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Defined by a civil war and political tumult, the year 1863 is well known in the history of Mexico as one of singular import, but less so as a milestone of national musical and cultural achievement. Nevertheless, from January through the departure of Benito Juárez and his cabinet from the capital in May, to the installation of Archduke Maximilian as Emperor in November, an unprecedented number of newly composed operas by Mexican composers were staged. All set to preexisting Italian libretti (including titles by Felice Romani and Gaetano Rossi for Carlo Coccia and Vincenzo Bellini, respectively), these works were nevertheless the unique manifestation of a school of Mexican composers expressing themselves en masse for the first time. With the impending conflict, an exodus of resident Italian opera companies by 1861 left the field wide-open to enterprising Mexicans, with Cenobio Paniagua (1821-1882) and Octaviano Valle (1826-1869) in the forefront. A fleeting moment in operatic history, this fascinating year now lends itself to deeper scrutiny, thanks to the resurfacing of long-unavailable musical and archival sources. While these works had remained lost until only recently, several scores have begun reemerging. Of these, limited availability of fragments from Romeo e Giulietta by Melesio Morales (his first effort) and Valle’s ill-fated Clotilde di Cosenza provide crucial insight, while permitting these rarities to be sampled for the first time. Paniagua’s autographs—though recently rediscovered—proved far less available, while materials for I due Foscari by Mateo Torres Serrato remain lost. Limited documentation has long presented further challenges to demystifying what might be considered a legendary period. However, reviewing the underlying politico-historic, artistic, and economic reasons for its impetus, this article will explore and contextualize the circumstances leading to this unprecedented explosion of operatic expression, making a sort of anno mirabilis of one of the hardest years in Mexico’s history.

These “notes from the field” examine Italo Calvino and Luciano Berio’s collaboration for the opera (or “azione scenica’) Un re in ascolto (A King Listens). My specific approach to the collaboration is through the notions of “expanded music” and “extended voice,” which I use to capture several different stages or “moving parts” of the collaboration. Convergences as well as divergences emerge, and hence experiments amidst novel acoustic spaces and scenarios, within and beyond the classical stage. Calvino first wrote the libretto for Berio as a fairytale about a king, turning it eventually into a favola dell’ascolto, inspired by the article “Ascolto” co-authored by Ronald Barthes and Roland Havas. In the introductory part of my article, I touch briefly on this libretto and the ways in which it evokes different dimensions and layers of listening, including an uncanny “acousmatic” dimension. I go on to consider the “Trattamento” (a later pluri-dimensional proposal by Calvino), as an entry point into Berio’s “musical action”–compositions constructed through a montage of Calvino’s arias, mashed up with excerpt of other texts. In particular, I insist on the friction between the multiplication of women’s voices and the arias Calvino wrote. I discuss Berio’s musical poetics relative to acoustic spaces—constructed through live electronics, instrumental music, and voice—and his own take on Calvino’s musicality. I then plunge into Calvino’s short story “Un re in ascolto.” In reading this short story, I investigate the implications of Calvino’s silence regarding the novel stage –beginning in the late 1970s– of sound reproducibility, a paradigmatic shift that reframed the public and the private soundscape and reshaped the interspersions of the bodily sensorium. In a Calvino-centric mode, these notes engage with existing interpretations about the collaboration (by Adriana Cavarero, Laura Cosso, Daniel Cohen-Levinas, Umberto Eco, Massimo Mila, and Peter Szendy) and the Italian intellectual context of the late 1970s (Aldo Giorgio Gargani, Carlo Ginzburg) in light of the recent expanding field of sound studies (Michael Bull, Francesco Giomi, Shuhei Hosokawa, Jonathan Stern, and Dominic Pettman). I end these notes with a brief incursion into Berio’ later conception of the spatialization of sounds (at the Tempo Reale music research center in Florence) that unexpectedly once again connects with Calvino’s auditory poetics and expands on it.

