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Documentation for https://venop.ccarh.org
Documentation for https://venop.ccarh.org


==Venetian Opera Productions==
==Venetian Opera Productions: A searchable calendar==
When the first opera was given at the Teatro San Cassiano in 1637, no one anticipated that the species of entertainment it offered would be durable. Predecessors were occasional works, given privately in grand splendor for weddings of important figures. From the start, Venetian theaters were run by impresari who leased boxes and sold tickets to a paying public. This steered the future course of the genre on a new trajectory.
When the first opera was given at the Teatro San Cassiano in 1637, no one anticipated that this novel, ambitious species of entertainment would endure. As a venue Venice had little competition for several decades. Although the opera enterprise as a whole never became self-supporting, the precarious situation of most theaters did not diminish the genre's popularity. [venop.ccarh.org Venetian Opera Productions]  enables users to investigate growth and change (and eventual decline) over the core century (1660-1760) of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramma_per_musica <i>dramma per musica</i>].


As a venue for such entertainment, Venice did not have a lot of competition for several decades, but new theaters accumulated. Close historical analysis suggests that the enterprise as a whole never became self-funding. Yet the precarious operation of most theaters did not diminish the popularity of the genre. Opera constantly responded to challenging circumstances in a multitude of ways. This website enables users to investigate how and why over its core century, 1660-1760.
==Quick start guide==
1. <i>Select</i> or <i>deselect</i> desired fields at https://venop.ccarh.org. Results appear immediately beneath the query form.<br>
2. Modes of viewing:
* To <i>browse</i>, scroll through the entire <b>corpus</b>.
* To <i>limit</i> searches to a restricted period of <b>years</b>, use the Min. and Max. delimiters (boxes).
* To <i>reorder</i> records (e.g. to view all the works by one <b>composer</b> or <b>theater</b>), click on column header (top row). To return to original view, click <i>refresh</i> icon on browser.
3. To return to this <i>documentation view</i>, click on the "<b>?</b>" in upper left corner of <i>table view</i>.


==The historical phenomenon, then and now==
==Viewing the repertory as a whole==
In our time most professionally-staged operas form part of a "standard repertory" that younger singers aspire to master. With few exceptions, the score, the roles, and the orchestra vary little from decade to decade if financial support is adequate. Title selections change from year to year and entirely new works are introduced as budgets permit, but most choices are drawn from a pool of well known works. More frequent changes may concern a manner of staging, scenery, costumes, or interpretation.
<b>The corpus vs single works:</b> The delimiting dates of this table (1660-1760) mark the confines of a period during which a huge increase in opera productions occurred. Venice was the undisputed leader in public opera, which dated from 1637. Quantity and frequency forced a degree of predictability on patterns of performance, with significant implications for composers and performers. While many studies of Venetian opera focus on a single work or a small repertory, this corpus of 889 operas enables us to understand the interplay between theaters, composers, librettists, and many other dimensions of the genre's development (and decline).  


The sheer quantity of works produced in Venice between our target years—1660 to 1760—offers a striking contrast with the few dozen works "in repertory" today. Not all the differences are as great as they at first appear. After 1700 new titles could be slapped onto familiar plots. The practice of "revise and disguise" produced unpredictable results. Some possible outcomes were:  
<b>Composers: </b>One notable impression of the Venetian corpus is the large number of composers (171) who contributed to it. More than 25% of these operas were set to music by just eight composers—C. F. Pollarolo (60), B. Galuppi (52), T. Albinoni (45), A. Vivaldi (33), Fr. Gasparini (30), M. A. Ziani (29), C. Pallavicino (25), and G. M. Buini (20). Fragments of their works may also be found here and there in the twenty-five pastiches listed. These stalwarts apart, most composers set fewer than four dramas to music. This reflects the dilettante nature of opera in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth, the composition of opera became a professional career path.
* arias from an earlier version might be pieced together with new recitatives
* portions of the work could be cut or altered
<b>Librettists:</b> The profiles of librettist as a group is similar but the number of individuals is smaller.  The most prolific dramatists were court poets or, in some cases, held a significant office in the Venetian Republic. This tells us that scripts were intended to project images supportive of existing power structures in the seventeenth century, when the most prominent librettists were Francesco Silvani (67), Matteo Noris (49), and Aurelio Aureli (36). The profile was warped in the eighteenth century by the rising fortunes of the imperial court and efforts to emulate its tastes. Its court poets [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolo_Zeno Apostolo Zeno] (69) and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Metastasio Pietro Metastasio] (88) completely dominated Venetian stages and those of many other venues for several decades.
* all the arias for a specific cast member could be changed to suit a demanding singer
* arias detached from one work could be introduced in another at performance


