment for a dramatic action was but a minor function of the stage decor. Succeeding generations have, however, made this minor function over into a major one. Th^r are like Goethe’s sparrow, which tried to eat the painted cherries from a great master’s painting. ”A work of art can seem to be a work of nature only to a

Tpftiolly uncultured spectator.” Goethe wrote, ’’Truth of nature and truth of art are two distinctive things...the artist neither should nor m%r h6

3 endeavour to give his work the air of a work of nature." In the baroque, even on the stage, drama took a secondary place to "the vi­ sion,"

A few stock settings sufficed to suggest a locale for the action of an opera, but all the talent and skill at the command of the best scene designers was directed toward the expression of the baroque feel­ ings. Rather narrow in scope, this expression is seen to dominate all those scenes whose reproductions today's art connoisseurs have seen fit to make available. The expression is characterized by majesty, order, human supremacy over trees, water, flowers, and the elements by lack of plainness and simplicity, by inflated forms and by symmetry even in conscious efforts to free the style from symmetry.

The scene and its designers. The scene directions in the li­ bretti of the best known operatic poet of the century, Pietro

Metastasio, suggest, and his texts often demand, a rather modern co­ operation between the scene designer and the poet. Metastasio in letters to his conposers politely but urgently requested such collab­ oration. He generally got it from neither designer nor composer.

For Act III scene 9 of Siroe, for example, the poet calls for "a narrow and enclosed place in the castle for the imprisonment of Siroe"(see appendix B, p. l86). All prison scenes available in reproduction, however, enploy the full stage, as do every other type of scene, including all boudoir (cabinet) and apartment settings.

3 Alois Maria Nagler, Sources of Theatrical History (New York: Theatre Annual, Inc., 19^2), p. 1*38. U7

Narrowness aid closeness would violate basic baroque principles of eicpansiveness.

Metastasio's libretto of Demofoonte, one of the most popular of operas (there are librettos of thirty-eight productions in the

United States Library of Congress) was written in 1733. The poet's scene directions make demands upon the scenographer which would be a challenge to a Cecil B. DeMille. Existing inventories of the scene stocks in eighteenth-century opera houses indicate that the poet's grandiloquent visual fantasies were normally realized on the public stage in only an improvised sort of way. Stock sets were used to serve Metastasio's visions.

Demofoonte is set in the ancient Kingdom of Demofoonte on the peninsula of Thrace. The scene directions, extracted from the text of the libretto, are sometimes extremely terse, and sometimes quite detailed:

I, i

Garden-balcony leading in to various apartments of the Palace of Demofoonte.

Seaport festively arrayed for the arrival of the princess of Frigia. View of many ships; from the most magnificent of these is heard the sound of various barbarian instruments, and from which proceed a large retinue, disembarking onto the shore. II, i Chamber [cabinet^

iiii Portico /of the temple] 48

ix Entrance hall of the Temple of Apollo, A magni­ ficent but short stairway by which one may ascend to the temple proper, which is open to the view of the spectators, except as obscured by the row of columns sipporting the main chamber. The altar falls, its flame extinguished, the sacred urns i*uined, the flowers, the fastenings, the axes and other instruments of the sacrificed scattered over the steps and upon the floor; the priests in flight, the royal guards pursued by the friends of Timante, and everywhere confusion and tumult.

Ill, i Interior prison-courtyard in \4iich Timante is incarcerated. ix

Magnificent place in the pàlace, festively decorated for the marriage of Creusa.4

Metastasio's scene directions sometimes reminds one of Goddon

Craig's demands: they are romantically just a little beyond the re­ sources of practical theatre. The libretti of Metastasio were written with multi-levelled space-stage in mind, a stage which wsis not avail­ able to him at the time. This poet was a s willing as the composers were, to move the theatre out of the baroque, but his allegiance to lyricism, which wsis in the hands of the reactionary element (the vocal virtuosi) kept him from joining the movement.

An inventory of scenes on hand at the Teatro Nuovo, of Padua, in 1776, listed the following settings, which would nomally provide

Pietro Metastasio, Opere (Florence: Dal Gabinetto di Pallade, 1819), No. IV, pp. 99-192. See Appendix B for complete scene directions from nine other Ifetastasian libretti. k9

for nearly all the scenes of operas to be mounted* The municipal

ordinances, however, to ensure a continuous replenishment of the

sceneiy, and to guard against inartistic improvising of some scenes, required that the inpresario build two-fifths of the scenes for all

new operas, which would become the property of the theatre at the

season’s end. The inventory: '

Hall Plaza Sea J^artments Hedgerow Woods Thrones Deliciosa L idols Garden 4 seahorse heads Palace etc.? Courtyard Prison Encampment Another Encampment Magnificent place Cabinet (boudoir)

An inventory of scenery and equipment, taken at the opera house

in Trieste, meticulously lists evepy loose scr^ of canvas andiron in the theatre building. One would think that in a century of operation,

a theatre of this sort would have accumulated more than the seventeen

sets that are listed. One is drawn to the conclusion Ihat representa­ tion of specific locale was only a minor consideration in the opera

housej atmosphere and spirit of the theatre was the more vital matter. It may be observed that the quality of the painting art on the canvas was a factor in the valuation of the scenes. The baroque theatre was

^Bruno Brunelli Bonetti, I teatri di Padova dalle origini alia fine del secolo XIX (Padua: Â, Draghi, l921), pp. 178-79. 50 a painter's theatre. It ia quite significant that this very meticu­ lously detailed inventory made only a minimal mention and valuation of set pieces and levels, while enumerating each piece of torn canvas.

The listing of the stage machinery indicates that even in the eighteenth century some use was made of the "flies," even though no proof is offered of the presence of a full-fledged fly gallery.

The lighting equipment inventory indicates the equal inç>ortance held by house and stage lighting. An impressively large number of lights are listed. It is easy to see why lighting expense in the thea­ tre was quite high, and why the fire hazards were quite great. AN INVENTORY OF THEATRICAL EQUIPMENT IN THE

TEATRO SAN PIETRO OF TRIESTE, MAY 8, 1793^

Inventory and valuation, made by the undersigned, of all the decor, rigging, tools, equipment, lighting, gear and odds and ends in the C. R. theatre of Trieste.

No. item lire value

1 Curtain of new canvas, painting and rigging. 60. 1 Old curtain. 10. 1 Boudoir scene (cabinet), U old wings, painting and 20i rigging. 1 Chamber scene, old canvas, painting. 15. 1 Royal palace scene with four old wings, painting. 30. 1 Gallery, new canvas, painting. 20. 1 Garden, new canvas, and six old wings, 30. 1 Cellar scene drop, with apertures, and with four 25. wings. Old canvas, 1 Prison scene with four wings, and old ceiling-vault LO, pieces. Painting• 1 Forest scene, new canvas, with 8 old wings. 30. 1 Village scene, new canvas, painting. 25. 1 Tençle scene, with 2 drops with apertures, and 35. supplied with wings of old material 1 Plaza with 6 wings of old material, painting. 30, 1 Amphitheatre with i; wings of old material, painting, 30. 1 Palace drops with apertures and backing, and with 35. k wings, of old material. 1 Street scene drop, old canvas. Painting. 15. 1 Entrance-hall (atrium) with 2 wings, old material, 20. painting, 6 Separate wings. Old material. 16, 1 Covered frame with panels of cardboard timbers, 25. painting. A scene made of cardboard, with U wings in the 25. Chinese style. Painting. 3 Broken pieces of old canvas, 10. 12 Broken pieces of old cardboard. 12. 3 Sky drops and U braces, 2 first (downstage) frames, 17. old material. Steps, practical levels, and other old scenic wooden pieces, ___ TOTAL VALUE OF DECORATION

^Extracted from the Osservatore Triestinq of May 8, 1793, by Carlo L. Curiel, II Teatro S. Pietro de Trieste (Milan: Archetipografia di Milano, 1937)7 pp. ^2-857" 52

Valuation of propèrtle s and sundries :

lii Wooden stars with tinplate points 13 Matching spears, 10 wooden Spanish swords, 5 old tin swords, 3 military sabres, 12 torches, 3 wooden candlesticks, 1 wooden chalice, guitar, 2 parrot cages, U silk banners, 5 arrows, 2 wooden muskets, a wooden spades, 6 tin lanterns.

Florins 939.17

1 altar of sheet-iron, 7 tin torches, 1 tin mirror, embellished with wood, a raven with a larcp, 1 tin bellows, 1 basket of imitation fruit, 2 baskets of greenery, 2 hunter's chase- homs, a wooden zither, 2 medals, 1 banner of undyed wool, 2 chests, 1 Turkish drum, 2 brass flutes, 6 wooden cups of coffee, 2 wooden bottles. All( these valued at the total of 30 Florins.

Valuation of the Rigging :

Lire 8U Ropes, between new and old condition, which may be valued at about 2^, 9 Old ropes to sustain the drops 10.

Valuation of the scene-machinery: 8 Windlasses for lifting the drops into the flies old mateidal 8. 30 Spindles for the ropes 5. 28 Pulleys with steel fasteners to guide the drops down onto the stage 111, 12 Carriages under the stage - value about 36. Lighting machine and scene pulleys, old material 16, Valuation of the lifting for stage, S3 entrances, and staircases ; Florins* 1 Grand chandelier, main staircase 8.30 1 Medium-sized chandelier, second staircase 4.15 1 Grand chandelier, entrance hall 12.45 26 Lanps, for halls and staircases, at 2® 52. 3 Small lamps, for same purpose 3. 1 Lamp under stage 2. kO English lamps for the lighting of the scene 80. 6 Pegs for the flats, with tin candl.e holders 5.24 20 Other old illumination cassetes 20. 2h Torches, fitting the old supports 8. 19 Orchestra lights widi shields 5.23 8 Pans for tallow-lighting, with tinplate linings 8. 6 Side-8hields to conceal the lighting 6. 8 Shields with tin reflectors 5. 2 Boxes for storage of the Uo English li^ts 8. 12 Candle-holders for the rooms, iron. 2.

The atre-building equipment of value t

Orchestra of the opera: cane benches, parapets, barriers with openings, and other appurtenances wb&ch may have a value of 35. Six rows of cane seats, with separations. 3 4 old wooden seats for the officials about 18. 12 other benches, for seating in the plate a about 20. Main-floor box, with a glass door (for the old plate a about 3. Another entrance-hall box, w i t h door-canopy 5- A box of other old cane chairs for'entrance-hall, and round tables for warming-rooms about 5. 8 window-closers, used in cold weather 1.

Grand total valuation F. 1060.17

*The florin was valued at about two lire. 51i

The name "Bibiena" became as famous as that of Metastasio in the world of the eighteenth-century opera. The name taken by a family of painters ;Aio specialized in scenic work for the theatre became a trade mark and guarantee of quality. The artists of this Galli-

Bibiena family employed freely the highly ornate style of the late

Italian baroque, producing designs which are amazing for their splen­ dour and spacious proportions. They were designers, too, of theatres in the baroque style, Ferdinando, Francesco, Alesandro, Giuseppe, and

Antonio Galli SLbiena, whose lives covered the span of years from 16^7 to 1769, worked hard and productively. Although their work follo\fed the curx'ent fashions all the way from a somewhat decadent Renaissance style on into the rococo, they tried to unify and to standardize their artistic product. In this they succeeded, enabling them to assist one another and to succeed one another in the more lucrative posts, The designers were hard aid productive workers; they had to be, for, except in the festival operas which were occasionally presented at great ex­ pense to celebrate royal marriages and births, the virtuoso singer demanded and received the principal share of a manager's budget, leav­ ing little for the scene expenses, A designer of the Bibienas' reputation received little or no more for designing and supervising construction of a scene than a virtuoso-singer would receive for one ni^t's singing of its music. 7

^A. %ratt Mayor found that in 1733 Francesco Bibiena designed a new setWuig for the last act of an opera, for two hundred lire, or very slightly more than the prima donna received for each performance in a run of twenty-six nights. Painting the set cost over twice, and the materials almost five times as much, A. Hyatt Mayor, The Bibiena Family (New York: H, Bittner and Conpany, 19kS)j p. 11. 55

PLATES III - IX

A HYPOTHETICAL STOCK OF SCENES

Selected from among the designs of artists of the Bibiena school, these scenes could con­ ceivably have been used to set the opera of Artaserse, following the scene directions in Metastasio's libretto, with the addition of set- pieces. The designs come from the Oenslager collec­ tion, housed in The Ohio State University Theatre Collection, and are taken from Group III of the Oenslager collection entitled "The Galli-Bibiena Family and School," In the Oenslager collection the designs are numbered (in the order of their ^pearance here) 20, 21, 3, 13, 15, 16, and 33. The libretto spears in Pietro Metastasio's Opere (Florence: Dal Gabinetto di Pallade, 1819), VoITlII, pp. 5-101. 56

plate III, Act I sc, i. A garden within the palace of the King of Persia, leading in to various apartments. General view of the royal palace. Nighttime, with moon. Plat, ni.

r

iinii'aui.'Mllli 58

Plate IV, Act II, scene il. Palace. put* IT.

tvrcy. • v TWnm \

,4 •;:* '-'•iitf -w - v5^

-âilfc ^ 'm'mm * ■ ÎT - *■ ^'^'. - . - s "« - I , f ^ % v ^ ’^'\\i'} .w * n

n»« k

ikAÀ,P 60

Plate V. Act II, scene i. Royal spartments, Ulalf-scene. It mey be observed that draperies, as those indicated here, served to portray the more "intimate" scenes, such as royal apartments. The stage area was not constricted, as today, to frame the more Intimate settings J Plat» ?.

a

gi 62

Plate VI. act I. Scene viii. Royal audience hall ■with a throne at one side and seats on ■the other for the lords of the realm. A table and chairs to the right of the throne. Plate VI. 61i

Plate VII. Act III, scene i. Interior of a fortress where Arbace is inprisoned. Fence in background. Small door at ri^t, leading up to the palace. Plate m . 66

Plate VIII. Act III, scene v. Cabinet in the Æçjartraent of Mandane. CHalf view.] PXirte mi. 67

% 68

Plate IX. Scene vlii. Magnificent place arranged for the coronation of Artaserse. Throne at one side with scepter and crown in it. An altar in the middle, shining with a likeness of the sun. [Half-view.] Plate n.

I

's/ü! v'’* - ® i i i t i k

A %

mr^s

f " -..

% »/'■., 70

In addition to general leadership in the field, the Galli

Bibienas were important scenic innovators. A vital development, signi­

ficant on several scores, was the "diagonal" or "corner" perspective.

Seventeenth century designs had been characterized by rigidly geometric,

conical perspective projections. This central perspective provided

only one really satisfactory eye-view, a type of design lAich was ac­ ceptable when there was a single royal or ducal patron of the opera,

who was paying all the costs and for whose pleasure and glorification

the production was undertaken. The public eighteenth-century opera, however, was founded on

an entirely different sort of economic base. The opera houses were built by the combined support of a corporation or sort of academy of the T%per classes of a city; these sponsors were rewarded with owner­ ship of boxes in the edifice. As the boxes in the theatres were

arrsyed in a horse-shoe form, about three-fourths of the patrons, principal supporters of the opera seasons, would be well to one side or the other of an ideal scenic line-of-sight.

The Bibienas met this problem by abandoning ihe perspective based upon lines vertical to the floor and employing diagonal inter­ secting lines. This made possible multiple combinations of perspec­ tives and an interesting view from any part of the lower house. Further, the comer perspective led the eye off stage to either side, stimulating the members of the audience to provide the continuation of the perspective through the exercise of their imagination. This exer­ cise could add substantially to a theatre goer's enjoyment of a performance. 71

Plate X. Scene design with ground plan. This design, in comer perspective, hy Filippo Juvarra, includes a ground plan by the artist showing how it should be executed on the stage. It may be observed that the scene could be produced with the use of the ordinary scene machines of the period, operating through the grooves in the stage floor, in coordination with stage drops unfolded from overhead. From Lorenzo Rovere, Vittorio Viale, and others, Comitato per l*onorage a Filippo Juvarra (Milano: % s a Editrice~Oï>erdau Zuchetl, 1937)> Plate 207. K U t e Z.

%

:

Sr*! 73

A major objective of the designer was to provide an effect of

spadoTisness, The comer perspective, suggesting that only part of a

palace hall, for example, was pictured on the stage, would lead the

audience to feel themselves in a much grander theatre than was actu­

ally the case. This illusion of enlargement was a practice which had

descended from the theatres set up in the smaller royal banquet halls of an earlier century. Designers had learned how to make palaces seem

more impressive and sizeable than they were in actuality.

The scenes designed by the architects of the opera settings harmonized with the opera's conventions: heroes who communicated in

a soprano voice in a language (music) whidi no one spoke yet everyone

understood. The designs pictured a borderland between reality and phantasy, which real marble, brick, and plaster could never attain.

Mere mortals could never inhabit places like these. Now in the twen­ tieth century one does see mortals inhabiting stage sets not too different in spirit, confusing actor with character, and setting with environment.

Algarotti complained that anyone in the audience could see that some of the buildings could not stand up if they existed in the real world. He thought that the scenes had too few entrances. Very often, he declared, singers were obliged to enter from upstage, where they appeared like giants against the perspective scene, and as they came forward to sing, they grew in magnitude. Attendants, guards, etc. "never should be made to enter at that part of the stage where the c^itals of the columns rise no higher than their shoulders or perh^s Ik

their sword-belts which defeats all deception intended by the scene. He objected to the stiff geometrioality or "french regularity" in

garden architecture, suggesting that the varied Chinese fashion in

gardens be introduced.

In 1763, at the opening of Antonio Bibiena’s theatre in

Bologna (Teatro Coimunale), the scene making the deepest inç»ression

showed a bridge over the Tiber that broke under fighting Romans and

Etruscans and spilled them all over the stage. Since managers in

Italy had small funds for scenic display after their virtuosi were paid off, their effects were economically calculated to puzzle or to frighten, in such a manner, and not to overwhelm and dazzle.

"Glorys" or scenes of magnificent splendour, m t h the Gods

descending from the heavens seated upon clouds, with their retinues of musicians, alighting upon the earth to rescue the benighted hero, were rarely seen on the public stage because of their costliness. Managers found heroes cheaper than gods, in operatic representation. The I819 edition of Metastasio's works describes such a glory of licenza "tacked on" to the end of an ordinary libretto (Agj.riano in Sir la, 1731) "for a production at the court of Madrid in celebration of the birth of Ferdinand VI."?

Examination of the Metastasian texts shows that the number of scenes changes he demanded were not excessive. Six or seven different settings are generally asked for. These three-act operas would include

Û “Algarotti, op. cit., p. ii2. ?Cf. post. Appendix B., p. 178. 7^

three or four mid-act ••rspid" scene changes. Motion pictures taken at

a present-day operable eighteenth-century stage, in Drottningholm,

Sweden, show that the quick changes would encor^ass no less than fif­

teen seconds.Composers provided orchestral interludes of generous length at these points. The remove], of properties and set pieces.

