Academic literature on the topic 'Opéra italien baroque'

The imperial history playOctavia, transmitted among the corpus of Senecan drama, has suffered from uncertainty about its date, author, literary genre and intended audience as regards its appreciation in modern criticism. Although the majority of scholars will agree nowadays that the play was not written by Seneca himself, there is still a certain degree of disagreement about its literary genre and date. Anyway, such scholarly quibbles seem not to have affected poets and composers in the early modern era: they recognised the high dramatic potential of the story of Nero and his love relationships in 62 CE along with the involvement of the historical character and writer Seneca.Indeed, this phase in imperial history was apparently quite popular in Italian and German opera of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The earliest of a number of operatic treatments of the emperor Nero (also the first opera presenting a historical topic) and arguably the best known today is an Italian version:L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppaea)to a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello (1598-1659) and music attributed to Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), first produced in Giovanni Grimani's ‘Teatro di SS Giovanni e Paolo’ in Venice during the carnival season of 1643. Among the latest operas on this subject is a German version, which is hardly known and rarely performed today:Die Römische Unruhe. Oder: Die Edelmütige Octavia. Musicalisches Schau-Spiel (The Roman Unrest. Or: The Magnanimous Octavia. Musical Play)by the librettist Barthold Feind (1678-1721) and the composer Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739), first performed in the ‘Oper am Gänsemarkt’ in Hamburg on 5 August 1705. In this period German opera was generally influenced by Italian opera, but at the same time there were attempts, particularly in Hamburg, to establish a typically German opera.

Period concepts and periodizations are constructions, or readings, and hence always subject to reinterpretation. Many recent scholars have privileged institutional and reception history over style and compositional history, and periodized European music according to the ‘centuries’; but these constructions are no less partial or tendentious than older ones. Recent historiographical writings addressing these issues are evaluated.If we wish to construe the eighteenth century as a music-historical period, we must abandon the traditional notion that it was bifurcated in the middle. Not only did the musical Baroque not last beyond 1720 in most areas, but the years c1720–c1780 constituted a period in their own right, dominated by the international ‘system’ of Italian opera, Enlightenment ideals, neoclassicism, the galant and (after c1760) the cult of sensibility. We may call this the ‘central’ eighteenth century. Furthermore, this period can be clearly distinguished from preceding and following ones. The late Baroque (c1670–c1720) was marked by the rationalization of Italian opera, tragédie lyrique, the standardization of instrumental genres and the rise of ‘strong’ tonality. The period c1780–c1830 witnessed the rise of the ‘regulative work-concept’ (Goehr) and ‘pre-Romanticism’ (Dahlhaus), and the Europe-wide triumph of ‘Viennese modernism’, including the first autonomous instrumental music and a central role in the rise of the modern (post-revolutionary) world, symbolized by Haydn’s sublime in The Creation.A tripartite reading of a ‘long’ eighteenth-century in music history along these lines seems more nearly adequate than either baroque/classical or 1700–1800 as a single, undifferentiated period.

The article examines Baroque references in three Trajkovic?s compositions: Arion, Le nuove musiche per Chitarra ed Archi op. 8 (1979), Le retour des z?phyres ou ?Zefiro torna? op. 25 (2001) and solo song Renoveau from the cycle Cinq po?mes de St?phane Mallarm? op. 29, in its version for voice, flute and piano (2003), all these compositions being unified by the idea of modernity and novelty, metaphorically contained also in the idea of renewal of nature, which connects music of the moderns from the beginning of the 17th century and Trajkovic?s search for new paths in music, opposite to ?gothic? tangles of the Avant-garde. Complex and multi-layered, the references to the Baroque era in Trajkovic?s works reflect fundamentally generic, arche-textual relations. Compositions Arion and Zefiro torna are set upon explicit references to Italian origins of the Baroque epoch, in theoretical, as well as in the creative domain (to Caccini?s collection of madrigals - Le nuove musiche, 1601, and Monteverdi?s madrigal Zefiro torna, 1614, after Petrarch?s sonnet). Zefiro torna, with a primarily French title and subtitles of the ?scenes? given after antique mythological sources, indicates, again, a twofold generic relation: to the Italian madrigal tradition (including another Monteverdi?s madrigal with the same title composed after Rinuccini?s sonnet, from 1632) and the French tradition of opera/ballet, additionally mediated by references to the opuses of Debussy and Ravel. Multiple literary and musical trans-historical relations can be observed in the solo song Renouveau. However, from these compositions, implicit generic relations, far more than explicit para-textual references, with the whole corpus of themes, forms, texts, discourses as well as crucial poetic concepts of the 17th century music can be inferred.

