The Reality of Venice

During the late 1640s and 1650s, pressed by the success of opera to search for new sources for their plots, librettists moved away from the Trojan-Roman orbit in an eastward direction, and a number of librettos of this period are set in foreign locales like Susa, Assyria, Media, Tauris. These librettos, however, were no less closely connected to Venetian politics than their predecessors. If less concerned with the legendary origins of Venice, they seem to bear an even more specific relationship to current events. References to and personifications of Venice continue to cultivate or expand upon her image as a stronghold of freedom and haven against the barbarians, but the barbarians are now pointedly Turkish, as if in response to Venice's growing preoccupation with the Ottoman threat to her maritime power.^[34] During the 1650s and 1660s, when legendary Roman heroes began to be featured with increasing frequency in opera librettos, their exploits invited comparison with those of Venetian military heroes in the War of Candia (the Rome-Venice equation once again).^[35]

Venice's preoccupation with Ottoman power reached its first crisis in 1645 with the outbreak of the war, which drained Venetian manpower and resources for nearly a quarter of a century (1645-69). Its onset inspired an outpouring of patriotic zeal among the Venetian nobility, who were called upon for financial support as well as personal participation.^[36] In part because this same nobility was among its chief patrons and enthusiasts, opera could not help but be affected by the crisis. Along with the prohibition of all other public spectacles, opera theaters were closed for the 1646 season, and it was not until several years

[33] "che non meno de' Pompei, e de' Traiani coll'erettione di sontuosi Teatri, e con la protettione de' Virtuosi si fanno conoscer nel Mondo per veri Mecenati delle Muse" (Eliogabalo , dedication, 10 January 1667 [1668], p. 2).

[34] Two librettos of 1651 featured Alexander the Great, Alessandro vincitor di se stesso by Sbarra and Gli amori d'Alessandro magno e di Rossane by Cicognini, while two operas of 1654 featured Persian subjects, Ciro by Sorrentino and Xerse by Minato. On the significance of these themes, see Wolfgang Osthoff, "Antonio Cestis 'Alessandro vincitor di se stesso,' " Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 24 (1960): 13-43.

[35] See Bianconi, Seventeenth Century , 189. The implicit comparison is made explicit by Marco Rosetti in canto 34 of his long poem of 1684-93 commemorating the War of Candia, La sacra lega divisa in quaranta libri overo canti consacrata al Ser. Prencipe et Ecc. Senato della gloriosissima repubblica (Padua: Seminario, 1696). He praises the Venetian hero Francesco Morosini: "In paragone dell'opere sue sono un nulla quelle degli Scipioni e di Pompeo. . . . Questi pugnarono contro un solo re, e tu con poche forze e molto ingegno di man togliesti a tutta l'Asia un regno" (Antonio Medin, La storia della repubblica di Venezia nella poesia [Milan, 1904], 366).

[36] For the patriotic enthusiasm inspired by the War of Candia, and especially its literary expression, see Medin, La storia . . . nella poesia , 315-79. The events surrounding this costly and protracted war are chronicled in S. Romanin, Storia documentata di Venezia (Venice, 1853-61), 7: 343-526; for a modern review, see Roberto Cessi, Storia della repubblica di Venezia (Milan and Messina, 1968), 2: 193-204.

later, when the immediate crisis had passed, that Venice's operatic life returned to full strength—except, as we have seen, for the Teatro Novissimo, which never reopened.^[37]

Other critical moments in the War of Candia occurred in 1651, with the Venetian victory at Paros, and again in 1656, with the successful battle of the Dardanelles. Although the outcome for the Venetians was positive—at least in the short run—these military efforts proved costly, drawing heavily upon resources and morale. They also appear to have affected operatic life: several theaters were closed for the 1651 season, and a few remained inoperative for several subsequent years as well.^[38] Librettists were among those involved in the events of 1651. A volume commemorating the victory at Paros published in that year contained poetry by Busenello, Aureli, Minato, and Giacomo dall'Angelo, among others.^[39]

