Early Venetian Opera and "Incogniti" Literature

This research project will investigate the connections between early Venetian commercial operas and libertine literature by members of the Accademia degli Incogniti, one of the foremost Italian literary academies of the 17th century. There are clear associations between some of the most prominent Incogniti and early operas. Several Incogniti, including Gian Francesco Busenello, Giacomo Badoer, Giulio Strozzi, wrote opera libretti and one of the most influential, if short-lived, opera theatres of the 17th century, the Teatro Novissimo (1641-5) was founded and managed by Incogniti members. Yet the main focus of Incogniti literary activity were short tales (novelle), Discorsi Accademici (Academic Speeches), and, above all, novels. Indeed, the number of novels published in Italy during the decades when the Accademici met (1630-61) remains unsurpassed, many of them being authored by Incogniti themselves. The libertine content of this cornucopian narrative and, more generally, literary production, which has many traits in common with contemporary French libertinism, emerges in a sceptical attitude towards accepted dogma and religion. Its main features are a sensualist approach to life and experience, a certain moral relativism, and a mistrust of institutionalised power and its actors. These are the same ingredients that are found in the first Venetian opera libretti, which additionally share similar conventions with novels and short tales, such as an inclination towards intricate story lines with two or three couples parting and reuniting themselves and frequent gender ambiguities. Several important studies, including those by Lorenzo Bianconi, Ellen Rosand and Wendy Heller, have dealt with the influence of the Accademia degli Incogniti on the very creation of the Venetian opera as a genre; however, few have explicitly tackled the relationship between literary output of the Accademici and opera libretti. It is for this reason that a systematic search of thematic, structural, rhetorical and more topical connections between early Venetian opera libretti and contemporary Incogniti narrative will be a very rewarding endeavour. The chronological boundaries of the project span the period between the performance of the first commercial opera, the Andromeda by the duo Ferrari/Manelli in 1637 and the last year that the Accademici Incogniti met (1661). Crucial for these decades is the work of Francesco Cavalli (1602-76), the composer by whom the music of most of the early Venetian operas survives. His sensitivity for the slightest rhetorical nuances of the text earns him a place alongside Monteverdi as one of the most important opera composers of the 17th century.