Abstract Between Lully's death (1687) and Rameau's operatic debut (1733), composers of the tragéédie en musique experimented with instrumental effects, greatly expanding the dramatic role of the orchestra. The profusion of these effects coincides with a new aesthetic reappraisal of instrumental music in France, as can be observed in the writings of Du Bos. The tempêête constitutes one of the most remarkable examples. Its sonic violence was too strong to end with the instrumental movement that depicted it; indeed, composers often prolonged the storm scene into a series of movements all connected by thematic material and key to produce a verisimilar effect of the storm's momentum, thereby creating what I term ““the domino effect.”” By the early eighteenth century, the tempêête had become such a well established and popular topos that it began migrating to non-staged genres like the cantata. The transference of the tempest topos from the tragéédie lyrique to the French baroque cantata entailed the breaking of formal frames. Unlike the supple dramatic structure of French opera, the cantata adopted the more rigid mold of the Italian opera seria——the recitative-aria unit——which separated the flow of time into active and static moments. Three case studies——Bernier's Hipolite et Aricie (1703), Jacquet de la Guerre's Jonas (1708), and Morin's Le naufrage d'Ulisse (1712)——demonstrate how composers manipulated this mold to satisfy a French aesthetic that valued temporal continuity for the sake of verisimilitude. All three composers employ key and instrumental music to portray the storm's forward momentum across recitatives and arias, relying primarily on rhythmic energy and melodic activity to create continuity. Although each composer's musical response varies according to personal style, what emerges is a shared aesthetic and compositional strategy employed to portray an event whose relentless power transcends the temporal boundaries between recitative and aria. This aesthetic of continuity and linearity shown by French baroque composers influenced the treatment of the tempest topos in the later eighteenth-century repertory, vocal and instrumental alike, including opera, the concerto, the overture-suite, and the characteristic symphony.

Those fortunate enough to have seen the recent production of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Atys mounted by Les Arts Florissants will remember the sumptuously staged realm of sleep in Act III, during which costumed lute and recorder players appeared alongside the singers and dancers. Although conductor William Christie and director Jean-Marie Villégier made no attempt to reproduce the original seventeenth-century staging, they did adhere to Quinault's instructions for this scene to the extent of making musicians prominently visible. Atys is not exceptional in calling for stage musicians: Lully regularly included instrumentalists among the dramatis personae of his tragédies en musique, the genre on which he lavished most of his creative energies after 1672, and the practice is even more evident in the thirty or so ballets he composed for Louis XIV's court during the preceding two decades. The phenomenon of on-stage instrumentalists – much more extensive than the use of the banda in nineteenth-century Italian opera – has been studied only for the information it affords about the development of Lolly's orchestra or the iconography of French Baroque opera. This article is concerned rather with why instrumentalists appeared on stage at all, what they represented, how they functioned as characters, and the impact they had on the visual spectacle.

In the inaugural issue of this journal James Webster offered us a thoughtful meditation on the hoary, and seemingly intractable, problem of configuring the eighteenth century so that it might constitute an intelligible subject of musicological research (‘The Eighteenth Century as a Music-Historical Period?’, Eighteenth-Century Music 1/1 (2004), 47–60). Clearly, we have come a long way from the time when eighteenth-century music was oriented almost exclusively around the grand Olympian peaks of High Baroque and Viennese Classical styles. If these dominating polarities have not entirely disappeared from our view, they certainly seem to loom far less large in our remapped musical landscape. Indeed, I can think of no other century in music history whose stylistic contours have been so dramatically redrawn as those of the eighteenth century. Of course we would err in the other direction by depicting – to continue my geographical metaphor – only a flattened, homogeneous musical landscape in the eighteenth century, covered with galant-type foliage nurtured in the hothouse of Italian opera buffa. As Webster has convincingly argued, there are still major protruberances jutting out from the first and final thirds of the century that need somehow to be taken into account in our surveys. Still, there is no question that the revised topographies little resemble the one we learned (and still might teach) from our textbooks. Some major tectonic shifts have taken place in eighteenth-century musical studies, even if those shifts have yet to settle down fully into any figuration that enjoys consensus among music historians.