During this period, references to Venice are usually both more explicit and extrinsic to the actual plots of librettos: they appear either in prefaces or else in prologues (or epilogues), those framing elements marginal to the drama that were traditionally reserved for occasional references to patrons or for other kinds of special communications from poet to audience. Because of their occasional nature, such prologues were rarely repeated when their accompanying operas were performed outside Venice.^[40] But for Venetian purposes, practically every libretto prologue of the late 1640s and early 1650s refers to war, to the Turk, and to Venice as the bastion of peace, the most peace-loving nation on earth. In the prologue of Ersilla (1648) by Giovanni Faustini, for example, Venere (Ciprigna), goddess of Cyprus,^[41] praises the "heroic guests" (presum-

[37] SS. Giovanni e Paolo may have opened during the spring of 1647 for a performance of Deidamia (see ch. 3, n. 101, above). S. Cassiano and S. Moisè seem to have opened for the 1647-48 season; they were joined by SS. Giovanni e Paolo and SS. Apostoli in 1649-50. The operas listed by Ivanovich for the intervening years—all of them with librettos by Busenello, namely La prosperità infelice di Giulio Cesare and L'incoronazione di Poppea in 1646 and Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne in 1647—were not performed then. In his efforts to cover all seasons, Ivanovich may have extrapolated performances from a misreading of the date on Busenello's publication of his collected librettos, Le hore ociose of 1656.

[38] S. Cassiano was closed from 1651 to 1657; S. Moisè closed from 1650 to 1653; SS. Apostoli closed in 1653.

[39] Le glorie dell'armi venete celebrate nell'accademia de' Signori Imperfetti per la vittoria ottenuta contro l'armi ottomane (Venice: Pinelli, 1651). Busenello was the protettore of the academy, Aureli the secretary, and Minato one of the consiglieri (see Rosand, "L'Ovidio trasformato," LIII n. 77).

[40] They would have been changed for subsequent performances in Venice too. On the impact of new prologues affixed to Venetian operas exported to Naples during the 1660s and 1670s, see Bianconi, "Scena, musica e pubblico," 21-22; also id., Seventeenth Century , 190, and id., "Funktionen des Operntheaters in Neapel bis 1700 und die Rolle Alessandro Scarlattis," in Colloquium Alessandro Scarlatti: Würz-burg 1975 , ed. Wolfgang Osthoff and J. Ruile-Dronke (Tutzing, 1979), 112-13. The new prologues served to transform Venetian belligerence toward the Turk into Neapolitan allegiance to the sovereign.

[41] Since Cyprus was a Venetian possession, seaborne Venus was an especially appropriate mythological symbol of Venetian empire. For Venezia/Venere, see David Rosand, " 'Venetia Figurata,' " 188-90.

ably the Venetians anchored near Candia) for taking a stand as sole defenders of the world against the Turkish barbarians:

Heroic guests, who sit on my Cythera laden down with steel, warriors witnessing the errors of Ersilla, may Glory crown your locks with laurels, and with a golden trumpet sing your fame in resonant sound. You alone restrain the unleashed fury of the barbarian world. . . . I will terrify the tyrant on the throne of Byzantium with great-hearted pride, invincible and holy, from a floating and shining city. At the Lion's roars, the grave of Leander conquered by Xerxes [i.e., the waters of the Hellespont] turned back, frightened, toward the Black Sea. It feared, it trembled, that the magnanimous beast might drink Ottoman treachery at the spring of the Tartarean lair.^[42]

And the prologue of Fusconi's Argiope (1649), written later than the rest of the libretto (which dates from 1645), represents an allegorical conflict between Guerra and Pace that concludes with Pace hailing Venice as her ideal resting place:

On my flying chariot, I made my Halcyons swiftly direct their steps here, only to rest until the Kingdom of the Waters was born. Clear city, chosen by the wisdom of Jove as a second heaven, and built for noble souls! O Fates, ignore your custom and spin fast the years, so that others need not have to suffer, waiting, and with a propitious star let fair Venice be born in the bosom of Neptune, she who with wisdom and valor will be the Lady of the Sea, the glory of the world.^[43]

Several prologues by Giacomo Castoreo written during the 1650s find ways of praising Venice's peacekeeping efforts through the mouths of a variety of