La forza del destino was commissioned to Giuseppe Verdi by the St Petersburg Imperial Theatres in 1861. The opera was written on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and draws its subject from the Spanish drama Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino by Ángel de Saavedra. Piave worked on the Italian version by Faustino Sanseverino and, according to Verdi's indication, inserted fragments from Schiller's trilogy Wallenstein. The opera premiered in November 1862 at the Bol'shoy Kamenny Theatre but only had a succès d'estime. In this paper, I try to explain the opera's cold reception focusing on the discrepancies emerging between the Italian libretto and the Russian translation prepared by Apollon Grigor'yev for the first staging. I will consider the typical derivation of Italian operatic librettos from pre-existing literary works. This process combines mediated and inter-semiotic translation, allowing me to show the artistic resources mediated translation offers in stage literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La forza del destino was commissioned to Giuseppe Verdi by the St Petersburg Imperial Theatres in 1861, and premiered in November 1862, at the Bolshoy Kamenny Theatre. The opera was written on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, and draws its subject from the Spanish drama Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino, by Ángel de Saavedra, through an Italian version by Faustino Sanseverino, and with insertions of fragments from Schiller’s trilogy Wallengstein. In this paper I analyse the genesis of the opera, considering the typical derivation of Italian operatic librettos from pre-existing literary works, a process that combines mediated and inter-semiotic translation. This allows me to show the artistic resources offered by mediated translation in the field of stage literature. On another level of discussion, given that for the Premiere Apollon Grigor’yev translated the libretto from Italian to Russian, I consider the role of translation on the reception of this subject by the local audience.

The two main narratives that coexist in Russian musicological literature – notably in the field of opera – fall within the branches of russkaja and zarubežnaja muzyka. The first is inward-looking, self-referential, aiming at enhancing the peculiarities of the original, peculiar, and autochthonous contribution to Russian musical culture; the other studies Western music and its evolution separately from the previous one. This approach differs from Western scholarship, which today tries to integrate the Russian musical phenomenon into the global horizon. While this difference can be explained through historical reasons, much remains to be done regarding communication between scientific communities and the coordination of efforts made to study sources that are still too dispersed and difficult to submit to an overall view. Observing the current state of research, my contribution highlights potential directions in the frame of Slavic studies, such as the reception of Western opera in Russia, the mobility of musicians and musical assets, the reception and evolution of aesthetic thinking, and the vocabulary with which this was expressed, particularly in the imperial era.