The printed text prepared in advance for an opera might not fully correspond to the work as staged. By tracing productions, rather than works per se, we can associate a significant amount of rarely seen commentary with perfunctory title information to better understand the constantly shifting values and practices that supported performance.
==Attending an opera then and now==
The cultural distance between the years around 1600 and our own times is considerable. In early Venetian theaters, important public figures rented or subleased a box for a season (or a lifetime) and bought a libretto at the door to follow the action onstage. Performances were permitted for a maximum of four hours from sunset. Those lacking a box could rent a folding chair or stool for the </i>parterre</i> (today's orchestra section minus fixed seating). A small orchestra sat in front of the stage. Two harpsichordists were present—one to accompany the singers, the other to support the orchestra.


===Essential parameters of Venetian opera===
[[File:HM-Draghi4.png|thumb|center|800px|<small>The Hof-Musici of Český Krumlov Theater, directed by Ondřej Macek, in the 2024 production of Antonio Draghi's 1680 <i>festa teatrale</i> called <i>I vaticini di Tiresia Tebano</i> (The Prophecies of Tiresias of Thebes). Used by permission.</small>]]
From 1660 until the middle of the next century Venice usually had six theaters operating. (In prior decades the number fluctuated. Some theaters operated for only a few years.) Performances of a specific work were given on selected nights for two or three weeks. With regard to specific opening dates (see Sorting Date), some accommodation between theaters could occur, such that three works might open on consecutive days in an interleaved schedule. Ticket prices for an opening performance might cost twice the normal amount.  


Some ebbing and flowing of theatrical activity was associated with wars, pestilences, and fluctuating economic conditions. (Venice was engaged in a war in the Aegean—the "War in Candia"—from 1645 to 1669.) The more stable theaters might produce three works in a year with a late Easter but two was more likely. Operas were permitted only in periods of time uncontested by the Church and explicitly permitted by proclamation by the Republic.) The total number of days when opera was permitted gradually increased over the course of the eighteenth century.
Today most professionally-staged operas form part of a standard repertory that young singers aspire to master. With few exceptions the score, roles, and orchestra vary little from decade to decade or place to place when adequate financial support is available. Title selections change from year to year. Entirely new works are introduced as budgets permit. Changes may involve staging, scenery, costumes, or interpretation.


===The ever-changing contents of an opera===
The sheer quantity of works produced in Venice between our target years—1660 to 1760—offers a striking contrast to the few dozen works in core repertories today, but not all the differences are as great as they may appear. After 1700 new titles were increasingly slapped onto familiar plots. The practice of "revise and disguise" produced unpredictable results. Some possible outcomes included: 
Today we would expect all performances of the "same" work in the same season to match one another in script, score, cast, and scenery. This attachment to fixity that characterizes our times contrasts sharply with the dynamics of actual productions before 1800. While composer, librettist, singers, and other staff were hired for a full (autumn-winter) seasonal cycle, details of the content could change from night to night. Temperamental <i>prime donne</i> could appropriate favorite arias. "Suitcase arias" could be carried by a singer to other venues and interjected in other operas. Singers of both genders were accused of appropriating costumes and props when performing fees were not paid promptly.
* <i>the combination of existing arias</i> with new recitatives;
* <i>addition, subtraction, or modification</i> of one part of a work;
* <i>new or revised arias</i> for one cast member;
* <i>insertion of arias</i> detached from a previous work in a new work.