The present article is devoted to the general characteristics of the historical process of the formation of the sonata for the trombone (or with the participation of the trombone) in the European music of the Renaissance – Early Classicism era. A particular attention in the research has been paid to the study of the national stylistic, which was the main driving force in the evolution of the trombone at the level of the chamber instrumental and concert genres. It has been noted that since the time of A. Willaert and A. and J. Gabrieli brothers, the trombone and trombone consorts have been the permanent components of the concerts da chiesa, and later – da camera. Due to its construction and melodic-declamatory nature of the sounding, the trombone was in good agreement with both the voices of the choir and other instruments. Gradually, along with collective (concert) varieties of trombone sonatas, solo sonatas with bass began to appear, and they reflected the practice of the Baroque-era concert style. The article reviews a number of trombone sonatas of the Italian, Czech, Austro-German schools, which later became the model for composers of the Newest Time, who fully revealed the possibilities of the trombone semantics and techniques in the sonata genre. The article has noted that the formation of the instrumental sonata in Europe was associated with the practice of concerts in the church, which was for a long time practically the only place where academic music could be performed. The term “sonata” was understood then as the music intended for the instrumental performance, which, however, was closely connected with the vocal one. Therefore, the first samples of sonatas with the participation of the trombone were mixed vocal-instrumental compositions created by the representatives of the Venetian school of the second half of the 16th century – A. Willaert and A. and J. Gabrieli brothers. It has been noted that the key and largely “landmark” composition opening the chronicle of a concert sonata with the participation of trombones was the sonata called “Piano e forte” (1597), where the functions of trombone voices are already beginning to the counterpoint independence, rather than to duplicating the vocal ones. G. Gabrieli is the creator of one of the most large-scale, this time exclusively trombone compositions – “Canzon Quarti Toni” for 12 trombones, cornet and violin – one of the first trombone ensembles based on the genre of canzone as the progenitor of all the baroque instrumental-concert forms. It has been emphasized that among Italian masters of the subsequent period (the early Baroque), the trombone received a great attention from C. Monteverdi, who in his concert opuses used it as the substitute for viola da brazzo (three pieces from the collection called “Vespro della Beata Vergine”). It is noted that in the era of the instrumental versioning, when compositions were performed by virtually any instrumental compound, the trombone was already distinguished as an obligate instrument capable of competing with the cello. Sonata in D minor Op. 5 No. 8 by A. Corelli is considered a model of such a “double” purpose. It has been proved that the Italian schools of the 16th – 17th centuries, which played the leading role in the development of the sonata and concert instrumentalism, mainly the stringed and brass one and the brass one as well, were complemented by the German and Austrian ones. Among the masters of the latter one can distinguish the figure of G. Schütz, who created “Fili mi, Absalon” for the trombone quartet and basso-continuo, where trombones are interpreted as instruments of cantilena sounding, which for a long time determines their use in opera and symphonic music, not to mention the sonata genre (introductions and slow parts). Along with the chamber sonata, which was written in the Italian style, German and Austrian masters of the 17th century turn to “tower music” (Tower music), creating their own opuses with almost obligatory participation of one or several trombones. Among such compositions there are the collection by G. Reich called “Quatricinua” of 24 tower sonatas (1696) for the cornet and three trombones, where, modelled on A. Corelli’s string-and-bow sonatas, the plays of a homophonic and polyphonic content are combined. The article notes that the creation of a solo sonata with bass for the trombone was historically associated with the Czech composing school of the second half of the 17th century. The first sample of such composition is the Sonata for the trombone and the thorough-bass (1669), written by a certain monk from the monastery of St. Thomas in Bohemia, where the instrument is shown in a wide range of its expressive possibilities. A significant contribution to the development of a trombone sonata was made by the Czech composer of the late 17th century P. Y. Veyvanovsky, who created a number of sonatas, which, despite the typical for that time performing versioning (trombone or viola da brazzo), were a milestone in the development of the genre in question. The traditions of the trombone sonata-quality genre in its three main expressions – da chiesa, da camera, “tower music” – have been preserved for a certain time in the era of Classicism. This is evidenced, for example, by F. Schneider’s 12 “Tower sonatas” for 2 pipes and 3 trombones (1803–1804). In general, in the classic-romantic era in the evolution of the trombone sonata genre there is a “pause”, which refers to both its collective and solo varieties. The true flourishing of the trombone sonata appeared only in the Newest time (from the end of the 19th century), when the instrumental music of a concert-chamber type declared itself not only as the one demanded by the public, but also as the leading, “title” field of creativity of a number of the leading composers. Among the instruments involved in the framework of the “new chamber-ness” (B. Asafiev) was also the trombone, one of the recognized “soloists” and “ensemblers” of the music from the past eras. The conclusions of the article note that the path travelled by the sonata for the trombone (or with the participation of the trombone) shows, on the one hand, the movement of the instrument to the solo quality and autonomy within the framework of “little-ensemble” chamber-ness (the sonata duet or the solo sonata without any accompaniment), on the other hand, the sustainable preservation of the ensemble origins of this genre (the trombone ensemble, sometimes in combination with other representatives of the brass group).

Background. Choral work of American composers of the second half of the XX century is characterized by new qualities that have appeared because of not only musical but also non-musical factors generated by the system of cultural, historical and social conditions. Despite of a serious amount of scientific literature on the history of American music, the choral layer of American music remains partially unexplored, especially, in Ukrainian musical science, that bespeaks the science and practical novelty of the research results. The purpose of this study is to discover and to analyze the peculiarities of the historical formation and identity of American choral art of the second half of the twentieth century using the the works of famous American artists as examples. The research methodology is based on theoretical, historical and analytical methods, generalization and specification. Results. The general picture of the development of American composers’ practice in the genre of choral music is characterized by genre and style diversity. In our research we present portraits of iconic figures of American choral music in the period under consideration. So, the choral works of William Dawson (1899–1990), one of the most famous African-American composers, are characterized by the richness of the choral texture, intense sonority and demonstration of his great understanding of the vocal potential of the choir. Dawson was remembered, especially, for the numerous arrangements of spirituals, which do not lose their popularity. Aaron Copland (1899–1990), which was called “the Dean of American Composers”, was one of the founder of American music “classical” style, whose name associated with the America image in music. Despite the fact that the composer tends to atonalism, impressionism, jazz, constantly uses in his choral opuses sharp dissonant sounds and timbre contrasts, his choral works associated with folk traditions, written in a style that the composer himself called “vernacular”, which is characterized by a clearer and more melodic language. Among Copland’s famous choral works are “At The River”, “Four Motets”, “In the Beginning”, “Lark”, “The Promise of Living”; “Stomp Your Foot” (from “The Tender Land”), “Simple Gifts”, “Zion’s Walls” and others. Dominick Argento’s (1927–2019) style is close to the style of an Italian composer G. C. Menotti. Argento’s musical style, first of all, distinguishes the dominance of melody, so he is a leading composer in the genre of lyrical opera. Argento’s choral works are distinguished by a variety of performers’ stuff: from a cappella choral pieces – “A Nation of Cowslips”, “Easter Day” for mixed choir – to large-scale works accompanied by various instruments: “Apollo in Cambridge”, “Odi et Amo”, “Jonah and the Whale”, “Peter Quince at the Clavier”, “Te Deum”, “Tria Carmina Paschalia”, “Walden Pond”. For the choir and percussion, Argento created “Odi et Amo” (“I Hate and I Love”), 1981, based on the texts of the ancient Roman poet Catullus, which testifies to the sophistication of the composer’s literary taste and his skill in reproducing complex psychological states. The most famous from Argento’s spiritual compositions is “Te Deum” (1988), where the Latin text is combined with medieval English folk poetry, was recorded and nominated for a Grammy Award. Among the works of Samuel Barber’s (1910–1981) vocal and choral music were dominating. His cantata “Prayers of Kierkegaard”, based on the lyrics of four prayers by this Danish philosopher and theologian, for solo soprano, mixed choir and symphony orchestra is an example of an eclectic trend. Chapter I “Thou Who art unchangeable” traces the imitation of a traditional Gregorian male choral singing a cappella. Chapter II “Lord Jesus Christ, Who suffered all lifelong” for solo soprano accompanied by oboe solo is an example of minimalism. Chapter III “Father in Heaven, well we know that it is Thou” reflects the traditions of Russian choral writing. William Schumann (1910–1992) stands among the most honorable and prominent American composers. In 1943, he received the first Pulitzer Prize for Music for Cantata No 2 “A Free Song”, based on lyrics from the poems by Walt Whitman. In his choral works, Schumann emphasized the lyrics of American poetry. Norman Luboff (1917–1987), the founder and conductor of one of the leading American choirs in the 1950–1970s, is one of the great American musicians who dared to dedicate most of their lives to the popular media cultures of the time. Holiday albums of Christmas Songs with the Norman Luboff Choir have been bestselling for many years. In 1961, Norman Luboff Choir received the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus. Luboff’s productive work on folk song arrangements, which helped to preserve these popular melodies from generation to generation, is considered to be his main heritage. The choral work by Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) – a great musician – composer, pianist, brilliant conductor – is represented by such works as “Chichester Psalms”, “Hashkiveinu”, “Kaddish” Symphony No 3)”,”The Lark (French & Latin Choruses)”, “Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide)”, “Mass”. “Chichester Psalms”, where the choir sings lyrics in Hebrew, became Bernstein’s most famous choral work and one of the most successfully performed choral masterpieces in America. An equally popular composition by Bernstein is “Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers”, which was dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, the stage drama written in the style of a musical about American youth in searching of the Lord. More than 200 singers, actors, dancers, musicians of two orchestras, three choirs are involved in the performance of “Mass”: a four-part mixed “street” choir, a four-part mixed academic choir and a two-part boys’ choir. The eclecticism of the music in the “Mass” shows the versatility of the composer’s work. The composer skillfully mixes Latin texts with English poetry, Broadway musical with rock, jazz and avant-garde music. Choral cycles by Conrad Susa (1935–2013), whose entire creative life was focused on vocal and dramatic music, are written along a story line or related thematically. Bright examples of his work are “Landscapes and Silly Songs” and “Hymns for the Amusement of Children”; the last cycle is an fascinating staging of Christopher Smart’s poetry (the18 century). The composer’s music is based on a synthesis of tonal basis, baroque counterpoint, polyphony and many modern techniques and idioms drawn from popular music. The cycle “Songs of Innocence and of Experience”, created by a composer and a pianist William Bolcom (b. 1938) on the similar-titled poems by W. Blake, represents musical styles from romantic to modern, from country to rock. More than 200 vocalists take part in the performance of this work, in academic choruses (mixed, children’s choirs) and as soloists; as well as country, rock and folk singers, and the orchestral musicians. This composition successfully synthesizes an impressive range of musical styles: reggae, classical music, western, rock, opera and other styles. Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) was named “American Choral Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts (2006). The musical language of Lauridsen’s compositions is very diverse: in his Latin sacred works, such as “Lux Aeterna” and “Motets”, he often refers to Gregorian chant, polyphonic techniques of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and mixes them with modern sound. Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” is a striking example of the organic synthesis of the old and the new traditions, or more precisely, the presentation of the old in a new way. At the same time, his other compositions, such as “Madrigali” and “Cuatro Canciones”, are chromatic or atonal, addressing us to the technique of the Renaissance and the style of postmodernism. Conclusions. Analysis of the choral work of American composers proves the idea of moving the meaningful centers of professional choral music, the gradual disappearance of the contrast, which had previously existed between consumer audiences, the convergence of positions of “third direction” music and professional choral music. In the context of globalization of society and media culture, genre and stylistic content, spiritual meanings of choral works gradually tend to acquire new features such as interaction of ancient and modern musical systems, traditional and new, modified folklore and pop. There is a tendency to use pop instruments or some stylistic components of jazz, such as rhythm and intonation formula, in choral compositions. Innovative processes, metamorphosis and transformations in modern American choral music reveal its integration specificity, which is defined by meta-language, which is formed basing on interaction and dialogue of different types of thinking and musical systems, expansion of the musical sound environment, enrichment of acoustic possibilities of choral music, globalization intentions. Thus, the actualization of new cultural dominants and the synthesis of various stylistic origins determine the specificity of American choral music.