The two main narratives that coexist in Russian musicological literature - notably in the field of opera - fall within the branches of russkaja and zarubežnaja muzyka. The first is inward-looking, self-referential, aiming at enhancing the peculiarities of the original, peculiar, and autochthonous contribution to Russian musical culture; the other studies Western music and its evolution separately from the previous one. This approach differs from Western scholarship, which today tries to integrate the Russian musical phenomenon into the global horizon. While this difference can be explained through historical reasons, much remains to be done regarding communication between scientific communities and the coordination of efforts made to study sources that are still too dispersed and difficult to submit to an overall view. Observing the current state of research, my contribution highlights potential directions in the frame of Slavic studies, such as the reception of Western opera in Russia, the mobility of musicians and musical assets, the reception and evolution of aesthetic thinking, and the vocabulary with which this was expressed, particularly in the imperial era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During his stay at the castle Jánský Vrch near Javorník between 1771 and 1776, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf composed at least twelve Italian operas for the Bishop of Wrocław, Philip Gotthard Schaffgotsch. Four of these operas were later performed in Esterházy under the direction of Joseph Haydn. Information on Ditters' operas is incomplete or erroneous in the existing literature; the purpose of this study is therefore to present the current state of the sources - libretti and scores. Most of the librettos are stored in the Department of Music History of the Moravian Museum in Brno, two librettos considered lost were newly found in the Scientific Library in Olomouc. All librettos from Esterházy have also been identified. The sheet music for eight operas is stored in Budapest, one score is in Vienna. The work La poesia e la musica in gara belongs to the genre of serenata, the opera I visionari is known only by name. This study reestablishes the chronology of Ditters' operas, identifying the authors of the libretti and the names of the performers. Haydn's settings for Esterháza are also briefly discussed. The most important outcome of the research was the identification of two arias from the lost opera Il viaggiatore americano in Joannesberg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1828, five years after the premiere in Venice of Rossini's final Italian opera, Semiramide , Gaetano Rossi's libretto was again set to music, this time by the famed bel canto tenor and composer Manuel García in Mexico City. The opera, one of the first to be composed in Latin America after the collapse of the Spanish empire, was intended to demonstrate independent Mexico's ability not just to import Italian opera from Europe but also to produce new works. Instead of proving Mexico's credentials as a successful operatic nation, however, García's Semiramide became a problematic space for bringing to light tensions between underlying colonial resistance and the new liberal influence of France, England and Italy. This article contextualises this momentous operatic event within the wider frame of Mexico's nation building and investigates how the manifold political tensions and cultural contradictions of Mexico's postcolonial transition were absorbed and amplified by both García's composition and its staging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e article examines the performances of the Italian opera artists on the stage of the Pushkin audience during their tours in Chisinau on the basis of the publications in the Milan theatre press. Th e opera repertoire, the composition of the troupes, the features of the vocal and artistic talents of the main performers are analyzed. Attention is paid to the interaction of the artists’ and the local audience during the performances, to the prima donnas honouring during the play. Th e tour routes of F. Castellano’s, the Gonzalez Brothers’ companies and of other opera groups, performing in Chisinau, have been reconstructed. In order to establish the stages of the professional development of the leading artists, their bibliographical data as well as the public spaces where their benefi t performances took place in Chisinau have been studied.

Around 1710, an imperial singer and favourite, the soprano castrato Francesco Ballerini, petitioned Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I for an exclusive licence to establish a public Italian opera house in Vienna that could also double as a court stage. Ballerini's petition was successful, but his own financial resources were not sufficient to bring the project to completion. In April 1711, the death of Joseph I complicated matters even further. However, Ballerini did not give up on his ambitious undertaking, and in 1726 he invoked his privilege to announce a business plan involving the construction of a new Italian opera and comedy theatre. This announcement was made in a printed pamphlet, hitherto unknown to music historians, which offers new information about how the Italian model of theatre management being was adapted north of the Alps in the early 18th century. This article presents the newly discovered source along with a reconstruction of Ballerini's efforts to establish Italian opera in Vienna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creators of opera in Italy at the end of the 16th century gave great importance to the choice of their subject matter in order to reproduce an overall work of art according to the archetype of ancient Greek tragedy. During its progressive course, opera underwent changes, in which libretto and its subject matter constituted major issues of study and criticism and were reformed according to the style of each period but always with quality as a keystone. The present study examines the formation of the Italian opera based on the choice of the librettos from its birth to the first Italian reform.

In Naples, Gioachino Rossini creates some of his works for representations in other cities. The best known, the Barber of Seville or Useless Precaution, opened on February 20, 1816, atTeatro Argentina in Rome. The booklet, a version of Pierre de Beaumarchais’s eponymous novel, was rewritten by Cesare Sterbini, being a variant other than that already used by Giovanni Paisiello. Moreover, since then the work has enjoyed a great popularity, contributing to this triumph and the extremely short period in which it was conceived: two or three weeks. Later, Rossini claimed that he had created the work in just twelve days. The opening, initially bearing the title of Almaviva, was not successful, as the admirers of Paisiello, extremely indignant, sabotaged the show by whistling and shouting throughout the first act. However, shortly after the second performance, the work became so appreciated that the fame of Paisiello’s work was transferred to Rossini, the title The Barber of Seville becoming an inalienable Rossinian heritage. Il Barbiere was not Rossini’s favourite work. Ironically, it won the status of classical opera much later, at the end of the Rossini’s career. Today we clearly consider its status as the first in the history of the work, often overlooking the radical impact it had at the time of the opening, when it shocked and provoked a large audience of unknowing persons. The speed of his writing could explain the dramatic drop in intensity felt in the second half of the second act.