===Going to the opera in 1660 and 1760===
The printed text prepared in advance for an opera often did not fully correspond to the work as staged. Scores were circulated only in manuscript. By tracing productions, rather than works per se, we can associate a significant amount of rarely seen commentary with perfunctory title information to better understand the constantly shifting values and mutable practices that enabled performance.
The cultural distance between the years around 1600 and our own times is considerable. In early Venetian theaters, important public figures rented or subleased a box for a season (or a lifetime) and bought a libretto at the door to follow the action onstage. The times of year when opera productions were permitted was strictly regulated. Performances were permitted for a maximum of four hours from sunset. Those lacking a box could rent a folding chair or stool for the </i>parterre</i>. A small orchestra sat in front of the stage. In many cases two harpsichordists were present—one to accompany the singers, the other to accompany the orchestra.


[[File:HM-Draghi4.png|thumb|center|900px|<small>The Hof-Musici of Český Krumlov Theater, directed by Ondřej Macek, in the 2024 production of Antonio Draghi's 1680 <i>festa teatrale</i> called <i>I vaticini di Tiresia Tebano</i> (The Prophecies of Tiresias of Thebes). Used by permission.</small>]]
In the seventeenth century those attending Venetian operas often came in sizeable groups. Most attendees sat in a box to which they might carry drinks and other refreshments. One member of the group would buy a libretto at the door. A candle would be necessary to see the libretto: theaters were dark inside. (They were also prone to fires.) The impresario was responsible for lighting adjacent outdoor spaces, the stage, and the instrumentalists' pit. Attendees and personnel were expected to arrive by gondola. (See a remnant of San Cassiano's water-gate below.) A dusk-to-dawn curfew meant that streets were deserted.


The delimiting dates of this table (1660-1760) mark the confines of a period during which a huge increase in productions forced a degree of predictability on patterns of performance, with significant implications for composers and performers. The same time-span also coincides with an abundance of minutely dated references to opera productions in weekly news-sheets, an under-the-radar source of local news organized into vast networks throughout Europe. In their vast accumulation lies the resolution of many questions that are difficult to answer using standard historical resources.  
[[File:Cassiano-gate1c.png|thumb|right|225px|<small>Remnant of water-gate for the largely demolished Teatro San Cassiano, Venice's first public theater. (Photo 2012, E. Selfridge-Field).</small>]]


In modern life, periods considered appropriate for specific social activities are typically governed by commercial considerations and tacit agreements between potential competitors. In Venice, periods of opera production were governed by both civic and ecclesiastical dictates.
The audience for eighteenth-century opera was in constant flux. While the abundant nobility of earlier times responded well to serious, sometimes tragic fare, the rising bourgeoisie of the eighteenth rapidly developed a taste for comic and pastoral works as well as satirical ones that portrayed traits of speech, dress, and manners. Venice had to compete with its imitators in the realm of <i>opera buffa</i>. Pastorals were common in spring and autumn productions.  


When people went to the opera in Venice, they went in sizeable groups. Most attendees sat in a box to which they might carry drinks and refreshments. One member of the group would buy a libretto at the door. A candle would be necessary to see the libretto: theaters were dark inside. (Venetian theaters were repeatedly gutted by fires.) An opera impresario was responsible for lighting adjacent outdoor spaces, the stage, and the instrumentalists' pit. Attendees and personnel were expected to arrive by gondola. A dusk-to-dawn curfew meant that streets were deserted.
Carnival remained the season of serious opera and noted singers, but fewer and fewer works were entirely new. The best known singers pursued opportunities abroad, as new theaters (many linked to commercial markets) appeared rapidly in venues north of the Alps. The rise of spring and summer operas in more northerly venues drew performers away from Italy.


[[File:Cassiano-gate1c.png|thumb|right|225px|<small>Location of water-gate for the largely demolished Teatro San Cassiano, Venice's first public theater. Photo 2012, E. Selfridge-Field.</small>]]
Despite general acknowledgment of the historical importance of Venetian opera collectively, only a handful of Baroque operas are performed today. The reasons are many: lack of survival of musical sources, a paucity of modern editions, the costs of staging long, elaborate works with large casts, and a lack of training in Baroque performing techniques in many potential venues.


By 1760 the audience for opera had changed considerably. The nobility was in decline, and many works now appealed to bourgeoise traits in current culture (speech, dress, behavior). Satires were prevalent. Venice had to compete with its imitators in the realm of <i>opera buffa</i>. Pastorals were considered appropriate for spring and autumn productions. Carnival remained the season of serious opera and noted singers, but fewer and fewer works were entirely new. Venues north of the Alps promoted spring and summer operas, while new theaters in central and northern Europe drew performers away from Italy.
==Understanding the database==


Despite general acknowledgement of the historical importance of Venetian opera collectively, only a handful of Baroque operas are performed today. The reasons are many: the lack of survival of musical sources, the paucity of modern editions for works that survive, the expense of staging long, elaborate works of earlier times, and the lack of training in Baroque performing techniques in many potential venues.
===Essential parameters===
<b>Theaters</b>: From 1660 until the middle of the next century Venice usually had six theaters operating. These were the most stable: San Cassiano (intermittent, from 1637), SS. Giovanni a Paolo (1639-1699; 1714-15), San Salvatore (1661-1700, intermittent from 1727), Sant'Angelo (1677-intermittent after 1748), and SS. Giovanni Grisostomo (1678-1751). The others were less regular, or switched between opera and <i>commedia</i>, or lasted only a few years.  


==The repertory as a corpus==
<b>Productions:</b>We know from weekly news-sheets that productions rarely ran for more than three weeks. Performances were not necessarily given every night. With regard to opening dates, some accommodation between theaters could occur. Opening night conflicts were usually avoided. Ticket prices for an opening performance could cost twice the normal amount on ordinary nights at some theaters. 


Many studies of Venetian opera focus on a single work, or perhaps a small group of works related by a common subject (Artaxerxes was a popular one) or a single composer (e.g., Legrenzi or Pollarolo) or a single theater (e.g. San Salvatore, also called San Luca in the context of comedy). By considering almost 900 works from a single century together, we can trace dozens of rich strands of data in clusters that are rarely acknowledged.
<b>Disruptions:</b>Some ebbing and flowing of theatrical activity was associated with wars, pestilences, and fluctuating economic conditions. Venice was engaged in a war in the Aegean—the "War in Candia"—from 1645 to 1669. After 1700, the more stable theaters could produce three works in a year with a late Easter, but this was rare until the start of spring opera in the 1720s. Public operas were permitted only in periods of time uncontested by the Church and explicitly permitted (by proclamation) by the Venetian Republic. The total number of days when opera was permitted gradually increased over the course of the century represented.


Almost every production included here has a verified exact date of opening (a sorting date). Sorting dates for titles are especially useful in calibrating other fields chronologically. On dating, see [https://wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Dating_Venetian_Operas Dating Venetian Operas].
===[https://wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Venetian_Opera_Productions:_Field_List Fields and filters]===


The 889 productions listed here consist largely of three-act <i>drammi per musica</i>. Details of the repertory as a whole were constantly shifting. The nature of the content in combination with precise dating information enables a wide range of approaches to interrogation. 
==Extended uses of the data==
The century from 1660 to 1760 differs from adjacent segments of a longer chronology in ways that suggest the need for a slightly different range of fields from those displayed here. The 96 productions mounted between 1637 and 1659 involved fewer theaters, some traveling troupes, and a wide range of component items within works. The seasonal framework that stabilized in the 1660s enables use to evaluate elements of stability and change in ways that are not possible with sparser material. Elaborate prologues, which could involve separate casts and scenery, dominated some works. No system of patronage developed until the 1670s.


By the 1750s the status of the <i>dramma per musica</i> as a musical-literary genre was challenged by the rise of the <i>opera buffa</i>. Mainly Neapolitan, <i>opera buffa</i> won fans without the elaborate apparatus or complicated staging requirements of its serious rival. More and more audience members in Venice were from imperial precincts where stale formulas in dramatic plots were quickly eclipsed by the shorter, gayer content of these newer works. At the same time, the re-establishment of prose comedy, which was heavily dominated by Carlo Goldoni in the 1740s and 1750s, gave local audiences a range of choices. Goldoni's move to Paris in 1762 led to further fragmentation. The polemics of the "pamphlet wars" challenged the premises of opera in a noisy literary battle that spread from Paris to Venice.
===Dating methods and presentations===


==[https://wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Venetian_Opera_Productions:_Field_List Fields and filters]==
The time-span 1660-1760 coincides with an abundance of minutely dated references to opera productions in news-sheets (<i>avvisi et al.</i>), a species of short-form report to which church, civic, and financial authorities could selectively subscribe.  Although French predominated in diplomatic communications throughout Europe and the Americas, <i>avvisi</i> supported a vast network of weekly transmissions in Italian. <i>Avvisi</i> from Venice were dispatched by courier on Saturday evenings, a practice that removes one element of ambiguity from determining the modern year of the record. Because they were distributed weekly, <i>avvisi</i> exclude all possibility of misinterpreting years, but the dates thus retrieved often contradict the word of printed catalogues and bibliographies of Venetian opera.


Despite the lack of musical familiarity today's public may have with titles from earlier times, a significant number of subjects recurred throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Yesterday's work was not as highly regarded as today's. Ironically, the quest for novelty may have been conducive to the growing practice of disguising revised works by supplying new titles.
Almost every production included here has an exact date of opening (the <b>sorting</b> or <b>premiere date</b>) verified by primary historical sources, as opposed to bibliographies, which are based on printed texts. The exceptions, which can be confined to a week or two, are followed by a <b>tilde (~)</b>, e.g. 1696~.  


Before the alliance of public opera (1637) dramas with the <i>dramma per musica</i>, the most conspicuous model of what became "opera" was found in Florentine court intermedi. They in turn were considered appropriate for festive occasions, especially royal weddings. Such festivities could continue for days or weeks and often included many incidental entertainments. Aristocratic family odysseys en route to a wedding could also be dotted with an array of entertainments at each stop.
In the year-day-month format used, the few works that cannot be so so sequestered substitute "00" for an unknown day and month. Examples:
 
* 1675-00-00 (1675)
* 1680-02-00 (February 1680)
* 1720-11-11 (11 November 1720)
 
===Applications in related fields===
 
Sorting dates for titles are especially useful in reconciling Venetian opera and its vast horde of composers, performers, librettists, and patrons with activities in <i>related fields</i> (art history, dance, drama, sculpture, painting, theater and social history) chronologically. Additional details are available at [https://hcal.ccarh.org/ Historic Calendars of Europe]. For other intricacies, please see <i>Song and Season</i> (cited below).
 
====Links for libretti====
Almost every work cited is survived by one or more libretti. They may not all precisely coincide in content. Printed texts often different in small details from the texts found in manuscript scores. The best start site for Italian libretti is usually Corago (corago.unibo.it). Click on the <i>libretto</i> link. Substantial collections include these:
* The [http://www.braidense.it/cataloghi/catalogo_rd.php <i>Braidense Library (Corniano-Algarotti Collection)</i>]
* The [https://libretti.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/start/static.html <i>ViFaMusik Libretto Portal</i>]
* The [https://www.loc.gov/collections/albert-schatz/about-this-collection <i>Albert Schatz Collection, Library of Congress</i>]
 
====Links for scores and score fragments====
Multiple kinds of music sometimes survive for operas listed. These include
* Scores
* Miscellaneous arias (and other fragments)
* <i>Balli</i>
* Comic intermezzi
Links to surviving (clearly identified) musical materials are given in the [https://opac.rism.info/main-menu-/kachelmenu RISM catalog] sigla for "Scores" and "Miscellaneous arias". [https://rism.info/community/sigla.html Sigla] locate materials by city and library. Links within the specific entry list manuscript sources.
 
Another path to music is to search the title in the RISM catalog and check the box "Available Online".
 
Very few comic intermezzi are survived by music. Many <i>balli</i> may survive, but they typically remained the property of the dance companies and were not comprehensively preserved.
 
