Comic Theory, Comic Style and the Early Intermezzo
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È caso da intermedio! Comic Theory, Comic Style and the Early Intermezzo by Keith James Johnston A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Music University of Toronto © Copyright by Keith James Johnston, 2011 È caso da intermedio! Comic Theory, Comic Style and the Early Intermezzo Keith James Johnston Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Music University of Toronto 2011 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of the comic intermezzo’s literary origins and musical practice in the years before Pergolesi’s La serva padrona (1733). It begins with a chronological examination of Italian comic plays and operas written between 1660 and 1723. During these years comic playwrights adopted a style of writing speech from the improvised theatre which makes use of what Richard Andrews (1993) refers to as “elastic gags.” This style of comedy flourished under Medici patronage in Florence in the last decades of the seventeenth century and then spread to Venice, Rome and Naples during the first years of the intermezzo’s development. It is a style of comedy shared with the plays of Molière, and other contemporaneous French authors. This dissertation examines several scenes based on French works which have previously not been identified as having earlier sources. The decision to adapt these earlier sources for the intermezzo did not occur in a vacuum. The practice of comedy in the intermezzo was conditioned by the artistic, social and political climate of Italy. This study investigates the relationship between intermezzos and the milieus which produced them. The success of some intermezzos, like Il marito giocatore (1719), ii resulted from a combination of their artistic merit and their broad social appeal, while others, like Albino e Plautilla (1723), were musically adept but remained obscure because their humour was specific to the world they satirized. Both intermezzos are indebted to earlier French sources. Many others which are metatheatrical in nature draw on contemporary debates about opera. A final section examines selected arias from the intermezzo repertory using incongruity theory. Comic theory makes clear that the intermezzo’s musical language was not a new development. Just as librettists drew on earlier written traditions to form the literary text of the intermezzo, composers drew on existing musical practices to create humour. The intermezzo was therefore not naively comic—a portrait of the genre which is all too common—but rather a repertory which was thoroughly enmeshed within contemporary artistic practice and a wider social and cultural world. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the dedication to The Grove, or, Love’s Paradise (1700), the poet and historian John Oldmixon observed that “there is nothing so tedious to Mankind in general, as an Encomium, where they are not themselves concern’d.” He nevertheless went on to heap praise on the dedicatee. I will similarly express my humble gratitude at some length, with apologies to those who are not themselves concerned. But this dissertation is thanks to so many for their kindness, expertise and support. I laughed when reading that quotation several years ago when I was a research assistant to Professor Mary Ann Parker and Professor Domenico Pietropaolo. Sifting through hundreds of librettos was the most incredible apprenticeship I could have hoped for. It helped me find my topic and taught me more about early modern theatre and opera than I can say. I am very grateful for that opportunity. Professor Parker has been the most extraordinary advisor and mentor. All that is good in this thesis is thanks to her guidance. Many thanks to my committee members: Professor Gregory Johnston, for his scholarly acumen, high standards and good humour, and Professor Domenico Pietropaolo, for the extraordinary depth of his knowledge and his passion for Italian theatre and culture. Thank you to Professor Dale Monson for his insight and recommendations while serving as the external examiner. And thanks to Professor Caryl Clark for her expertise, encouragement and generosity with her time. I would like to thank many institutions for their financial support of this research project. Thank you to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, which funded the early stages of my graduate work, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, whose doctoral fellowship funded my last years. I am especially thankful for a Dünnhaupt Travel Fellowship which generously funded my research in Italy. Thank you personally to Professor Gerhard Dünnhaupt iv for his encouragement and expertise. Thank you also to the School of Graduate Studies for a Research Travel Grant which supplemented my travel expenses. I have benefitted greatly from the kindness of many librarians. Thank you to the librarians and staff of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Carl von Ossietzky in Hamburg, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, the