Celled for in the scripts, would further militate against the smoothly illusionist type of theatre so highly valued in Renaissance playhouses and royal festival operas. A leading scholar of the designs of the

period, Joseph Gregor,was unable to ascertain with certainty just

how the Bibiena angled scenes were constructed on the stage. He did feel that the Bibienas thought of their scenes as painted upon flat

frames, parallel with the footlights. However, Gregor has suggested

that some parts of the scenery would be angled for the best effect.

The Galli-Bibiena innovations were so difficult of execution in respect to planning the perspective lines and executing them upon canvas frames, that other designers had little success in emulating them. They had, in substance, a family trade secret. Fortunately, their well known contemporary, Filippo Juvarra, has included floor plans with some of his scene designs showing how his settings were mounted (see Plate X).

^OProttningholm's TeatervMrld, A motion picture film directed by Agne:.. Beijer (Distributed by the Museum of Modern Art, New York), 16 mm., 10 min., b and w. Also see Agne Beijer, editor, Bilder Slottsteatem pa Drottning- holm (Lunds H. Ohlssons Botryckeri, 19^0)^ 2k plates. ^Monuraenta Scenica, the Art of the Theatre, new series (Berkeley, Califomiajï Samuel J. Hume, Inc., 195U), pp. I-V. 12joseph Gregor, Wiener Szenische Eunst die Theater Dekoration (Vienna: Wiener Drucke, 192%)} pp."92-95.------76

Changing the scenes. The ingenious manner of changing settings, developed during the previous century. Included from six to a dozen matching sets of scene frames on either side of the stage, held upright by attachment to masts or frames extending upward from the basement

through slots in the stage floor. The masts were fastened at their base upon trolleys, small cars in the basement which travelled later­ ally cross-stage as far as the slot overhead permitted.

Through a system -of ropes and pulleys, all the masts bearing the parts of a given scene could be pulled on stage, into the view of the audience, vdiile another setting, on its complement of masts, could simultaneously be rolled offstage out of view. To set this conplex of machineiy in operation, a dead weight of one-half to one ton, strong forces were needed. Heavy weights were raised by windlasses to a con­ siderable height at the side of the stage. Their release, when attached to a system of ropes and pulleys leading to the trolley-cars bearing the masts which in turn bore the scene-frames, would provide the force sufficient to make the change of scene.

At the same time, the scenery masking the back wall was lifted out of sight or pulled aside on masts whose slots allowed them to move

19 See Plates XI and XII, with notes. The Citizen Boullet, in 1801, discussed at length the action of the counterweight machines. "It is necessary also to calculate the distance of fall of the counter­ weights which actuate the movement of the tambour cylinder " (p. 36X "..the counterweights, ...prime movers; they are the operators of the sub-stage which cause its functioning" (p. 1*2). "When one releases the hand rope, the counterweight which descends causes the tambour to tum, which by its movement affecting the ropes, brings forward all the chariots which were off-stage" (p. ^6 ), Le G®n Boullet, Essai sur l'art construire les theatres (Paris; Chez Ballard, 1801). 77

to and from tiie center line of the stage. If lifted, the space over­ head was so limited that it would have to be lifted in folds. During

the eighteenth century this back drop or set of back frames took a

more and more dominant part in the entire visual scheme. The coming romantic movement was to make full use of the back scene for its

paintings from nature, for the particular virtue of the matching sets of frames on either side of the stage had been the bearing of repre­

sentations cf repeated architectural motifs, emphasizing symmetry and perspective. The miles of arcaded walks in Bologna, necessitated by the frequent wet snows of its winters, were said to have had a salutary

influence on the Bolognese Galli-Bibienas in nurturing their feeling for the type of architectural repetition of patterns so easily repre­

sented on the 8ids-wings of the stage.

Several of the opera houses had back walls which could be removed, opening into gardens, so that perspective scenes could be extended into reality, fireworks and incendiary effects could be safely effected, and the populace assembled for crowd scenes. The San Carlo

at Naples opened, out toward the sea; the Turin theatre's back wall could be let down like a drawbridge, onto a garden; and the stage at

Ludwigsburg opened to reveal an ai%i hi theatre. 78 Plates XI and XII* Seem Machines. By M. Radel. * A cross-section of the full height and breadth of a theatre, with arrangement for the changing of the scene- frame s,

A. Under-stage of the theatre. B. Carriages or trolleys bearing the superstructure on which the general scenery is fastened, C. Cordage attached to the hooks upon the chariots, to and around tlie drum D. I). Small inner-drum, running the depth of the stage, for the changing of the scenes. E. Large drum around which passes rope from the pulley F, coming up and around to the counter­ weight ÏÏ, from the windlass H. F. Pulley fastened to the side wall, G. Counterweight fastened to the end of the rope G, H. Windlass serving to lift the counterweight to ~ the necessary height. I. Locked position of the large drum E, held from turning by the roller L, tied at M, while the necessary extra length"of rope is coiled at N.

% o n the whistle of the manager, a worker has merely to release the rope at M, so the counterweight G is then free to pull the rope F which will rotate the large drum E, turning the spindle D within, which winds up the ropes C, pulling the trolleys B, on which the scenery is fastened. Some of the rope C will pass to pulleys on the side wall, thence back to trolleys of type B which were previously on-stage, thus drawing them off while trolleys B are being drawn on-stage.

[The overhead machinery, for the lowering of scene- drops from above, is not illustrated her#.]

* Translated from M, Radel, "Machines de Theatre." Drawn and explained by M. Radel, pensioner of the king, and expert architect, under the direction of M. Giraud, architect of Menus Plasirs, and machinist of the Paris opera. Encyclopede ou dictionnaire raesonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, edited by M. Biderot and b'Alembett (Paris: Chez Briasson, l7?2), Vol. IX, first section, Plate XIX. I M

VO 80

Plate H I . r 81

Lighting in the theatre. Edward Gordon Craig has recognized that baroque surf aces and baroque lighting were interdependent: The light in the Malvezzi Theatre and in Ihe San Cassiano in Venezia were sufficient. They were soft, well placed, and reflected from the gold that was everywhere (on the dresses even) ..from the lustres and the looking glasses, from the sparkling fans, and from the thousands of spangles which in the evening found their way, in those days, on to everything and gave a glow and sparkle against colour that was rich.l^

Since the early opera was very largely an excuse for brilliant court festivity, visibility of audience was more important than visi­ bility of stage. A tradition was thus established in lighting, which influenced the lighting in the public opera house of the eighteenth century. At festival performances and benefits the tradition was in fact carried out, of lighting "the house" as brilliantly as possible.

Performers were obliged to remain at the rim of the stage in order to maintain the perspective values of the scenery, as well as to be heard to full effect. For this reason, the lights of the auditorium served to a considerable degree the lighting needs of the stage. Kelley related that at the San Carlo theatre in Naples there were "In the front of each box a mirror, and before each of those, two large tspersj those, multiplied by reflection, and aided by the flood of light from the stage, form a blaze of splendour perfectly dazzling.

At Trieste, clusters of lights hung from the ceiling, while

l^Edward Gordon Craig, Books and Theatres (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. 1925), p. 12:1:. ^^Kelley, op. cit., p. 1:7. 82 between the boxes were chandeliers each with two candles. The orches­ tra had flat candlesticks with shields.

On the stage at Trieste were vitreous candle-holders, and oil

langjs which were pans full of fat, each with several wicks. The bars

holding li^ts onto the masts (with which the wing flats were held up) were unstable, apt to be overturned during scene changes, with danger

of fire or of staining the costumes or scenes. The stench and smoke was very disturbing, especially to the singers, and particularly in

hot weather. It was not until 1788 at La Scala, and 1793 ât Trieste, that new kinds of lanps with chimneys for the better consuming of the smoke were installed. An inventory of 1793 at the Trieste theatre lists these "lO English lanps for the illumination of the scene and two metal boxes for their storage.They were the modern ''improved" ■type of lighting.

Lighting was intended for illumination and not for artis'tic effect. Algarotti observed that lighting was too evenly distributed, and suggested a pleasing mixture of li^t and shade, as in the pictures of Giorgione or of Titian. At the time he was writing, however (1755)j the lanps of sufficient candlepower were not available for such subtle effects. In fact, the uniform dimness of lighting was essential to the scenic illusion of the painted canvas settings.

Flickering candlelight gi-ves movement to a dead, flat backdrop;

"It takes -the uncertainties of candlelight fully to animate the

^^Curiel, op. cit., p. U8it. 83

ornamental flow of baroque rooms," Mayor pointed out. 17 Gordon Craig suggested:

at night open some door which leads into a seventeenth or eighteenth-century room gilded or silvered, and strike a match. The place will seem to go off like a firework. Gome into some chaste room devised by the Puri­ tanical mind and strike a match there, and the only suggestion of life we receive is something like that which a drowning man receives as he sinks lower into the sea.^°

Small clusters were suspended from above the stage, but the footlights were depended upon most of all, to intensify the lighting on the performers. This light from below the singers' faces was a boon to the older players, erasing many a wrinkle and sagging jowl; it was a veritable fountain of youth. Features of actors were "washed out" by them and a fresh physiognamy could be erected by the use of paints, in place of a faulty original. Conplaint was made of the white mask-like make-up preferred by some prima donnas.

Coloring effects could not be used to advantage on the settings because of the distracting shadows cast by footlights. In the Teatro

Filarmonlco in Bologna, Francesco Bibiena built a row of footli^ts that could be gradually lowered below the stage, to make night and day. At Drottningholm (and probably elsewhere), wing lights also could be swung away from the stage on pivots, when dimming was desired.

The candles (wax and tallow) and the lanps required attention during the performances. Today in the theatre a bulb-changer making

^7Mayor, op. c i t . , p . 2i+. l8craig, op. c i t . , p. lijO. 8li

his rounds during a performance would be very distracting, but in the

eighteenth-century opera house there was a constant coining and going

of the audience to and from the gaining rooms, the refreshment tables,

and acquaintances' boxes. The lançliglTter at his work would go un­

noticed, At Trieste, the contrabass professor had the contract for

the illumination of the theatre. One wonders whether he put down his

instrument and left the orchestra during the playing of the opera to

see to his lights? Pierre Patte, in his architectural study (1782),

reported that "There hardly passes a week in which one does not hear of the burning of this or that part of the decor. A large water-soaked sponge on the end of a long pole, or in Germany, a large syringe, gen­ erally serves to extinguish these minor blazes.

In the better equipped theatres the audience assembled under a blazing chandelier that ascended through a hole in the ceiling or the proscenium arch when the performance was about to start. Candles, softened from the heat idien a great many were used, bent over and spilled tallow on the people below. Houses were brightened, too, with gilt and light tints on the walls.

In festival performances and benefits at Trieste, many extra lights were mounted, making the theatre "a giomo," Cornucopia of lights were added to chandeliers, and crystalline bracelets of li^ts were attached to the boxes. At the San Carlo theatre in Naples, such occasions occurred four times a year, on the evening of the birthday

^^Pierre Patte, Storia e descrizione de'principali teatri antichi e moderni (Milanoi dalla tipografla del dottor Giulxo Ferrario, ” 1Ü30), p. 2Ï0- 8^ of the King of Spain, and on those of the King, Queen, and Prince

Royal of N^les. The expense of lighting was not a minor one. All managerial accounts note the high cost of illumination.

Fire control. It was the constant effort to secure more and more lighting in the theatre that was held responsible for the destruc­ tion of many opera houses by fire.

Steps were taken in 1785 in Trieste to mitigate the danger of fire, for many European theatres were being destroyed. The scenery workshop was moved out of the theatre building, hand warmers were for­ bidden, footwarmers allowed only in severe weather, and the discharge of firearms was prohibited. The use of fireworks was rigidly circum­ scribed and the use of scrim (transparent scenery) by the ballet was discouraged. Water containers were placed everywhere, in the general belief that fires were to be checked at their inception, not later.

In 1783, Mozart had written from Vienna that "I am not at all alarmed at the notion of a few fireworks, for the arrangements of the Viennese fire brigade are so excellent that there is no cause for uneasiness at having fireworks on the stage. Thus Medea is often performed here, at the end of which one half of the palace collapses, while the other half goes up in flames."

Lighting, like singing, scenogrsphy, and acting, takes on a special meaning when employed in the baroque, and the baroque itself is conditioned by it. Glittering and curvelinear surfaces were created

^^Anderson, op. cit., p. 1290. 86 to reflect the flickering, motile li^t sources in order to make static

surfaces vibrant with movement, reinforcing the expression of the vi­

tality and the restlessness of the baroque spirit.

Conclusion, The baroque spirit had turned to a synthetic archi­ tecture as it turned to a synthetic human voice, for the fullest

expression of its aspirations. The ground on which it built these marvels of the spirit, freed from the natural laws of gravity, was called "the theatre," Audiences entering upon this magic ground, a

sort of tenple, were overwhelmed by an enjoyment essentially sensual, for drama took second place to the architectural "vision." The baroque scenography in the eighteenth century had now altered its methods somewhat from those of the seventeenth* Riccobaii in 1738

announced that "The two Bibienas,,,have convinced all Europe by their

grand decorations that a theatre may be adorned without machinery not

only with as much magnificence but with more propriety, The sixty- seven scene changes of Pomo d'oro were cut down to six or seven in

the Metastasian dramas. Machinery's marvels were replaced by "the

vision," yet the stage remained rather hi^ly mechanized.

The baroque theatrical styles were influenced by the type of

lighting available within the theatre. Both scenography and theatre

design aidapted themselves to the limitations of the oil lamp and candle power, and the baroque forms exploited the movement Inherent in the flickering flames. Baroque appetites for movement and aversion to the static were served by all the means at hand.

^^Nagler, op. cit., p. 26?, CHAPTER VI

THE SINGER AS AN ACTOR

The eighteenth century was said to be the age of the actor and not the author. Plays were written with particular actors in mind, and operas were composed on commission with particular singers in mind.

Yet the acting on the operatic stage was limited, in a manner that seems today veiy rudimentary and stiff. A number of partial explana­ tions for this are at hand, and it should be profitable to list them.

1. A prevailing ei^teenth-century European idea was that tragedy is the teacher of morals, and comedy, the teacher of manners.

So realistic acting belonged more properly to comedy, and not to the opera seria. 2. Since the music of each opera produced had to be new, the drama had to be old and familiar, so stage business was not particu­ larly pertinent or enlightening.

3. The action inherent in the singer's convoluted vocal line was so strong that simultaneous movement on the stage would only be dis-bracting. A statuesque style of presentation was thus favored during the arias, while characterization was relegated ~bo the recita­ tives and the ritomellos (instrument interludes).

U. Operatic feelings were basically lyrical, but particular­ ized. A member of the audience referred a passion to himself, and not to the character.

5. There was something occurring upon the stage that was more interesting than a drama. Vernon Lee pointed out that "The performers

87 88

...might stand as rigid as statues and as stupid as babies, providing they could swell and diminish, shake and run rapid divisions and make long, intricate, extemporary embellishments."^ All of these factors point toward the enpl<^rment of a static and statuesque style of acting whid^ as a matter of fact, was in accordance with prevailing taste and practice.

The acting style. There appeared to be some prejudice against truthful acting as being out of place. Pistocci complained to his pupil Bemacchi that, even though he had taught him mastery of the art of singing, yet he insisted on playing. Sir Richard Steele, in "The

Tatler," reported of Nicolini that "There is scarce a beautifpi posture in an old statue which he does not plant himself in."^

The static technique in operatic acting is given respectful con­ sideration even by modem students. Bennet Challis, in an article,

"The Technique of Operatic Acting," declares that "The most effective solution is nearly always to be found in the simplest of devices, the intelligent use of the still pose."^ .."Intensity and continuity of the dramatic line are of the utanost importance in musical drama" or as

Goethe put it, "outwardly limited, inwardly unlimited, and vice versa."

XLee, op. cit., p. 13^.

^Richard Steele, "The Tatler, No. 11^." The British Essayists, Alexander Chalmers, editor (London: Printed for J. Johnson and others, 1003), Vol. Ill, p. 171. ^Bennet Challis, "The Technique of Operatic Acting," Musical Quar­ ter^, Vol. XIII (October, 1927), pp. 631-33. 89

The twentieth-century verismo style (e.g., as employed in I Pagllaoci,

La Boheme) would perhaps fall into the "vice versa" category. A point that could be mentioned is that the variegated conventions of stage

business and movement used to express attitudes and feelings in turmoil

are unnecessary in opera, for the orchestra can express all that inner psychological disturbance. It can directly imitate the turbulence of the respiration, the heart action, and muscular twitching of a dis­ tressed person. It is unnecessary to stride across the room and ner­ vously grind out a cigarette butt, as in a modem quasi-realistic play. An apologist for the baroque stage might argue that the gorgia, or musical figure called "the beat," used to express fury^ anger and resolution, serves the purpose as well as the grinding out of a cigar­ ette will. This is a downward trill, sung or played long and with force. Both are stage conventions.

Frequent maition is made of the role of gesture in operatic acting of the eighteenth century. Gesture, as a means of communication, was a part of the art of social intercourse in that day. This art seems to have fallen upon bad times in the twentieth century, when it has become synonymous with artificiality. But an essential truthfulness and meaningfulness in gesture remains. Singers were prone to overdo the use of gestures, as a substitute for movement and business, because the physical act of singing, in full voice, even during recitative, is difficult to coordinate with meaningful business. Rousseau informed his readers that the performer could slacken or quicken a passage to suit the length of his arms, and the time which it consequently took 90

to stretch them out and draw them in again.^ Michael Kelley related that it was said that the country of Lucca was so small, that when

their best actress was acting with energy, she always threw one, or

both her arms out of the Republic.^ Riccoboni, in I7I4I, pointed out that in the Italians of the time, particularly the lower classes,

there was a certain unrestrained heat of action in their everyday re­

action to experiences.

The reputation of singers as actors was further damaged by the

fact that music was used conpanies of comedians to attract audiences which their inferior acting could not succeed in drawing.

In a subsequent chapter some of the accepted vocal conventions will be described, each one telegr^hing to the audience's ears the suggestion of an emotional state, or "affection/" Below are a few similar conventions for the audience's eyes. Artificial they are, but

communicate they did, on a stage whose murky, smoky and dim visibility required heroic measures in communication. Artificialities no doubt would not seem so out of place against the patent artificiality of scene. Diderot, in 1758, wisely observed that the way to correct arti­ ficial acting and declamation was to create naturalistic scenery and costumes, and then the actors would surely correct themselves.

Below will be found exanples of the gestures used to communicate some of the "affects."

If one attends to something or someone on his right, he uses the right hand for any gesture he might make, and vice-versa.

^Lee, op. cit., p. 121. Kelley, op. d t ,, p. 101. 91

Calmness; A calm -thought, quiet action. A m scarcely moves.

More important thought: Arm raised somewhat.

Strong sentiment: Rapid raising of arm, energetic expression of arm.

Appeal to the heavens: High arm.

Favourable: Palm of the hand up. Prayer, friendship, love, etc. Calmness Indifference Submission A low hand, scarcely forward. Es-teem Veneration Honour Dignity Cover the chest." Pride

The fine silks, brocades, tightly fitted or laced costumes per­

mitted little freedom of movement, so d i g n i t y of mien and erectness of

carriage is dictated.

The operatic stage was normally unencumbered by set-pieces and properties, so little opportunity was afforded for stage business.

Nevertheless, occasional pages eppear in Metastasio's libretti on vdiich the author calls for a specific movement almost line by line. It seems wothwhile to present such a passage for its value in showing the type of movement asked of the singing-actor. It is taken from Qlin^iade, act II scene 10.

From Henry Siddons, Practical Illustrations of Rhetorical Gesture and Action, after a work on the subject biy T. T,"Sigel, Berlin, lB02 (Lera don : Printed for Sherwood, Neely a M Jones, 1822), 393 pp. 92 MEGACLEî Huriy, Prince (starts to leav^, rescue your fiance! LICIDA : Oh! What a difficulty! What shall I do? (to Megacle) MEGACLE: Such unexpected grief overwhelms the senses, (starts to leave, as above) LICIDA : And you are leaving me? MEGACLE: I see. (turns upstage) I believe it is Aristea. What can I ever say (leaving) when I face her (stands firm).'

These Metastasian stage directions would seem to fall into the category of choreography rather than into that of action.

Doctor Bumey, a protagonist of the Italian opera in England,

had no apologies to make for the favorite, Niccolini:

I have often wished, that our tragedians would copy after this great master in action. Could they make the same use of their arms and legs, and inform their faces viith as significant looks aid passions, how glorious would an English tragedy appear with that action, which is enable of giving a dignity to the forced thoughts, cold conceits, and unnatural expressions of an Italian opera.8

Sir Richard Steele seconded Burney's opinion:

Signor Niccolini sets off the character he bears in an opera by his action as much as he does the words of it by his voice. Every limb, and every finger, contributes to the part he acts, insomuch that a deaf man might go along with him in the sense of it...He performs the most ordinary action in a manner suitable to the greatness of his chaiaoter, and shows the prince even in the giving of a letter or the dispatching of a message..I have seen him enter alone at the remotest part of the stage, and advance from it, with such greatness of air and mien as seemed to fill the stage, and at the same time commanded tl% attention of the audience with themmajesty of his appearance.9

^MetastasiOj op. cit.. Vol. IV, p. 60. ®Bumey, op. cit., p. 66^. 9Steele, op. cit., p. 171. 93 It should be remembered that this Niccolini was one of the evlrati, a male soprano.

Greeks, Romans, Persians, Chinese, Indians, Homeric heroes, all were made to sing in the same way, because there was only one proper way to sing. Tet the singing actors were able to make up for lack of characterization by an elevation of qjirit that was of the essence of the baroque taste, and therefore fully satisfied an audience's appe­ tites. Of Marchesi, Doctor Burney wrote "Marches!, with an elegant figure and pleasing countenance, is at once graceful and intelligent in his demeanor and action.Paccierotti seemed in earnest on the stage. Rubinelle had a great dignity in his deportment. So one may see that an elevation of style was valued above characterization, in acting, and was in itself deemed fine acting.

The reading of some of Goethe's precepts for actors will pro­ vide a view of some of the practices and attitudes of theatre people toward their art:

Carry your body well. Play to the audience.

Persons of higher rank stand on ri^t.

Movement of the arm should be proportional to enphasis of the speech being given.

Avoid stiff arm movements. Keep elbow close in.

Do not act too close to the wingsj this spoils the picture.

The art is in the imitating of nature, not its facsimile lOoeorge Hogarth, Memoirs of the Musical Drama (London: Richard Bentley, 1838), VCi: U,-pp-ri8iî=8^------llNagler, op. cit., pp. l|28-33. 9h

Conclusion. The eighteenth-century concept of good acting was quite different from today’s. The stiff, rather immobile style of acting, with a great use of symbolic gesture, was the characteristic and accepted behaviour of the opera singer in his role. A few highly talented actors were able to break through the conventions and play rather realistically, but even then poise and "style" counted for more than characterization. CHAPTER V n

THE POSITION (F THE UBRSTTXST

The subject-matter of the libretto. In Italy the pastoral

drama had flourished, an artificial literary development of the bu­

colic idyll, or ecologne. Its charm lay not in the interest of its

action, but in the passion and sweetness of its sentiment. The arti­

ficiality of the pastoral drama impressed itself i;pon the opera, and

the energies of all the literary talents were recruited for the writing

of such libretti. Over fifteen hundred operas were produced in Venice

alone prior to the nineteenth century. A deep hiatus in literary his­

tory resulted, for literary talents were diverted into writing for the

lyric theatre.

The first subjects selected for operas were drawn from heathen

mythology. Algarotti suggested that mythological themes were used

because only Die ties could, logically, communicate by song.^ Further,

the fascinating machinery of the Renaissance theatre could be employed

with full effect: the Gods were occi^ied with cammuAlng between heaven

and earth as billowy clouds and in fiery chariots.

The managers of the public theatre, however, found -the produc­

tion style of that festival theatre much too e:qiensive to maintain, so

the librettists were called vpon for a more modest series of subjects.

Historical themes replaced the fabulous, and heroes supplanted Gods.

^Algarotti, op. d t ., p. 22.

95 96

Algarotti pointed oat that these historical sabjects were less Interest­

ing than fabulous themes had been, and were apt to be austere and

monotonous, necessitating the increased en^loynent of a ballet for

relief. The seventeenth-century Italian operas about the dleties were

unlike the French opera-ballet, for the Italians had made only a li­

mited use of dancers. As it was difficult to integrate the dancing

with a historical subject, Algarotti thou^t that this was why a solu­

tion was found in using remote themes: settings in lands remote in

distance and in time. Dido and Achilles in Sclros were nearly ideal;

Aneas in Trpy, Iphigenia in Anils were other exanples of suitable types

of subject^ he felt.

The literary style of the libretti. England and S^ain, having

already a well developed drama, produced the "lyric plays" of

Shakespeare and Calderon. Italy had no national drama because of its

small political divisions and its numerous dialects. And Italy, now

in an economic eddy due to the development of navigational aids and

the resulting stqpplantation of the Mediterranean sea by the oceans, idly continued to reflect the old sweetness and ease and futility of 2 life. The Italians willingly barkened to the rmnanticism of the middle ages. Knightly romance, with its complicated end artificial rhetoric-drama, was found most congenial. This afforded an adequate frame for the baroque literary sfpirit.

Early opera had relied tq>on extensive scenic mounting. This operatic practice was retained in places where the ic^erial splendour

^Rolland, op. cit., p. 1$, 97 of tb» earlier baroque continued, even through the first half of the ei^teenth century (in Vienna, Dresden, Munich, and Paris). The public opera house, however, followed a trend toward substituting musical displqjr for the more e^qpensively ostentatious scenic diq>lay.

To the Italians, poetry could present only external drama, in terms of concrete symbols, lAile music can egress directly the drama taking place within. The Italians could feel through music all the intensity of dramatic e^qiression that they cared to enjoy.

Baroque emotional expression had become too intense to be ex­ pressed by the spoken m r d and too violent for the formal constraint of an air. A form of vocal ornamentation was developed which was felt to increase pathos, and which was to lead eventually in the same direc­ tion as European drama, toward comedie larmoyante.

Before the end of the seventeenth century the scenic and dra­ matic elements were so subordinated to the vocal that performances became little more than concerts in costumes. Opera managements had found that by investing most of their working capital in the engagement of virtuoso singers, instead of scenic display, the public could most profitably be attracted to their opera houses.

A reaction against this sterile trend in opera appeared, led hy librettists influenced by French pseudo-classicism, the simple and noble pathos of Corneille and Racine, ^ostolo Zeno (1668-1750) and

Pietro Hetastasio (1698-1782) led and dominated the new operatic dramaturgy. 98

The Itallm tongue itself had been found uneulted to tragedy,

"The language fell into regular cadences hostile to the fluctuating accent of emotion," Vernon Lee believed.^ The Italians desired defi­ nite and artificial forms inooag>atible uith the xqpheatings and erenoh- ings of tragic action. The subjects of tragedy were too start and meagre for the varied resources of opera, yet the "magnificent Hellen­ istic visions lent themselves to the plastic and poetical imagination of a musician."^

fktastaeio, the most popular of the librettists, provided the musicians with a virtuosity of rhythmic and metric construction uhich

8ig)plied a variety of rhythm not usually found in libretti. Zeno and

Hetastasio changed the opera into a lyric production. It was romantic and appealed to the ears and eyas only, following the lead of

Shakeepeare and Calderon rather than the classicists of French and

Italian tragedy. Ihity of place was rejected. The three unities were defied; many plots and events were combined into one opera. Ifetastasio used the main situations from half a dozen plays and poems and worked thmm into one plot: Corneille's Cinna plus Racine's Andromaque results in Hetastasio's Titus. Heppy endings were the rule.

While Zeno's works were characterized by dignity and conplete­ nses, Hetastasio'8 had greater flexibility, variety, intensity, deli­ cacy of form and effect, although marred ly alternate insipidly and

Jerkiaess. In the libretti, the second pair of lovers, for exanple.

^Lae, op. cit., p. 2i*U. Holland, op. cit.. p. li*0. 99

are invariably nninteresting. "So nadii action > so much plot, so snieh

heroism, so naeh lyrism and love making, so mach blundering, and

recognising," overdone in every feature because Hetastasio was reach­

ing for new effects in every featxre.^

Hetastasio* 8 work is further characterized by 8isq>lieity of

structure, brevity of language, and absence of minute details, to pre­

vent o(mfunion and tediousness. Romain Rolland found his writing "full

of taste and intelligence, perfectly balanced, but scholarly and

sophisticated; it lacks andadly and vigor.Lessing coa^lained

about his subordination of poetry to music, where there is found an

unnecessary crowding of characters, and Idle closing of every scene with

an aria. In the operas, with the music in a dominant position, com­ promises had to be accepted, and Hetastasio (along with the lesser

librettists) willingly moulded his dramatic foxns to the service of musical variely and contrast. The following set of rules, derisively set down by Carlo Goldoni, and actually in accordance with the practice of the librettists, were well calculated to provide a musical unity through contrast, variety, and a large rhythm, idiloh the patchwork drama itself could not st^plys

Do not follow one pathetic air with another; likewise with bravura airs, inferior airs, minuets, and rondos. The three principal perswages are given five airs each, two in the first act, two in the second, one in the third. Second personages have only three airs each.

%«ee, op. cit., p. 266.

Holland, op. cit., p. 178. 100

Inferior ebaracters, one each. One ahould avoid giving inpaasioned

or bravura airs to inferior actors.^

Vernon Lae has pointed oat that when the singer, ooDçoser and

decorator was ascendant over the poet, a new s^ l e of writing developed.

1. The hipest part in wusic is ihe dominant one. 2, Hl^iness suggests

youth. 3. Youth uses tender passions, love. Ji. Age is suggested by O lower pitches.

All the action of the opera was effected during the recitative.

Melody and orchestration were reserved as the expression of mere emo­

tion; as the result of the previous action, not as the expression of

that action itself. Trageo^ is concerned with the emotion of indi­

vidual characters, so Metastasio very rarely called for ensemble sing­

ing. The aria is consistent; it is the ruling feeling of an individual

and is unified in mood. Recitatives, on the other hand, are concerned with e^ressing fluctuating feelings. Metastasio's constant considera­

tion of musical factors is evident in this admonishment of the coB^oserj

"If you should think accoxqpaniment [ritomello] necessary here, I recommend the same economy of time as before, that the actor may not be embarrassed or obliged to wait, hy idiieh that fire would bd diminished irtiich I would have increased, hy the use of instruments."^

7carlo Goldoni, Manoirs, translated from the original French by John Black (London: fteniy Colburn, I81I4.), p. 185. ^ e , op. cit., p. 256. 9cited by Hogarth, op. cit.. Vol. I, p. 333. An English translation of the cosg)lete letter of instructions to the conposer Haase, a very significant document, written in 17U9. 101

MBtaataelo» the leading librettiet* Hétaatasio is presented in thie etudljr as the central figure in the cqperatio field, because his works did dominate the field. Per example, as late as 1761, in Padua the managers were required to secure prior approval of any libretto used unless from Metastasio's pen. The poet wrote thirty-four li­ bretti, one of which, Artaserse, was set by forty ccmposers.

In I91U the United States Library of Congress published cata­ logues of 17,000 opera libretti in its possession, a fair representa­ tion of the more than 30,000 operas which had been performed since

1597*^^ Of the fourteen hundred librettists repiresented in the cata­ logue, no other coipared in popularity with Metastasio. These are the most popular lilurettists, and the approximate number of their works listed. Only those appearing before I8OO are considered:

Bertati, Giovanni ISO Favart, Charles Simon ISO Goldoni, Carlo 270 LeSage, Alain 80 Livigni, Filippo 19 Lorensi, Gianbattista So Metastasio, Pietro 680 Noniglia, Giovanni W Norris, Hatteo 10 Palomba, Gius^pe 50 Petrosellini, (Àuseppe SO Quinaxult, Philippe 60 Salvi, Antonio So

Since each new opera production brought with it the publication of the libretto used for it, with copies elaborately bound for presen­ tation to the sponsors and officials, there are maiqr editions of each

^Catalogue of Opera Librettos Printed Before I8OO, Oscar G. T. 2*voîsï^ editor (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1911), 102

drouitle poem. Again, Mstaetaaio led tgr far in the nomber of edltlome;

the book of Zeno's Merqoe was the only work of ooiig)arable pc^ularity.

Fourteen editions of it are found in the catalogue. The titles listed

below show the subjects of the most popular operas of the sixteenth

century, as well as the number of editions ^ Metastasio's authorship

in the library of Congress l^lii catalogues:

Artaxerxes 50 L'Olyspiade 39 Demofoonte 38 Alissandro nell'Indie 35 Didome abbandonata 33 Adriano in ^yria 31 Semirainia 30 Esio 25 Denetrio 2k La Clemenza di Tito 23 Siroe 22 Achille in Sciro 26 Antigone 15 Esio 13 L'Issipile 12 11 Giro Binosciuto 10

Most of the popular subjects listed above are found aaong the operas presented at the Teatro Nuevo, in Padua, between the year of its opening, in 1751, and 1797. 103 lEAE OPERA MffSICAL COMPOSER 1751 Arttferee Oalqzpl 1752 0 « M ^ o D. Scarlatti 1753 Siroe Latilla 175U Enrlone Faaqpani 1755 Attalo Bnranello (Galiq>pi) 1756 Seeostri Gocchi 1757 ? Qalvppi 1758 Deaofoonte Gali%)i 1759 Semiramide Fieohetti 1760 Solinano 1761 Denetrio and Zenobia Peacetti 1762 tbuBio SiTola Fisehetti 1763 Ariazma e Teaea N and Oliapiade Sacohini 17&Ü Antigone Traetta 1765 Ezio It 1766 AUesandro nell Indie SarlxL 1767 Antigone in Tebe Salea

1769 II Trlonfo da Clelia Bertoni 1770 Sclpione in Cartagine Sacohini

1773 Amida Henmann 177U Atide ttLaliweczek 1775 Araaee Hortellari 1776 Calliroe Vilhelm Rnet 1777 Adriano in Siria Anfoaai 1778 QSinto Fabio ? 1779 Broadamante Sohuater 1780 Caetw e PoUuee Bianchi 1781 Erifile AUeaandri 1782 Didome Sarti 1783 Demofoonte AUeaandri 1784 Ritteti Qiordanello 1785 If igenia in Anlide Torchi 1786 Zemeia Bianchi 1787 Artaaerae If 1788 Attalo re d'Betinia Robaachi 1789 Daliao e Delmita Bianchi 1790 Idomeneo Oaszanlga

1792 Amleto Andreozsi and Telemaco in Sicilia Colegari 1793 Laodicea Paer loi*

TEAR OPERA MUSICAL CŒIPOSEE

179k Arnldo AUesandrl 1795 Cinna Paar 1796 Angelica Hortellari 1797 Le noaae del Saanetl Qneceo H

The Hbrettl. Reading tgr the light of a candle held in the hand, opera-goers followed their librettos daring the performanees.

The receipts from the sale of these libretti provided üie theatre with usefol additional income. The libretto took the place of the printed program of the present day; during the coarse of the eighteenth cent­ ury, it became customary to include the names of performers in the libretti. Oscar Sonneck, editor of the library of Congfess catalogue cited above, pointed out that "an opera was hardly ever performed exactly alike as to text and therewith as to music in different cities.

The original version of an opera only in rare eases coincided with that of r^licas. The pasticcio and rifaeiaento was a tendency of the age, fostered by the demands of the singers for 'thankful' numbers and the commercialism of the managers....There are cases on record in iriiioh out of a total of about thir'fy arias only about half a dozen had been retained from the original version of the opera by the author and composer under whose names the opera continued to sail. Remarks like the following one, from Doctor Burney's contesporary A General

^Bruno Brunelli Bonetti, I Teatri de Padua dalle origine alla fine del secolo H X (Padua:V* AUUIftm üeA. ADragbi,m S^ A L L J 1%1), pp. l$b-59.

^Sonneck, op. cit.. Vol. I, pp. 3-k. 105

History of Maslo are freqwntly eaueounterods

Handel's opera of Julius Caesar vas revived for a benefit though few of the original airs were retained, yet so many fine things from his other operas st^pUed the omissions, that after fulfill­ ing the purpose intended, it was performed for the manager, with increasing favour, the rest of the se as on.

A libretto as printed is not always a concise record of the production for which it was prepared. Mozart wrote this comment in a

letters "with a man like Eaaf L» singer] I could not possibly have

arranged it in any other way than by having Varesco's aria printed and

Raaf's sung."^

The eighteenth-century Venetian playwright and librettist.

Carlo Goldoni is famed for his realistic if playfully exaggerated pic­ tures of Venetian life in his day. He has furnished a good picture of the subservient librettist and his relationship to the singer and composer in his comedy. The Impresario of A n y m a :

HIBIO- I have provided a poet, because in a production one is essential. He writes a new libretto, fitted to the tastes of the province, idien necessary, and re­ writes old libretti to suit. If the maestro di eapella wishes to put an old aria into a new opera, Sigior Haccario has the talent to fit the words under the music in such a way that no one would perceive it.