Giacomo Puccini’s artistic creation spans a period of 40 years, from 1884 to 1924, during which time he composed 12 works. This small number proves once again the great artistic exigency of the composer. The enormous success that Giacomo Puccini’s works have enjoyed since his life, continues to this day and is constantly growing. We aim to analyze the area SI, MI CHIAMANO MIMÌ from LA BOHÉMA’s work with personal interpretative aspects.

Purpose of the Article. The main attention in the article is focused on the peculiarities of improvisation methods that were used in the third part and in the Cadenzas of aria da capo in baroque Italy. The characteristic features of vocal improvisation space in opera atr of Italian baroque have been explored and defined. In particular, the specificity of baroque ornamental improvisation in the aria's third part has been defined; the differences between baroque and renaissance improvisation have been clarified; the essence of the theory of affects (feelings, emotions) as an aesthetic and philosophical context of vocal art's existence in the baroque era has been defined; the peculiarities of an existing connection between the theory of effects and the main principles of the rhetoric of that time have been clarified; we have also found out how the rhetoric of the baroque era affected the disposition of Cadenzas in the context of musical structure's dramaturgy; the historical circumstances in which the genre discussed (that is, aria da capo) was formed have been described. Methodology. We have used in our study as research tools the following methods: a comparative method (for comparing of improvisation stylistics of the renaissance and of the baroque era; of the Venice and Neapolitan operatic schools); a historical and stylistic method (for featuring of the historical context of the emergence and performing of arias da capo and of their Cadenzas and for characterizing of the essencial features of the epoch analyzed); an analytical and descriptive method (for the analysis of particular elements of improvisation in arias da capo, of the key principles of the theory of effects and their connection to baroque improvisation). Scientific novelty. The topic of the article is connected to the largely unexplored nowadays realm of music artists that, however, needs careful analysis and a systematic approach. The up-to-date research results in the sphere of vocal improvisation of the baroque era are presented and analyzed in the article. Conclusions. Improvisation in the space of aria da capo is a multidimentional, controversial, and ambiguous sphere of baroque vocal art. It cannot confine itself only by the sphere of performance but also deserves music scholars' regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Italian musical migration to London is rich and complex. From the beginning of the eighteenth century Italian musicians played a major role in Georgian society. During the Victorian era, despite a relative lack of scholarly research, new generations of Italian musicians moved to London, acquiring a recognized social status. Nevertheless, musicians and divas involved in London operatic market constituted just a small minority of the whole Italian community. Many Italians that came to the British Isles from the mid-nineteenth century were economic migrants, who in numerous cases made a living as street musicians. This introductory article, based on an archival research carried out mainly at the Royal College of Music and at the British Library, provides a brief social and cultural overview of Italian musical migration to London in the long nineteenth century. It also isolates cross-disciplinary questions that place in context the individual articles within this special issue. The latter is edited by Nicolò Palazzetti, Andrew Holden and Massimo Zicari. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1880 and 1940 paternalist, philanthropic initiatives promoted the arts as an instrument to improve the condition of working people, and offer leisure opportunities to the aspiring classes of East London away from the West End. The foundation of the People's Palace in 1887 created opportunities for operatic performances which brought together philanthropist volunteers and local people, and attracted audiences from across the new suburbs stretching beyond the Mile End Road. These included from as early as 1893 'costume recitals' of 'scenes from popular Italian operas', and later regular seasons by the main touring Italian opera companies. This article uses archive sources from a range of institutions alongside literary and musical periodicals and local press to suggest ways in which Italian opera was viewed in relation to native and other foreign repertoires, and what this operatic 'slice of life' reveals about popular ideas of italianità in East London across this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article the Odessa Italian opera has been examined as an object of the influence of the “golden youth’s” value orientations and behaviour patterns that were being formed in the social and theatrical environment of that city in the 60s of the 19th century. The changes in the younger generation’s artistic tastes, selective divas’ image perception have been shown on the examples of its interaction with other spectators, performers, the entrepreneur, local police and administrative authorities. The crisis in the vocal and performing arts has been proven to be in close dependence with a total spiritual and social turning-point in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the era of democratic reforms.