==Analytical views of selected corpus-level topics==
See [https://wiki.ccarh.org/wiki/Venetian_Opera_Productions:_Analytical_Views Analytical Views]


==About Venetian Opera Productions==
==About Venetian Opera Productions==
<br><b>Website design and management</b>: Craig Sapp
<b>Website design and management</b>: Craig Sapp
<br><b>Content</b>: Eleanor Selfridge-Field
<br><b>Content</b>: Eleanor Selfridge-Field
 
<br><small><i>Background image on search page</i>: Fold-out etching by Domenico Rossetti from the libretto of <i>Berenice vendicativa</i> (music by Domenico Freschi, text by Gio. Maria Rapparini) premiered at the Villa Contarini at Piazzola on 8 November 1680 (Venice, Ca' Goldoni, Biblioteca). Alvise Contarini served as doge from 1676 to 1684. The grandiose staging involved more than 400 supernumeraries, twenty choruses, two lions, two elephants, and sixteen horses—four for Berenice's chariot and a dozen to pull carts of prisoners. News reports relate that this entertainment, lasting for two weeks, was abruptly terminated by the collapse of a storage room for the chariots. It caused the horses underneath to panic and destroy the main props.</small>
<br><small><i>Background image on search page</i>: Fold-out etching by Domenico Rossetti from the libretto of <i>Berenice vendicativa</i> (music by Domenico Freschi, text by Gio. Maria Rapparini) premiered at the Villa Contarini on 8 November 1680 (Venice, Ca' Goldoni). Alvise Contarini served as doge from 1676 to 1684. The grandiose staging involved more than 400 supernumeraries plus 20 choruses, two lions, two elephants, and sixteen horses—four for Berenice's chariot and a dozen to cart prisoners. News reports relate that this entertainment, lasting for two weeks, was abruptly terminated by the collapse of a storage room for the chariots, which caused the panicked horses underneath to destroy some of the main props.</small>


https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Latest revision as of 21:41, 3 September 2025

Documentation for https://venop.ccarh.org

Venetian Opera Productions: A searchable calendar

When the first opera was given at the Teatro San Cassiano in 1637, no one anticipated that this novel, ambitious species of entertainment would endure. As a venue Venice had little competition for several decades. Although the opera enterprise as a whole never became self-supporting, the precarious situation of most theaters did not diminish the genre's popularity. [venop.ccarh.org Venetian Opera Productions] enables users to investigate growth and change (and eventual decline) over the core century (1660-1760) of the dramma per musica.

Quick start guide

1. Select or deselect desired fields at https://venop.ccarh.org. Results appear immediately beneath the query form.
2. Modes of viewing:

  • To browse, scroll through the entire corpus.
  • To limit searches to a restricted period of years, use the Min. and Max. delimiters (boxes).
  • To reorder records (e.g. to view all the works by one composer or theater), click on column header (top row). To return to original view, click refresh icon on browser.

3. To return to this documentation view, click on the "?" in upper left corner of table view.

Viewing the repertory as a whole

The corpus vs single works: The delimiting dates of this table (1660-1760) mark the confines of a period during which a huge increase in opera productions occurred. Venice was the undisputed leader in public opera, which dated from 1637. Quantity and frequency forced a degree of predictability on patterns of performance, with significant implications for composers and performers. While many studies of Venetian opera focus on a single work or a small repertory, this corpus of 889 operas enables us to understand the interplay between theaters, composers, librettists, and many other dimensions of the genre's development (and decline).

Composers: One notable impression of the Venetian corpus is the large number of composers (171) who contributed to it. More than 25% of these operas were set to music by just eight composers—C. F. Pollarolo (60), B. Galuppi (52), T. Albinoni (45), A. Vivaldi (33), Fr. Gasparini (30), M. A. Ziani (29), C. Pallavicino (25), and G. M. Buini (20). Fragments of their works may also be found here and there in the twenty-five pastiches listed. These stalwarts apart, most composers set fewer than four dramas to music. This reflects the dilettante nature of opera in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth, the composition of opera became a professional career path.

