This volume explores the important role which epistolary exchanges play in the reconstruction of musical and theatrical contexts all over Europe in the early modern age, with particular attention to the century of the Enlightenment. Correspondence often bears witness to the reconstruction of performers' careers and theatrical venues, and to the transfers of professionals and repertoires, as well as to social themes and production issues. Archival sources, private letters, and official documents are not only rich in precious data and information, but can also provide elements for new research perspectives related to their methodological implications and to the interpretation of the music and theatre of that period, as well as to questions about historical performance practices and their current revival.

Autorentext
Iskrena Yordanova is violinist and musicologist. Her main research interest focuses on Portuguese and Italian 18th-century repertoire. Since 2014 she is coordinating the research activities and international conferences at "Divino Sospiro Centro de Estudos Musicais Setecentistas de Portugal". She edited serenatas and oratorios by D. Perez, N. Jommelli, J. Cordeiro da Silva, J. de Sousa Carvalho and P. A. Avondano.

Cristina Fernandes is a contracted researcher at INET-md, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She took part in several research projects and has published on various topics related to music and the performing arts in the 18th century, such as ceremonial and performance practices at the Portuguese Royal Chapels, patronage and diplomacy, musicians' professional careers, and cultural transfers between Portugal, Spain, and Italy.

Zusammenfassung
This volume explores the important role that epistolary exchanges play in the reconstruction of musical and theatrical contexts all over Europe in the early modern age, with particular attention to the century of the Enlightenment. Correspondence often bears witness to the reconstruction of performers' careers and theatrical venues, and to the transfers of professionals and repertoires, as well as to social themes and production issues. Archival sources, private letters, and official documents are not only rich in precious data and information, but can also provide material for new research perspectives, related both to their methodological implications and to the interpretation of music and theatre in a given time and place, along with raising questions about historical performance practices and their current revival.

Inhalt
Introduction
ISKRENA YORDANOVA CRISTINA FERNANDES

Lettere dal passato: testimoni poco attendibili e tuttavia insostituibili
RAFFAELE MELLACE

 
PART I
THE LETTERS OF PIETRO METASTASIO

I codici e il racconto: per l'edizione dell'epistolario di Metastasio
ALBERTO BENISCELLI

Esercizi di stile: le lettere del giovane Metastasio da Napoli
FRANCESCO COTTICELLI PAOLOGIOVANNI MAIONE

 
PART II
THE IMPERIAL COURT IN VIENNA AND ROME

"un sommo profitto sotto la direzione del nostro Signor Bononcini":
Giovanni Bononcini e la serenata Sacrificio a Venere (Roma, 1714)
FEDERICO LANZELLOTTI

Fra editi-inediti del carteggio DurazzoFavart:
scenografi parigini a Vienna per gli spettacoli del 1760
ARMANDO FABIO IVALDI

 
PART III
LISBON

La politica del teatro e il teatro della politica: le lettere del Nunzio
apostolico e altri carteggi sulla musica a Lisbona (17421755)
GIUSEPPINA RAGGI

Um espectáculo preso por um fio
JOSÉ CAMOES

 
PART IV
CENTRAL ITALY

"Questo è l'unico mio divertimento": notizie musicali da Roma, Napoli,
Milano e Venezia nelle lettere del Conte Francesco Maria Zambeccari
(17011744)
SERGIO MONFERRINI

Patrimoni, matrimoni e tresche di virtuose, cantanti, canterine e figlie
da camera attraverso le lettere di supplica ai loro Serenissimi Padroni
VALENTINA ANZANI

Epistolary Triangles between Bologna and Madrid:
Bernacchi, Farinelli, Raaff, and Martini's Storia della musica
ELISABETTA PASQUINI

Teatro a Bologna tra villeggiatura e accademie:
questioni di prassi scenica dai carteggi di Francesco Albergati Capacelli
ELENA ZILOTTI

Il carteggio di Violante di Baviera come fonte di studio
dello spettacolo italiano ed europeo del primo Settecento
LEONARDO SPINELLI

 
PART V
NAPLES

La "corrispondenza" dei Conservatori Napoletani nel XVIII secolo
MARTA COLUMBRO CHIARA MACOR

Notizie su strumenti musicali a Napoli
da epistolari della seconda metà del Settecento
FRANCESCO NOCERINO

 
PART VI
VENICE AND SPLIT

"Lettera a Noi": Su alcuni casi di lettere-recensioni
nella Gazzetta Urbana Veneta del 1789
LORENZO MATTEI GIOVANNI POLIN

The European Enlightenment Spirit in the Correspondence
of the Croatian polyhistor and composer Julije Bajamonti
IVANA TOMI FERI

"dove sono le belle melodie de' nostri antichi":
pratiche musicali ed estetica ancien régime nei carteggi
di Giovanni Battista Perucchini
MARIA ROSA DE LUCA CARLIDA STEFAN

 
PART VII
NORTHERN ITALY

Appalti, subappalti, suppliche e divieti:
scorci di vita concreta al Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano
ALESSANDRA MIGNATTI

Rif lessi del teatro d'opera nel carteggio dei fratelli Pietro
e Alessandro Verri
CESARE FERTONANI

Sull'utilità della musica nella "Moderna educazione" (1771)
PAOLA BESUTTI

Organi "spiritosi" nel secondo Settecento sabaudo, tra scrittura
cembalo-organistica, musica sacra e trattatistica musicale
PAOLO CAVALLO

Chronicles of two Piedmontese in Paris:
The stage designer Ignazio Degotti and the composer Gian Battista Viotti
ELISA CAZZATO

 
PART VIII
HAMBURG

The repertoire of the Hamburg Theater in the letters
of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder to Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter
SONIA BELLAVIA

 
PART IX
BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD

Cartas sobre teatro para um salão literário setecentista
MARTA BRITES ROSA

The Letters of Joseph Quesnel and the Creation of the First
Canadian Opera
KURT SVEN MARKSTROM

 

APPENDIX

INDEX OF PERSONS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS