Literatura académica sobre el tema "Theater of Marcellus (Rome, Italy)"

AbstractEquestrian ballet was a spectacular genre of musical theater popular in the Baroque court. A phenomenon with military roots, the ballet communicated both the might and grace of its organizers, who often played starring roles. This essay explores the ballet’s centrality by tracing the itinerant opera singer and writer Margherita Costa’s use of the genre as a means of securing elite patronage: from an elegant manuscript libretto presented to Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici and later revised in print for Cardinal Jules Mazarin in Paris, to occasional poetry written for the Barberini in Rome, and even burlesque caricatures.

Abstract This article discusses the collaboration between Benito Mussolini and Giovacchino Forzano in the writing of three historical dramas, focusing on the third text of their collaboration, Cesare, which dates to 1939. Placing this partnership within the context of Fascism’s broader theatrical programming, the essay discusses the play as a model of Fascist theater, for its imparting of Fascist ideological tenets, propagandistic messages, and pedagogical aims. It focuses in particular on the ways in which the play uses the analogy between ancient Rome and Fascist Italy, and between Julius Caesar and Mussolini, embodying fascism’s poetics of history, contributing to the anthropological revolution, and overall demonstrating the ‘new fascist man’ through the character of Caesar/Mussolini.

AbstractThis study draws on the unpublished correspondence between Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, a Florentine poet and grandnephew of the artist, and the Barberini family, in an attempt to examine the wider concepts of cultural clientelism and brokerage networks in the early modern process of cultural dissemination (in the areas of literature, music, theater, painting, architecture, and science) in Florence and Rome. Reconsidering the definition and role of a Seicento cultural broker added to the traditional model of patron and client, it analyzes Michelangelo the Younger’s activity as broker, patron-broker, and broker-client in connection with such significant figures as Maffeo Barberini (the future Urban VIII), Galileo, and the painter Lodovico Cigoli, exploring the ways in which these roles supported his personal commitment to promote his family’s social status and revealing the fluidity of roles in the patronage system. By obtaining Barberini patronage for his theatrical works and public recognition of the mythology of his illustrious forebear, Buonarroti’s cultural brokerage supported these dynastic ambitions. Spanning nearly half a century, this archival documentation casts new light on a little-known, but significant, area of Italian social relations and suggests directions for further research on other Seicento cultural brokers and new definitions for a broader concept of cultural brokerage in early modern Italy.

The study is devoted to the first publicly accessible opera house Teatro San Cassiano (Venice, 1637), the establishment of which became a cardinal factor in the transformation of opera from aristocratic court entertainment to creative industry. The author considers the issues related to the history of the theater’s construction and the actions of its owners, the Venetian nobles, the Tron brothers, aimed at turning opera into a profitable business. The article reveals possible prototypes and reasons for the constructive solutions in the theater, in particular the boxes and the U-shaped audience hall. The author gives the parametric characteristics of the components of the Teatro San Cassiano building — the stage, the audience hall, and the boxes. It is noted that the tiered Theatro San Cassiano became a prototype for other theatres not only in Venice, but also in other cities of Italy and Europe. Thus, among the Venetian theaters of the 17th century, the public theaters, such as SS Giovanni e Paolo (1638), Novissimo (1640), San Moise (1640), and San Giovanni Crisostomo (1678), were inspired by San Cassiano; outside Venice there were Teatro Falcone (Genoa, 1652) and Teatro Tordinona (Rome, 1671). The article emphasizes market competition that was one of the key factors in the dynamic spread of opera and the formation of opera infrastructure in Europe. After the establishment of San Cassiano, the development of opera acquired a clearly defined vector: from elitist entertainment to creative industry.

