Musical Drama in Venice (1678-1792), 2023-2025
The research group investigates the different declinations of musical dramaturgy in Venice in the last century of the Republic's life. The chronological extremes are symbolically based on the dates of the inauguration of the Teatro S. Giovanni Grisostomo (1678) and La Fenice (1792), two institutions that played a primary role in the introduction and promotion of new dramaturgical and musical trends. This chronological framework corresponds to key moments in the final phase of the Serenissima: on the one hand, the Morean War (1684-99) was the last victorious campaign of the Republic, but paradoxically had the effect of weakening its socio-economic fabric; on the other hand, the Treaty of Campoformio (1797) marked the final demise of the Venetian state.
In the period under consideration, the musical theater in Venice was characterized by fluctuating and pluralistic tendencies, where seventeenth-century models coexisted for a long time with innovative strands. The research aims to explore, on a diachronic level, the changing dramaturgical-musical paradigms in relation to contemporary Italian and European experiences, and on a synchronic level the peculiar coexistence of local traditions and external influences on the city's musical scene. In addition to the dramatic music, attention is also paid to the other forms of musical dramaturgy practiced in Venice (playful drama, intermezzi, pantomime dance, comedy with musical inserts, serenade, oratorio…), with which the dramatic music interacted or with which it shared an audience.
The research group promotes interdisciplinarity and plurality of methodological approaches. The aim is to investigate musical theater as a complex system, characterized internally by the interaction of heterogeneous components, externally by interdependence with respect to the artistic, cultural, social and production context.
Giada Viviani, University of Genoa
Valentina Anzani, Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, Madrid
Nicola Badolato, University of Bologna
Diana Blichman, Independent Scholar, Rome
Melania Bucciarelli, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim
Andrea Chegai, La Sapienza University, Rome
Valeria Conti, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Paolo De Matteis, Conservatory “F. Morlacchi”, Perugia
Andrew Fabian, Sorbonne Université, Paris
Raffaele Mellace, University of Genoa
Giovanni Polin, Conservatory “A. Vivaldi”, Alessandria
Lucio Tufano, University of Palermo
Nicola Usula, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Piermario Bishop, Ca' Foscari University, Venice
Ugo and Olga Levi Foundation
Antonio Vivaldi Italian Institute, Cini Foundation, Venice
WoVen (Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice), Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim