Venetian Opera Productions: Field List
These fields are searchable at https://venop.ccarh.org.
Contents
General principles of organization
The table is ordered by sorting date—the exact date of opening of a production. Fields can be toggled on/off using the check-box. The time-span displayed can be limited by specifying the Max. year and Min. year.
The order in which production listings appear can be resorted according to the field of paramount interest by clicking on the field header. The Reset button restores the original order.
Basic parameters
Fields that identify the work and the production are straightforward.
- Title
- Theater
- Composer
- Librettist
- Dramatic genre
Dropdown lists on the search form give cumulative numbers for each item in each the field.
Dates and seasons
One of the key differences between "works" and "productions" is guides to works aim to match surviving artifacts, such as libretti. Productions consist of clusters of performances. Here they are all calibrated to the calendar in use today.
- Sorting date. See Dating Venetian Operas.
- Modern year. Reaffirmation of the year in which the production opened.
- Theatrical season. Theatrical seasons were defined in multiple ways and were not necessarily coincident with astronomical seasons. See Dating Venetian Operas.
Entr'actes
The miscellany of dances, skits, and choruses that were performed before or after each act were given by adjunct performers who were not identified until the middle of the eighteenth century.
Each theater had different practices and preferences. Comic intermezzi were a specialty of Sant'Angelo and San Cassiano from 1706 onward. San Gio. Grisotomo shunned such frivolous fare and insisted on the dignity of balli, although in some cases these were demonstrations of military stategies.
- balli
- comic intermezzi
- choruses
- prologues
Musical sources and fragments
- Scores
- Arias, other fragments
Patronage
- Dedicatee
- Dedicatee jurisdiction
- Dedicatee residence
Further information
The data presented here was developed for use in E. Selfrdge-Field, The New Chronology of Venetian Opera and related genres (1660-1760) (Stanford University Press, 2007).
The subtleties of seasons and dating systems are discussed in separately in the companion book (also E. Selfridge-Field) Song and Season: Science, culture, and theatrical time in early modern Venice (Stanford University Press, 2007).