[42] "Hospiti Heroi, che sù la mia Citera / Carchi d'acciar sedete / De gl'errori d'Ersilla / Guerrieri spettatori, / V'incoroni la gloria il crin d'allori, / E con la tromba d'oro / Di voi canti la lama in suon sonoro: / D'un barbarico mondo / Voi soli raffrenate / Le furie scatenate / . . . . Sbigottirò nel soglio / Di Bizantio il Tiranno, /Con glorioso orgoglio / De petti invitti, e santi, / La Città natatrici, e folgoranti. / Del Leone a ruggiti / Il domato da Zerse / Sepolcro di Leandro / Pavido al negro mare il piè, converse; / Temè, tremò, ch'andasse / La magnanima fera / A' bever ne le fonti / De la Tartara Tana / La perfidia Ottomana" (Ersilla , prologue). The apostrophe to the "Venetian heroes" is fairly common. The prologue to Faustini's Doriclea (1645) concludes with it too, delivered by Gloria: "Di voi Veneti Heroi, / Le cui virtù sublimi / Volan dal freddo Borea à caldi Eoi, / Di voi nido e il tempio, in lui vivrete, / Ad onta di Saturnio, immortalati, / A secoli venturi, ò fortunati." It is worth remembering that 1645 was the time when political tensions with the Turk were such that the theaters were about to close for several years.

[43] "Su'l mio carro volante / Qui fei velocemente / A gli Alcioni miei drizzar le piante. / Solo per riposarmi infino a tanto, / Che nel Regno de l'Acque habbia il natale. / Chiara Città dal sen di Glove eletta, / Per Ciel secondo, e a nobil alme eretta, / Fuori del fatal'uso / De i volumi de gli anni, / Rapide o Parche homai rotate il fuso, / Perch'altri in aspettar più non s'affanni, / E con propitia stella / Nasca a Nettuno in sen Venetia bella / Che con saver, e con valor profondo / Sarà Donna del Mar, gloria del Mondo" (Argiope , prologue). Like Amore innamorato in 1642, Argiope is an arrangement by Fusconi of subject matter by another author (see ch. 6, n. 26, below, and Bianconi and Walker, "Dalla 'Finta pazza,' " 417 n. 156). The postponement of the production of Argiope —from 1645, when it was written, to 1649—may well have been owing to the politically inspired closing of the theaters, which would also account for the heavy emphasis in the later prologue on Venice's role as keeper of the peace.

divinities.^[44] In that to Eurimene (1643), an allegory of war between Venere in a flying chariot and Matte on the ground, Venere tells Matte of Giove's decision that the Turk should be made to suffer defeat at the hands of the Venetians and urges him to stop the fighting.^[45] Apollo sings a hymn of praise to Venice, haven of peace, in the prologue to Arsinoe (1655-56).^[46] And the prologue to Oronte (1656) concludes with the goddess Iride exhorting members of the audience, in their capacity as defenders against the Orient, to attend to the drama.^[47]

Toward the end of the 1650s, these references become even more pointed; they mention not only Venice's general attributes as bastion of peace and defender against the Turk, but specific geographical locations related to the battle for Crete and particular events. The prologue of Tolomeo , an anonymous text for a play with musical intermedi (1658-59), features a large number of deities associated with war: Vittoria, Vulcano, Venere, Pallade, and Matte. After a succession of specific references to Mongibello and Crete, Vittoria ends the prologue with her promise to serve the Venetian forces.^[48]

The prologue of a libretto of the same year (1659), Elena , performed at S. Cassiano, concludes with a dialogue between Verità and Pace, which alludes to the extraordinary length of the war that has occupied Venice. (Byron referred to the War of Candia as the Iliad of Venice.)

[44] Many of the texts Castoreo wrote during the 1650s were for the Teatro ai Saloni, a private theater founded by 1650 "senza alcun giro di Palchi, ma con alcuni pochi in faccia alla Scena" (Ivanovich, Minerva , 400). At the Saloni, performances were normally spoken, with only the prologue and intermedi set to music. Several theaters, including the Saloni, S. Salvatore, and SS. Giovanni e Paolo, seem to have specialized in politically allusive prologues.

[45] "Segua ciò che destina / Il Tonante superno, / Che dell'eccelsa Monarchia d'Oriente, / Cada l'ingiusto Orgoglio / Del Hadria invitta à far scabello al soglio. /Non più guerra" (Eurimene , prologue).

