Opera, Theatrical Culture and Society in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples

Anthony R. DelDonna

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317085386
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Musique d'opéra

The operatic culture of late eighteenth-century Naples represents the fullest expression of a matrix of creators, practitioners, theorists, patrons, and entrepreneurs linking aristocratic, public and religious spheres of contemporary society. The considerable resonance of 'Neapolitan' opera in Europe was verified early in the eighteenth century not only through voluminous reports offered by locals and visitors in gazettes, newspapers, correspondence or diaries, but also, and more importantly, through the rich and tangible artistic patrimony produced for local audiences and then exported to the Italian peninsula and abroad. Naples was not simply a city of entertainment, but rather a cultural epicenter and paradigm producing highly innovative and successful genres of stage drama reflecting every facet of contemporary society. Anthony R. DelDonna provides a rich study of operatic culture from 1775-1800. The book demonstrates how contemporary stage traditions, stimulated by the Enlightenment, engaged with and responded to the changing social, political, and artistic contexts of the late eighteenth century in Naples. It focuses on select yet representative compositions from different genres of opera that illuminate the diverse contemporary cultural forces shaping these works and underlining the continued innovation and European recognition of operatic culture in Naples. It also defines how the cultural milieu of Naples - aristocratic and sacred, private and public - exercises a profound yet idiosyncratic influence on the repertory studied, the creation of which could not have occurred elsewhere on the Continent.

Chapter 1
Opera, Antiquity, and the Neapolitan Enlightenment in Paisiello’s Socrate immaginario (1775)

The establishment of the Kingdom of Naples as an autonomous monarchy in 1734 had profound political, cultural, and civic ramifications. The new sovereign, Charles of Bourbon—the first son of Philip V with his second wife Elisabeth Farnese, and great-grandson of Louis XIV—transformed a historically provincial kingdom under foreign rule (namely the Spanish and Austrians who governed through viceroys) into another focal point of the Enlightenment.¹ The pluralistic reforms initiated by Charles of Bourbon in the first decade of his reign were profound, yet grounded in the reality of an absolute monarchy in the vein of France. The new king governed by means of a council of state composed of ministers with close ties to Madrid (in deference to his parents), most notably the Secretary of State José Joaquín de Montealegre and the Prime Minister Bernardo Tanucci.² Efforts were directed at establishing new economic practices; the construction of infrastructure; the expansion of educational, professional, and military institutions; bolstering trade and local manufacturing; the imposition of a census; and the reform of taxation. Charles continued to curtail the power of the Church and feudal barons and was also undertaking judicial reform, initiatives which resonated strongly with local intellectuals, such as Antonio Genovesi (1712–69) and later Gaetano Filangieri (1752–88).³ Charles adopted the French model of aristocratic inclusion in the government of the kingdom, which allowed not only a close scrutiny of their activities but also the imposition of an internal balance between the nobility and professional administrators, the latter mostly drawn from the judicial ranks, the so-called togati. His handling of the nobility, which proved to be politically adroit and practically expedient in furthering his multiple agendas, further underlined their traditionally exclusive status.

The renown of Naples as a cultural icon also continued to grow, with the city becoming a required sojourn on the “Grand Tour.” As early as 1494, the city had been hailed as a new “garden of Eden.” An ambitious beautification of the city and outlying areas was undertaken, underlined by the renovation and expansion of the Royal Palace; the construction of the Reggia di Caserta, and the palaces of Capodimonte and Portici; the construction of the obelisks of San Domenico and Gesù Nuovo; the construction of the Teatro di San Carlo; the restorations of the ports of Salerno, Taranto, and Molfetta; and the construction of the Pizzofalcone quarter, new roads, and innumerable other projects. The line of succession and Naples itself were indelibly altered with the unexpected death of Ferdinand VI, King of Spain and Charles’ half-brother⁴ and resulted in the reversion of the throne to Naples. Charles III was crowned in 1759; he in turn named Carlo Antonio (later Charles IV) as his heir. The Neapolitan crown passed to Ferdinand, (1751–1825), who had been destined for the Church.⁵

