How (not) to produce an opera in 1720’s Venice

PRIMARY SOURCES

Benedetto Marcello, IL TEATRO ALLA MODA (Venice, 1720)

Further editions: ca. 1733 , Venice [link]; Naples, 1761 (Manfredi. 60 pp. ); Florence, 1841 (Piatti. "Corretta e riordinata."); Naples, 1850 (Changes in title but identical text); Naples, 1882, Ferrante (Archivio musicale); Milan, 1883 (Ricordi, a reprint of the third (Milan) edition) [IMSLP]; Venice, 1887 (Tipografia dell'Ancora, edited by A. Tessier, with preface and notes.); Lanciano, 1913 (Carraba, edited by E. Fondi); Milan, 1927 (Bottega di poesia, edited and annotated by A. d'Angeli).

English translation is available in The Musical Quarterly. PART I: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Jul., 1948), pp. 371-403, Oxford University Press [link]. PART II: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan., 1949), pp. 85-105, Oxford University Press [link].

The caricatures of Antonio Maria Zanetti are found in: “Caricature di Anton Maria Zanetti”, disegni della fondazione Giorgio Cini / a cura di Alessandro Bettagno (Milan, 1970)

FOOTNOTES

1 [02:51] Reinhard G. Pauly, "Benedetto Marcello's Satire on Early 18th-Century Opera", in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Apr., 1948), pp. 222-233 [link].

2 [03:40] BORGHI–Caterina Borghi, Bolognese singer at the Teatro S. Moisè; BELISANIA–Cecilia Belisani, also from Bologna, singer at the S. Angelo; ALDIVIVA–Antonio Vivaldi; LICANTE–Caterina Canteli, singer at S. Moisè; ORSO–Impresario Orsatti (or Orsatto); PEATA–Signor Modotto, once a padron di peate, now impresario S. Angelo theater; STRADA–Anna Maria Strada, virtuosa di camera, at S. Angelo; CORALLO–Surname (stage name) of the virtuosa Antonia Laurenti, S. Angelo; PORTA–Giovanni Porta, opera composer and choir director at the Conservatorio della Pietà; PALAZZO–Giovanni Palazzi, librettist; ORLANDO–Giuseppe Maria Orlando, Venetian impresario 1718-1745. Information taken from Reinhard Pauly's articel, see footnote 1.

3 [09:15] The manuscript page shown in the video is taken from Giovanni Porta L'Argippo, act I [imslp]

4 [09:52] The manuscript page shown in the video is taken from Antonio Vivaldi's Montenuma RV 723, Atto II [imslp]

5 [11:35] The manuscript page shown in the video is taken from the Anonymous treatise "Regole di canto figurato, contrappunto, d'accompagnare" (I-BC Ms. E. 25) [imslp]

6 [14:05] The embellishments of Handel's Lascia ch'io pianga (Rinaldo) shown in the video are based on William Babell's harpsichord version, that supposedly depict the way that it was sung by Isabella Girardeau. See William Babell, Suits of the most Celebrated Lessons (London, 1717), p. 10 [imslp]

CREDITS:

Created by Elam Rotem.

Special thanks to Lisandro Abadie and Anne Smith.