I Puritani is the masterpiece that crowned the creation of the Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, being remarked and appreciated for the richness of his melodicity and profound symbols filled with the inspiration and creativity of a creator. This was the last of the ten works composed by Bellini, whose disappearance was premature, at only 33 years, but the passion and talent with which he created revealed a work dominated by essence and emotion, which establishes a close connection between chant and the poetic text, providing new expressive valences to the lyrical universe. The extremely difficult and demanding vocal writing raises serious challanges, the Bel-canto style meaning not only a “beautiful chant” but also a difficult texture, a certain specific phrasing and a spread of spectacular acute tones.

My consideration of the historical opera I Medici is based on the analysis of the piece’s dramaturgy. In my opinion, libretto is a key to understanding any operatic dramas; it constitutes their primary foundation on which subsequent semantic layers of this naturally syncretic musical genre are being formed. Therefore, in my paper I have analysed individual components of the libretto, with a special emphasis placed on the characters, their personality traits as well as their musical representation in Leoncavallo’s work. Analytical operations concerning dramaturgic aspects of the opera are an essential first step in consideration of the musical layer, which lies at the heart of my research. In my paper, I follow the path marked out by a musicologist Luca Zoppelli; however, his work is only a starting point for a more detailed study of the opera’s expression and the procedures used in musical representation of veristic ideas. Verity – not only in historical sense – becomes a leading category which unifies the opera at every level: from its original source recorded in the chronicles to composer’s embodiment of the story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Arts Management is the property of International Journal of Arts Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Hipogrifo: revista de literatura y cultura del siglo de oro is the property of Hipogrifo: revista de literatura y cultura del siglo de oro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in China and the West saw a wave of skeptical approaches to metaphysics, ethics, and the physical sciences, including a related interest in "playing devil's advocate" for seemingly weak propositions. This article analyzes two works of musical theater from these geographically remote traditions to argue that use of historically problematic romances to explore the relationship of ethics, emotion, and reason resulted in novel depictions of attachment emotions as neither purely selfless "gut reactions" nor calculating facades. Scenes depicting lovers' quarrels and morally flawed characters may paradoxically strike audiences as more authentically romantic because they dramatize an aspect of attachment emotions' functioning recently elucidated by cognitive science, namely, that of "body budgeting" (allocation of energy resources by the brain). Monteverdi and Busenello's Coronation of Poppaea and Ho'ng Sheng's Palace of Lasting Life use contrastive poetic and musical styles to dramatize the debate-like quality inherent in such negotiations, further revealing a strong connection between the affective "ingredients" that make up socially mediated emotion states and the mechanisms by which music and prosody affect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the most significant trends in the development of 18th century Russian Court music are discussed. The era of reforms initiated by Tsar Peter I created the most favourable conditions to allow European music to enter the culture of the Russian Court and wider urban society. Absorption of the genres and forms of European music, specifically Italian, French and German music, blending them with Russian musical traditions, was the principal vector influencing development of national culture during the 18th century. In the reign of Empress Catherine, the Great, these tendencies were exhibited in the works of the Spanish composer, Vicente Martín y Soler. A detailed analysis is made of the genre and stylistic features of the so-called «Russian» operas of this composer associated with the travesty of motives and plots of epic genres; the musical and stylistic features of serious opera are also subjected to comic reinterpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Naples, Gioachino Rossini creates some of his works for representations in other cities. The best known, the Barber of Seville or Useless Precaution, opened on February 20, 1816, atTeatro Argentina in Rome. The booklet, a version of Pierre de Beaumarchais's eponymous novel, was rewritten by Cesare Sterbini, being a variant other than that already used by Giovanni Paisiello. Moreover, since then the work has enjoyed a great popularity, contributing to this triumph and the extremely short period in which it was conceived: two or three weeks. Later, Rossini claimed that he had created the work in just