Fest – Theater – Musik
Frühneuzeit-Info 27 (2016)

Erscheinungsdatum: Oktober 2016
Bestellungen werden gerne entgegengenommen: Bestellschein

Teil 3 der Vorschau stellt die Beiträge von Raffaele Mellace, Sandra Hertel und Susanne Winter vor.

Raffaele Mellace
Giovanni Claudio Pasquini (1695–1763) as Librettist of Operas and Feste Teatrali in Vienna and Dresden: Preliminary Thoughts
(in English language)

The article is a first attempt in assessing Giovanni Claudio Pasquini’s output in the fields of dramma per musica, favola pastorale, commedia per musica, serenata, festa teatrale and oratorio. After providing early essays of intermezzi and serenate in his hometown Siena, Pasquini moved to Vienna in 1725 as Italian teacher to archduchesses Maria Theresa und Maria Anna, eventually taking over Pariati’s position as court poet. After a brief appointment in Mannheim, he then moved to Dresden, providing successful texts for key dynastic celebrations. Pasquini was a learned, versatile and elegant poet who was able to apply brilliantly first Zeno’s and later Metastasio’s dramatic solutions to a wide range of genres through a quarter-century of activity (1726–1749) in two of the main North-of-the-Alps centers for Italian opera and culture, collaborating with several generations of composers such as Caldara, Hasse, Porsile, Ristori, Bonno, Ignazio Maria Conti, Georg Reutter jn., Hellmann, Breunich, and first-rate singers such as Faustina and Annibali. Through nearly 70 texts supplied to the imperial court, the playwright developed an impressive moral and ideological discourse, which turned influential to Metastasio himself. Renowned for his qualities as comic poet, Pasquini expressed his penchant towards comedy mainly in three commedie to Caldara’s music, remarkable adaptations from Cervantes and Molière.

Sandra Hertel
Maria Theresa as “King of Hungary” in the coronation ceremonies in Pressburg 1741
(in German language)

This paper analyses the coronation of Maria Theresa as ‘King’ of Hungary on 25 June 1741 as a dynastic and public celebration as well as a media event. The coronation was an important political and juridical act during her first year as Sovereign of the Austrian Hereditary Lands. As first female successor of the Habsbourg dynasty, she had to stabilize her rule quickly after the death of her father Charles VI in October 1740 by this public event, which was observed by the whole European court society and interested subjects. The well noticed ceremonial orders and rules of the coronation contributed to the efforts of the Viennese Court, to stress the legitimacy of Maria Theresa’s succession to the throne in front of the European public. Officially, Maria Theresa became the King of Hungary and so she appeared irrespective of her female sex as a male ruler during the coronation ritual. This fact was also stressed in the published descriptions of the coronation as well as in visual media like graphic prints and medals. The most popular picture topic of the coronation showed her riding on a horse with the St. Stephan’s sword in her hands as a symbol of her power and justice. By this pictorial and medial information policy, Maria Theresia achieved to represent herself as the legal successor and Sovereign in her Hereditary Lands.

Susanne Winter
Transfer and Variety: The Venetian Theater Landscape in the Eighteenth Century
(in German language)

In the seventeenth century, Venice was the unrivalled capital of theater. No other city in Europe had as many theater venues as Venice; and no other city saw as many performances by famous artists as La Serenissima. Whereas opera and commedia dell’arte performances were the most popular forms with seventeenth-century audiences, a change took place in the eighteenth century, in particular in the area of theater, spurred on primarily by authors and literary figures. With Carlo Goldoni’s theater reform project, which attempted to countervail the predominance of improvisation, an increasing number of fully scripted pieces was taken up in repertoires, in the case of Venice, most written by Goldoni and Pietro Chiari. After they left Venice, bringing about a decline in the production of new pieces, there was a dearth of suitable Italian compositions for theater, which was to be offset by the Francophilia of a fraction of important Venetian intellectuals translating pieces from the French. The transfer of theater compositions from French literature not only compensated for the gap left behind by Goldoni and Chiari, but also led to a diversification of the repertoire, which in turn met the demand for a change in the theater landscape. In addition, this transfer was combined with the pedagogical goal of broadening the cultural horizons of Venetian audiences toward France.