The Model of Antiquity

The single most significant cultural development in the eighteenth-century kingdom of Naples was the reclamation of its own history. The discoveries and subsequent excavations of Herculaneum (1738) and Pompeii (1748)⁶ above all became a focal point in the political, social, and cultural life of the Bourbon monarchy, while also laying bare growing rifts in the intellectual quarters of the kingdom. To its credit, the reclamation of antiquity succeeded in engaging the absolutist monarchy in a dialogue with the rising tide of rationalism that was emanating; namely in the pursuit of scientific inquiry, from France, England, and the Netherlands. Yet the terms of such discourse were always defined according to the intentions of the Crown and its political ideology and agenda, not to mention its personal benefit.⁷ From the beginning, Herculaneum and Pompeii were appropriated by Charles of Bourbon and his inner circle of advisors (both politicians and scholars) as evidence of the longstanding existence of independent civilizations in the south; these cities were in the eyes of the Crown autonomous states unencumbered by ecclesiastical (i.e. Rome) or foreign powers. The kingdom used these examples of “autonomous” states to legitimate their own rule and newly established independent monarchy as well as their philosophy of regalism.⁸ From the regalist perspective, the sovereign held ultimate authority over all the affairs of the kingdom, especially religious and juridicial matters.

The scale of antiquarian interests promoted by the Crown, ranging from discovery and analysis to preservation, was simply unprecedented.⁹ From the beginning of his reign Charles of Bourbon worked assiduously to control and to appropriate the reclamation of Herculaneum. The new sovereign’s approach and decisions were also conditioned by his status as the hereditary heir to the Farnese collections in Parma and their transfer to Naples, ultimately for the Museo di Capodimonte, the construction of which was initiated in 1738.¹⁰ For Herculaneum, the court moved rapidly to enlist experts from outside Naples (there were none in the south) who had experience in the field of antiquarian studies¹¹ and its emergent sister disciplines. The critical figures were Marcello Venuti (from the Accademia Estrusca in Cortona), who became the Soprintendente, and the physical work itself was supervised by the Spanish engineers Roque Joaquim de Alcubierre (who had uncovered the ruins of Herculaneum while surveying the area for a new palace) and Francesco de la Vega, as well as Karl Weber from Switzerland.¹² The result was a vast open-air laboratory, the scope of which increased as more of the city was uncovered. Yet it became the position of the court that the finds were the personal possessions of the sovereign to be accessed and developed within the framework of political aspirations. To the credit of the court, the excavations did spur conservation, specifically the construction of museums, and became the catalyst for formal policies and legislation. In 1755 the Prammatica LVII was established, asserting the authority of the Crown over the finds in order to protect the cultural patrimony of the kingdom.¹³ It noted that the exportation of ancient objects was expressly forbidden without the specific permission of the sovereign himself.¹⁴