[46] "O dell'Adria ch'accoglie / Di sue glorie motrice, in sen la Pace, / Illustri Lidi, e fortunate Arene. / Dalle dorate Soglie / Dell'Oriente guerriero à voi sen viene / Il Monarca del lume, / Alle vostre vittorie, Amico Nume: / Frenate Alme sublimi / Que' bellici rigori, ond'atterite / Nella Barbara Reggia, il fiero Trace, / E pacifici udite / D'un Arsinoe vagante i strani casi: / Ne prohibite al core, / Che frà sdegni di Marte, in reggia Scena, / Possa tall'hor, udir l'ire d'Amore" (Arsinoe , prologue).

[47] "Veneti Eroi, che 'l frenator d'Oriente / Entro il Bosforo suo tenete à freno: / Arridi à vostre glorie il mio sereno, / Iride vi Coroni il Crin vincente.
"Quando però co i Veli, onde circonda / Il Tiranno Pangèo, l'empia Cervice / Prima v'asciugherà la Dea vittrice / Quel bel sudor, che i vostri Lauri innonda.
"Ma i Lumi avvezzi a vagheggiar sul Mare/ Fra i Cipressi di Traccia i proprii Allori, / Non sdegnino mirar fra dolci amori / Le Fortune d'Oronte ancor ch'amare" (Oronte , prologue).

[48] "A la Veneta Armata, à l'onde Egee, / In Asia, in Creta, al venerabil stuolo / Ratta mi porta obbediente volo" (Tolomeo , prologue).

[49] VERITÀ : "Odan de l'Adria i gloriosi Eroi. / Tempo verrà ch'afflitto e stanco il Trace / Pentito al fin de folli orgogli suoi / Implorerà dal Gran Leon laPace." PACE : "In onta di Discordia omai gli ulivi / Mia Pacifica mano à l'Adria aduna. / Già, già mi par, ch'il gran Leon arrivi / Co' suoi Ruggiti à spaventar la Luna" (Elena , prologue). Elena was left unfinished by Faustini at his death and completed by Nicolò Minato for performance in 1659. See ch. 6, n. 184, below.

Sometimes these allusions are embedded in cleverly operatic contexts. The prologue of dall'Angelo's Cleopatra (1662), performed at the Teatro S. Salvatore, mixes specific political references with self-conscious comments about opera.^[50] Except for Glove, all the characters are personifications of operatic elements: Poesia, Inventione, Pittura, and Musica. Glove remarks on the fact that war seems to be a constant state of affairs (it has, after all, been raging for more than a decade):

What's this? Will the furor of haughty, tempestuous Mars always triumph? And will the happy torch of peace never shine in the bosom of fair Adria? But what peace? What peace? To arms, rage on, Venetian heroes, against the wicked Ottoman. See, I unfold my wings to join you, and bring my indignation to check this audacity. Crete is mine, let that be enough. I have come down only to lend you my thunderbolts, and just as I struck the wicked giants with them, so do I mean to reduce the Thracians to ashes.^[51]

Poesia attempts to dissuade Glove from his warlike designs:

Supreme mover, check your fury. Do not, no, do not disturb the serenity of the tranquil Venetian breast. Pray, no, do not, even for a few moments, infuse those proud hearts with bellicose spirits. . . . Behold the Venetian heroes collected in the fair circle of this new theater, who await from our music [plettro sonoro ] sweet solace for their heavy thoughts.^[52]

Poesia apparently convinces Glove to desist, at least temporarily, and to awaken Fortune in support of Cleopatra , opera and heroine.

A similar mixture characterizes another prologue from this same general period, that to Aureli's Antigona (1660). Set in the Kingdom of Music, it features

[50] The theater had only opened in 1661. But the volume published by the Accademia degli Imperfetti in 1651 (see p. 144 and n. 39 above) was certainly connected to the group that was later active at S. Salvatore. Except for Busenello, all of the librettists represented in the book, including dall'Angelo, wrote texts for S. Salvatore.

[51] "E che? sempre di Marte / Orgoglioso / Procelloso / Il furor trionferà? / Ne di pace / Lieta face / D'Adria bella nel sen risplenderà? / Ma che pace? che pace? à l'armi, / À l'ire / Contro l'empio Ottoman Veneti Eroi / Ecco dispiego il volo, / Anch'io trà voi / Porto miei sdegni à rintuzzar l'ardire. / (s'avanza con un volo dell'Aquila verso l'audienza ) Creta è mia, Tanto basti, A vol discendo / Sol per prestarvi i folgori Tonanti / E se già fulminai gl'empi Giganti / D'incenerir il Trace anco pretendo" (Cleopatra , prologue).

[52] "Supremo motore / Raffrena il furore. / Del Veneto seno / Tranquillo il sereno / Non no non turbar. / Que' gl'animi alteri / Con spirti guerrieri / Per brevi momenti, / Deh no, non destar. / . . . Mira i Veneti Eroi / Raccolti in vago giro / Di Teatro novello; / Ch'attendono da noi / Con plettro sonoro, / A lot gravi pensier dolce ristoro" (Cleopatra , prologue). S. Salvatore may have been known as a "Teatro Novello" because it had recently been converted to opera. This may be analogous to "Teatro Nuovo," for which, see ch. 3, n. 100 above. The libretto of the inaugural opera of S. Salvatore, Giuseppe Artale's Pasife , also contains elaborate Venice imagery, in both prologue and epilogue.

Pace, Poesia, Musica, Furore Tacito, and Allegrezza. Pace explains her presence in this realm. The war having abated, she can turn to other duties and is bringing singers to the Kingdom of Music:

Now that fury, drunk with human blood lies buried in the lap of sweet oblivion, I bring to your soil singing goddesses. With the audacious one chained at my feet, I passed triumphant under the Gallic sky from the Spanish kingdom, and here have folded my wings. And while I distribute olive branches, prepare immortal garlands for my tresses.^[53]

In the 1670 revival the prologue had a different text, reflecting the changed political situation. The War of Candia had ended with the signing of a treaty in 1669; hence the final lines of the text were altered to read as follows:

Janus has closed the doors, and the lethal rage of Mars rests weary in his breast. Now that Adria enjoys my longed-for olives, prepare immortal garlands for my hair.^[54]

Then Musica, Poesia, and Apollo sing the praises of Pace, who responds to them.

[53] "Hor, che di sangue humano ebro il furore / In grembo à dolce oblio sepolto giace / Porto sul vostro suol Dive canore. / Incatenato à piedi miei l'audace. / Sotto il Gallico Ciel dal Regno Hispano / passai fastosa, hot qui raccolte hò l'ali, / E mentre porto a vol gl'Ulivi in mano, / Preparatemi al crin fregi immortali" (Antigona , prologue). The appearance of allegorical personifications of operatic elements was quite common during this period. A number of aesthetic points made by them, regarding such issues as their mutual relationship, are helpful in opera criticism. This statement, that peace brings singers, suggests that the war may have had something to do with the problems of the season, to which Aureli abundantly referred in his preface; see ch. 7 below.

[54] "Chiuse hà Giano le porte, e al tier Gradivo / Stanche posano in sen l'ire letali. / Hor ch'Adria gode il mio bramato ulivo / Preparatemi al crin fregi immortali."

[55] APOLLO : "Questa Cetra, che soave / Rende al canto il suon concorde, / Le tue glorie in auree corde / Spiegherà / Pindo lauri al tuo crin germoglierà." POESIA : "Lega pur la furibonda / Destra irata al Dio dell'armi / Che in tua lode eterni carmi/ Formerò / Novi fregi à tuoi merti aggiungerò." MUSICA : "Quanti carmi al tuo bel nome / Tesserà la Poesia, / Io con fiati d'armonia / Canterò / Le tue glorie per l'Etra spargerò." PACE : "Dell'Italia placati / I tumulti maggiori, / E tai Gigli innestati / Col Reale Himeneo gli Hispani allori, / Sù le Venete arene / A fecondar quel verde suol ferace / Mivedrete vibrar lampi di pace" (Antigona , preface). This is a reference to the marriage of Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain and the French king, Louis XIV, which, although it did not take place until June 1660, was planned as early as 1658 as part of the negotiations between the two nations that culminated in the Peace of the Pyrenees of late 1659. Venice hoped that once peace was concluded, France (and even Spain) might make some contribution to the Venetian campaign against the Turk. Apparently Mazarin had promised additional troops in 1659, and some French troops, under Almerigo d'Este, did fight in Candia in 1660. See Romanin, Storia documentata , 7: 443-44, and Cessi, Storia delia repubblica di Venezia , 2: 202. For a more detailed chronicle of these events, see Romanin, Storia documentata , 7: 343-526. It was for the celebration of this same marriage in Paris that Cavalli was commissioned to compose Ercole amante (1662).

Several years earlier, Ivanovich made his debut as a librettist with Amor guerriero , performed at SS. Giovanni e Paolo in 1663. The prologue, although filled with allusion, is not concerned with the details of war but, like so many earlier ones, rehearses the typical Venetian litany, as if a general reminder of Venetian superiority were needed in the face of hard times. Ivanovich's prologue is also somewhat old-fashioned in that, like some earlier ones, it takes place in a Venetian—or pre-Venetian—setting: "The scene represents a sea beach near the Adriatic lagoons, with an island in the middle, at the edge of which is seen a shell driven by two sea horses."^[56] Questioned by a very skeptical Aurora, Amore foretells the story of the founding of Venice on the lagoon (an old topic, not aired in opera since the 1640s, but given a new, theatrical twist here). Ivanovich, the enthusiastic immigrant, makes use of the standard iconography.

[56] "La scena rappresenta spiaggia di Mare intorno alle lagune Adriatiche con un'isoletta in mezzo, à piè della quale si vedrà una Conca guidata da due Cavalli marini" (Amor guerriero , prologue).

[57] AURORA : "Mà dimmi, da che viene, / Che d'Amatunta i lidi / Hoggi cangiasti in sì deserte arene?" AMOR : "In quest'Alghe palustri / Vedrai Città che con regal suo piede / Premendo il mar altero, / Sin 1à dove tu sorgi / Dilaterà l'impero, / E quest'Adriache piaggie / Ch'hor solitarie scorgi / Havrà pietà per Nido, Astrea per sede / Ch'adeguerà su la bilancia i Regni; / E per genio sagace / Sarà sempre temuta in guerra, e in Pace." AURORA : "Che parli Amor?" AMOR : "Di meraviglie eterne / Sarà degno il portento." AURORA : "A te chi '1 disse?" AMOR : "Così Protheo cantando / Sù l'arenose sponde, un dì predisse." AURORA : "Stupita io resto: & à venturi Eroi / Presagisco in tributo i Regni Eoi. / . . . Scriva il Fato / Fortunato, e lieto sì / Dell'Adria le Vittorie in questo dì" (Amor guerriero , prologue).

Generation after generation, Venetians never seem to have tired of hearing the mythology of their origins repeated on stage.

Despite all the allegorical representations in prologues and the selection of relevant historical or pseudo-historical themes for plot material, the connection between opera and politics may still strike us as somewhat oblique. Exotic and historically remote plots, after all, responded most immediately to a standard need for variety and spectacle in the theater; and prologues and epilogues stand by definition outside the drama proper.^[58] Parallels between current events and staged action, between the exploits of actual and of operatic heroes, are not always so clear or precise.^[59] Generally, Venetian opera conveyed its political message by suggestion, by implicating the knowing audience in its world of allusion as well as illusion. Its political message, the shared celebration of Venice, was imparted with the willing collusion of the spectators.

In several publications of the 1660s and later, however, the message was asserted more openly. Perhaps the most unequivocal statement of the political significance of opera occurs in the preface to a libretto by Francesco Sbarra, L'amor della patria superiore ad ogn'altro (1668), a bluntly didactic title reminiscent of Viennese oratorios of this period, but highly unusual for a Venetian opera.^[60] The preface, signed by the Venetian printer Nicolò Pezzana and offered in praise of the author, describes Sbarra's librettistic activities and the plot of this drama in unabashedly patriotic terms. The work's aim is to instruct the audience (readers?) in the proper service of their country:

In order to recognize the extraordinary talent and most fertile intellect of Sig. Francesco Sbarra, it is enough to glance at his works, among which the subject that he examines with the most heartfelt intensity is the greater good of the Most Serene Republic. As a most loyal subject, he has chosen the work called L'amor della patria . . . because he knows how to adapt himself to contemporary public concerns, con-

[58] They were considered interchangeable, as revealed by the many instances in which the same prologue was used in several different operas. A particularly intriguing example is the one from Ciro (1654), used again for a number of operas, including Giasone and Erismena (Bologna, 1661 and 1668, Forlì, 1673; it probably also introduced the original Venetian production in 1655, since it is described in the scenario). For more on some of these interchangeable prologues, see Owen Jander, "The Prologues and Intermezzos of Alessandro Stradella," Analecta musicologica 7 (1969): 87-111.

[59] A well-known, though non-Venetian, exception, preserved by accident, is the Lanterna di Diogene from Vienna; see Bianconi and Walker, "Production," 261-62. But cf. Penelope la casta (Venice, 1685), whose dramatis personae include, besides the main protagonists, a number of abstract figures such as "necessità del governo" and "politica di Stato." And the moral purpose of the plot is articulated in a prologue featuring "il possibile," "l'impossibile," "il Dubbio," and "la Temerità amorosa." The overt moral message here may be associated with the particular character and aims of the theater in which the opera was performed, S. Giovanni Grisostomo; see Worsthorne, Venetian Opera , 44 and ch. 13, below.

[60] The work was first performed in Munich in 1665, in a setting by J. K. Kerll (see Renate Brockpähler, Handbuch zur Geschichte der Barockoper in Deutschland [Emsdetten, 1964], 277). Listed by neither Ivanovich nor Bonlini, it was probably never performed in Venice, since it mentions neither a theater nor composer (by now these were significant omissions). We first met Sbarra as the author of a poem in honor of Benedetto Ferrari in the latter's La rnaga fulminata of 1638.

cerns already so treacherously upset by the Ottoman ferocity. He has deemed it appropriate that I (as I had already done for the Erudite tirannide dell'interesse of the same author) should, by means of my press, publish this one also, expanded by Signor Sbarra himself, so that, just as the most fervent zeal is passionately applied to public relief, so to the same degree everyone might understand, if they respond properly, what his own responsibilities are, and the obligation of each person to contribute with his love and actions to the breath and prosperity of his beloved homeland.

Responding to that noble stimulus propounded by this work, of the most memorable example of a complete Republic, with deeds so glorious that they are worthy of being carved in adamant in the hearts of true lovers of the revered and beloved homeland, to preserve the most precious treasure, the priceless jewel of secure liberty. The sole purpose of expressing this most devoted homage is the burning desire that it become universally impressed, sustained, and with work confirmed in all hearts, that, indeed, THE LOVE OF ONE'S COUNTRY IS SUPERIOR TO ANY OTHER . (Appendix I.30)

This rousing salute to the Serenissima only makes explicit what had been implicit in its predecessors. For all its delights, opera still had a responsibility to instruct its audience; and, being Venetian, that audience was to be made to recognize its privileged status and its obligations to the prosperous and beloved Republic.

Topical allusions and references to Venice, including such overt calls to patriotism, tended to occur within prologues during the 1660s. In the following decade, however, this was no longer the case. By 1670 the prologue had been virtually abandoned, and with it the Venetian topicality it had once contained.^[61] Confirmation of this trend is provided by Camillo Contarini in his preface to Arbace (1667), where he criticizes the elimination of the prologue by other librettists: "They do not know how to resolve their plots except through the marriage of the characters they present, and they give birth to monstrous creatures without a head (which is the prologue, a principal part of dramas) like those Indian monsters, abridgements of nature."^[62] The abandonment of the prologue signaled opera's transcendence of its earlier Venetian parochialism; it was one sure sign of the Europeanization of the genre by 1670, which was manifested, as we shall see, in other ways as well.

In his chronicle Ivanovich gave ample weight to the political function of opera. In his view, both the Bacchanalia of ancient Rome and the "trattenimenti carnovaleschi di Venezia" (i.e., opera)

[61] Occasionally, as in Aurli's Artaxerse (1669), prologue material was incorporated as the first scene of the opera.

[62] "Non sanno terminare i loro discioglimenti, che con le nozze de' personaggi da loro rappresentati, e partoriscono mostruosi Aborti senza capo (ch'è il Prologo, membro principale de' Drami) à guisa di quei Mostri Indiani, abbreviature di natura" (Arbace , preface).

are objects of extremely subtle politics, on which depend the success and abundance of the government, and through these amusements, used according to the standards of decency, the Prince gains the love of his people, who can never more easily forget their yoke than when sated or diverted by pleasures.

