From Madrigal to Opera : Monteverdi’s Staging of the Self

344 Pages·2012·3.587 MB·English

by  Mauro Calcagno

From Madrigal
to Opera
Monteverdi’s Staging of the Self

Mauro Calcagno
UnivErsity OF CAliFOrniA PrEss
Berkeley Los Angeles London
From Madrigal to Opera
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of
the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund
of the University of California Press Foundation.
From Madrigal
to Opera
Monteverdi’s Staging of the Self

Mauro Calcagno
UnivErsity OF CAliFOrniA PrEss
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press
Berkeley and los Angeles, California
University of California Press, ltd.
london, England
© 2012 by The regents of the University of California
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Calcagno, Mauro P.
From madrigal to opera : Monteverdi's staging of the self /
Mauro Calcagno.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-520-26768-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-520-95152-5 (ebook)
1. Monteverdi, Claudio, 1567–1643. Operas. 2. Monteverdi, Claudio,
1567–1643. Madrigals. 3. Petrarchism. i. title.
ml410.m77c33 2012
82.0092—dc23 2011046515
Manufactured in the United states of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
in keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible
and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book
on rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is FsC
certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with
renewable biogas energy. it is acid-free and Ecologo certified.
to Jamuna, con amore
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part One. La Musica and Orfeo 9
1. text, Context, Performance 15
Performing nobility • Authorizing Performance • The Work of Opera
2. liminality, Deixis, subjectivity 32
Prologues as Paratexts • “i am Music” • The Prologue of Orfeo as
Performance • Dialogic subjectivity • subject-Effects
3. Performing the Dialogic self 57
Music’s touch • Echoes
Part Two. Constructing the Narrator 71
4. From Petrarch to Petrarchism:
A rhetoric of voice and Address 73
Voi ch’ascoltate • Appropriating the self • lyric Modes • Equivocality
5. in search of voice:
Musical Petrarchism in the sixteenth-Century Madrigal 101
Theatricality and temporal Perspective • Diffracting the self • Who is
speaking? From Soggetto to Dialogo • The Madrigal Book as Canzoniere
Part Three. Staging the Self 189
6. Monteverdi, narrator 191
From narration to Focalization • Combattimento between Page and stage
7. The Possibility of Opera 238
The Aesthetics of nothing: Monteverdi, Marino, and the incogniti •
Focalization in Poppea
Epilogue: Subjectivity, Theatricality, Multimediality 263
Appendix 1: Tables of Contents of the Madrigal Books 267
Appendix 2: Monteverdi, Combattimento di tancredi e Clorinda:
Text and Translation 271
Notes 277
Index 319