library of the Abbazia di Montecassino, the Biblioteca Estense in Modena and especially the Conservatorio di Musica di San Pietro a Majella. Closer to home I must thank Dr. Bonna Boettcher at Cornell University, the staff of Northwestern University, the Library of Congress and the Music Library of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. I owe a huge debt to Professor Kurt Markstrom, who generously shared his material and started the ball rolling. Thank you to Professor Louise Stein, whose company and know-how in Naples was much appreciated. Thank you also to Dott. Lucio Tufano for his generosity and to Sig.na Del Vecchio for opening her home to me. Thank you to Kathleen and Peter Van De Graaff, whose comic and editorial skills keep this genre alive, and who generously shared their knowledge and time with me. Thanks also to Dr. Alice Bellini for kindly sharing her research. At home I have benefitted enormously from a scholarly community which has shaped my thinking and sustained my curiosity about all things musical and operatic. To my fellow “Operatics” at the Jackman Humanities Institute: I am enormously grateful to have had the opportunity to share and learn with you all. Special thanks Professor Sherry Lee for her support, counsel and sagacity. I am spoiled to have colleagues who are extraordinarily brilliant in addition to being extraordinary friends. Thank you to Michelle Boyd, Erin Bustin, Geoff Hendry, Mark Laver, Colleen Renihan, Mark Richards, Bettina Ryan, Chris Segall, Martha Sprigge and Alexa v Woloshyn. Special thanks to Colleen and Alexa for sharing the office, many laughs and the occasional dance. Thank you to my Grandparents for their support and to my sister for her sanity. To Mom and Dad—words don’t come close. Thank you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Plates vii Preface ix Introduction Approaches to Humour and the Intermezzo 1 The Study of Humour in Music 11 Scope and Aims 20 Beneath the Tangle: Italian Comedy and Molière from 1660-1723 1.1 Molière and the Intermezzo 25 1.2 The Medici Court Before Molière 32 1.3 The Medici Court After Molière 51 1.4 Expansion and Transformation 67 1.5 Conclusion 74 Sources and Contexts of Humour in Leonardo Vinci’s Second Intermezzo 2.1 Introduction: Leonardo Vinci as Innovator 76 2.2 Albino e Plautilla 80 2.3 A Scene Borrowed from Molière? 89 2.4 Sources of Humour I: The Music 100 2.5 Sources of Humour II: Naples and the New Philosophy 111 2.6 Sources of Humour III: The Female Philosopher 119 2.7 Conclusion 123 Affect, Chance and the Rise of the Intermezzo: The Case of Il marito giocatore 3.1 Introduction 128 3.2 Sources 132 3.3 Husbands: Gambling in the Eighteenth Century 139 3.4 Wives: Divorce and the siciliano 142 3.5 Chance as Metaphor 156 Metatheatre and the Intermezzo: Butterflies and Little Boats 4.1 Introduction 178 4.2 Metatheatre and the Intermezzo 181 4.3 The Meatheatrical Perspective: Martello and Marcello 188 4.4 Metatheatre in the Libretto 197 4.5 Metatheatrical Music in the Intermezzo 211 4.6 Conclusion: Metatheatre and the Aesthetics of Musical Humour 220 vii Comic Theory and the Comic Aria 5.1 Introduction 224 5.2 Musical Humour and the Incongruity Theory 229 5.3 “Comic Realism” 244 5.4 Repetition 252 5.5 Parody 260 5.6 Changes of Tempo and Style 266 5.7 Conclusion 270 Conclusion 272 Bibliography Printed Sources 280 Musical Editions 301 Manuscript Sources 302 Appendix: List of Intermezzos Examined 303 viii LIST OF PLATES Plate 1. Engraving of Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola by Francesco de 121 Grado. Frontispiece to her translation of Descartes’ Principia Philosophiae (1722) Plate 2. Robert Mankoff cartoon from the New Yorker 69, no. 11 (1993) 124 ix PREFACE Except for the occasional short phrase, all quotations in Italian, French and German appear in translation in the body of the text. The original text of secondary sources appears in the footnotes; text taken from dramatic works themselves appears either in brackets next to the translation in text or alongside the translation in an example. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. Musical examples have been notated with articulations as they appear in their original manuscript scores unless otherwise indicated. Examples are notated from published editions when possible. The clefs for the female parts have been changed from soprano or alto to treble for ease of reading. An alphabetical list of the intermezzos examined for this work appears in the appendix. Other librettos and musical scores appear in the bibliography. The following short forms are used for libraries: I-Fn Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Florence) I-MC Monumento Nazionale di Montecassino, Biblioteca (Montecassino) I-Moe Biblioteca Estense e Universitaria (Modena) I-Nc Conservatorio di Musica di San Pietro a Majella (Naples) I-Vnm Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Venice) x 1 INTRODUCTION APPROACHES TO HUMOUR AND THE INTERMEZZO Investigating what makes people laugh is serious business.