A sociable moment : opera and festive culture in baroque Siena

321 Pages·2016·2.971 MB·English

by  Reardon, Colleen

A Sociable Moment

A Sociable Moment
Opera and Festive Culture
in Baroque Siena
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w
Colleen Reardon
1
1
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of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Reardon, Colleen.
Title: A sociable moment : opera and festive culture in baroque Siena /
Colleen Reardon.
Description: New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015038166 | ISBN 978–0–19–049630–2 (hardcover: alk. paper)
Subjects:  LCSH: Opera— Italy— Siena (City- state)— 17th century.
Classification: LCC ML1733.2.R43 2016 | DDC 782.10945/ 581— dc23
LC record available at http://l ccn.loc.gov/2 015038166
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan, USA
For Nello Barbieri
Ti seguirò, t’adorerò in eterno.
Amare e fingere, Act I, scene 6

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. The Curtain Rises 10
2. A Festive Culture and Its Sociable Network 21
3. The Chigi between Rome and Siena 47
4. A Princess Comes to Town 70
5. Siena, the Chigi, and the Pastoral 91
Documents 130
6. Pastoral Reflections, Political Drama, and the End of an Era 135
7. The Rozzi and Opera in the 1690s 154
Documents 180
8. Innocence Recognized and Cammilla Revived 201
Documents 220
9. Gigli’s Last Bow and the Return of the Pastoral 236
Documents 256
Appendix: Chronology of Opera in Siena, 1669– 1704 273
Bibliography 287
Index 299
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is intended as a beginning, not an end. In a quest to under-
stand opera in Siena in this distinct but fascinating period, I worked with
Florentine, Roman, and Sienese sources, but as the recent discovery of a
manuscript libretto in Spoleto shows, documents, librettos, and scores are
doubtless still waiting in libraries and archives all over Italy (and perhaps all
over Europe) to enrich the history traced here.
Although writing is a solitary endeavor, research is conducted with the
support of institutions, colleagues, friends, and family. I am most grateful
to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded me a twelve-
month fellowship in 2011– 12 so that I might spend an extended period in
Italian archives and libraries. I thank the University of California, Irvine, for
providing me with a travel grant in spring 2011 and approving my sabbati-
cal for 2011– 12. I spent the lion’s share of that year in the reading rooms of
the Vatican Library and relished every minute. The library personnel, under
the direction of the Prefect, Monsignor Cesare Pasini, made the institution
a wonderful place to work. Luigi Cacciaglia was extraordinarily kind and
encouraging at all stages of my research; I will not soon forget the afternoon
he drove me out to tour the Chigi villa at Ariccia. Pietro Montanari was a
cheery presence at the door of the library, and up in the manuscript room,
Andrea Zucchi and Antonio Schiavi were very patient and very willing to
assure that an American scholar con le ore contate was able to see everything
she needed to see. I cannot leave out the staff at the Vatican bar, who kept
me going with pizze bianche con broccoli and espresso, and my sister archive
rats, Anna Gaspari and Eulalia Ramos Rubert, who insisted that I stop to
eat and drink every once in a while and who made me laugh. I also passed a
number of productive hours in the Manuscript and Rare Materials Room of
the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome, whose staff members were both
hospitable and efficient.
I made my first research trip to Siena as a Fulbright scholar in 1985, and
going back is always like going home. My dear friend Carla Zarrilli, who for
several years headed up both the Archivio di Stato in Siena and the Archivio
di Stato in Florence and did brilliantly in difficult circumstances, was ever
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