twelve days. The opening, initially bearing the title of Almaviva, was not successful, as the admirers of Paisiello, extremely indignant, sabotaged the show by whistling and shouting throughout the first act. However, shortly after the second performance, the work became so appreciated that the fame of Paisiello's work was transferred to Rossini, the title The Barber of Seville becoming an inalienable Rossinian heritage. Il Barbiere was not Rossini's favourite work. Ironically, it won the status of classical opera much later, at the end of the Rossini's career. Today we clearly consider its status as the first in the history of the work, often overlooking the radical impact it had at the time of the opening, when it shocked and provoked a large audience of unknowing persons. The speed of his writing could explain the dramatic drop in intensity felt in the second half of the second act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giacomo Puccini's artistic creation spans a period of 40 years, from 1884 to 1924, during which time he composed 12 works. This small number proves once again the great artistic exigency of the composer. The enormous success that Giacomo Puccini's works have enjoyed since his life, continues to this day and is constantly growing. We aim to analyze the area SI, MI CHIAMANO MIMÌ from LA BOHÉMA's work with personal interpretative aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the eighteenth century, scandalous literature perpetuated a strongly male-gendered image of dance spectatorship through its preoccupation with the moral and sexual status of female ballet dancers. The frequency with which authors of scandal sheets, novels, satire and political criticism alluded to liaisons involving elite men and dancers was, in part, a reflection of the period's broader fascination with the status of women on the stage. However, this active preoccupation with the sexuality of dancers was also allied to an interrogation of aristocratic and moral codes in Britain and France, and was used to instantiate a performative ideal of elite masculinity. This article focuses on the recurring figure of the opera girl, whose pursuit by aristocratic libertines aroused the contempt, curiosity and envy of readers. Incorporating a critique of extant dance criticism, the article explores the interpretative dilemmas that the opera girl's sensational sexuality has traditionally posed for dance scholarship on account of the tendency for the opera girl's attributes to be mapped onto representations of real-life dancers. Sampling sources as diverse as fashionable periodicals, works of history, sentimental novels and prostitute narratives, this article introduces the singular typology and rhetorical functions of the opera girl that distinguish her as a literary type. In the process, a more nuanced reading of opera girls is offered, one that stresses how opera girls refract the debates and anxieties of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Manuscript & Book Heritage of Ukraine is the property of V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (VNLU) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This review discusses Axel Korner's book on the role played by the United States in the political and cultural imagination of the Italian Risorgimento. It highlights the extent to which the book moves away from a historiographical tradition inaugurated by Robert Palmer in 1959, taken on in Italy by Giorgio Spini in the 1960s, and recently revitalised by Jonathan Israel, that locates the American revolution at the origins of modern democracy and treats it as a model that was imitated and discussed in the Western world. The originality of Korner's work is twofold. First, it combines cultural history with history of political thought, exploring as it does opera, literature, as well as political pamphlets and parliamentary debates. Second, it highlights the extent to which Italians were often critical of America. The review stresses the extent to which the America played a peculiar role in Italian culture in the age of nationalism due to its very geographical distance and the lack of knowledge about it among Italian, who conveyed their more pressing political and social concerns in relationship to France and Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Opera Theatre as a synthetic kind of art suggests specific approaches to its investigation. The artistic and aesthetic component of the opera genre does not exhaust the whole variety of its contents, in which the social dimension closely links and determines the historical and cultural context of many everyday life theatre activities. The methods of studying the Оdessa Italian Opera Theatre social space in the first half of the 19th century, investigation proposed in the present article, provides an opportunity to highlight the communication system of the artist, musician and the audience in the theatre auditorium, behind the stage and out of the theatre, also to stratify socially the theatre audience, to show the Italian Th eatre`s culture infl uence on the everyday life of the representatives of the Odessa main theatre groups.