L'opéra, ou melodramma, est l'un des phénomènes culturels les plus importants de l'Italie du XVIIIe siècle. D'après Des Brosses, en cette époque ce genre semblait même être plus populaire que le théâtre parlé. L’importance et la popularité du melodramma dans la vie sociale et culturelle d'Italie étaient telles que de nombreuses parodies et satires musicales ont été écrites sur ce genre. Au XVIIIe siècle, ces «opéras sur l'opéra» ont acquis une telle importance, qu'ils constituèrent un «micro-genre» en soi. Des nombreux musicologues affirment que ce «micro-genre» a existé de 1715 à 1827. Ces opéras sont surnommés, dans la littérature musicologique, metaopera ou metamelodramma. L'objectif de la thèse est d'analyser les parodies et satires ayant pour sujet le métier des musiciens et chanteurs actifs dans l'opéra, du point de vue des musiciens eux-mêmes. Ceci nous permet de découvrir des références se rapportant à la pratique, les habitudes ou les clichés de la profession (pratiques musicales, situation sociale des musiciens, etc.), qui ne figurent pas forcément dans les sources historiques et critiques habituelles. L'analyse de ces œuvres fournit une opportunité de plonger dans l'univers de la production musicale du XVIIIe siècle, celle-ci étant parodiée et critiquée par la satire avec son propre langage, ses propres acteurs et protagonistes. Ces œuvres, malgré leur caractère caricatural, constituent une réflexion des musiciens, librettistes, compositeurs et autres acteurs de la scène musicale sur leur propre profession, et éclairent de manière comique et vivante la situation du métier au XVIIIe siècle
Opera, or melodramma, is one of the most important cultural phenomena of eighteenth-century Italy. According to Des Brosses (1709-1777) this genre seemed to be even more prized than spoken theater. The importance and popularity of the melodramma in Italian social and cultural life was such that many musical parodies and satires were produced. In the eighteenth-century, these "operas about opera" became so popular, they constituted a separated "micro-genre", which musicologists claim existed between 1715 and 1827. These operas are called, in the musicological literature, metaopera or metamelodramma. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the parodies and satires which deal with the profession of the musicians and singers active in opera, from the point of view of the musicians themselves. This allows us to identify references relating to the practice, habits, and clichés of the profession (musical practices, social situation of musicians, etc.), which do not necessarily appear in usual historical and critical sources. The analysis of these works provide an unique opportunity to explore the world of the musical production of the eighteenth century, which is parodied and criticized by satire in its own language and by its own actors and protagonists. Despite their caricatural nature, these works are a reflection of musicians, librettists, composers, and other actors of the musical scene on their own profession, and illustrates in a comical and lively way, the situation of the musical business in the eighteenth century

Le livret d’opéra est un support privilégié, mais trop souvent ignoré, pour sonder la psyché collective d’une époque et de sa société. À l’instar d’autres créations humaines, qu’elles soient purement intellectuelles et/ou manuelles, il s’apparente à une fenêtre ouvrant une perspective inédite sur un monde révolu et qui lorsqu’elle est ouverte laisse s’échapper les clameurs venues d’un autre siècle. Il s’agira donc de réinstaller les drammi per musica de George Frideric Handel dans leur contexte culturel et social. Ceci pour en restituer la réception la plus complète et fidèle possible et avoir une chance de s’approcher de l’expérience du public original. Face au mutisme des sources indirectes, il devient indispensable de se plonger au cœur des livrets, de s’intéresser aux mots et aux images, avant de donner la parole à la musique, en se donnant pour but d’expliciter tout ce que le texte implique, suggère, signifie, déclenche chez le spectateur.trice et tenter de reconstituer un corpus de références culturelles (littéraires, morales, religieuses, etc.), lesquelles colorent le texte de multiples et précieuses nuances, mais sont bien souvent perdus pour le public d’aujourd’hui. À travers cinq rôles féminins (Partenope, Berenice, Bradamante, Rosmira et Alcina), nous interrogerons la représentation de la femme et de la « féminité » à l’aune de la notion d’une puissance féminine et de ses implications sur la scène de l’opéra italien à Londres entre 1730 et 1737. Nous tenterons également d’apporter un éclairage supplémentaire sur cette période de transition dans la carrière du compositeur, lequel abandonne progressivement l’opéra italien pour se consacrer à l’oratorio anglais
The opera libretto is a privileged, though often ignored, medium for probing the collective psyche of an era and its society. Like other human creations, be they purely intellectual and/or manual, it offers a window, opening a new perspective on a bygone world, and once cleansed of the dirt deposited by the centuries and open, it lets out the light and clamour of another century. The aim will be to reinstall the drammi per musica of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) in their cultural and social context, to recreate the fullest possible reception of the work and have a chance to get as close as possible to the experience of the original audience. Faced with the silence of the indirect sources, it becomes essential to plunge into the heart of the booklets, to take an interest in the words and images, to give the music its true voice, trying to clarify all that the text implies, suggests, signifies, triggers in the spectator and to try to reconstruct a corpus of cultural references (literary, moral, religious, etc.), that colour the text with multiple nuances, but are often lost to today’s audience. Through five female roles (Partenope, Berenice, Bradamante, Rosmira and Alcina), we will question the representation of women, femaleness and femininity in the light of the notion of female power and its implications on the Italian opera scene in London between 1730 and 1737. We will also attempt to shed further light on this transitional period in the career of the composer, who gradually abandoned Italian opera to devote himself to English oratorio

La suivant thèse se est fixé le but de enquêter, le plus à fond possible, le rapport entre le écriture dramaturgique de Jean-Baptiste Andreini et son grand amour pour les théâtres en musique. Aussi, on étudiera ainsi, le complexe rapport de Andreini avec sa femme, Virginia Ramponi, que fuit une de les plus important chanteuses de son siècle. En effet, à travers Virginia, Jean-Baptiste, connût plusieurs compositeurs, comme les frères Monteverdi, qui fumez fondamental pour la naissance de l’opéra lyrique. À travers l’analyse de tous ses pièces dans une perspective musicale, l’expérimentalisme, pour l’écriture d’Andreini, acquerra une nouvelle importance et valeur, et inédits aspects de son travaille come homme de théâtre, comédien et dramaturge, verrai à la lumière. Enfin, une particulaire attention, serai réservé à les deux tournées françaises d’Andreini. La première en 1622-25, et la deuxième, en 1643-47. Ces deux voyages françaises sont très intéressant puisque dans la première tournée, Jean-Baptiste édita le plus musicale de tout ses pièces, La Ferinda, et pendant le deuxième tournée, qu’il fis peu auparavant de mourir, c’est possible, qu’il eut participé à les mises en scène de les deux opéra lyrique Orfeo et La Finta Pazza, les premières opéra en absolu représenté en Frace
This study, at the beginning, had as principal purpose to analyze the interconnections between dramatic works of the playwright and actor, Giovan Battista Andreini, and the different types of theatres for music of baroque age. But, when the research work is started, the original objective, soon, is change. In fact, it’s appear clear that the music dimension in Andreini’s plays was, in truth, a manifestation of his great desire of innovation. So, the music prospective has become the best way to put in the right light the dramatic experimentalism of this playwright, one of the most important for the history of Commedia dell’Arte and Italian literature, and to discovered many, unknown, aspects of his poetry and personal philosophy. The Andreini’s plays was investigated to contextualize them in the Italian and French spectacular societies of Seventeenth century, because Giovan Battista had spent long periods of his career, besides his own country, also in Paris, working at the court of Maria de’ Medici and his son, Luigi XIII

Few periods in history are so fundamentally contradictory as the Baroque, the culture flourishing from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries in Europe. When we hear the term ‘Baroque,’ the first images that come to mind are symmetrically designed gardens in French chateaux, scenic fountains in Italian squares, and the vibrant rhythms of a harpsichord. Behind this commitment to rule, harmony, and rigid structure, however, the Baroque also embodies a deep fascination with wonder, excess, irrationality, and rebellion against order. The Oxford Handbook of the Baroque delves into this contradiction to provide a sweeping survey of the Baroque not only as a style but also as a historical, cultural, and intellectual concept. With its thirty-eight chapters edited by leading expert John D. Lyons, the Handbook explores different manifestations of Baroque culture, from theatricality in architecture and urbanism to opera and dance, from the role of water to innovations in fashion, from mechanistic philosophy and literature to the tension between religion and science. These discussions present the Baroque as a broad cultural phenomenon that arose in response to the enormous changes emerging from the sixteenth century: the division between Catholics and Protestants, the formation of nation-states and the growth of absolutist monarchies, the colonization of lands outside Europe and the mutual impact of European and non-European cultures. Technological developments such as the telescope and the microscope and even greater access to high-quality mirrors altered mankind’s view of the universe and of human identity itself. By exploring the Baroque in relation to these larger social upheavals, this Handbook reveals a fresh and surprisingly modern image of the Baroque as a powerful response to an epoch of crisis.

This chapter makes a case for the interpretive significance of Baroque topics by examining historical thought and modern analytical precedent, detailing the types of significations these topics might convey, and presenting case studies that demonstrate the efficacy of musical topics in the analysis of opera seria. These case studies are drawn from the Italian-language operas of G. F. Handel and focus on his uses of the minuet and the gigue. The strategic use of dance topics in the late Baroque was likely meaningful to Handel’s audiences and can still be useful for interpretation today.