HACQARIO Drhe librettlslQ - May I inform you that besides this, I teach the action to the singers, direct the scene, that I run through the dressing rooms to advise the costumers, and announce with a whistle when Ihe scene is to be changed.

13 Burney, op. cit., p. 900.

^Anderson, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. lOltS* 106

MACCASIO- And before leaving I brought acne booka, acme of vhieh ve may have need.

CiRLUCCIO The oaatrato - And what books did you wish to be provided with?

HACCARIO» Of Hetastasioj Apostle Zeno, of works of Parlati, and a collection of old dramas, and above all, a good rhyme-book. At Smyrna I wish to work with complacency. I shall write stipendous libretti.

CARLUCCI- Pasticci!

HACCARIO- Hy dear Signor Carluccio, you know who I am. With my Pasticci, you must recognize that X am serving your needs. You do not know but two arias which you sing again and again, and you put these in all the operas, in which you take part. You know how many times you have made me adjust the words to these two eternal arias of yours. I can still remember with embarrass­ ment these two airs, which I had to rewrite for Genoa. You did not give me time to think, and when rhyming pistol with crystal, ny pen ran out of ink at the "ol."^^

Censorship of the libretti. Unlike the European theatre, the

operas were not very often troubled by difficulties with the censors.

Censorship was instituted in Vienna in 1751, providing a centralized

control over theatrical activities throughout the Austrian terri­

tories which then included much of northern Italy. Improvised comedy had rough going in Austrian territories because of the animosity of the censors, who had trouble in controlling it. In 1791 comedians were arrested in Padua for having presented obscene material. A

scmnet in praise of a prima donna was banned in Trieste. Publication of sudi material had to await tpon approval of Idie government.

^Goldoni, Opera, op. cit.. Vol. XVI, pp. 2h6 and 263. 107

Although the effective censorship apparatus was in operation, the opera seemed not to be burdened by unreasonable restrictions.

Perhaps Cromwell's old dictum was still remembered "being in an un­ intelligible tongue it cannot corrupt the morale of the people.

The Marriage of Figaro had trouble with the French censors in Paris, in Beaumarchais' dramatic version. When put into operatic dress for the Austrian luperial c^era in Vienna, with an Italian text, it was

approved sinply when the librettist Da Ponte went to the Enperor and told him that objectionable elements had been excised.

In summarizing the contributLcai of the librettists to the public opera of the sixteenth century, it is found that:

1. They brought to the opera a lyric rather than a dramatic orientaticm.

2. They found #ie most suitable and appropriate subject matter, farmed about the heroes of antiquity, generally of other continents, and avoided the censorable.

3. They became the willing servants of singers, coaçosers, and designers.

l^Bumey, op. cit,7~P« 677, ^^lorenzo da Ponte, Memorie (Bari: Giuseppe Latersa e Figlii. 1918). Vol. II, p. 121. CHâPTBR VIII

THE POSITION OF THE COMPOSER

Mislc held a dominant place In the eighteenth-century public

opera house» The composer of the music vas, nevertheless, a villlng

and able servant of the theatre's manager, the singers, and the cur­

rent styles preferred by the public. His willingness to follow the

mode in music, instead of leading and forming it, was perhaps an

important reason for the popular success of opera.

The present study does not undertake a discussion of the opera

conposer's ccmtributicm to music, even though the music historian,

Paul Henry Lang, has declared that all the important innovations in

music since early in the seventeenth century can be attributed to

operatic influences»^ Space is taken here only to present the com­ poser's contribution to his theatre, and to give a few general obser­ vations and some specific illustrations of his approach and method.

For the musician, opera had its inception in the last decade of the sixteenth century, idien musical dilettanti in Florence dis­

carded the contrapuntal style of writing and developed a new method, the Monodic. The aim of these Florentines was to make music the servant of poetoy, as they thought the ancient Greeks had done, using the human voice to intone verses and through pitch-inflection to intensify and enrlA the es^ressioin of the poets. Orchestral instru­ ments, in harmony with the pitch of the Intoning reader, provided a pleasingly colorful but simple chordal background, allowing attention

^ang, op. cit., p. 1|1|2. 108 1X>9

to be foooased oa the single Yocal line. Prevlousiy, Renalssanoe

muieal style had been oharaeterised by IntegrHgr of a multilinear

constructionj just as the classically inspired architecture of the

time had been. But the new monodic (sin^e line) music of the early

opera was now unrestricted by a necessity for fitting perfectly into

the flow of ecn^anian-lines of renaissance counterpoint. The monody

was free now to serve any and all expressive needs of the poetry with

which it was associated. Is in architecture a decadence of line, re­

sulting in the development of the baroque style, was paralleled by a

decadence in music through fioriture, or embellishment. Even multi­

linear music (counterpoint) came to be a matter of texture rather than

design. The freeing of artists from linear restrictions made possible

the expression of the new seventeenth-century baroque feelings of

exuberance, dynamic stress, and emotional grandeur.^

The intoned musical lines, while remaining subservient to the poetic eaqpression under the Florentines, attracted very little interest;

only a handful of works in this genre (stile rappresentativo) were produced over a span of a quarter-century. But, transplanted to Rome

and later to Vwice, the colorful flowering of the monodic (single) vocal line, which was easy for the ear to follow, became an enduring obsession of the Italianate mind. Singing schools, the finest the world has ever known, were established in major Italian cities to

^William Fleming, "The Element of Notion in Baroque ilrt and I&sic," Journal çî Jtosthetics and Art Qrltieisn, Vol. 7 (December, 19i«6),, pT1557 110

trained singera of this hi^iily elaborated baroque soslcal language. The vocal line became more and more dominant over the text, obscuring it mucth of the time. So opera goers uncMiplainingly resorted to the e:^edlent of following the text with copies of the libretto they had purchased upon entering the theatre.

The "affections." The configurations of the vocal lines, far from being mannerisms, were the components of musical form, and were therefore not casual or arbitrary, but essential parts of the musical composition itself. The composer was expected to express, or to give scope for the expression, of any or all of the basic "affections," a term denoting all the feelings tp to, but not including those which are today termed "the passions •* A language of canventioins was developed in idiich each type of embellishment r^resented a different emotion or "affect." Below are catalogued a few of the "affections" and their realisation in musical tones, as well as some observations on the subject by Francesco Geminiani, first published in 171*8.

The turned shake being made quick and long is fit to express gaiety; but if you make it short, and con­ tinue the I m g t h of the Note plaine and soft, it may them express some of the more tender passions. m

The Buperlor apoglgtura is si^- posed to eaprsss Love, Affection, Pleasure, &C. It should be made — pretly long, giving it more than — half the Length of Time of the Note it belongs to, observing to swell 'Uie Sound hj Degrees, and towards the end to force the Bow a little: If it be made short, it will lose Kuoh of the aforesaid Qualities; but will always have a pleasing effect, and it may be added to any Note you will.

Of K a n o and Forte. • . As all good Moslc should be composed in imita­ tion of a Discourse, these two Ornaments are designed to produce the same effects that an Orator does by raising and falling hie voice.

The separation. • • by this Tenderness is esqores'd. ± 2: Î

The Beat is proper to eipress several passions; as for Example, if it be performed with strength, and continued long, it expresses Fury, Anger, Resolution, &c. If it be play'd less stronger and shorter, it expresses Mirth, Satisfaction, &c. But if you play it quite soft, and swell the Note, it may then denote Horror, Fear, Grief, Lamenta­ tion, &e. By making it short and swelling the Note gently, it may ejqpress Affection and Pleasure.3

Francesco Geminiani, Art ^ Playing on Ihe ?iaaew^ facsimile edi­ tion, David Bcqrden, editor (London: The Oxford University Press, 1952), pp# 5—7• 112

The artists of the baroque believed that the arts vere inter-

changeable in their ability to give ecqpression to any human e^erlenoe.

— You feel the trembling— the faltering— you see how bis throbbing breast begins to swell, this I have esqpressed by a crescendo. You hear the whispering and the sighing, .which I have Indicated by the first violins with the mutes and a flute playing in unison.h

Thus did Mozart describe his conqpoBition of Belmonte's aria in The

Abduction from the Seraglio. Mozart continued, "Would you like to

know how I have ezpressed it, and even indicated his throbbing heart?

By the two violins playing octaves." And "constancy of Heart" is con­

trasted with running of feet, in another example.

Algarotti noted that a composer sentimentalized words such as

"father" and "son" hy slackening his notes, "to give them all the

softness he can, and to stop in a moment the impetuosity of the tune."^

On the other hand, the general use of standardized embellishments

lessened the power of these expressive devices to support the singer in tttô presentation of his role. Algarotti declared that composers

did not write airs appropriately, preferring "to be prodigal of shin­

ing passages, to repeat words without end, and musically to interweave

or entangle themes as they please, are the three principal mmathods by which thuy c a n y out their operations...Arias are now overwhelmed and disfigured ly crowded ornaments." The ornaments tended to make all

^Anderson, op. cit., p. Ul^. ^Algarotti, op. cit., p. 30. 113

arias sound aXike. FaUer-Maltland has pointed oat that whereas

Jcmelli's sacred style differs as widely from Hasse’s as Lotti's

does frc«& J. 8* Bach's, in their operas one is as conventional as the

other and in precisely üie same w«y,^ The composer vas dominated by

the singer as well as by the operatic ccnventions* Algarotti wrote

that the singer required the composer to present him with

cantahile songs««.«conqposed loosely and with only a few notes, sufficient to direct the melody, that he himself may have an qppor- tunily of filling as he pleases, and of throwing in what graces be may think suitable.?

Neneiz (1727) reported that he heard at S. Ghrystome theatre, in Venice, Faustina execute the first part of an aria just as the com­ poser had written it. She then took up the da capo (the repetition)

With all sorts of decorations and diminution, without paying the least attention to the harmony of the aeeogopaninent and its arrangement.

The conq>oser himself, Heneiz averred, would be obliged to admit that his ecmçositlon was more beautiful and effective than in its original form.®

The cflnposere* difficulties. The composers were obliged to work under difficult conditions; reporting to work at a theatre some six weeks prior to the date of the first performance, the Maestro had

^PuUer-Maitland, op. cit., p. 202, ?ilgarottl, op. cit.. p. 35. ®Joachim Christoph Nemeiz, Séjour de Pari^ (Leyden: 1727) cited by indre Pirro, “Remarques sur la musique Italie," L'Italie au IflII* siecle (Paris: Libraire Ernest Leroux, 1929), p. Ü58. u k

to «soertain the special needs and Unitatians of the theatre he wae

hrought Into, and -Uie talents of the eingers engaged for the prodno-

tlon. Mosart wrote that "I like an aria to fit a singer as perfectly

as a wftllHnade enlt of clothes."^ Hie arias were adjustable: "1 made

it a little long on puxpose," he told a singer, "for it is always easy

to cut down, but not so easy to lengthen." Mozart, to avoid contro­

versy, always found it expedient to set his librettist's entire work,

even udien he had no intention of using it all in production. Doctor

Burney describes another composer's problem. In eonposing for a

singer of inferior skill: "Handel could not write with all his native

and Juvenile fire for such a singer, who seems to have been gifted

with very limited powers.

The eaqposer was obliged to do his writing hurriedly, in order

to assure the singers sufficient time to learn their music before the

production date. His working conditions are described by Tlbaldi.

He composed:

....in the inn or theatre amidst the librettist, the machinist, the singers, the mothers and the protectors of the prima donnas, their monkeys and parrots, and an unearUily clamour. He was threatened by the guns and the billys of the protectors. Worst of all, it was customary for the composer to lead from the harp­ sichord at the first performances of his new works. He was ejpected to face the first night audience thus boldly. Pergolesi is said to have died as a result of the unfayourabls reception of his Olimpiade at its debut.^

^Anderson, op. cit., pp. 735-36. IPBumey, op. d t ., p. 686. ^Tlbaldi, op. cit., pp. 60-62. 115

The oompoeer vas obliged to provide a prescxdbed variety of

airss principal part required at least four arias of four dis­ tinct characters:

1. Qraceful (aria di mezzo carrattere) 2. Pathetic air (cantahile) 3* Speaking or dramatically active (aria parlante) it. Passionate, florid (aria di bravura)

Tvo arias of the same meter and eharauster could not follow one another; two performers having the same type of voice should not be made to sing in succession.

Choruses vere generally diseased with, for reasons of economy.

Villeneuve (1756) pointed out that "choruses are hardly worth the name, and are, properly speaking, merely to provide a rest period for the principal actors."^ Metastasio in his librettos followed the

French expedient of substituting a "confidante" for the chorus. Doctor

B u m e y intimates the limitations of a chorus, "an opera chorus, being in aetitm, and committed to memory, must necessarily be short, easy, and dramatic."^

Composers vere ejected to follow the ftha»gjng fashions in music. "The Italian is as indifferent to last year's music as the

Frmaohman is its partisan" declared Villeneuve."^ And Doctor Bumey wrote, "..this favourite opera Binaldo though six years old, was of an age more than sufficient to render the g m w a l i t y of musical dramas

^Bedarida, op. cit., pp. 197*»98. 13Bumey, op. cit., p. 687. ^^Bedarida, op. cit., p. 192. 116

mqperanmwted.. Algarotti» too» complained about the great desire

for novelty which the composer was obliged to satisfy* A

raging frenzy after novelty that prevails in all the Italian schools •••every species ^ grotesque imagi­ nation and fantastic combination* • «the public» too, as if they were likewise in a state of childhood» change almost every moment their notions of and fondness for things» rejecting today what yesterday was so passionately admired.

Vernon Lee suggested that this %petlte for the new» year after

year» resulted in the great change and development in musical styles

leading to the neo-classic» romantic and mo dem writing. The composer»

always being hurried by his impresario» was obliged to invent» to

devise quickly some new effect» instead of "constructing" or ecsposing

his music* One is again reminded that Professor Lang has maintained

that all iiqportant innovation in music, from the early seventeenth

century to the present day, can be attributdd to operatic influences*

The individual contribution of the co^oser was held in little

value* If a singer preferred another's tune» for his aria di bravura,

he had it substituted; this would be much easier than the learning of

a newly coi^osed air* After its first season an cpera seldom escaped mutilation in subsequent productions. Mozart wrote to his father:

"Anfossi's opera U curioeo indesere to was performed the day before

yesterday. « .It failed conpletely with the exception of ay two arias»

the second of which, a bravura, had to be encored*

^^^Bumey, op. cit., p* 699* ^Algarotti, op. cit., p* 26. ITAnderson» op* cit.. Vol. Ill, p. 1272. 117

Of a prodaetiOQ in 1770 of Qrfeo# in London^ Doctor Bumey mlatas that thie announcement was published s

The music was origin ally couposed hy Signor Gluck, to which, in order to make the performance of a necessary length for an evening's entertain­ ment, Signor Bach 0»] has very kindly conde­ scended to add of his own new oonposition all such choruses, airs, and recitatives, as are mWcked with inverted oonmas, exc^t those idiich are sung hjr Signora Guglieni, and they are likewise an entire n w production of Signor Gugliemi, her husband.*"

Barney tells of an opera being commissioned of three coBg>osers: he calls it a pasticcio opera, Muzio Seevola. The first act was assigned to the composer Attilio, the second to Bononcini, and to Handel the third, "..it seems to have been thus distributed merely for greater di^atch, without meaning it as a final competition. The same exped­ ient has been frequently practiced in Italy for variety as well as esqpedltion, when two or three great masters have been in the same city."^^

Despite these almost ovendielmdng restrictions under which the

CMposer had to work, the "new style" or writing of monody offered him a new rich freedom of which he was quick to take advantage. The great chordal strengW* of the redtativo accwnpagnata was able to support new extremes of expressive dissonance. The era of the throughbass had freed the melody. Dissonance had obliterated the

Benaissance equivalence of voices, welding the listemess attention

l®Bumey, op. cit., p. 877n. 3^Ibid., p. 712. 118 to a sinjpLe melodic lime, now neolrtng either vqpward or downward.

Composers conld adiieve coherence through reiteratimi. Imitation in base, atrophic bass, and echo effects.

Contrasting themes are not en^loyed in this baroque art, for, as Lang e3q>lained:

form in baroque music (ei^ecially instrumental) equals elevation and exaltation of soul and mood, not an aesthetie, but a real, psychological elevation and exaltation....The specific formal principle of the baroque is the statement of the 'basic affection' end. its subsequent esiploitation by continuous esqpansion*

Contrasting themes, one may see, would spoil this unifying effect provided fay a focussing tgpcm a single "affect." The composer Galvqjpi e3q>l9ined the basic requirements of his art to Doctor Bumey:

"Chiarezza, va^ezza e buona modulazione" (dearness, beauty, and good modulation)

The work of a composer might be highly distinguished, yet his genius could not satisfy the Southern baroque appetite for ecstatic, animated abandonment. Only the singers could equal the surdiarged, gilded architecture, the marble, e b a y and brocade of the baroque world. The c<»posdr became but the assistant to the real creative artist of the day, the singer. Doctor Bo m q y dedared that

Nothing but miraculous powers in the performers can long siq>port an opera, be the compositlw ever so excellent. Plain sense and good poetry are equally injured by singing, unless it is so exquisite as to make us forget everything else. If the performer

ZOfaang, qp, cit., pp. W:2-!t3. 2lLee, op. d t .a p. 157. 119

is of the first olsss, and very airaouloos and enchanting, an andienoe aeema to care hut little about the music or the poetry.

Thus was the composer obliged to yield to the singing actor, and to become no better than a servant to him.

0 9 ‘Bumey, op. oit«, p. 68U. GHiPIER U

THE S imSR

Singing eateeaed for Its own sake. The singer was the pivot

of the operatic machine; maslo was composed only because singers had to have something to sing. As Vernon Lee put Itj "The singers were therefore not trained with a view to executing any peouUar sort of music» but the music was ccmposed to suit the powers of the singers."^

Doctor B u m ^ » as usual, can be called tçon to support such an obser­ vation; "The truth Is, that a singer of the first class, with a great voice, can render any music estivating, whereas an ordinary singer must be svqE>ported by music intrinsically good, or he sinks,Plato's dictum seems to have been taken to heart, that beauty is the thing to be desired, and not beautiful things. Yet singing in itself was not enough; a basic limitation of music is that it can w l y express with limited intelligibility lAe concrete image froai which it has sprung.

So the singer was obliged to become the singing actor, to supply eon- crete representation of the source of his ej^ressicm.

In the baroque period men did not require dramatic effects or psychological interest of distinctly marked characters or historical pictures. They still had music of pure beauty, and had not yet grown tired of it. Doctor B u m e y had pointed out that an actress needed no

^Ime, op. d t ., p. 181. ^Burney, op. cit., p. 68h.

120 121

othvr charma, if aha poaseaaad an outatandiiig atyla of ainging:

Sha waa ao awarthy and lH-favonrad. . with aueh a total absanoa of personal charms, our gallerias would have made her songs vary short, had they not been axaoutad in such a manner as to silence the­ atrical snakes, and command applause.-^

Hogarth recalled the great singers of siiqple and natural style, perfect intonation, expression, exquisite skill idiieh was not just

bravura. At his best, the singer embraced dramatic truth, proper em­ phasis, and distinct pronunoiation.^ The really fine singers were

respected as well as adored, for the art itself required digni^, feel­

ing, refinement, and patient striving after excellence. Gasparo

Paechierotti "must have been an intense instance of that highly- wrought sentimental idealism lAdeh arose, delicate and diaphanous, in opposition to the hard materialistic rationalism of the sixteenth century" commented Vernon Lee.^ Grandeur of spirit was a baroque charaoterlstie which a singer was expected to project.

Vocal expression. Goeposers endeavoured to sing even in their instrumental writing. Telemann averred that "a song is the foundation of music in all things. Who CMposes must sing in all that he writes," and Kattheson mentioned that "idiatever music (me is writing, vocal or instrumental, one should be oantabile,"^ Mbaart wrote of a harpsichord

3lbid., pp. 670-71. %ogarth, op. cit.. Vol. 1, pp. 362-63. ^ e , op. cit., p. 188. % o U a n d , op. d t ., p. 122 ptçllt "the jouag lady...plays encdiantingly, thotigh in eaatabile

playing she has not got the real delicate singing style.The dra­

matic potentialities of the voice, even in the theatre, did not seem

to be of prime interest to the composers. Johann Matthesoo, the great

German masic-encyclopedist of the eighteenth century, wrote that "all

that produces an effect on men is theatrical. . .music is theatrical

. . .the whole world is a gigantic theatre" vising the word theatra-

lisoh, denoting the artistic imitation of nature, rather than the

encounter and resolution of conflicting forces; theatrical rather than

dramatic.8 it appears that when an effect is vividly "theatrical," the

artist has brought out in a striking manner some interesting or par­ ticularly significant aspect of a natural occurrence, which everyone would otherwise have overlooked. Thus, in eighteenth-century ^es, the tdieatrieal could signify the artistic imitation of nature, quite apart fr«m the dramatic, which has to do with conflict and the opposi­ tion of contrasting elements.

The singing teacher, Tosi, in 1723 described the three manners of singing arias. For the theatre, the singing should be lively and various, for the chamber, delicate and finished, and for the church, moving and graceful.^

‘^Anderson, Vol. Ill, p. 1112. Holland, op. d t ., p. 5U. ^Pier. Francesco Tosi, Observations on the Florid Song, translated from the Italian by J(&& Ëm e s i üalSard. Ttondon: william Beeves, 1905), p. 92. 123

Itaelmumeas of diction was tolerated, for libretti were fol­

lowed by opera goers daring perfonaances. Bat Salvini disapproved

of the need for this practice; paintings do not need signs under them:

"this is a dog. , .this is a horse He felt that there should be no necessity for libretti.

The da-oapo form was universally en^lqyed by the composers and singers, as it provided a standardised arena in which the singing athlete could demonstrate his dexterity. He first would present un­

adorned the composer's theme, and then on the return to the head or beginning of the air (the da-oapo), he was free to display all his skill and creative imagination, by the addition of ornamentation and expressive embellishments, Tosi declared that in the da-capo, the singer should decorate the air to the best of his skill for, "without varying the airs the knowledge of the singers could never be dis­ covered."^ A large part of musical enjoyment was found in the comparison of the merits of various rival performers.

The Italians called the art of making passages and trills gergla, and the general art of style, galantiere. Some of the gorgia were:

1. Numerous fast notes substituted at will for single long ones. For these "diminutions" or passagi. lightness of emission was deemed essential to per- feotlng and maintaining the agility of the voice.

lX>AIgarotti, op. cit., p. 33.

^^osi, op. cit., p. 95. 22k

2. ATOêntdL or part— entij beginning a note a %ird ioelm*

3* Qroppot or trill.

Esolamatlopl. crescendo end diainnendo.

5 * Trilloa trenulo c m a single note.

6. Ehythmio figures, as sixteenth with dotted-elghth notes, replacing a line of eighth notes.

7. Note fixate j sustaining tcmes, ordinarily against a decorativeinstrumental obligato. Algarotti mentioned that contests between voice and trumpet, veritable tilting matches, were very popular.

8. Massa di voce, quiet singing.

The galantiere included:

1. Tastefully reinforcing the words and their mean­ ings, Caccini, citing Plato, noted that the expressiveness of the word in its natural rhythm was required to govern the tones of the voice.

2. The expression of the above gorgie or affetti.

3. Giving the voice a joyous or melancholy cast.

4. Making the voice bold or plaintive as desired.

Other similar embelliahments.

Qoantz, newly arrived frcmi Germany, learned about tempo rubato, an important innovation, in Italy in 172U. Vivaldi's Lmmbard style was all the rage in Rome at the time, ar.d accompanied recitative was something of a novelty to that generation. Tosi in 1723 warned that

"the stealing of time, in the pathetic, is an honourable theft in one that sings better than others, provided he makes a restitution with ingenuily."^^ Mozart wrote that the accompaniment should keep in

^Ibid.. p. 156. 125

strict time, and not go along alth the rubato of the soloist. Doctor

B n m e y mentioned that the sexy high notes "cork cutting notes" were

not, as today, widely employed for vocal effect.

Above have been described sxme of the characteristic vocal and

expressive devices employed by the singers. It now remains to discuss

the effectiveness and quality of their use. It should be remembered

that the audiences expected performances superficially to have a great

deal of polish; intensity and expression was not to ccHoe frmn the

composers' work but fr«a the artists' coloratura treatment of it.

Eric Bentley, in discussing a perforaiance of a drama by Alfieri (17ii5) had this (xxument to make:

A performance has somehow to render the tension, essential to this sort of pla% between the ordered and elegant exterior on one hand, and on the other the underlying turbulence of emotion. A suirealiet will tend to miss this tension by ignoring or destroying the placid surface. An antiquarian's reconstruction of an I8th century per­ formance would be equally and oppositely disastrous in missing the inner turbulence .1»

When singers xpplied their standardised bag of tricks to arias which were not too original, there was

Ihqy apply the same grace to every kind of cantilena, and what with their passages, their trillings, their splittings and flight of the voice, they exaggerate, confound, and disfigure everything. Putting as it were the sanw mwsk oa different coipositions, they so manage matters

13. Erie Bentley, In Search of Theatre (New York: Alfred A Knonf. 1953), p. 68. ------126

that all tones appear to resemble eaeh other in the same manner as all the ladies in France appear to be of the same family by means of paints and patches.^

On the other hand, Tosi in 1723 had related that "The most celebrated among the ancients piqued themselved in razying every night the songs in the operas, not only the pathetick, but also the allegro, " ^

Patrons mould attend the opera night after night, caring the vary­ ing interpretations of an air, as differently presented in each performance by the same virtuoso.

Tosi conplainedof singers with bad judgment:

Every air has (at least) three eytenees that are all three final. Generally speaking, the Study of the Singers of the present Times consists in terminating the Cadence of the first part mith an overflowing of Passages and Divisions at Pleasure, and the Orchestre waits; In that of the second the Dose Is increased, and the Orchestre grows tired; but on the last Cadence, the Tbroat is set a going, like a Veatteroock in a Tdhirlwlnd, and the Orches­ tre yamhs.^o

And Algarotti noted also that cadenzas are used to show off acrobatic skill of singers, lAen they should be "but the peroration or epilogue to the air."^^

I. Yet an artist could give characterization to his part, as is shown in this letter from Mozart to the soprano Alqysia Weber: "I advise you to watch the expression marks, .to think careftHy of the

^Algarotti, op. d t ., p. 3$. l^Tosi, op. d t ., p. 9U. ^Cited Tej FuUer*4faitland, op. cit., p. 189. ^^Algarotti, op. cit., p. 35* 127

meaning and force of the *orda...to put yourself in all seriousness

into Andromeda's situation and position.. .and to imagine that you

really are that very person.**^®

Restrictions mere placed on the virtuosi in the performance

of the occasional ensemble numbers: "All eonpositlons for more than

one voice ought to be sung strictly as they are written" (Tosi)!?

and in a quartet the words should be spoken much more than sung,

according to Moaart.^^

Virtuosity of the singers. Mosart has written out a musical

illustration of the virtuosic skill of an outstanding soprano he had

heard. This sort of singing would attract music lovers in droves

today.

In Parma we got to know a singer and heard her perform very beautifully in her own house, the famous Bastardella [lucresia igujarij idio has a beautiful voice, a marvelous throat, and an incredible range. Tfhile I was present she sang the following notes and passages:

!®Amderson, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. 862. !9t o 81, op. cit., p. 150. ZOAnderson, op. cit.» p. 1037. 128

: z*~ t

* 1 * 12 ¥

21

Since the eighteenth-eentnsy andlencee expected to hove their

attention directed principal^ to the einging emmating from the

stage of the opera houses, these audiences could expect singing of a

particularly high quality. An important contributing factor i^ pro­

ducing such effective singing vas the fact that, unlike today, operas were written for a specific performer, and tailored to him. Thus was

^ ^ i d ., pp. 179-80. The pitch, by twentieth-century standards, may hsse been set as mn

Hasse's Artasterse (1730) with Farlnelli Jomelli's Regolo (17^) with Büngotti (Qnok'e Qrfeo (1761:) with Onadagni Bertoni's Quinto Fabio with Paccierotti

The artiote vezy nearly had a cogyri^t on the works they introduced.

Fine singing schools were established in Rome, Bologna, N^les,

Venice, Milan and Florence for the training of the virtuosi. Doctor

Barney described the thorough and lengthy preparation a singer had to undergo to beoane a virtuoso.The scatterbrained and insincere, half-trained singer and conposer reviled by Benedetto Marcello in his

Teatro alia moda would never have reached the stage, had it not been for the fact that there was a chronic shortage of qualified virtuosi, because there were so many theatres needing artists. Raff, the finest singer of bis day, was sixty-six years old idien he created the role of "Idomeneo" of Mozart. Doctor Burney mentions that at Berlin in

1772, among the principal singers there was a lady of 72 years of age.

Each singer in the music schools was taught the art of compo­ sition: composers always learned first to sing, and singers, lastly, to compose. It is significant that Porpora, the world's greatest singing teacher, was the ptpil of AUesandro Scarlatti, one of the oo It is interesting to note that an echo-wall in Rome was consist­ ently used by the singing teachers of that e i ^ in order that their prpils might l e a m how their voices sounded to others. 130

greatest of eoqpoeers*

OatstandLng amon^ the slngere were:

Women Mariana Bulgarinl Faustina (Wife of Haeae) KLngottl QabrlelU

Men Carlo Broschi (Farlnelli)^ said to be the greatest singer idio ever lived Majoram (Caffarello) Gissiello Quarduoei Mandni Carestlni Seneslno Fantano (Farfarello)

Nearly all the singers were known by faniliar and inondent

nicknames, suggesting both the regard of the public for these person­

alities, and the rather low social esteem held of virtuosi despite

their intimacy with high-born patrons of the cpera.

The cMiatrati. Most of the great singers among the men were

artificial sopranos, called castrati or evlrati. Bqy-sopranos of

great promise were, before their voice changed, subjected to a brutal

operatLcm which ensured that its pitch would remain h i ^ throughout his adult life. % e practice seems to have arisen out of the prohi­ bition against the use of women in the churcdi choirs and the theatres

of Borne. After 1625, castrati si^erseded the falsetto singers in the

Pepal Choir. All cultures (generally in their primitive stages) at

one time prefer a highly pitched voice. Decqp tones are considered grotesque w mirth<^oduoing. In Japan today the Kabuki actors and 131

the singers esqaose themselves to the wintry weather and strain their

voices, so that they may be "Inqproved" in the directian of ihe highly pitched harsh tone preferred by the Japanese. The architectnre of the

Italian opera house was calculated to favor the higher pitches, and northern observers conqjhined about the weakness of the basses in the

Italian q ^ r a orchestras.

At Genoa, in 1706, Pere Labat enjoyed the music very little because he was unaccustomed to voices which he said sounded neither like those of children, men, nor women. He found that they came from four or five musicians with large faces, pudgy like cgpons, opening their large mouths "to release a voice, coarse as a rcpe, and making a thousand contortions, for the purpose of giving more grace to their graces.A notion may be had of the evirati type of tome-quality by a hearing of the high-fidelity recordings of the English counter­ tenor, Alfred Deller.^^

Etienne d'Silhouette in 172? found that their singing had no

"heart, an indifference quite natural to persons who are rendered in­ capable of sentiments, and lAo buy a beautiful voice at the expense of their humanity. This writer like others did not realize that he is asking for an inferior form of art, in which the "humanity" is eiq[>resBed in the medium. The sensuous appeal of the female soprano

23pirro, op. d t ., p. 139. ^^Alfred Deller, "Elizabethan and Jacobean Music," Bach Guild record­ ing Mo. $39» ^^Pirro, op. d t ., p. 139. 132

« B d alto voicee atasda In the «agr of the basic htnan e^qpresslom; this

is why those voices were banned from participating in the religious

service. The evlrati» on the other hand, provided a coopletely cool

line which was ideal for baroque expression, with its ability to pro­

vide a svperficlallgr cool surface or medium, capable of being moulded

into the most highly complex and expressive linear convolutions. It

is significant that the medium of the great seene designs of the

Bibienas likewise was basically colorless, a yellowish grey. The

scenic artists wished to save their eiqpresslve powers for the subject

matter, the designs, not the medium.

The ccmposer Qoantz found the voice of Farlnelli penetrating,

full, clear, and even. His range extended from small a to d^, and was

characterised by purity of intonation, brilliant trills, powerful retiration, and an agile throat. Barbieri related that Farinelli possessed a mezzo soprano voice of unusually sweet and pure quality, and sang in one breath a cadenza of 1$0 notes.

The castrato met the esdiausting requirements of the florid type of execution in a way that a woman could not, due to his superior physical strength and stamina. An important advantage, too, was the fact that his voice wore well; castrati had careers of thirty or forty years. Caffarelli was more than sixty years of age when he touched the heart of David Garrick by his singing, and Ha U e n d n i still sang agreeably at eighty. This, according to Paccierotti, gave an important artistio advantage. "Our art is too long for a lifetime.

When we are young we have the voice, but do not know how to sing; when 133

ira are old «a begin to know hov to #lng, but ve no longer honra the

Tolee."^^ The enthnslaam of audiences for the castrato's skill led

to shouts from the pit, "eviva il coltello" (long live the little

knife).

The leading roles, those of the heroes of antlquitgr, were

assigned to these evirati. Villeneuve discussed the effect of the

castrato voice on characterisation, finding that it enervated the

virility of the action. The operatic roles were usually allotted in

this manner;

1st woman prima donna, high 8<^rano 2nd woman contralto 3rd woman contralto

1st man artificial s<^ano 2nd man artificial alto 3rd man natural tenor or bass^'

The parts of men were often assigned to women. Quants wrote of

VittorLa Tesi (1700-1775) "Nature endowed her with a contralto voice

of manly strength. She had an innate ability to ijq>ress the spectator

by her acting, specially In masculine roles tdiich seemed to suit her well.*^^ Youthful castrati, on the other hand, usually made their

debuts in female roles.

Inferior characters, attendants and domestics. Doctor Burney

related, were given inferior arias. "If all the airs of an opera were equally laboured and excellent, the music would be mwotcnous, and all

2^baldi, op. d t ., p. 59. ^^Lois C. Bison, "Atrociti.es and Humors of Opera," Musical Quarterly, Vol. VI (ipril 1920), p. 206. 2®lang, op. cit.. p. Jili9. 23k

29 àbllltlM confounded,"

Ihe eiagers honoured. Singers were honoured, feted and fou^t

over, because of the effect their art had the listeners. Vernon

Lee presented this account:

Tradltim says that one evening the great Pacchierottl was playing Arbaces, and when, not hearing the usual instrumental bars which filled up his recitative, he turned iflg>atlently to -Uie orchestra, exclaiming, 'idiat the devil are you about?' that the composer, from his harpsichord, answered quite si^ly, 'we are crying. '30

Repetition of the arias was the oriteriaa of an opera's success. The

audience could create a hubbub, and with ease oblige a virtuoso to repeat the air.

Honors were showered % o n favorite singers, in addition to their substantial fees. Michael Kelley, oniy a tenor, received for a season at Vienna, i*00 ducats, an excellent first and seccwid floor apartment which was elegantly furnished in ^le most attractive part of Vienna, fuel and wax candles (U large candles per diem), and a car­ riage. Guadagni, a counter-tenor, piq>il in acting of Garrick, received

1)00 ducats and the Gross of St. Mark's from the Venetian state, for four performances • Aa iiqpresario was custmaarily expected to provide a prima donna with a harpsichord for the duration of her engagement, and at Vienna two large bocces always were kept for the Italian caa^anj and two for the German players.

^^Bumey, op. cit., p. 7ll5. 3QLee, op. cit.. pp. 193-91». 135

frequent jeeloueiee and erangling arose among slngere, aooord-

ing to ilgarotti, on accoat of one person having more ariettas than

another, a loftier plume, a lœger or more flowing robe, etc. In

Naples, coBg>etition and Intrigue among the cantrades, supported by

their protectors, became such a scandal that the king In n U 9 closed

the Teatro della Pace.

Conclusion. In the el^teenth century the singer had remained

the central ralue of the opera; his ability to outstrip the other

media of baroque espresslw enabled him to maintain his dominance over

the other theatrical elements for a centuxy and a half. But to do

this he was pressed Into becoming the best singer the world has ever known; pushed further, he changed himself from a man to a musical

instrument. The singer was fully honored for his achievement: he was Idolised, for In him the spirit of the age came Into full flower. GHAPIEB Z

THE O K R A OBCHESTEA

A of the oontrlbatlw of the opera orchestra to maslcal drama results in a realization that it was the orchestra, and not the staging, which provided leadership into the march toward a truer dra­ matic expression in opera« In the orchestra was found the essential ingredients of drama, the presentation of contrasting elements and the generation and resolution of tensions between them. The basic nature of the baroque iiqmlses did not lead in this direction, but the ordiestra and its forms neverUieless forged ahead to the point idiat, in the nineteenth century of Beethoven, eaq>ressive possibilities developed to the degree that purely instrumental music became more dramatic than any drama. ^

The forward march of the instrumental forces unsettled the otherwise rather stable big business of opera seria. The very stabil­ ity of the operatic vocal conventions and dominationeby the singers of the operatic apparatus conpelled the congposers to turn to that department of the opera lAich they might more easily get under their control.