In spring of 1924 Viacheslav Ivanov was invited to Moscow to participate in the June celebrations of the 125th anniversary of Aleksandr Pushkin’s birth. The months he spent in the capital reflect an unusually active social schedule. As his address book of the summer of 1924 indicates, he met with a wide range of people: composers and performers (Reinhold Glière, Mikhail Gnesin, Aleksandr Grechaninov, Aleksandr Goldenweiser, Nikolai Miaskovsky, Nikolai Medtner, Leonid Sabaneev), poets and prose writers (Valery Briusov, Iurgis Baltrushaitis, Andrei Globa, Vasily Kazin, Vladimir Lidin, Isaiah Lezhnev, Vladimir Nilender, Ivan Novikov, Sergei Poliakov, Ivan Rukavishnikov, Sergei Shervinsky, Anastasia Tsvetaeva), theater directors (Vsevolod Meyerhold, Aleksandr Tairov), literary scholars (Mikhail Gershenzon, Leonid Grossman, Viktor Zhirmunsky, Boris Eichenbaum), artists (Anatoly Arapov, Nikolai Ulianov, Nikolai Vysheslavtsev, Konstantin Yuon), priests and theologians (Sergei Sidorov, Pavel Florensky), art historians and museum curators (Count Valentin Zubov, Nikolai Mashkovtsev, Boris Ternovets, Abram Efros) and others. Many of these people were in one way or another connected to the activity of the State Academy for the Study of the Arts (GAKhN). It was in fact for GAKhN that Ivanov gave a series of well-received lectures. After receiving his passport to travel to Italy on 4 July 1924, Ivanov decided to postpone his departure for an entire month. It would seem that this delay was connected to the need to draw up a project for the creation in Rome of a Soviet State Institute for History, Archeology and Art History. The project was supported by Petr Kogan, the president of GAKhN, and by Anatoly Lunacharsky, the head of the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment. The Institute was envisioned as an organization that would serve both researchers and students, following the models of the corresponding academies in Rome — the French Academy, the French School of Archeology, the German Archeological Institute, etc. As Ivanov formulated it in the first plan that he gave to Lunacharsky on 24 August 1924: “The absence of Russia in the arena where cultured peoples are jointly and competitively pursuing scholarly work and cooperating in advanced scholarly colloquy is a kind of voluntary exclusion from contemporary civilization and an indirect affirmation of false rumors about the decline of our culture.”

