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THE SEA MONSTER ON STAGE: CREATING SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN OPERA, 1637–1781 By SARAH ANN BUSHEY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2015 1 © 2015 Sarah A. Bushey 2 To my parents, sister, family, and friends who have not discouraged my fascination with the supernatural and all things horrifying 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my parents and family for all their support over the years and for my extended education. I thank the small circle of graduate friends including other musicology colleagues as well as the composition crowd, for working on a doctoral degree is a longer, darker road without friends for support. Katie Reed and Morgan Rich are among the most wonderful friends I could ever imagine having during this process. Thank you as well to Michael Vincent, who read several conference papers and other examples of my work and gave wonderful feedback. Thanks to Mary Hunter, who listened to ideas in the early stages of this project, and also to Clive McClelland, who graciously shared some of his unpublished work with me. My fabulous committee gave me invaluable insight and mentoring, and so I thank Jennifer Thomas, Mary Watt and Mitchell Estrin. Finally, this document and the research it contains would not have been possible without my advisor, Margaret Butler, whose tireless efforts, feedback and moral support were ever constant. Finally, a large portion of thanks goes to the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, whose members have supported my research over the years and given useful feedback; special thanks to Janet Page. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF EXAMPLES ...................................................................................................... 8 LIST OF OBJECTS ......................................................................................................... 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION, THE “OMBRA” STYLE, MUSICAL EXOTICISM AND SUPERNATURAL EXOTICISM .............................................................................. 12 Musical Exoticism ................................................................................................... 17 Contemporaneous Theorists ................................................................................... 22 “Supernatural” Exoticism ......................................................................................... 25 2 OPERATIC CONVENTIONS AND THE SEA MONSTER ....................................... 36 Seventeenth-Century Conventions ......................................................................... 36 Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera Seria Conventions ............................................. 39 Visual Spectacle: Maritime Scenes and Machines in Opera and its Predecessors ....................................................................................................... 44 3 THE SEA MONSTER IN SIX SETTINGS OF THE ANDROMEDA MYTH .............. 55 Marliani/Monteverdi/(?)’s Andromeda (1620) .......................................................... 57 Ferrari/Manelli’s Andromeda for Venice (1637): Machine and Scene Types .......... 59 The Sea Monster in Andromeda (1637) .................................................................. 61 Pierre Corneille’s Andromède (1650) ...................................................................... 63 Revival of Corneille’s Andromède (1682)................................................................ 66 The Sea Monster in Andromède ............................................................................. 67 Lully/Quinault’s Persée (1682): Monsters and Heroes as Political Propaganda ..... 70 A Contemporary Production of Persée (2004) and its Sea Monster ....................... 76 Eighteenth-Century Andromedas ............................................................................ 79 Cigna-Santi’s Andromeda for Turin (1755) ............................................................. 80 Bertati/Zingarelli’s Andromeda for Venice (1796) ................................................... 82 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 84 5 4 PRESENCE AND ABSENCE: THE SEA MONSTER IN HIPPOLYTE ET ARICIE (1733), IPPOLITO ED ARICIA (1759), AND DARDANUS (1739) ........................... 95 Pellegrin and Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie ............................................................ 98 The Monster(s) in Hippolyte et Aricie .................................................................... 101 The Music of the Monster ..................................................................................... 102 Tommaso Traetta and Carlo Frugoni’s Ippolito ed Aricia (1759) ........................... 108 Missing the Monster .............................................................................................. 113 Rameau and Le Bruère’s Dardanus (1739) .......................................................... 115 The Sea Monster and its Music in Dardanus ........................................................ 118 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 121 5 SUPERNATURAL SCENE TYPES IN CAMPRA/DANCHET’S IDOMÉNÉE (1712) AND MOZART/VARESCO’S IDOMENEO (1781) ..................................... 124 Campra and Danchet’s Idoménée ........................................................................ 124 Campra’s Style: An Overview ............................................................................... 126 Scene Types: Tempête, Ombre, and Oracle in Campra’s Idoménée ................... 128 Mozart and Varesco’s Idomeneo .......................................................................... 133 Oracle and Ombre Scenes ................................................................................... 137 Tempête Scenes in Idomeneo .............................................................................. 140 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 143 6 THE MEANING OF THE MONSTER .................................................................... 145 Horror vs. Terror and the Role of Monsters .......................................................... 145 The Monster as Divinity ........................................................................................ 151 Another Kind of Monster: Rameau’s “Monstrous” Opera ...................................... 154 Conclusions: Ombra and Supernatural Exoticism ................................................. 157 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 162 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 170 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1 Musical Features Accompanying the Sea Monster ............................................. 30 1-2 McClelland’s continuum of “ombra” and “terrible” styles ..................................... 31 1-3 Stylistic features within Western music that are often employed (especially in combination) to suggest an exotic locale or culture [adapted from Locke, Ralph. ................................................................................................................ 31 1-4 Some characteristics attributed to flat major and minor keys ............................. 35 2-1 Catherine de’ Medici’s water fête from the Festival at Bayonne in 1565, Valois Tapestry, 1580-81 .................................................................................... 52 2-2 Water fête, Argonautica, held on the Arno river in November of 1608 by Matthias Greuter ................................................................................................. 53 2-3 “Goddesses on the River,” Balthasar Moncornet after Remigio Cantagallina (1600-1668) ........................................................................................................ 54 3-1 Engraving by Chaveau: Andromède, Act III: Perseus rescues Andromeda from the sea monster .......................................................................................... 86 3-2 Illustration from libretto to Persée, Perseus rescues Andromeda from the sea monster .............................................................................................................. 87 3-3 Libretto to Andromède, Act III, scene iii .............................................................. 93 3-4 Sea monster (dragon) fighting Perseus, Jeremy Nasmith in the 2000 Opera Atelier Production of Persée ............................................................................... 94 7 LIST OF EXAMPLES Example page 3-1 Chorus, “Le monstre est mort,” Persée Act IV, scene vii .................................... 88 8 LIST OF OBJECTS Object page 4-1 Orchestral score, Hippolyte et Aricie, Act 4 scene 3 ......................................... 104 4-2 Orchestral score, Dardanus, Act 4 scene 3 ...................................................... 119 5-1 Orchestral score, Idoménée,