Carnevale di Venezia Performance and Spectatorship at the Venice Carnival Peter John O’Rourke Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of English October 2015 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Peter John O’Rourke to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2015 The University of Leeds and Peter John O’Rourke iii Acknowledgements Just as for the acrobats who formed human pyramids at the bygone Venice carnival on the climactic carnival feast day of giovedí grasso, completing this thesis has sometimes felt for me like one of the Forze d’Ercole (Labours of Hercules). However, several people have helped me along the way, and I wish to express my gratitude to them here. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Helen Iball for her guidance and support throughout the period of my doctoral research. Helen has always shown belief in the project, and her feedback buoyed my efforts. I am also grateful to Prof. Stephen Bottoms who acted as my second supervisor during the early stages of the project. I am indebted to the University of Leeds for the full-fees award which I received to complete my doctorate. During the period of my research, I was fortunate enough to be invited to teach in the drama department at the University of Hull, where I received support and advice from my colleagues; thanks especially to Dr Louise Peacock, Dr Philip Crispin, and Pauline Chambers. During my time there, I co-taught a module with Pauline which saw a group of undergraduate students mount a Yorkshire version of the Venice carnival at the Hull marina, an outdoor, promenade performance on the streets of the old town which linked the waters of the Venetian lagoon with the Humber estuary. I am grateful to the students who enacted ‘Venice carnival...in Hull’. The University of Hull also helped me by financially supporting both a research trip to Venice and my attendance at a conference on Venice at the University of Warwick. Sincere thanks to my parents, family, and friends for their encouragement over the years. Most especially I would like to thank my wonderful wife Alice Farris, who was the first person to take me to Venice many moons ago. Without Alice, I would never have been able to complete this project: she has been supportive, patient, and encouraging, and has listened to me, discussed ideas, and read extensive sections of the thesis — grazie mille. Further, I am grateful to her for helping me to understand the Italian and French scholarship I consulted, and for assisting with my translations of Italian. iv Where direct quotations from Italian sources are present in this study and no specific translator is acknowledged, the translations are mine, completed with Alice’s guidance. I dedicate this thesis to Alice and to our lovely daughter Anna (born April 2015), and to the memory of my father Vincent O’Rourke (1930-2015). v Abstract The modern day Venice carnival was officially revived in 1980, and is famed internationally for its beautifully costumed and masked maschere and its iconic location in the lagoon city of Venice. The carnival’s twentieth-century revival responded to the organic resurfacing of the event, after a period of desuetude which began at the fall of the independent Republic of Venice in 1797. Considered herein as microcosm of the city itself, the carnival contributes to perceptions of Venice, conjuring the city’s aesthetics of beauty, theatricality, stillness, opulence, mystery, decadence, and death. To analyse the revived carnival, this thesis employs a qualitative, ethnographic methodology, as photographs, interviews, and experiences are utilised as part of the analysis, integrated with critical perspectives from contemporary theatre and performance studies, as well as from a range of other disciplines, including literature, art, photography, history, architecture, film, and tourism. While the modern day carnival is the focus herein, past iterations of the event will contribute critical frames, together with historical accounts, paintings, and engravings of the city and carnival. Instances of contemporary art, theatre, and performance practice, in and beyond Venice, add further insight. The interactions between masked and unmasked participants at the Venice carnival, framed by the city, point to a troubling of the conventional binary of performance and spectatorship, positing the spectator as an active participant in the enactment of carnival. Further, the replicative nature of the event, as it picks up the traces of bygone carnivals, illustrates the way in which performances remain in myriad ways, making the carnival multidirectional and crosstemporal. Although the revived carnival is often perceived as commercialised and touristic, its emphasis on individual creativity, transgression, communality, and the renewal of social bonds ultimately affirms its subversive nature, allowing carnival participants to challenge socially divisive neoliberalist capitalism. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract v Table of Contents vi List of Figures viii Introduction 1 Motivations and Aims 1 Methodology 14 Performance and Spectatorship Framework 22 Carnival Research Context 27 1797 to Revival 33 Tourism and Carnival 39 Chapter Outline 50 Chapter 1 Beauty and Theatricality 57 Introduction 57 Lefebvre and the Rhythms of Venice 68 Theatricality and Antitheatricality 76 The Piazzetta: Site of Theatricality 83 Régis Debray’s Antitheatricality 91 Beauty as Theatrical 97 Conclusion 119 Chapter 2 Stillness, City, and Carnival 123 Introduction 123 vii Manifestation of Stillness 133 Stillness as Resistance 149 Conclusion 157 Chapter 3 Photography and Carnival 161 Introduction 161 Venice, Photography, and Replication 170 Images of Carnival 185 Absence in the Image 205 Conclusion 214 Chapter 4 Subversion at the Carnival 219 Introduction 219 Subversion or Safety-Valve 229 Carnivalesque Violence 246 Grotesque Carnival 261 Dialogic Carnival 275 Conclusion 280 Conclusion 287 Areas for Further Research 292 Bibliography 297 Films 323 Online Sources 323 viii List of Figures The photographs of the 2010 and 2011 carnivals were all taken by the author. Introduction Figure 1 Maschere posing beside a lamppost in the Piazzetta, 7 February 2010 6 Figure 2 Maschere, 6 March 2011 7 Figure 3 Maschere, 6 March 2011 8 Chapter 1 Beauty and Theatricality Figure 1 Maschera posing along the bacino in the Piazzetta, 8 February 2010 59 Figure 2 Maschere promenade past the Ducal Palace, 7 February 2010 73 Figure 3 Maschere pause for a sandwich, 8 February 2010 80 Figure 4 Giovedí grasso in the Piazzetta, by Canaletto, c. 1741-60, oil on canvas, held by the Wallace Collection, London 84 Figure 5 Maschera posing for professional photographers in the entrance of a sottoportico, 8 February 2010 109 Figure 6 Maschera posing for professional photographers along the Fondamenta de la Malvasia Vechia, 8 February 2010 110 Figure 7 Carnival Series 1998, by George Merheb, oil and acrylic on canvas, 1998 113 Figure 8 Carnival Series 1998, by George Merheb, oil and acrylic on canvas, 1998 114 ix Chapter 2 Stillness, City, and Carnival Figure 1 Maschere crossing the Piazzetta with the Ducal Palace in the background, 8 February 2010 125 Figure 2 View of Venice, 6 March 2011 134 Figure 3 Maschere in Piazza San Marco, 8 February 2010 139 Chapter 3 Photography and Carnival Figure 1 Maschera posing alongside the bacino, 8 February 2010 167 Figure 2 Capriccio: St Paul’s and a Venetian Canal, by William Marlow, c.1795, oil on canvas, held by the Tate Collection 176 Figure 3 Maschera in gondola, still from the Canti Prosecco UK television advertisement campaign 177 Figure 4 Venice Ghetto, by James Casebere, 1991 179 Figure 5 Maschera in Pantalone mask taking a photograph on the Rialto Bridge, 7 February 2010 188 Figure 6 Four maschere pose outside Florian’s in Piazza San Marco, 5 March 2011 189 Figure 7 Maschere at table inside Florian’s, seen through a window, 5 March 2011 191 Figure 8 Maschera, 6 March 2011 193 Figure 9 Maschere couple posing in the Piazzetta with the Ducal Palace in the background, 7 February 2010 196 Figure 10 Maschere, 6 March 2011 204 Figure 11 Rossana Molinatti’s 2014 maschera based on Edvard Munch’s The Scream 211 Figure 12 Rossana Molinatti’s 1987 maschera based on Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss 211 x Chapter 4 Subversion at the Venice Carnival Figure 1 Early seventeenth-century engraving by Giacomo Franco, depicting numerous festival activities in a Venetian campo 232 Figure 2 Il Ridotto by Pietro Longhi, c. 1740s, oil on canvas, held at the Accademia Carrara delle Belle Arti, Bergamo 238 Figure 3 Maschera in bauta in Piazza San Marco, 8 February 2010 239 Figure 4 Early seventeenth-century engraving by Giacomo Franco of the events in the Piazzetta on giovedì grasso 255 Figure 5 Maschere parading as a bishop, monks, and nuns outside St Mark’s Basilica in Piazza San Marco. The banner reads: ‘Casa della sorella bona!! E, del fratello miracolo’/ ‘The house of the good sister!! And, of the miracle brother’, 7 February 2010 263 Figure 6 Maschera dressed as a cardinal in the Piazzetta, 6 March 2011 266 Figure 7 Maschere of Giorgio Spiller pictured together. Left to right: Tits and Ass (Tette e Culo), 1983; The Cock, (Il Cazzo) 1982; The Cunt, (La Mona) 1981. Photo by Mark E. Smith 269 Figure 8 Maschere of Giorgio Spiller, Hard Poo and Soft Poo (Cacca Dura e Cacca Molla), 1986 272 1 Introduction Motivations and Aims Il Carnevale di Venezia, the Venice carnival, is an internationally renowned event famed for its stunning costumes and masks and its beautiful setting in the lagoon city of Venice.