Introduction. In the music of the late twentieth century the realization of the creative potential of performers is rarely limited with the framework of direction which was chosen in the beginning of career. The field of the academic music may be too narrow for the artist, but this does not mean a definitive departure from this area. The life and performances of Italian singer, actress and composer Daisy Lumini (1936–1993) could be considered as one of the examples of the twentieth century “variability” of the artist’s way. She developed from a graduate of the Conservatory to a pop star and a cabaret singer, from a medieval folklore performer to an interpreter of contemporary academic music. Daisy Lumini’s unique performing experience led her to collaborate with Italian composers of the late twentieth century. Theoretical background. The extraordinary personality of Daisy Lumini received a certain resonance in the European press. High historical value is the biographical essay “Daisy e la musica. Una grande e tragica storia” (2019) by Chiara Ferrari, based on the memories of Beppe Chierici. Daisy Lumini and her works are mentioned in digest “The Singer-Songwriter in Europe: Paradigms, Politics and Place” (2016) and in Jacopo Tomatis’s “Storia culturale della canzone italiana” (2019). The purpose of this paper is to reveal the specifics of the interaction of the composer and performer in the post-avant-garde music based on the creative collaboration of Daisy Lumini and Italian composers of the late twentieth century (Franco Mannino, Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino). This study requires the use of analytical, style and performing methods of scientific research. Results of the research. Daisy Lumini’s singing style has implicated using a lot of types of intonational practices which is usually associated with the mass twentieth century culture (including pop songs, folk music, cabaret aesthetic etc.). Nevertheless, she had started her musician career with getting education (as a composer and pianist) in totally academic environment in Luigi Cherubini Conservatory (Florence, Italy). Being a daughter of the Florentine painter Vasco Lumini, Daisy Lumini had would be able to continue a calm and comfortable existence in Florence. However, after she had been graduated from the Conservatory in late 1950s she decided to change her life vector, moved to Rome, started her activity as a cantautrice (female singer-songwriter) and produced her first singles. During this period, Lumini found success in collaboration with lyric writer Aldo Alberini and well-known Italian singers Mina Mazzini and Claudio Villa. Along with traditional vocal techniques, Lumini used the whistling technique, due to which she got the nickname “l’usignolo di Firenze” (“the Florentine nightingale”) and was invited by Ennio Morricone to whistle in the soundtrack of Lina Wertmüller’s “I Basilischi” (“The Lizards”, 1963). In 1960s a work in Gianni Bongiovanni’s Derby Club Cabaret (Milan) and a collaboration with the RCA (Radio Corporation of America) turned into the fields of Lumini’s creative activity. The acquaintanceship with Beppe Chierici, an actor, who would become her husband, lead to a new “folklore” stage of Lumini’s career. As a result of careful research of Italian folk music founded on the materials of Conservatory Santa Cecilia Library (Rome), the singer together with Beppe Chierici had produced several musical performances in the aesthetics of poor theater based on the Tuscan and Piedmontese songs of the XV–XIX centuries, as well as the Songs of Minstrels album based on the texts of the XII–XIV centuries. There was DaisyLumini’s gradual return to the environment of academic music in 1970s. Singer’s friendly communication with conductor Gianluigi Gelmetti, composers Franco Mannino, Domenico Guaccero and others, who represented Santa Cecilia Conservatory, has resulted in a number of creative collaborations. In 1973, even being immersed in ethnographic research, Daisy Lumini performed as mezzo-soprano in Franco Mannino’s “Il diavolo in giardino”. Another milestone in Daisy Lumini’s work became 1982, when director Roberto Scaparro invited the singer to participate in the Italian premiere of Luciano Berio’s “La vera storia”. In the opera, which is a creative reinterpretation of Verdi’s “Troubadour”, Daisy Lumini played the role of one of the cantastorie – singing storytellers or narrators describing and commenting events of the plot. Daisy Lumini achieved a real success as a performer of the post-avant-garde music in the 1980s, in collaboration with Salvatore Sciarrino. Daisy Lumini has premiered a great number of his chamber works, such as “Efebo con Radio”, “Canto degli specchi”, “Vanitas”, “Lohengrin” and some others. Conclusions. Although Daisy Lumini is an individual case, the phenomena and strategies discussed here may turn out to be symptomatic for contemporary music practice. Performers may rarely allow themselves to remain within the same intonational practice in the contemporary music art. It is especially important if it comes to the first performing of the post-avant-garde music that requires a certain congeniality of the performer and the author. The interaction of the composer and the performer is often a factor affecting the creation of a musical work at all stages, from the appearance of an idea for a premiere performance. The musician with a rich life experience and wide range of performing techniques may be considered as the co-author of the score.

Isidro González Velázquez’s experiences and works in Italy, sponsored by the monarch Charles IV with the purpose of studying the antiquities of Rome, are better known than those of the rest of the Spanish pensionados of the eighteenth century, thanks to the conservation of plans, drawings and documents of the architect in different institutions. Recently, the Real Academia de San Fernando acquired an important collection of drawings with measures by Velázquez, mostly related to classical monuments. This collection comes to enlighten the fieldwork system of Velázquez, and in general of the students of architecture of his time, the state of conservation of the constructions he was interested in (the temples of the Forum, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Forum of Augustus, etc.) and the professional relationships that he established in order to carry out the measurement of these classical buildings.

Examining Board: Professor Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, IUE (Supervisor); Professor Lucy Riall, IUE (Relatore IUE); Professor Martin Baumeister, Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München (Relatore esterno); Professor Catherine Brice, Université Paris-Est Créteil (Relatore esterno).
Defence date: 7 November 2012
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This dissertation examines the forms and spaces of entertainment, such as theatres, cinemas and music halls, in Rome between 1911, when celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Italy’s unification took place, and the First World War. This was a time characterized by the emergence of popular and mass culture and by the spread of a specifically nationalist culture that changed dramatically after the war against Libya in 1911. By adopting a broad definition of "culture,” including both high and low culture, this dissertation explores the ways in which a specific theatrical tradition staged the nation’s history, in particular that of the Risorgimento, after Italian unification. It then broadens the analysis to other forms of entertainment. This dissertation argues that the 1909-1911 celebrations were marked by a renewed attention to the "patriotic” tradition, and spurred the emergence of new theatrical and cinematographic productions, which became particularly relevant in the context of the First World War, thus giving substance to the "culture de guerre”. I argue that theatre shows and movies avoided representing the violence and suffering that characterized the war, partly because of the existence of various forms of censorship. However, the presence of wounded bodies among the audience gave way to a dual representation, and transformed theatres, cinemas and music halls into privileged spaces where the war and the domestic front met. By taking into account the case-study of a girls’ school, I show the gendered dimension of civil society mobilization. Finally, this dissertation analyzes the role entertainment played in "building the enemy,” identified with Kultur, and the emergence of a moral discourse about entertainment, which coincided with the spread of popular culture - especially the cinema - and became even stronger and more complex with the outbreak of the First World War.

Abstract In its earliest years opera emerged as an enhancement of festivities designed to glorify the rule of dynasties in city-states or the power of cardinals in Rome. Its arrival in Venice led to a radical transformation in its very essence and a new beginning in its history. Coming from Rome in 1637, what the first opera troupe found upon arriving in Venice was not a dynasty to glorify (unless it was Venice herself) but thriving commerce and, especially during carnival, a teeming international, pleasure-seeking public. Opera took root immediately, on an entirely new basis: in one form or another, the public paid to be admitted to the theater, and the introduction of this new commercial factor speedily had its effect on what the public was offered. Opera very soon learned to adapt itself to the new consumers: scenic effects remained a high priority, but now solo singing grew tremendously in importance. More and more, composers strove to exploit the solo voice in constructing their scores, and star opera singers began to dominate the operatic stage (as they do to this day). It was Venetian opera, in turn, that dominated wherever opera found a new venue, whether in Italy or abroad. And except where supported by kings or other rulers, its economic underpinnings reflected the lessons learned in Venice. The details of operatic production in seventeenth-century Venice are nowhere so clearly described as in the following extracts from a book by the theatrical chronicler Cristoforo lvanovich published in 1681. Entitled Minerva al tavolino (Minerva at her desk), it is a catalogue of all the operas produced at Venice’s numerous theaters from 1637 to the date of publication, with an appendix (from which we quote) describing the theaters themselves and how they functioned.

Abstract Literary criticism in Italy around 1700 was very much preoccupied with the dominance of French culture in Europe and the consequent waning of Italian prestige. Gone were the days when Italian literature was held up everywhere as a model to be imitated. Instead, Italy for a century had been in the grips of a literary decadence that soon would acquire the derogatory name of secentismo, “seventeenth-century-ism.” Its poetry, ornate and mannered, was hardly exportable anymore. Instead, the main export item now was opera, and this, if anything, only held Italy up to further ridicule (see Saint-Evremond, p. 51 ff above). It was in this atmosphere that the Arcadian Academy was founded in Rome in 1690. An institution whose goal was the purification of Italian literature in all its forms, including, very importantly, tragedy (a genre in which France had recently offered the world supreme examples), the Academy soon turned its attention to opera. The Arcadians felt (quite rightly too) that opera had usurped the Italian stage, bringing about the decline of “legitimate” theater in Italy. Some writers wished to abolish opera altogether, as a degrading, “venal” spectacle. Pier Jacopo Martello (1665-1727), who helped found an Arcadian “colony” in his native Bologna, was more reasonable: he belonged to those who merely sought to reform opera. He had in fact written several librettos himself, as well as “legitimate” tragedies; and when he came to formulate his thoughts on tragedy in a treatise entitled Della tragedia antica e moderna (On Ancient and Modern Tragedy), he included in its second edition (1715) an entire section on opera. The premise of the treatise is this: on his way to France, Martello has met a stranger who, upon further acquaintance, turns out to be none other than Aristotle himself, the founder of tragic theory, miraculously come back to life. What follows, then, is a series of dialogues, carried on mostly in Paris and environs, between Martello and this latter-day philosopher, who reinterprets the classical “rules” of tragedy, adapting them quite sensibly to eighteenth-century conditions. With a light touch, pseudo-Aristotle teaches his disciple how to write a libretto. He dismisses the notion that such a work might be considered poetry in any serious way and instead gives him a down-to-earth, mildly satirical account of all the components of Italian opera that need to be taken into consideration by the would-be librettist.