The influence of the eighteenth-century opera orchestra upon the history of music, important as that influence was, is not under examination here; but the effect of its development \spoa the operatic

Donald Francis Tovey, "Musio," Enqydopedia Britannica, ll*th editi

136 U 7 institution vhioh would otherwise have been relatively more stable and unchanging is studied*

Algarotti complained about the Italian love for novelty, "a raging frenzy after novelty that prevails in all the Italian schools

...the public too, as if they were likewise in a state of childhood, change almost e v « ^ mranent their notions of and fondness for things, rejecting today with scorn idiat yesterday was so passionately ad- ndred."^

Generally speaking, changing fashion in singing itself. Doctor

Burney explained, was in the direction of constantly fluctuating (but not advancing) tast in embellishments, and lessened interest in con­ trapuntal play against the instruments.

The divisions and embellishments, lAich, when a song is new, are its most stirLking and refined parts, soonest lose their favour and fashion... and of fugata contrapuntal style , This style of writing, lAich was so admired at the beginning of the present centuxy, has, however, been long banished from the opera as un­ dr amatic; for the voice part is so much oveipowered and rendered so insignificant by the conplicated busi­ ness of the accompaniments that she loses her sov­ ereignty. 3

The opera through the seventeenth century had lost sight of the

Florentines ' highlighting of the dramatic poem, and was to need most of the eighteenth century for a slow return toward that orientation.

The self-limiting conventions of singing and staging left too little

^Algarotti, op. cit., p. 26.

^Burney, op. cit., p. 683. 138

aeopa for more t h m faahionable changea in the theatre, eo, aoet

noticeable and effective were the developments in the orchestra pit.

In the late seventeenth cmtuzy, virtnosiiy of linear design

had penetrated into the orchestra $ every member of an opera orchestra

was expected to be able to invent, on the spur of the moment, a free

coatrtpuntal part over the given figured bass. The instruments fell

into two groups: the "fundamental" players, made up of keyboard

players, lutes, basses and hazps, furnishing the basic support for the

singer's line, and the "ornamental" instruments, all string and wind

instruments capable of playing melodies and freely moving parts. Only

the bass-line was rigidly prescribed by the composer, and the violons

(lowest bass instrument) even modified this part. Agostino Agozzari warned that the musician "must beware with great industry and judi­

ciousness not to offend Oseaning not to encroach on] the part of the

other player or the run with his part."^ The violin was discovered to be particularly suited to the art of diminution. So the eighteenth

oentuzy was heritor to a high standard of technical proficiency; opera violinists, for example, were expected to have command of the fifth position on their instruments.

A description of the orchestral colors used by Handel in 1712, extracted from Doctor Bumey's account of the opera II Pastor Fido follows:

This air, and many other airs in the opera, are only accompanied by a violoncello. .The next air has not even a base to acompany the voice part, which is

^tLamg, op. cit., p. 360. 139 dottbltd by the eleliiis la eni*@m.#1Ae foUoMiag air • •has no aeeoapanlment bat a busy base; lAlch, how­ ever» if doubled and not kqpt under» would be as much as a voice not unoasmonly powerful could penetrate* In the ritomel,, .Handel has enrLohed the harmony by ingenious and admirable parts for two violins» tumor and base. The air. No* i&»*.only a violoncello aocoayanimdnt, exoept in the rltomello* The air No* 5***l8 accoiqpanied by two violins, tenor and base*. No* 7**no other aoconpanlment than a base, in almost plain counterpoint* Act Second*«one song is accom­ panied in a singular manner by the violins and violon­ cellos in unison and octaves, pisxicati; and by the harpsichord ar p e ^ a t o throu^out. The fourth air».* has a solo p a n for hautbois* The next air is of a very original and gay cases French horns, which it seems to want, had now not been introduced into the opera orchestra* No. 17*.solo parts far two hautbois. Act Third, • *No* 18 \inacconpâiled» except by a base f basso continue,;bass lines and chords] **the subsequent air.••without any other accompaniment than a violon­ cello, but sonetimes even silences that....*a solemn and fine symphony chiefly for two hautbois and a ^ bassoon, accompanied by the rest of the orchestra. ^

As the century progressed, Mattheaon, Telemann» Hasse, Qrann and Jommelli declardd war the "nondramatic" contrapuntal style, and eoaposed even their church works in the "dramatic" or "Uieatrical" manner* The recitatives were set with dramatic orchestration* The orchestra little by little gained an tpper band in the ejqpressiou of the drama. The complaint was constantly heard, a complain idiich has persisted to the present day, "one no longer hears the voice, the orchestra is deafening." Metastasio, who was fundamentally in sympathy with the objectives of dramatic orchestration, still wished the singer to supply the leadership in dramatic movement. He complained bitterly about the tendency of the or^estra to take the initiative in the

^Bumey, op* cit., pp. 682-8$. l i l O

growing movement toward a dramatic ronaatielem. As early as 17l|0

the audience could no longer understand the words of the singers

unless it followed them in the libretto. Now the accon^animent^ and

not just the gorgia was obscuring the diction of the singers. J. 3.

Rousseau served as ^okeaman for the cong>osers. He pointed out that

the orchestra, which has learned a language of its own to support the

words, "can depict things which must remain unuttered, while the actor,

agitated, tranpported by a passion that does not permit him to say

all, halts, breaks off, with reticent pauses during which the orches­

tra speaks for him."^

Although wind instruments continued to be used in ripieno (in

tuttls) or in ccntinuous tracery, as before, ooaposers and musicians

came to feel that the different instruments possessed a special value,

in being able to convey an individual feeling tone related to specific

amotions, or affects. Laurent Garcin (1772) declared that

One instrument can render an effect that none other can. The violins belong to ideas light and playful, flutes and bassoons to tender and gracious ideas, basses and contrabasses sombre and lugubrious.7

Marchand in 1783 also found "the flute tender, the oboe gay, the trumpet warlike, the horn sonorous and majestic." Ore try advised the bassoons for the pathetic, the clarinets less so; oboes, country- like and gay, also were indicatory of a ray of hcpe amidst tonaents.

The traverse flute was tender and amorous.

^ dted by Julien Tier sot, "Oluck and the Sneyclppedists," Musical Quarterly, Vol IVI (July, 1933), p. 217.

7e . Borrel, "Dh paradoxe musical an m i l ”» slecle," Melanges de musicologie (Paris* E. Brow, 1933), p. 217. — ---- lia

The aesooiatlon of Tarlcms Instrumental colors with definite moods vas probably in large part a developed conventlw, like those

conventions previously discussed, of the ornamental expression in melody and the gestere in acting. Suggestibility expands a hint of truth into a consiste convention, just as shepherds have imagined in the patterns of a few stars, dragons, bears, serpents and thrones.

The intensified use of wind instruments is attributed by

Vernon lee to the influence of popular elements injecting themselves into the more serious opera. Wind instruments, a popular device, were added bit by bit through the century as the popular melodies and popular elements were constantly being introduced into the burls tta; influencing even serious music, lightening it, resulting in ensemble work, which in turn caused turning to heavier, lower pitched voices.^

Picdni, with some eighty-five operas, from 1755 on, developed ordiestration to such a degree that copyists charged extra for his scores, idiich had so many more notes than earlier ones. Ficcini led a gradual transltioa to a softer, brighter, less tragic, and more richly accompanied style to be perfected by Paisiello, Cimarosa, and

Ifosart. There was a gradual development of rhythmic accompaniment, a breaking tp of the melody and sharing it wilh the orchestraWhioh was now permmently equipped with a varied force of wind instruments.

The demands made upon the instruments by the composers were greater than the poorly recoepensed orchestral musicians were willing to meet. AUesandro Scarlatti had professed to an aversion to all

^IiSe, , p. 137* Iil2

Mind Inatruments. "They all play falaa."^ Flutes, oboes and tronçets were deemed better in France. The famous Mannheim orchestra was found

by Doctor Burney to ha?re many refinements in instrumental coloring,

but he was disc^ointed that intonation was so bad, particularly in

the bassoons and oboes "which were rather too sharp, at the beginning,

and continued sharper to the end of the opera. Leopold Mozart found the Mannheim forces "good - and very powerful - but the inter­ pretation is not in that true and delicate style idiich moves the hearer."^

Doctor Burney reported that at Brussells, in 1772, the first

clarionet was serving as an oboe, and playing much too sharp. Michael

Hsydn remarked that at Salzburg, clarinets and English honi were needed; their parts were played by violas.

The little provincial opera house at Presaburg, with Dittersdorf as Kapellmeiater, had himself and two other violins, davier, two oboes, one clarinet, one flute, one violoncello, one bass, two home, a tenor and bass singer, two castrati, and a female soprano and contralto.

The band at Berlin, for the Bqperor's Italian opera, had more impressive forces. It was arranged as at Dresden and Mannheim, that is, as a double wchestra, a complete ordwstra on either side of the

^Pirro, op. cit., p. lliO. ^%lover, op. cit., p. 111. ^Anderson, op. d t .. Vol. H , p. 775. 1 1 * 3

center, end all facing the endieaoe* The pperae of Haeae, Pergolesi

end others called for forces qplit in this manner.

The Berlin roster (1772); in additicm to the singerst

11 violins 5 violoncellos 2 doable basses 2 harpsichord players 1 harp k tenors il flutes U oboes 2 French hozns coBposer conceriwaaeter ballet-master poet chorus of 2li ballet

The German courts had, in additihunting" or military musicians— truapets, horns and drums, CcMqplaint is made that the Germanic court tastes were on the noisy side.

The Duke's orchestra at Indwigsburg listed:

18 violins 6 violas 3 violoncellos U double basses U oboes 2 flutes 3 horns 2 bassoons Ibft orohestra at the very large San Carlo theatre in Neplea

in 1770 had this ocwplement of players;

18 first violins 18 second violins 2 claviers 6 doable basses 2 violoncellos 2 bassoons 6 violas 2 oboes 2 flutes, who if there are no parts, play as oboes k horns 2 clarinets

fiittersflorf wrote of the orchestra at Bologna:

We had been told all sorts of things about the Italian orchestras, but Gluck was not in the least satisfied with them. There had been seventeen full rehearsals; and in spite of that, we missed the ensemble and the precision to lAich we had been accustomed in Vienna.^

Quants was not enthusiastic about any Italian cpera orchestra

excepting that of ttUan, which he considered quite good except in

being weak in basses, as were all the Italian groups, Kelley r^orted

that at the Pergola theatre in Florence, the orchestra was first-rate.

There is so much criticism in print of the poor intonation within the orchestras, that one is surprised to find Tosi discussing

the necessity of the "just intonation" of their intervals by singers.

This would necessitate careful discrimination of pitches to within one- ninth of a whole-tone.

^ ^ a r l Bitters v w Dittersdorf, Autobiography, translated from the German by Arthur Duke Coleridge (London: B. Bentlpy and Son, I8p6 ), p . 121*. 1 1 * 5

Ihe oat of tone accompaniment of each finely pitched einging

would of necessity be self-effacing and bland. "A quiet pulsatlve

accompaniment, of eight quavers in a bar, as regular as the vibra­

tions of a pendulum, was a species of acconpaniment so favourable

to the singer, either in airs of expression or repidi‘fy..«the ccmpo-

sers of Italy, .have tired us of this inartificial and mtmotonoue

enpl<^ent of the orchestra."^ Thus did Doctor Burney inform his

readers of the ruling style before the mid-century mark. It may be

observed today that a poor orchestra in a pit, if self-effacing, will

often be not particularly noticeable, whereas a fine one, if eloquent,

can distract seriously from the proceedings on stage. Leopold Mozart

discussed the greatly increased power of concentration required of

opera musicians playing his son Wolfgang's scores, as coupared with

the older and siapler music.

This general influence, pulling the singing voice down from

its century and a half of eminence over the other operatic elmuenta

and bringing it into line with them, was to come from the North.

Romain Holland described, with Doctor Burney's assistance, the move­ ment idiicb brought about the end of the period of musical drama with which the present study is concerned. "Jommelli brought back to

Italy in 1772 from Germany a love of harmony and capaet orchestra­ tion. He contributed in no aaall degree to the revolution which was brought about in Neipolitan opera, in which the orchestra began to rage and roar to the detriment of the singers, who were cMpelled to

l^Bumay, op. d t ., p. 7W. ehoat. ' A U the chiaseuro le lost; the helf-ehmdee and the background diei^ear, one hears only the noisy parts.

The life of an orchestra musician mas a hard one. Dittersdorf eon^lained that in Vienna his salary idien a player in the orchestra was only 37 florins 30 kreutser a year, which only served to pay for his meals. A player was ej^ected to round out his income with teach­ ing, but had difficulty finding time to do that for he had to play almost daily from 10 A.M, to 2 P.M. at operatic and ballet rehearsals, play performances from 6*30 to 10*30 as well as to take part in con­ certs and solo i^ipearanoes.^^ Orchestra players could, however, win recognition and be classed (informally) as "virtuosi," receiving special grants. Pitchel, as first violinist of the theatre in Vienna, with four pt^ils in addition, had a salary 10$0 florins.

Performances were held together by the combined efforts of the leading violinist (concertmaster) and the harpsichordist. The ccai- poser was eoqpected to siq>ervisa the first several performances of operas he had "set," and often counted i^on the extra remuneration earned thereby. Mozart wrote to his father that

The Russian Royalties left Vienna to-day. Kÿ opera was performed for them the other day, and on this occasion I thought it advisable to resume my place at the clavier and conduct it. I did 80 partly in order to rouse the ordiestra who

^ ^oUand, op. oit.» p. ?8. ^^Performances in the public opera houses in Italy commenced as late as ten o'clock in the evening. 1U7

had gone to sleep a little* partly (since I happen to be in Vienna) in order to appear before the royal guests as the father of ny child.

The hazpsiehord was favoured over the pianoforte for this duly

Ihog after the latter had achieved sane popularity; its penetrating pinpoints of notes were deemed essential to maintain the forward mo­ mentum of the operas* and to reach the singers' ears wherever they

should be upon the stage. Kelley reported that all Italian singing- masters deemed the pianoforte "highly prejudicial to the v o i c e l " ^ 7

Yet* like the saxophone in today's musical culture* the pianoforte did force its way Into use. "At the Theatre of St. Marc," Kelley relates, "I used to sit at ~Uie piano-forte as an amateur* and accom- paxqr the comic operas; it was aausement, as well as improvement* for me."18

Thus it is found that the orchestra* in a state of evolutionary flux* was a disturbing element in tiie smooth routine of the Italian opera. It had served the public theatre best as a self-effacing* quiet accompaniment with conventional tone colors telegraphing to the audience the moods desiied by the librettist, with individual instru­ ments occasionally rising to contests of virtuosity in duet with the vocal artists. Under the sponsorship of the oonposers* many from

Germany* it was undertaking to unseat the singer from his position of dominance in the opera house. l^Andereon, op. cit.. Vol. I H , p. 1235. l^Kelley* op. cit.. p. iiU. l^Ibid.* p . 189 . CHâPTER XI

THE BALLET AND THE OPERA BUFFA

The tiro subordinate but in^ortant forma of entertainment seen

on the operatic stage «ere the ballet and the opera buff a. They took

their place in the cpera house quite naturally, as the sixteenth-

century predecessors of the opera included dancing of all sorts, and

peasant play, along with the more courtly and elegant scenic dit^lay

of the Renaissance.

The producers of the 17th century operas established in Rome

and later in Venice found that the rappresentivo musical dramas were

too short to provide a full evening's entertainment. Ballets, and

comic intermezzi were soon interposed between the acts of the serious

musical drama, providing a needed variety, as well as a rest period

for the opera serla singers.

The first act of the buff a would appear at the first intermis­

sion, and the second act, at the second intermission between the

second and third acts of the opera seria. Algarotti traces this chain

of developBwnt: lAen the theatre in the 10th century became public,

singers demanded exorbitant salaries, so that ponp and splendour of production diminished, and subject matter became more earth-bound.

So, a more sober, classical, refined presentation resulted, "a chaster regularity. . .more poetic diction...more exquisite musical conpositlon."

This fineness had to be relieved by interludes and ballets between the aots.l

^Algarotti, op. d t ., p. 23. IW ]j*9

The Itallms» «ho had not aecostomed themselves to giving unbroken concentrated attention to the stage, did not object to these interruptions of their musical dramas. They did not require contlnu- i ^ of subject matter in their opera houses any more than one asks for it doday in the art galleries. In fact. Doctor Barney complained when at Naples in 1770 he attended an opera without ballet:

For want of dancing, the acts are so long that it is idioUy impossible to keep up the attention, so that, those who are not talking, or playing at cards, usual* ly fall asleep. 2

Dancers fr«m France ware the most highly regarded, VillAneuve writes:

The ballets are nothing but 'hors d'oeuvre* or intermessi, danced to various symphonies, generally French, which are always the best applauded; it is a pleasure to say in passing that if it is natural for ItaUans to sing, dancing is the metier of the French.’

The Italian dancers, held in lower esteem than the French, were exponents of an acrobatic tradition, stemming, perhaps, like % e opera buff a, from the commedia dell* arte. The Italian word for acro­ bat and dancer is the same, "saltatore," Antonio Lcmgo wrote of the ballerina who excels "in leaping like a young colt" and a dancer who

"expounds Greek and Roman legend with his legs."^

^Glover, op. cit., p. 69» ^Bedarida, op. cit., p. 197. %onnier, op. cit., pp. 76 and 90. the character of the Frendi-lnqplred ballet can be divined from the nature of the reforms made cqpon it by Noverre, the leading

ballet master of the day, in 1760« He rejected the mechanical tech­ nique of the geometrical-symmetrical Renaissance school of dancers,

and renounced over-complex choreographic patterns. As with the

singers, nobility of mien had been of more import than characterisa­ tion. No verre discarded hoops and wigs. This caused such a revolu­ tion ipon the stage that the size and tint of the underdrawers of the

dancers became a matter for municipal legislation. One rebellious ballerina became so incensed at the restrictions that she once danced with no drawers, and new ordinances were needed to cover this con­ tingency.

Operatic costuming throughout this period was in general, nei-

#&er aUa-mode nor authentic in character, but reflected the French ballet, costumes in s^le. The gods of Olympus were played in em­ broidered velvet, silks, and powdered wigs. Kings, tyrants and heroes wore brocade doublets with short ornate skirts, or short panniers, ribbon in the shoulders and lace around the neck. They wore velvet cloaks, wigs with pigtails beneath, elaborately curled, plumed hats, white leather gloves, handkerchiefs and snuff boxes It would seem tiiat the mode, as seen in the audience, had to be outdone tpcn the stage with fantastic sartorial di^lay. Perhaps the fever of tiie

^Theodore Komisarjevsky. Costume the Theatre (New Tozict Henry Holt and Company, 1932), pp. 121-22. 151 baroque captured tiie apirlte of the stage costumers.

 unique feature in the male stage dress> the short flaring

skirt, presents a fine appearance in the stately dances and stage movements of the time, when in company with the female dancers and

actresses in panniers or hoop skirts, the action motion picture films taken oa the stage of the eighteenth-century Brottnin^olm theatre demonstrate clearly the grace with which the male dress complements the female dress on the stage.

By the middle of the century, timid attempts were made in the direction of historic dress. The Turkish and oriental "rage# of the rococo later gave impetus to this movement. Petronio Zanarini, of a company of comedians, appeared in Trieste in 1780 and was considered to be the first to wear the Roman toga and the Greek chiton antedating

Talma.

In general, operatic costume and Italian modes imitated closely the Parisian models. Goldoni in his Memoirs described the mannequin in Venice which was always dressed in the latest node from Paris, imme­ diately aped by the ladies of Venice.^ The operatic stage had a direct link with the European fashion center through its French ballet person­ nel.

The young Mozart made this acid comment about ballet in Vienna in 1781. "There is still a sorry remnant of Noverre's ballet, idio.

^Biejer, Drottningholm* s Teatervflrld, op. oit. 70oldoni, Memoirs, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. 321. 152 however had not moved a leg for the last eij^t years, and moat of shorn are like atleks*"^ Kelley noted that at Brescia there vaa an excellent and very exgpenslve corps de ballet*

A ballet scene may be viewed through Algarotti's jaundiced eye:

The general custom now is that after the preluding flourish of a very disagreeable tune, a co^le of young men are detached on the stage from the danceing cozps, all in readiness behind the scenesÿ and it is the hack­ neyed practice that o A o f them mobs the other of a nosegay, or plays him a trick of some sort; they grow angry with each other, but soon became reconciled, al­ though they go at it without the least moderation like mad folk. After the first two have done their task two of more distinction come it, tA io in turn are suc­ ceeded by the two chief dancers, they likewise perform a dance of the same ccm^lexion, and it is epilogued by the latter part of the tune, which is quite as bad as its beginning. Whoever knows one dance knows all, for though dancers may change their dresses the characters introduced are seldom varied*^

Toward the middle of the eighteenth century the ballet ceased to be incidental and came to takeon an iiqportance equal to the opera in drawing the audience. In Padua from 1751 on, fees of singers began to diminish and those of dancers to increase. In 1765, the following salaries were paid to leading figures in the Uieatre at Padua for the carnival season:

Soprano 26I4Û Venetian lire Leading tenor 66O

1st Leading dancer 2860 2nd Leading dancer 2200 Traetta (the coi^oser) 1320 Scenic designer, Giuseppe 3135 (probably the total Nioolettâ scenery contract cost)

^Anderson, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. 321. ^Algarotti, op. cit., pp. 36-37. 153

The production of a ballet vas not modestly executed. KellQr compares the ballet mounting at the San Carlo, in Naples, with an erratic production of the same scene at the Italian opera inLondon:

In the opera of Ataxerxes, on our stage, in the scene where Artananes makes Arbaces exchange swords with him, and receives the bloody w e , he comes on at the side scene, which is very poor...At the San Carlo, on the other hand in the ballet the scene is placed in the middle of the stage, the galleries over each other, with apartments opening into them, are before you; you see Artabanes rush out of the chamber of Artaxerxee having murdered him, and fly across the different galleries, pursued by the guards of Artaxerxes, with lighted torches; he makes his escape by a private door into the royal gardens..

The ballet had taken ascendancy over the opera-buffa, from 1730 onward, and the buffa, in Italian cities rejoined its parent groups, the commedia dell'arte, inhabiting with them the older theatres out­ grown or abandoned ly the eiqpandlng opera-seria. The Buffs was eliminated at San Carlo in 17LI.

In the Germanic lands, however, the buffa continued to share the theatres with the Italian companies. In Vienna, for example,

Italian operas were given three times a week, German plays twice, and opera buffa, now German opera, twice a week. The mounting was modest.

The comic opera in Berlin had a coi^lement of five singers, two women and three men.

The use of the German singer in the German tongue for the ser­ ious opera was unthinkable, however, Frederick the Great declared:

"I would as soon hear my horse neigh! London was not so fastidious.

]%elley, op. cit., p. 1*6. llRoUand, op. cit., p. 103. l$k

In London the e<»dc opera, and even the lesser scenes in the Italian

opera, were sung in the vernacular. Some attempts were made to pre­

sent opera serla in English, but it was thought that only an English

Metastasio would make that possible.

In Italy homogenous ccn^anies were developed. In 1778 a company

of twenty persons, idiich could do comedy, tragedy, intermezzo, and

opere gjocoso, was engaged for the qpring season in Trieste. Singing of opera buffa seems to have been of low quality to judge" by the ad­ vanced age of the male comedians, who customarily played until death.

Carlo Goldoni, who claimed to have served as midwife at the birth of the opera buffa, reported that the regular commedia dell'arte players simply took on the added duties of singing the buffa roles.

The two forms, opera aeria and opera buffa, oould then be con­ sidered as each having taken a separate path, except for the constant influence of the buffa elements on the serious opera. Its popular instruments made their way into the grand opera orchestra, during the eighteenth century, and the elaborate vocal ensemble finales of the casts in the buffa were adopted by serious conposers. These finales were destined, in the latter part of the century under Clmarosa,

Paisiello and Mozart, to transform the solo opera into a musical play. CHAPTER H I

CONCLCSIQH

The fall of the baroque opera. The histoxy of the eeventeenth and eighteenth oentoiy opera is summed up in this quaint aet^hor published by Doctor Burney in his HLstery, in 17881

As the British government consists of three estates: Kings, Lords, and Commons, so an opera in its first institution consisted of Poetry, (tisic and Machinery: but as politicians have observed, that the balance of power is frequently disturbed by some one of the three estates encroaching t^on the other two, so one of these three constituent parts of a musical drama gen­ erally preponderates, at the expense of the other two. In the first operas POETRY seems to have been the most important personage j but about the middle of the last century, Mach^eiy and Decoration seemed to take the lead, and diminished the importance of both Ifiisic and poetry. But as the art of singing and dra­ matic composition improved. Music took the lead, and poetry and decoration became of less consequence, till the judgement of Apostolo Zeno, and the genius of Metastasio, lifted lyric poetry far aboge its usual level. But a fourth estate seems to have sprung tp in DANCING, idiich has almost annihilated the Influence of the fomer three. ^

In a like manner, the opera of this period possessed in its underlying spirit, two elements, each trying to be dominant: 1) The baroque, and 2) The dramatic, the surrogate on-stage of the enlighten­ ment.

An uneasy truce was maintained between the two elements by means of a very artificial splitting of the opera in two: The Recita- tive, in which more than one character took part, was the sphere of

^Burney, op. cit., p. 892. 1$$ 156

the dramatic element* The iria then took the single final "affect” which resulted from the dramatic development or conflict of the pre­

ceding recitative* The aria took the affect and opened it up and ex­ panded it, just asa bud opens up into a flower, enlarging but not

intensifying itself.

Most of the visual elements in the opera seria were on the side

of the aria; single, narrow, unvaried feelings were unfolded in a most

sensuously vibrant manner, by the scenogr^)hy and the other things

seen.

The only ally that the relatively weak dramatic iiqpulse in the opera had was the orchestra, for it reveled in the play of its forces that were inherently dramatic, that is, in the oppositiim of its con­ trasting elements. No other department in the opera house could eagoress such violent ocntrasts as the orchestra. Though the orchestra did its best in the interest of dramatic hegemony, it could do no more than disturb the stability of the vocal element by attempting to cover it with sound. Allies had to be found outside the opera seria.

As pointed out earlier, the opera buffa sprang into action in the interest of this dramatic impulse in the opera house.

1. The opera buffa reinforced the orchestra from its own fo2k- orehestra sources, with the contrast-loving wind instruments*

22 The opera buffa created so much a) orchestral weight and b) interest in characterisation on the stage, that it started a trend toward use of the true male voices for Uie heroic and masculine roless 1$7

3* The opera haffa popalarized the ensemble flnsles, whidk

helped to pave the vajr toward the breaking down of the dichoto^r

between the recitative and the aria.

The opera buffa had repaid the opera seria for having ousted it

from the San Carlo and the other great opera theatres, for the opera

buffa had now diluted the purity of the old serla style.

The final assault cane out of France, where the Encyclopedists

were calling tqpon artists of all Europe to descend from the clouds of

rococo enjoyment and face real life, the environment in which they

lived. Nature was pointed out to the Italians. Mountains,llakes and

rivers were discovered to exist in Italy. Then the architectural

dreams of the stage world started to lose meaning, and scenography

devoted Itself to the pictorial.

In these real mountains, by the real Mediterranean, lived real

persons, themselves, with ccmflicts, life dramas, which had been over­

looked until now. The antique heroes now seemed far, far away. % e

baroque theatre now belonged to the past.

A cycle camp Is ted in opera histoiy. The eighteenth-century

opera inherited an art richly endowed with classic, medieval, renais­

sance, and baroqqe elements. The operatic art of the eighteenth cent­

ury then stripped away many of the classic and renaissance elements in

stage architecture and stage effects. This dispossession might have

resulted in a great purification of style, thus raising the baroque to

a high estate among the great artistic movements, were it not for the faot that the vacuum created by the removal of earlier stylistic 158 element» vas immediately replaced, not bj a fnlfillment of the ba­ roque, but instead by the intrusion of the vanguard of an epproaching romantic movement. The librettist Metastasio, idio gave words to the baroque spirit, simultaneously initiated the revival of e type of eoqpression which had been held in abeyance by the singers' art, namely, the dramatic. At the same time, the orchestral art was developing, endeavoring to engulf the baroque sounchin a torrent of dramatic sounds. Finally, scenogrtphy gave way and turned pictorial.

Thus it may be perceived that in this great flowering of the baroque throng the merging of the time and space arts, the baroque still did not at any time achieve a purity of style. The future and the past lived in the baroque present. The grandiloquence, elevation of mood, and ecstatic continuity of curving and undulating line of the baroque style was, however, for a time able to dominate over the con­ flicting artistic iiqpulses, in a score of thousand cperatic produc­ tions. The great vocal virtuosi, performing with superhuman before enravishing Bibiena settings for a deliriously irresponsible audience, had brought the baroque to its highest level of esq:iression. jkFFENDIX A

THE STRUCTURE OF THE OPERA HOUSE

Notes and plates extracted from the Storla e desorizione de 'prj^clpall teatri mtiohl e âoden^a hy Pierre ^ran^se Patte> first published in 178É, republished in I830 with a critique by, Paolo Iwidriani and edited by Qiullo Ferrario. (Mian 3 Dalla üpografia del Dottor Giulio Ferrario, I830), 376 pp*

The material in Appendix A is drawn from pages 150 to 17I1 of Patters work, and includes the plates under discussion in that portion of his work. The seven theatres whose unique fea­ tures are noted are:

a. The San Carlo theatre of Naples b. The theatre of Turin c. The old theatre of Milan d. % e Teatro di Argentina of Rome e. Tlie theatre of Bologna f. The electoral theatre of Mannheim g. The royal theatre of Berlin

It should be noted that the measurements cited are those oC the old French pied, which is 7/8 inches longer than the modern English foot.

A number of the plates of ground plans are aplit, with the might lobe depicting (in most cases) the plate a or main floor level, while the left half of the p T m generally indicates the plan of the first or s e o w d level of boxes.

The dotted lines on the plans generally refer to the hypothetical reflection of sound from the singer's normal position on the stage to Tarions points in the h«Ql. The same dotted lines are also used at times to indicate sight lines from boxes to the stage.

2$9 160

Plate XIII. The Sam Carlo theatre of Naples. Seventy of the boxes in this tkea&^e belong to the principal families of Naples. The large box of the king is in the second rank of logea.

The ceiling, nade of wood, la slightly concave, and is sixty-six feet above the floor. The proscen- inm opening is fifty feet in width. There is no forestage, bat the parapet is arched outward. The stage is one hundred fourteen feet in depth, and has a Tsap, or gentle staircase so that horses and tri­ umphal cars may be brought onto the stage from the outside.

General opinion is that the acoustics are poor here. [ Patte did not find them too bad; but he attributed the complaint to the great h ei^t of the celling, the size of the hall (ei^ty feet in length) and the masonry construction. He felt that stone and metal give too hard a resonance, cloth and living persons too absorbent, idiile wood, as in a musical instrument, provides resonoiee of perfect quality.] 161 Plate Zni.

H iA'

k

' ‘i i . 162

Platea XIV, XV, and XVI. îhe theatre of Turin. The theatre building is 228 feet long and loETfeet in Breadth. The auditorium is oval, or almost elliptical. The distance from the stage apron to the rear of the hall is fifty-seven feet, and its greatest width, forty- nine, The height is fifty feet, to a concave celling with a dome of five feet. The ceiling is painted with a scene depicting the marriage of Jtj^iter and Juno, and is painted directly upon the wood, so not to adversely affect the acoustical properties of the ceiling. Al­ fresco is better than ell in the preservation of the acoustical values.

There are six rows of boxes. Each stall is six feet wide and six and one-half feet high. The thin panels sqaarating the boxes are more or less in U n e with a midstage point cm the apron, idiere the singer will be found. The large royal box in the second tier is twenty-four feet wide.

Plate XIV (left lobe) shows the bank of boxes which includes the large royal palco, as well as the director's and the actors' rooms. ïtere are no pros­ cenium boxes to catch the singers' tones before they can be projected. The right side of theasame plate shows the main floor level with gpproaches by stair­ cases.

In Pla&e XV (right lobe) may be seen a novel acoustical "inprovement." IMder the floor of the orchestra pit is a well or case extending the length of the pit, with tubes opening out upon the stage. The purpose of this is to enrich the orchestral tone. Plate XVI, a wholly hypothetical acoustical study, shows a cross-section of this type of devel(^ent.

The proscenium opening of the stage is forty feet, and the stage is 10$ feet deep. A drawbridge opens the rear-wall of the stage onto a yard at the rear of the theatre, where incendiary effects may safely be exe­ cuted, and the resulting smoke may not annoy the audi­ ence. An entrance may onto the stage is provided for horses and carriages needed in theatrical effects.

There is a large opening in the ceiling of the proscenium through which a grand candlelabra with twelve torches [clusters of candles? 3 on it is lowered prior to and following the performances. These lustres" are not left in a lowered position during the operas for they would block the view of the audience if they were left in place. 163

Plate XIV.

Kl

1

f * i \

t f i Plate X\T. Tetdrv diH o'ino

f

1 165

Plate XVI,

I

I 166

Plate XVII. The Theatre of M i a n . This Is one of the oldest theatres in Italy. ¥he auditorium is seventy feet in length and is forty-eight feet at its widest. It is designed after the old Frendh tennis court pattern, with a "breadbasket" curve at the back.

The five banks of boxes are ranged vertically. It will be noted that each box has a matching anteroom across the worridor from it, for visiting, conversa­ tion, and cards.

Sight lines are particularly unfavorable in this theatre, as is demonstrated by the dotted lines. The proscenium opening is forty feet. t 168

Plate X7II1. The Teatro di Argentina of Rcme« The best known of Home's eight Centres are ^ e lÂïbieri, the Tordinctne> and the Argentina» The Teatro di Argentina is a building -^o honored, feet long and seventy-îour feet in width. Its auditorium is raquet or horseshoe shaped, and its width is greater than the length, due to the apace taken tgr the salient apron. The height is forty-three feet to an almost flat ceil­ ing vhidi has in its center an aperture through which a grand candelabra is lowered to illuminate the theatre until the curtain is raised.

There are six tiers of boxes.

The stage is thirty-nine feet long. The acoustics are rather poor here; only the tenors and sttne sopranos are here heard at their best, due perhaps to the shape of the celling, and the raquet-sha^d hall. Patte believed that only the true horseshoe shape permitted the free ezpansiw of the airwaves without interference by the boxes along the side wall.3 169

Plate XVIII.

T ( ‘i///'(' (// y/i't/r/t/f/uf ///

K

N 170

Plata XIX. The T h e a ^ of Bologna. This theatre, designed by Antcnio cSDi-Blblena, is a building of two hundred feet in length brjr eighty in width. The auditorium is sixty-four feet wide and fifty-four feet long, and semi-circular at the back. There are five rows of boxes, each six feet wide and eight feet in total height. The ceiling, sixty feet above the platea [main floor] has a "breadbasket" form, with an arch of seven feet.

The theatre is unusual in having been con­ structed of stone and brick; its wooden predeces­ sor had been destroyed by fire.

The proscenium is forty-five feet wide, and as high. Eight hundred persons may be seated on the platea, idaich has -Uuree entrywgys.

Due to the shepe of the theatre and the ab­ sence of wooden surfaces, the acoustics are not favorable. The ovoid Teatro Pergola of Florence has the same faults. 171

Plate i n .

rfi Aohyt,

J 172

Plate XX. ïhe Electaral l^atre at Mannheim. This theatre, designed hy ileaaadro Ëi.biena,*Ts "one of Germany' a most magnificent. It is a building one hundred eighty feet long, not including the grand hall at the front, and about siadgr feet across. The stage is ninety-siz feet deep, ending in a rang) for the introduction of horses

The hall, forty-three feet long and twenty-six feet wide at the middle, is bell-sh^ed, with the mouth operning toward the stage. There are six ranks of loges.

Unlike the opera houses of Italy, this electoral theatre has open boxes, separated by balustrades instead of partitions* Ab at the Teatro ^ggio and the theatre of Padua, each of the side boxes jut out into the auditorium atllttle more than the one before it, and is raised a bit higher than the onein front. The boxes at the back of the hall, however, are on one level. The projecting lines of the hall interfere with the sound pro- progatlon as well as with the view of the scene. Csic.Q

The auditorium is fifty-four feet high, with a central celling trapdoor which may be operned for the descent of a great candelabra laden with sixteen torches, or clusters, lighting the platea prior to the raising of the curtain. Mhen the lights are all distributed, the theatre is illuminated by the reflections from twelve hundred candles.

This theatre is decorated in a particularly resplendent manner. The surfaces are painted white, with all ornamentation in gilt. The building, which adjoins the electoral palace, holds two thousand spectators. Only Italian opera is presented there during the carnival.

There is no stage-gpron before the thirty foot square proscenium opening. The faults in this auditorium arise from the lack of a proscenium arrangement which can project tho sound outward, as well as a stage opening which is too small for the large hall. From most of the side boxes it is difficult to see the scene. The superfluity of pillars, balustrades, and other decorative effects militate against a favorable propoga- tion of sound. Dotted lines on Ihe plate indicate the manner in idiich the sound seems to carrom into the electoral box. 173

Plate XX.

Tftrirtt tft JêmSn-tnt 17ii

Plate X n . Royal T ^ a t M of Berlin* This building, vhldhi has outsit (Emensions of one hundred eighty feet by aixty-aix, has a highly decorated peristyle-facade containing external staircases leading into a vast lobby.

The resplendent auditorium is thirty-one feet long and twenty-eight feet at its widest. The #latea is divided into two parts by a balluatrade not illustrated . The King and his nobles place themselves close to the stage while the public remains in the rear section. Generally semicircu­ lar in sh^>e, it is the widest at the front.

The three ranks of boxes are each eight feet in height, with the Queen's loge at the back, in the second rank. %)eoial stage boxes house the truiqpets and the kettledrums which sound a fanfare upon the arrival of the Ençeror at the sprictacle.

The large stage is very convenient for the changing of the scenes, while the low ceiling of the auditorium favors particularly the soprano voice, and makes more audible the other types.

For grand balls, the auditorium floor is built up to the level of the stage. A parget is erected at the proscenium and townspeople dance iq)on the stage while the nobility use the audi­ torium for their dancing. Only the nobles are permitted to attend in mask. 175

Plate m . r JffFENDIZ fi

SCENE DIRECTIONS FROM

NINE UBREITI OF METitSTASIO

Stage directions frcm nine of the most popular libretti, extracted from the Opere of Pietro Hetastasio (Florence: Dal Gabinetto di Pallade, 1819), 6 Vols.:

Achille ^ Sciro, IV, 285-370.

Adriano in Siria, i n , IQI-I83 .

Catone in Utica, I, 179-283.

U Clemenza ^ Tito, IV, 193-283.

Dewetrio, III, 185-283.

Dido Abbandonata, I, l-Sl».

Issipile, III, 285-361*.

Olimpiade, IV, 5-98.

Siroe. I, 85-177.

176 177

ACHILLE m SdfiO r . 1 7 3 5 ---- [16 éditions of the libretto in library of Congress catalogu^

The action takes place In the palace of Llcomede on the Island of Sdro.

I, i

Exterior view of a magnificent tei^le of Bacchus, to which one ascends by two spacious staircases. The teaple Is surrounded fay porticos which, extending on both sides, enclose a great plxaa. In the distance through the colonade of the portico may be seen at ones side the sacred grove of the dleties, and on the other the sea of Sclro, The plaza is full of Bacchtntl, who, celebrating the festival of their god, play on various instruments and sing the following chorus:

vil

^artments of Deldamln.

xiil

Pleasure room [ dellslosa^ In the palace of Llcomede.

II, 1

Qround^floor galleries adorned by statues representing various activities of Hercules.

vil

Ground hall Illuminated as at night-time, leading to various apartments likewise illuminated. Table in the middle; serving tables about, high galleries full of misldains and spectators. III, 1 Portico of the palace leading to the sea# Ships a short distance fran the shore. vli Palace

■JHHHHKHHHHHHHHHW At the end of the scena ultima; While the chorus elngs the above, a thick ball of clouds deeeends from above, which first spreading out, fills a large part of the palace, and uncovers to the i^ectators the bright temple glory adorned tqr like­ nesses of those who have become immortals. Gloria, Love and Time are seen in the air before the teeple, and with them are lifted their numerous following. 178

ADKUNO IN SIRIA 373 1 ~ (31 editions of the libretto in library of Congress catalogué

I. 1.

Qreat square of Antioch magnificently adorned with mili- tary trophies coiqposed of banners, arms and other spoils of the vanquished barbarians. Imperial throne at one side. Bridge over the Oronte river which divides the city.

U.

^artment in the rqyal palace intended for Emdjrena. 12. Courtyard of the royal palace with a partial view of the palace idiich will be subject to fire, and subsequently demolished by the holocaust. Nighttime.

plater in scene ^ "starts a fire" and "Throws off his mantle and enters between the flames and the ruins of the palace."

II. i.

Ground floor hall, with chairs.

ix.

Magnificent hall of the imperial palace, steps for descending to the banks of the Oronte. View of the country and gardens on the opposite shore.

THIS UGEN2A ADIED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE COURT OF MADRID FOR M : CÉLÉBRATION OF THE BIRTH OF FERDINANDO VI.

At the sound of a hsppy and lively sinfonia there opens up the luminous kingdom of the sun. The diety appears, seated upon a gilted chariot, and draws tp his spirited war-horses. The hours, the seastms and the other genii under his leadership assemble, and be then speaks forth in the following: 179

CATONE IN ÜTICA P ------mi— l^U edltlcxw of the libretto in Library of Ccmgz*ess oataloguel

ACT I scene 1.

Anqy ball.

scene i*.

Interior part of the wall of Utica, with the gate of the city in view, closed by a drawbridge whidi later is lowered.

scene 9.

Partly ruined buildings near the abode of Cato.

ACT II scene 1.

Military quarters on the banks of the Bagrada river, with islands connected by bridges.

ACT III scene 1.

Courtyard.

scene 5.

A pe r ^ c t i v e view, with a closed door leading in to an ancient disused water-tunnel connecting the city to the sea.

[Near the end of the scene "opens the door, and holds it." "hides" 180

M CLEMENZA M TITO

{23 edltlaas of the libretto in Library of Cangreea catalogué

The drama is set in Rome.

I, i

Open gallery with a view of the Tevere; in the qoart- menta of Vitellia.

Before the audience-hall of the temple of Jupiter Statore already known as an assembly place of the Sgnate. Behind is part of the Roman forum, magnificently set out by arches, obelisks and trophies. At the sides are seen in the distance the Mont Palatine and a considerable extent of the sacred road. Facing is the exterior of the capitol, and a magnificent ipproach by which one ascends to it.

viii

Delightful retreat in the royal abode on the Palatine hill.

II, i Portico Ground floor gallery decorated with statues, leading out to the gardens.

n i , i

Enclosed room with door, seats and small table, with writing materials.

xii

Magnificent place leading into a vast anphitheatre, seen through archways. One may see, already in the arena, the conspirators who are cmdemned to the stake. 181

MHETRIO r. ’Ï731" ■ _ i ^ k editions of the libretto In the Idbrazy of Congress catalogaej

I, i

lUomlnated chamber » with chairs and table at one side; scepter and crown thereon.

vil

Magnificent hall with a throne at one side and chairs facing the thrcme for the lords of the realm. Vista of the great port of Seleucla with quay. Ships illuminated in celebration of the election of 1^e new king.

II, i Gallery.

xi

Chamber with chairs.

Ill, i

Palace entrance, leading to the seashore, with boats and seamen ready for Alceste's embarcation.

vi

Ground-floor ^artoent of Fenicio, within the palace.

xii

Great tenple of the Sun, with altar and image of the sun-god in the centre; throne at one side* 182

DIDO ABBANDONATA _ r R H ----- [^3 editions of libretto in Library of Congress catalogueJ

Act I scene 1

Magnificent public audience-hallj vith a throne at one side. In the distance is seen the cily of Carthage, under construction.

Act II

Royal apartments with table and chairs.

Act III scene 1. Seaport with ships, for Aneas' embarcation. scene 3.

Woods between the city and the port.

scene 8.

Palace with a view in the distance of the city of Carthage, which now is afire.

scene 16.

The palace is now seen to be afire.

scene 19. (the penultimate)

Soon some fabric is seen to fall., which feed the flames in the palace.

End of the scena Ultima

After uttering the last words. Dido desperately and furiously throws herself into the burning ruins of the palace, and is lost between the balls of flame, of sparks, and of smoke, which flare tp until it falls.

At tiie same time, from the horizon the sea begins to rise and to push forward slowly, toward the castle, which is being obscured and is disappearing in the dense smoke. All of this is acooipanied by the tumult of a noisy sinfonia.

In attacking the fire, the higher the flames, the more violent are the storming of the waters. 183

DIDO ABBAMDONATA (Coatinu«d}

The furious succession of vaves, breaking in whitecaps over the opposing ruins, call for a similar loudness in the music, and extinguishing of the lights, and the continued roar of the sea, which alone is heard no voices eiqphasising the obstinate conflict of the two inimical elements. '

Finally the sea triumphs over the extinguished fire. The air clears itself, smoke is dissipated, the music of the sinfonia changes from the horrible to the happy, and from the d^ths of the sea now quiet and tranquil rises the rich and luminous king­ dom of Neptune.

Seated on his shining shell, surrounded by max*ine monsters and tritws, appears the diety, bearing his great trident, and speaks. 18U

ISSIP11£ ■ iriè [12 editions of the libretto in Library of Congress eataloguej

I, i.

Porch of the tenple of Bacchus^ festively adorned with festoons of paiqpino vine a hanging from the arches and «reaped around their columns; images of Satyrs, Sirens and Bacchanals.

viii.

Part of the royal garden with rustic fountains at the side, and sacred grove of Diana in the distant center. Nighttime.

xi.

Armgr hall, illuminated, with image of "Vengeance" in the middle.

II, i.

Ano'Uier part of Hie royal garden with rustic fountain at the side and sacred grove to Diana in the middle. Nighttime.

xi.

Countryside in view of the sea, divided by military tents. Setting sun.

Ill, i.

Remote place between the city and the sea, decorated with cypresses and with statues of the ancient king of the Lenno.

viii.

Seashore with ships of Learco and gangplanks leading to one of them. At cuie side, ruins of the tençle of Venus, at the other the ruins of the ancient port of Lenno. 185

OUMPIADB T ? 5 T \^9 editions of the libretto in Library of Congress catalogue]

I, i

Wooded d^ths of a dark narrow valley, shaded above by great trees which join, intertwining their branches overhead from one side of the valley to the other, enclosing the whole.

iv

Vast plain at the foot of a mountain, with scattered shepherd's huts. A rustic bridge crossing the Alfeo river, made of tree- trunks rudely joined. The city of Olimpia is seen in the background, partly hidden by a few shrubs whidi adorn the stage, but do not en­ cumber it*

II, i jno change]

III

Symmetrical scene formed by the ruins of an ancient hippodrome, already largely covered with ivy, thorns, and other forest plants.

Vi

Exterior view of the great temple of Olimpian Jipiter, from which one descends by extended and magnificent steps broken by landings. A plaza before it, with an altar with flame burning, in the center. Surrounding it, a grove of sacred olive trees where the crowns for the victorious athletes are made. 186

SIRŒ

l22 éditions of tbs libretto in Ilbrazy of Congress catalogue]

Act I scene 1.

Great temple of the eun, with altar and likeness of the sun.

Scene 10.

Private chamber of Cosroe [King of Persia3 with table and chairs.

Act II scene 1.

Royal park.

Scene 8*

Ground-floor apartment leading out to garden.

Act III scene I.

Courtyard.

Scene 9«

Narrow and enclosed place in the castle for the imprisonment of Siroe.

Scene 15*

Large square of Seleucia with a view of the royal palace and with pr^aration for the coronation of Medarse, which then serves for that of Siroe. à P P E W J X c

EXFEirSBS AND INCOME OF A PRODUCTION AT PADDA IN 1751

Cost of the opera Artaaerae produced in Padua at the time of the opening of the Teatro Nuovo^ in 1751. About 20 or 25 perfwiaanoea*^

Eacpeneea

Maaioal vlrtuosl Venetian lire («pprox. ^ Gulden)

Baldassare Galuppl,maestro di nuaica 2200

Mingotti 9680

Qiocachino Conti, "Olaielli" 9680

Teresa Kaazoü 2200

Antonio Raaf ii9^

Giuseppe Poma 2200

Antcmia Maggini $2B

31,ii38

Daneere

HLnello, maestro di hallo 680 Catterina Anichini 2090 M. Michel 1650 Teresa ZambelH I980 Luca Borghesi 1100 Margarita Pusi 1276 Qaqpare Angiolini 990 Elena Tomaselli 528 Francesco Fabris 1100 Geltruda Soavi 3^2 Qandenaio Beni 396 Anna Vestri 132 Fillippo di Sales 220 Francesco Sonuter and Signora Foglioszi 2860 l 5 , 5 5 i i

^Bonetti, op. cit., pp. 155-57.

187 188

Other eatficpaee

Scenery vezy high, in this case: all was new 16,501 Costumes 5,633 Qrdiestra 6,793 Stagehands 3,133 Lighting, oil, wax and tallow h,19k Printing $kk Lodging furnished 3,673 Helpers and aiders 1,162 S^^enses for the King 166 Doormen 125 Ticket Sellers at the door 175 ” " at the loge-entries Hil Stockings 223 Boots and shoes 207 Wig maker 66 Scene director # 0 Stage director 176 Pr

BECEIPTS

Subvention 6,205 Ticket ealee at door: At U lire 56,180 Loge seat sales: k,665 at 2 lire 2$0 (first performance) at U 9,830 Libretto sales 1,138 From builders of theatre 6,200 Shop rents 66k From gambling room U,331 Sponsors, at 220 lire each 8,800 TOTAL RECEIPTS 93,3W

Balance 2,9la

Denetrio vas given by Metastasio and Scarlatti in the (1752) foUoeing season LOSS U,36l lire* iPFSNDlZ D

PfilGES AND WACæS FOR SOME QFBRATIC SER7ICB8

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTDRI

Throughout the source material uhleh has been e%loyed in pre­ paring the present study, there appear figures which cite costs, salaries, and incomes of the theatres* The sources being what they are, artistic rather than financial, these figures have

A Standard of Value

Prices in Europe remained quite stable throughout the eighteenth century* Only in France was there much change, with prices fluctu­ ating widely within each decade, but remaining level through the cent­ ury as a whole, until the revolution*^

in atten^b is made here to convert, in round numbers, all currency values to a common one, tiie Austrian gulden* Today one might think of the gulden as the equivalent of three or four dollars* A music lesson cost one and a half gulden, a suit, fifteen, groceries for a week, nine, a furnished room, three or four gulden a week, a second-/ hand chariot, eighty*

Wages and Salaries

Singers* Leading virtuosi earned from (me-thousand to four- thousand gulden for a carnival season of two-dozen performances* At Mannheim, where pay was generous, the leading actresses in the theatre received 3000 giâden, and a "beginning" singer, 600* The great virtu­ oso, Tesi, was said to have amassed a fortune of 300,000 gulden*

^Sir William Beveridge, Prices and Wages in Englnnd from yie Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century* (ïpndon: Longmans, Green and domnany, 15^3577 Vol. I*

% n r i Hauser, editor. Recherches et Documents sur l'Histoire des Prix en France de 1506 a Iboô.' (Paris: Les Presses Modernes, 1^36). ■55îTi^

Alfred Frances Pridbram, editor, Materijüien sur Geaohlchte der Prelae wnd Lbhne in Osterreloh» (Vienna: Ceæi Uëberreaters Verlag,

169 190

ténor» generally fell into a lower bracket of income•i Michael Kelley in Vienna had a contract calling for 1800 gilden, lodging, and candles. He was given an excellent first and second floor apartment, elegantly fnrnished, in the most delightful part of Vienna, with fuel and with wax candles (four large wax candles per diem, the customary allowance), and a carriage. At Florence, the first comifc tenor, from the middle of April to the end of June, re­ ceived a total of 2$0 gulden.

Misicians. Dittersdorf, idiile an obscure musician received only 100 gulden a year, but as first violin in the Italian opera In Vienna and soloist in court, received 1000 gulden a year. He was offered the position of concertmaster at Pressborg, with recompense of 1200 gi^den a year, board, lodging, "Maintenance provided" f? J with livery and maintenance for his servant.

The kapellmeister at Mannheim received 3000 a year, the orchestra- director, loOO, and îhe concertmeister, lliOO. Young musicians in the provincial theatres got only 5 g ^ ^ n and keep; outside occupation was indicated. Oluck received 2000 gulSeh a year as concertmaster at Vienna, and, being a famous virtuoso, could on a tour garner fifteen hundred for a fortnight or month's visit to neighboring courts.

Composers, dhe usual fee for composing an opera was four-hundred gulden, plus the receipts from the sale of manuscripts of their score. Normally the manuscript lost its value after the sale of the first copy, since the copyists reserved themselves the right to pirate the scores, selling copies to all idio would buy. Particularly well-liked coa^osers could receive more than double the ordinary rate. Dittersdozf was given the entire receipts, amounting to 900 gulden, of a perform­ ance of one of his comic operas in Vienna.

librettists, librettists customarily received the "takings" of this third iperformance of an c^era. At Vienna, in the 1780's, this would amount to I4OO or 500 gulden. Metastasio received 3000 gulden a year as Austrian court poet, and 600 for his dramas elsewhere.

Theatre Receipts

Subscripticeis for the erection of the new theatre in Padua were 30 to 1500 zecchini (150 to 7^00 gulden). The seasonal charge, for the first row of boxes was 16 ducats, second row, 12 ducats, and the third, 8 ducats (6h, U8 and 32 gulden), for opera. When cornet^ was substituted, only 2/3 of the above was assessed. 191

In 1721, admiaelon to Venetian theatres vas charged as follows. (One lira approxLmated ^ gulden, 30 soldi equalling one Ura.) San J» Crystostonwi 3 lii^, soldi for entrance, and 36 soldi for à Siair* S, Angelo; 2 iL^e entrance, 30 soldi for a seat, S.N o i s e s 31 soldi aE the door, 20 for a seat. Tip, for usher, 2 soldi." Pirro found tkat prices varied somewhat according to the success of the operas. Prices were increased for benefits and gala performances.

At Trieste, in 1783, a box holding it or 6 persons, for itO per­ formances of opera-seria, cost only 11 or 12 ducats (50-5U gulden). A seat in a box cost 12 florins (gulden) for a season. For a single performance, 3k soldi (^ gulden) was assessed. Entrance to the main floor was 3k soldi plus k soldi for a seat. Prices for performances of opera-faiffa were one-half to two-thirds those charged for the serial lioaart reported that 1200 gulden were brought in by two per­ formances of hie Abduction from the Seraglio. BIBLIOdRAPHT

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If Theron Reading MoClnre, waa b o m In Western fringe,

Illinoisj January 2, 1912. Upon completion of m y secondary school education In La Grange, Illinois, I studied music in

Chicago. Since 1933 I have been employed as a professional musician In opera, sy^hony, radio, and commercial music.

From Western Reserve University in Cleveland," Ohio, I received the degree Bachelor of Arts in 19U5 and the degree Master of

Arts In 1950. I have been an instructor in the School of

Music of The Œilo State University since I9li9*

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