Librettists: The profiles of librettist as a group is similar but the number of individuals is smaller. The most prolific dramatists were court poets or, in some cases, held a significant office in the Venetian Republic. This tells us that scripts were intended to project images supportive of existing power structures in the seventeenth century, when the most prominent librettists were Francesco Silvani (67), Matteo Noris (49), and Aurelio Aureli (36). The profile was warped in the eighteenth century by the rising fortunes of the imperial court and efforts to emulate its tastes. Its court poets Apostolo Zeno (69) and Pietro Metastasio (88) completely dominated Venetian stages and those of many other venues for several decades.

Attending an opera then and now

The cultural distance between the years around 1600 and our own times is considerable. In early Venetian theaters, important public figures rented or subleased a box for a season (or a lifetime) and bought a libretto at the door to follow the action onstage. Performances were permitted for a maximum of four hours from sunset. Those lacking a box could rent a folding chair or stool for the parterre (today's orchestra section minus fixed seating). A small orchestra sat in front of the stage. Two harpsichordists were present—one to accompany the singers, the other to support the orchestra.

The Hof-Musici of Český Krumlov Theater, directed by Ondřej Macek, in the 2024 production of Antonio Draghi's 1680 festa teatrale called I vaticini di Tiresia Tebano (The Prophecies of Tiresias of Thebes). Used by permission.

Today most professionally-staged operas form part of a standard repertory that young singers aspire to master. With few exceptions the score, roles, and orchestra vary little from decade to decade or place to place when adequate financial support is available. Title selections change from year to year. Entirely new works are introduced as budgets permit. Changes may involve staging, scenery, costumes, or interpretation.

The sheer quantity of works produced in Venice between our target years—1660 to 1760—offers a striking contrast to the few dozen works in core repertories today, but not all the differences are as great as they may appear. After 1700 new titles were increasingly slapped onto familiar plots. The practice of "revise and disguise" produced unpredictable results. Some possible outcomes included:

  • the combination of existing arias with new recitatives;
  • addition, subtraction, or modification of one part of a work;
  • new or revised arias for one cast member;
  • insertion of arias detached from a previous work in a new work.

The printed text prepared in advance for an opera often did not fully correspond to the work as staged. Scores were circulated only in manuscript. By tracing productions, rather than works per se, we can associate a significant amount of rarely seen commentary with perfunctory title information to better understand the constantly shifting values and mutable practices that enabled performance.

In the seventeenth century those attending Venetian operas often came in sizeable groups. Most attendees sat in a box to which they might carry drinks and other refreshments. One member of the group would buy a libretto at the door. A candle would be necessary to see the libretto: theaters were dark inside. (They were also prone to fires.) The impresario was responsible for lighting adjacent outdoor spaces, the stage, and the instrumentalists' pit. Attendees and personnel were expected to arrive by gondola. (See a remnant of San Cassiano's water-gate below.) A dusk-to-dawn curfew meant that streets were deserted.

Remnant of water-gate for the largely demolished Teatro San Cassiano, Venice's first public theater. (Photo 2012, E. Selfridge-Field).

The audience for eighteenth-century opera was in constant flux. While the abundant nobility of earlier times responded well to serious, sometimes tragic fare, the rising bourgeoisie of the eighteenth rapidly developed a taste for comic and pastoral works as well as satirical ones that portrayed traits of speech, dress, and manners. Venice had to compete with its imitators in the realm of opera buffa. Pastorals were common in spring and autumn productions.

Carnival remained the season of serious opera and noted singers, but fewer and fewer works were entirely new. The best known singers pursued opportunities abroad, as new theaters (many linked to commercial markets) appeared rapidly in venues north of the Alps. The rise of spring and summer operas in more northerly venues drew performers away from Italy.

Despite general acknowledgment of the historical importance of Venetian opera collectively, only a handful of Baroque operas are performed today. The reasons are many: lack of survival of musical sources, a paucity of modern editions, the costs of staging long, elaborate works with large casts, and a lack of training in Baroque performing techniques in many potential venues.

Understanding the database

Essential parameters

Theaters: From 1660 until the middle of the next century Venice usually had six theaters operating. These were the most stable: San Cassiano (intermittent, from 1637), SS. Giovanni a Paolo (1639-1699; 1714-15), San Salvatore (1661-1700, intermittent from 1727), Sant'Angelo (1677-intermittent after 1748), and SS. Giovanni Grisostomo (1678-1751). The others were less regular, or switched between opera and commedia, or lasted only a few years.