The present article investigates the training of female stage practitioners and their versatility in performing different genres. Through select case studies – such as those of Giulia de Caro and Teresa Gandini – it aims to trace the careers of actresses seeking to create an identity in the stage industry. Several sources describe their still unknown professional development, focusing both on parts and roles and on their performing skills (singing, dance, prose). As members of a society and a stage industry which still defy a thorough illustration, they reveal complex personalities that go far beyond brief and concise ‘biographies’. Needless to say, they interact with ‘multitasking’ colleagues, as can be seen in the troupes of Domenico Antonio Di Fiore and Gabriele Costantini, whose actors were eager to work on different ‘stages’, showing how varied and intriguing their specialization was.

The history of the Italian opera in Prague in 1780s is linked with the name of Pasquale Bondini. Although an impresario of famous Mozartian performances, the details concerning his enterprise and repertoire are often neglected or unknown. Starting in autumn 1781, he succeeded against concurrence and converted the Thun Theatre in public venue of many functions: a scene for connoisseurs, opera and music funs, as well as a meeting point of high society, or political rivals. The repertoire, although dominated by popular opera buffa composers as Anfossi or Cimarosa, reveals a distinct dramaturgical policy, which points toward Bondini's previous experience in Dresden. Through choosing concrete operas and its adaptations a relatively original mixture of titles and genres (comic, serious, mixed) was set up, which helped to attract various audiences and maintain high level of performances.

Both, secular as well as spiritual dramatic compositions by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1620/23–1680) represent only a fraction of the composer's work. Though its research brings rather surprising findings within the field of style problematic, it also helps to create a comprehensive view on opera and oratorio performances at the Imperial court. In the preserved serenata Le veglie ossequiose from 1679 we can see hints of distinctive synthesis of his compositional style with that of Antonio Draghi (1634/35–1700). Despite the fact, that the score for Schmelzer's first Italian serenata L'urna della sorte is not preserved, its printed libretto represents an interesting source, which can be used as an important comparative material. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to summarize the existing findings and compare them with analysis of preserved music and librettos.

The history of the Italian opera in Prague in 1780s is linked with the name of Pasquale Bondini. Although an impresario of famous Mozartian performances, the details concerning his enterprise and repertoire are often neglected or unknown. Starting in autumn 1781, he succeeded against concurrence and converted the Thun Theatre in public venue of many functions: a scene for connoisseurs, opera and music funs, as well as a meeting point of high society, or political rivals. The repertoire, although dominated by popular opera buffa composers as An- fossi or Cimarosa, reveals a distinct dramaturgical policy, which points toward Bondini's previous experience in Dresden. Through choosing concrete operas and its adaptations a relatively original mixture of titles and genres (comic, serious, mixed) was set up, which helped to attract various audiences and maintain high level of performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both, secular as well as spiritual dramatic compositions by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (1620/23-1680) represent only a fraction of the composer's work. Though its research brings rather surprising findings within the field of style problematic, it also helps to create a comprehensive view on opera and oratorio performances at the Imperial court. In the preserved serenata Le veglie ossequiose from 1679 we can see hints of distinctive synthesis of his compositional style with that of Antonio Draghi (1634/35-1700). Despite the fact, that the score for Schmelzer's first Italian serenata L'urna della sorte is not preserved, its printed libretto represents an interesting source, which can be used as an important comparative material. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to summarize the existing findings and compare them with analysis of preserved music and librettos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I Puritani is the masterpiece that crowned the creation of the Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, being remarked and appreciated for the richness of his melodicity and profound symbols filled with the inspiration and creativity of a creator. This was the last of the ten works composed by Bellini, whose disappearance was premature, at only 33 years, but the passion and talent with which he created revealed a work dominated by essence and emotion, which establishes a close connection between chant and the poetic text, providing new expressive valences to the lyrical universe. The extremely difficult and demanding vocal writing raises serious challanges, the Bel-canto style meaning not only a "beautiful chant" but also a difficult texture, a certain specific phrasing and a spread of spectacular acute tones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]