When the people have nothing to gnaw on, they gnaw on the reputation of the Prince, and when they have no entertainments, they can easily degenerate through idleness into schemes with very bad consequences. (Appendix II.6e)

Like the circuses of ancient Rome and the entertainments of modern courts, opera in Venice provided a diversion for the masses, a safety valve.^[63] In this it was an extension of traditional Venetian social organization; like the scuole and the guilds, through which large segments of the disenfranchised plebeian population of Venice participated in the social and political as well as economic life of the city, the public spectacle of opera provided the disparate populace with a certain common bond. In the experience of the theater, the citizens of the Republic affirmed their allegiance to the idea of Venice.

On the more quotidian level of political fortune, opera could offer respite in times of crisis.^[64] Aside from the official closing of the theaters during 1646, owing to the outbreak of the War of Candia, opera generally retained its seasonal rhythm in Venice.^[65] For the duration of that lengthy conflict and during the other costly conflicts with the Ottomans that succeeded it, opera continued to offer an escape from thoughts of war. By its very existence, it represented Venice at her best. In the face of external threat, it maintained the peaceful spectacle of the Serenissima. In the face of the waning international fortunes of the Republic, opera affirmed the vitality of Venice, an ironic contrast that had been noted earlier by Francesco Pannocchieschi (nephew and coadjutor of the papal nuncio) in a "relazione sulle cose della Repubblica" (1647-52):

What astonished me was to see how people were living at that time in Venice; how that city, always full of riches and luxuries, kept itself absorbed in continual festivities, both public and private, which not only seemed inappropriate for a country

[63] For an exhaustive consideration of the issue in Roman antiquity, see Paul Vayne, Le Pain et le cirque: Sociologie historique d'un pluralisme politique (Paris, 1976).

[64] An anonymous libretto published in Venice in 1664, Achille in Sciro (on the very same subject as La finta pazza ), confirms the notion of opera as an art of peace. The dedication to Filippo Giuliano Mazarini Mancini, duke of Nevers, signed by the printer Stefano Curti, reads, in part, as follows: "Or mentre che V. E. fà qualche pausa per la Pace, che regna in Francia dagl'Impieghi di Guerra, non dovrà disdegnare, che io venga ad offerirle un pacifico trattenimento di canto, e di poesia, quando anche il grande Achille soleva mitigare col canto, e col suono gli ardori del suo spirito Guerriero nella ritiratezza di Sciro." The original libretto of this opera was first performed in Ferrara (1663). It names Giovanni Legrenzi as composer. Bonlini ascribes the poetry to the Marchese Ippolito Bentivoglio.

[65] With the possible exception of 1651 and some years during the 1680s. In 1684 the Council of Ten prohibited all sorts of performances in Advent for the duration of the new war with the Turks. In 1699 it closed theaters "in every future year" for the novena of Christmas. See Mangini, I teatri di Venezia , 31.

that was at war at the time, but that would have seemed excessive even in another country that was calmer and more peaceful.^[66]

All of the manifestations of venezianità —the evocations of the Serenissima, the actual appearance of images of Venice on the stage, the personifications of her virtues, the references to her grandeur and history in prologues and epilogues, and even the quick local allusions in the dialogue—rendered opera a very Venetian art indeed. Like the public arts of the previous century—painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theater—opera, too, sang the litany of the myth of Venice. And like them, it in turn contributed to that myth. However crude Ivanovich's account may be, however filled with hyperbole, it is nonetheless clear that opera in Venice existed, in a fundamental way, in the service of the state. Indeed, the establishment and development of opera on the lagoon provide yet another chapter in the myth of Venice, one more manifestation of Venetian liberty and superiority—not to mention Venetian hospitality.

[66] "Quello che più mi faceva restare attonito era il vedere come si vivesse in quel tempo in Venetia; come piena sempre di richezze e di lussi se ne stesse quella Città involta per lo più in continue feste sì pubbliche come private, che non solamente pareva disconvenissero ad un paese che haveva all'hora la guerra, ma che ad ogn'altro più quieto etiandio e più pacifico sembrato superflue" (quoted in Mangini, I teatri di Venezia , 29-30).