Productions:We know from weekly news-sheets that productions rarely ran for more than three weeks. Performances were not necessarily given every night. With regard to opening dates, some accommodation between theaters could occur. Opening night conflicts were usually avoided. Ticket prices for an opening performance could cost twice the normal amount on ordinary nights at some theaters.

Disruptions:Some ebbing and flowing of theatrical activity was associated with wars, pestilences, and fluctuating economic conditions. Venice was engaged in a war in the Aegean—the "War in Candia"—from 1645 to 1669. After 1700, the more stable theaters could produce three works in a year with a late Easter, but this was rare until the start of spring opera in the 1720s. Public operas were permitted only in periods of time uncontested by the Church and explicitly permitted (by proclamation) by the Venetian Republic. The total number of days when opera was permitted gradually increased over the course of the century represented.

Fields and filters

Extended uses of the data

Dating methods and presentations

The time-span 1660-1760 coincides with an abundance of minutely dated references to opera productions in news-sheets (avvisi et al.), a species of short-form report to which church, civic, and financial authorities could selectively subscribe. Although French predominated in diplomatic communications throughout Europe and the Americas, avvisi supported a vast network of weekly transmissions in Italian. Avvisi from Venice were dispatched by courier on Saturday evenings, a practice that removes one element of ambiguity from determining the modern year of the record. Because they were distributed weekly, avvisi exclude all possibility of misinterpreting years, but the dates thus retrieved often contradict the word of printed catalogues and bibliographies of Venetian opera.

Almost every production included here has an exact date of opening (the sorting or premiere date) verified by primary historical sources, as opposed to bibliographies, which are based on printed texts. The exceptions, which can be confined to a week or two, are followed by a tilde (~), e.g. 1696~.

In the year-day-month format used, the few works that cannot be so so sequestered substitute "00" for an unknown day and month. Examples:

  • 1675-00-00 (1675)
  • 1680-02-00 (February 1680)
  • 1720-11-11 (11 November 1720)

Applications in related fields

Sorting dates for titles are especially useful in reconciling Venetian opera and its vast horde of composers, performers, librettists, and patrons with activities in related fields (art history, dance, drama, sculpture, painting, theater and social history) chronologically. Additional details are available at Historic Calendars of Europe. For other intricacies, please see Song and Season (cited below).

Links for libretti

Almost every work cited is survived by one or more libretti. They may not all precisely coincide in content. Printed texts often different in small details from the texts found in manuscript scores. The best start site for Italian libretti is usually Corago (corago.unibo.it). Click on the libretto link. Substantial collections include these:

Links for scores and score fragments

Multiple kinds of music sometimes survive for operas listed. These include

  • Scores
  • Miscellaneous arias (and other fragments)
  • Balli
  • Comic intermezzi

Links to surviving (clearly identified) musical materials are given in the RISM catalog sigla for "Scores" and "Miscellaneous arias". Sigla locate materials by city and library. Links within the specific entry list manuscript sources.

Another path to music is to search the title in the RISM catalog and check the box "Available Online".

Very few comic intermezzi are survived by music. Many balli may survive, but they typically remained the property of the dance companies and were not comprehensively preserved.

Analytical views of selected corpus-level topics

See Analytical Views

About Venetian Opera Productions

Website design and management: Craig Sapp
Content: Eleanor Selfridge-Field
Background image on search page: Fold-out etching by Domenico Rossetti from the libretto of Berenice vendicativa (music by Domenico Freschi, text by Gio. Maria Rapparini) premiered at the Villa Contarini at Piazzola on 8 November 1680 (Venice, Ca' Goldoni, Biblioteca). Alvise Contarini served as doge from 1676 to 1684. The grandiose staging involved more than 400 supernumeraries, twenty choruses, two lions, two elephants, and sixteen horses—four for Berenice's chariot and a dozen to pull carts of prisoners. News reports relate that this entertainment, lasting for two weeks, was abruptly terminated by the collapse of a storage room for the chariots. It caused the horses underneath to panic and destroy the main props.

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