The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School School of Music RECOVERING QUEEN PENELOPE: A CULTURAL AND MUSICAL REINTERPRETATION OF MONTEVERDI’S IL RITORNO D’ULISSE IN PATRIA A Thesis in Musicology by Kyle Masson © 2014 Kyle Masson Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts May 2014 The thesis of Kyle Masson was reviewed and approved* by the following: Marica Tacconi Professor of Musicology Thesis Advisor Charles Youmans Associate Professor of Musicology Sue Haug Professor of Music Director of the School of Music *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Claudio Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1640) constitutes a unique source for understanding Venetian norms concerning the nature of marriage, love, and the emergence of public opera as a popular form of entertainment in 17th-century Venice. Monteverdi’s first foray into public opera demonstrates the composer’s ability to adapt to shifting expectations from the audience while fulfilling his own personal aesthetic. This study seeks to understand the plurality of meanings embodied in a particular character, Queen Penelope, in an effort to recover period listening practices and receptions of operatic character. In the historiography of Il ritorno studies, Penelope acquires a degree of autonomy more closely correlated to her Homeric counterpart than her textual and musical treatment suggests. Augmented by an investigation of the social conditions and aesthetic shifts of the time, a study of Penelope’s music in its dramatic contexts reveals a systematic objectification of her character. By examining these representations as deliberate actions of the composer, one concludes that the opera focuses more on women as objectified symbols worthy of pity than on chastity, prudence, constancy, or any other such virtues. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF MUSIC EXAMPLES ............................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... x Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 A Brief Synopsis ...................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1 Complex Origins: The Sources of Il ritorno .......................................................... 6 A Living Document .......................................................................................................... 6 Sequencing the Sources .................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 Monteverdi as Editor: What Do the People Want? ................................................ 12 Monteverdi: Deus ex Machina ......................................................................................... 13 Shifting Expectations: An Appeal to Modern Tastes ....................................................... 18 Chapter 3 Signifying Penelope: Monteverdi’s New Prologue ................................................ 29 A Signifying Prologue ...................................................................................................... 31 A Homeric Heroine .......................................................................................................... 43 Chapter 4 Penelope’s Lament: Blistering Tirade? .................................................................. 48 The Lament in Scholarship .............................................................................................. 50 Penelope’s Lament: Formal Structure .............................................................................. 53 “Torna, deh torna, Ulisse” ............................................................................................... 57 The Lament in 1640: Emblem, Convention ..................................................................... 63 Juxtaposed Laments: Penelope, Ulysses, and the Question of Agency ........................... 67 Il Lamento d’Ulisse .................................................................................................. 68 Chapter 5 The Accademia degli Incogniti and the Spirit of the Times ................................... 78 A Little German Pamphlet ............................................................................................... 79 Badoaro and the Accademia degli Incogniti .................................................................... 81 The Incogniti, Women, and Venice ......................................................................... 83 Carnival Culture in Venice ............................................................................................... 86 Chapter 6 Tempted, Liberated, Conquered: The Multifaceted Queen .................................... 91 v Penelope’s Chastity: A Sexual Death .............................................................................. 92 Penelope’s Problematic Companion ........................................................................ 94 Warrior and Lover ............................................................................................................ 96 Penelope Tempted ............................................................................................................ 98 Penelope and Her Maid ............................................................................................ 99 Penelope and the Suitors .......................................................................................... 102 Act II, Scene 12 ................................................................................................................ 106 Act III: An Imbalance of Power ....................................................................................... 110 Scene 10: Penelope’s Final Capitulation .................................................................. 114 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 124 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 128 vi LIST OF MUSIC EXAMPLES Example 2-1: L’Orfeo Prologue – Io la Musica son ................................................................ 25 Example 3-1: Prologue – Human Frailty’s Opening Line ....................................................... 31 Example 3-2: Prologue – The Power of Love ......................................................................... 32 Example 3-3: Prologue – Ritornello for Human Frailty (in d) ............................................... 33 Example 3-4: Prologue – Ritornello for Amore (in a) ............................................................ 33 Example 3-5: Act I, Scene 1 – The Music of Euryclea ............................................................ 34 Example 3-6: Prologue – The Weight of Mortality ................................................................. 35 Example 3-7: Prologue – Time’s Lyricism .............................................................................. 41 Example 3-8: Prologue – The Madrigal of the Allegories ....................................................... 42 Example 4-1: Act I, Scene 1 – Opening Sinfonia .................................................................... 58 Example 4-2: Act I, Scene 1 – Penelope’s Opening Line ........................................................ 59 Example 4-3: Act I, Scene 1 – Penelope’s Trademark Key ..................................................... 60 Example 4-4: Act I, Scene 1 – Penelope Longs for Ulysses ................................................... 61 Example 4-5: Lamento d’Arianna, mm. 76-84 ........................................................................ 66 Example 4-6: Act I, Scene 6 – Ulysses Blames Himself ......................................................... 69 Example 4-7: Act I, Scene 6 – Ulysses Addresses Slumber .................................................... 70 Example 4-8: Act I, Scene 6 – Ulysses’s Curse of the Phaeacians .......................................... 71 Example 6-1: Act III, Scene 1 – Iro Begins His Lament ......................................................... 95 Example 6-2: Act I, Scene 7 – Ulysses Blesses His Good Fortune ......................................... 97 Example 6-3: Act I, Scene 8 – Melantho’s Aria ...................................................................... 101 Example 6-4: Act I, Scene 8 – Penelope Confirms Her Grief ................................................. 101 Example 6-5: Act II, Scene 5 – Antinous Sings of Love and Beauty ...................................... 103 vii Example 6-6: Act II, Scene 5 – The Beginning of Penelope’s Discord ................................... 104 Example 6-7: Act II, Scene 5 – Penelope Feels Love’s Heat .................................................. 104 Example 6-8: Act II, Scene 5 – Penelope Maintains Her Vow (mm. 143-5 and 159-63) ....... 105 Example 6-9: Act II, Scene 12 – Penelope Acquiesces ........................................................... 107 Example