The antiquarian “fever” that gripped the court, intellectuals, and society in general became the basis for “a highly diversified cultural milieu and set of cultural practices both in terms of knowledge and its expression in different disciplines and political perspectives.”¹⁵ This new reality is evident throughout contemporary Neapolitan society. In intellectual circles, the myriad of scientific initiatives undertaken helped to establish the disciplines of modern archeology and cultural anthropology as well as to further botany, geology, chemistry, agronomy, and other related fields.¹⁶ The establishment of political policy and related “social philosophy,” as well as the rise of antiquarian studies as a burgeoning academic discipline, also had a profound impact on the very nature and formal constitution of the scholarly Academy. It was well-established custom for men of letters to belong to an academy, and in this regard southern Italy was no different.¹⁷ Yet the creation of the Accademia Ercolanese merged traditional intellectual inquiry with the decidedly political intent of the excavations. Comprising fifteen original members, all in the service of the royal court and hence with evident loyalties to it, the Accademia was charged with illustrating and then publishing the results of the findings in both Herculaneum and Pompeii. Under the direction of Tanucci, the members met in the private offices of the Minister and their discussions as well as presentations of research were documented and then published anonymously. It is only with the subsequent issue of the nine volumes and catalogue of the series entitled Antichità d’Ercolano that the work of the Accademia Ercolanese was made known. Nevertheless, the volumes were not offered for sale to scholars and the general public; they were simply circulated amongst the chosen few. Compounding this narrow purview and secretive conception of the Accademia was the reality that the objects presented were not made accessible to scholars. Rather, they were to be housed in the newly constructed Museo Ercolanese in the royal palace of Portici, another private residence of the sovereign, thereby underlining the reality that the physical patrimony of Herculaneum and Pompeii were in effect the king’s personal treasures. The Reale Accademia del Disegno (1752) was at once a scholastic society and an establishment of the cultural initiative that benefitted from the preference accorded antiquarianism. In fact, the physical remnants of the ancient societies were placed at its disposal and became compelling models for the education, study, and training of artists. The creation of the Reale Accademia di Scienze e Belle Lettere (1778) represented the fulfillment in many ways of these earlier iterations merging official support with the dissemination of findings; it was entirely under royal patronage, yet its charter specified as its mission collective research to the end of practical applications. The fourth branch of the Academy included antiquity, which had now become an institutionalized field of study intended to benefit contemporary society. The general cultural resonance of antiquity was also apparent outside the sphere of the learned academy. For example, there is also a clear correlation in the return to classical precepts in contemporary tragedy performed on the royal stage of the Teatro di San Carlo and in the decorative arts, ranging from fashion to interior design.¹⁸ The renown of and subsequent fascination with the ancient cities and the search for antiquity also coalesced with the rise in tourism to southern Italy as part of the Grand Tour. The resonance of antiquity was everywhere in Naples from the volcanic plains of the Campi Flegrei west of the city to the increasingly active eruptions of Vesuvius (totaling nineteen in all during the century) to the discovery of smaller ancient locales such as Stabiae, Pozzuoli, and Cuma that dotted the southern peninsula.¹⁹ The difficulty in traveling to Greece, moreover, given the prevailing Ottoman rule, further encouraged Europeans to visit Naples. As one scholar has noted, until Herculaneum, “Antiquarian research had relied on the fragment.”²⁰ With the rediscovery of these communities, the tangible expressions of Magna Graecia were offered in the flesh. The physical recovery of antiquity provided a compelling and in some cases a definitive tool to gauge the accuracy and even veracity of ancient textual sources that had survived. Yet the premium placed on antiquarianism and its appropriation for political and cultural motives was the basis for a significant rift within intellectual circles. On one side stood intellectuals such as Antonio Genovesi and Ferdinando Galiani (1728–87), who viewed the rationalist thought of the Enlightenment as the basis for scientific inquiry that engendered modernism and progress, especially in economics and the physical sciences. On the other remained the antiquarians, whose interest in this emergent field was consistent with the traditional studies of history that had dominated European intellectual discourse. It is the latter group that was able to establish close ties to the Crown by supporting its regalist philosophies and the vision of Herculaneum and Pompeii as the predecessors for the Bourbon monarchy. In this manner, the antiquarians were able to ensure an ongoing support and patronage of their endeavors as well as their proximity to authority.

This chapter examines the intersections between the Neapolitan Enlightenment, the rise of antiquarian studies, and the dramatic stage of comic opera in the second half of the eighteenth century. By the last quarter of the century, the renown of comic forms in Naples had attained a position of considerable distinction. Successive generations of musicians had been trained in the Neapolitan conservatories and made their mark in the highly diversified theatrical climate of the city. The comic theaters offered an imposing counterpoint to the traditions of tragedy, the latter cultivated first at the Teatro San Bartolomeo and then the royal Teatro di ...