Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth-Century Venice

This book explores public opera in its infancy, from 1637 to 1677, when theater owners and impresarios, drawing on the models of the already existent theaters for comedy, established Venice as the operatic capital of Europe. Based on new documentation, the book studies all of the components necessary for opera production, from the financial backing and the issue of patronage to the commissioning and creation of the libretto and score; the recruitment and employment of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists; the production of the scenery and the costumes; and the nature of the audience. The book examines the challenges faced by four separate Venetian theaters during the 17th century, focusing on the progress of Marco Faustini, the Venetian impresario most well known today. Faustini ? a lawyer by profession ? made his way from one of Venice's smallest theaters to one of the largest and most important, and his advancement provides a personal view of an impresario and his partners, who ranged from Venetian patricians to artisans. Throughout the book, Venice emerges as a city that prized novelty over economy, with new repertory, scenery, costumes, and expensive singers the rule rather than the exception.

CONTENIDO:

Preface
A note on the transcriptions
A note on the Venetian monetary system
Abbreviations

Part I. The business of opera
1. Introduction to the business of opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: people and finances
2. The boxes: a major source of income
3. Marco Faustini and his companies
4. Case studies: companies and opera production at four Venetian theaters

Part II. The musical production
5. The libretto
6. The composition and the production of the opera score
7. Singers
8. Dancers, extras, and the orchestra

Part III. The physical production
9. Scenery and machines
10. Costumes

Part IV. Consumers and patrons
11. The audience and the question of patronage

Appendix 1. A brief chronicle of opera productions in Venice from 1651 to 1668
Appendix 2. A note on the Venetian social class system and Venetian geography
Appendix 3. Three documents
Appendix 4. The impresario's year: a calendar of Marco Faustini's impresarial activities for 1651/52 and 1654/55
Appendix 5. Production expenses for three seasons in the 1650s
Appendix 6. Venetian opera orchestras of the 1650s and 1660s
Appendix 7. Paid attendance for six seasons in the 1650s and 1660s
Glossary
Bibliography
Index