Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Comedy in an Age of Tragedy
- 1 Opera Buffa in 1832: Il nuovo Figaro and L'elisir d'amore
- 2 The Ricci Supremacy and the Celebration of Italian Comedy: Un'avventura di Scaramuccia (1834)
- 3 Old Librettos Revisited: Gaetano Rossi and Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro (1838) and Other Remakes
- 4 Genre in Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale (1843)
- 5 Genre in Giovanni Peruzzini and Lauro Rossi's Il borgomastro di Schiedam (1844)
- 6 “Evviva la Francia”? Nationality, Censorship, and Donizetti's La figlia del reggimento (1840)
- Conclusion: The Ricci Legacy, Crispino e la comare (1850), and Post-1848 Opera Buffa
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
3 - Old Librettos Revisited: Gaetano Rossi and Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro (1838) and Other Remakes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2013
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Comedy in an Age of Tragedy
- 1 Opera Buffa in 1832: Il nuovo Figaro and L'elisir d'amore
- 2 The Ricci Supremacy and the Celebration of Italian Comedy: Un'avventura di Scaramuccia (1834)
- 3 Old Librettos Revisited: Gaetano Rossi and Luigi Ricci's Le nozze di Figaro (1838) and Other Remakes
- 4 Genre in Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale (1843)
- 5 Genre in Giovanni Peruzzini and Lauro Rossi's Il borgomastro di Schiedam (1844)
- 6 “Evviva la Francia”? Nationality, Censorship, and Donizetti's La figlia del reggimento (1840)
- Conclusion: The Ricci Legacy, Crispino e la comare (1850), and Post-1848 Opera Buffa
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Ho da fare un dramma buffo,
E non trovo l'argomento!
Questo ha troppo sentimento
Quello insipido mi par.
[I have to make a comic drama, and I cannot find the subject! This one is too sentimental, that one seems insipid to me.]
—Felice Romani, Il turco in Italia (1814)Adapting Earlier Librettos
The subject matter of Italian opera librettos is rarely original. Since the inception of the genre, librettists drew on all kinds of fictional, historical, dramatic, and narrative materials, modifying them to varying degrees in order to suit the different medium, specific musical and dramatic conventions, the expectations of specific patrons, the needs and demands of the cast, or the requirements of authorities and censors. Quite early in the history of opera, it became clear that one of the most straightforward ways to produce a libretto was to adapt an existing one. This practice solidified in the eighteenth century, and its pervasiveness is exemplified perfectly in countless remakes of the librettos of Pietro Metastasio. In early-nineteenth-century Italy, however, classical and neoclassical opera seria plots were in decline. Although they never completely disappeared, the most important librettists and composers did away with those subjects, seeking new dramatic themes instead. It is emblematic that in 1828 Vincenzo Bellini refused to compose a Cesare in Egitto, because, as he explained in a letter to his friend Francesco Florimo, “the subject is as old as Noah” (il soggetto è vecchio come Noè).
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- Information
- Laughter between Two RevolutionsOpera Buffa in Italy, 1831-1848, pp. 89 - 138Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013