Venetian Opera Productions: Analytical Views: Difference between revisions
| Line 22: | Line 22: | ||
==Literary genres== | ==Literary genres== | ||
Venetian operas were overwhelming offered as <i>drammi per musica</i>, but experimentation tested the boundaries of the paradigm at intervals. | Venetian operas were overwhelming offered as <i>drammi per musica</i>, but experimentation tested the boundaries of the paradigm at intervals. | ||
The <i>dramma per musica</i> remained the dominant genre of opera until 1745, which the <i>dramma giocoso</i> began to attract a growing audience. Pastorals were sometimes performed in the spring and autumn. The <i>tragedia per musica</i> of five acts was a predilection of the 1690s, especially at San Giovanni Grisostomo. | |||
* | * | ||
Revision as of 23:47, 12 June 2025
These analytical views give overviews of the main aspects of the Venetian opera repertory between 1660 and 1760.
Composers and Music
A few composers dominated Venetian opera at every stage of its development, but overall the number of composers covered here totaled more than 140. This excludes 25 pastiches (operas "pasted" together from fragments by a consortium of composers) and 17 unattributed works.
Entr'actes
Operas staged in Venice were often adorned with a miscellany of entr'actes. All of them were musical, but some were more elaborate and carefully constructed than others. Up to 1700 the types of entr'actes was varied. Mock battles were popular at San Gio. Grisostomo, but balli eventually eclipsed most other short interludes. The performers of entr'actes were usually separate from those of the featured opera. The low survival rate of reflects this. After 1700, comic intermezzi were especially popular at San Cassiano and Sant'Angelo.
- Combined distribution of entr'actes [1]
Source survival
A relative paucity of operas survive from the century 1660-1760. Percentages vary from theater to theater.
- Source survival [2]
Musical sources
Librettists and Texts
Librettists were slightly less numerous, but over time the number of texts that were reworked by others made the overall picture of literary authorship fuzzy.
Literary genres
Venetian operas were overwhelming offered as drammi per musica, but experimentation tested the boundaries of the paradigm at intervals.
The dramma per musica remained the dominant genre of opera until 1745, which the dramma giocoso began to attract a growing audience. Pastorals were sometimes performed in the spring and autumn. The tragedia per musica of five acts was a predilection of the 1690s, especially at San Giovanni Grisostomo.
Text recycling
Almost all operas featured texts written within the preceding year or two. This reflected a strong patronage network. As patronage declined, so too did new texts.
- New texts vs old texts [3]
Theaters
Because the number of operas produced during this century was so great, theaters drifted into the establishment of separate profiles. Detecting individual traits can be useful in understanding other fluctuations in other parameters. Differences could reflect the tastes of the proprietor(s) and their associates. All the theaters were affected from time to time by economic change and by unexpected occurrences, such as fires.
- Theater activities by decade [4]
Patronage
In 1660 Venice commanded a growing profile of mercantile and social importance. Its steadfast avoidance of political alliances rendered it neutral territory for the negotiation of treaties, marriages, and law suits involving non-Venetian territories. This brought many powerful figures into the city for several generations. By 1730, however, Venice's position as an international center was eroded by the rise of Vienna, and by 1760, however, many of the city's functions were fading as provincial centers gathered strength.