away from “bawdiness and emotional wallowing” toward a “well balanced
edifice, a play reasonable in its architecture”—that is, Arcadian—”a moral
atmosphere so rarefied as to be almost unbreathable.”- Zanetti, Roberto. Storia della musica italiana da Sant’Ambrogio a noi. Busto
Arsizio: Bramante, 1978. 3v. ML290.3 .Z36.
A thorough scholarly history, with great value for its view of the 18th century.
Considers all genres of opera and all the major composers and librettists.
Places opera in the context of other stage presentations. Bibliography, index. - Algarotti, Francesco. Saggio sopra l’opera in musica. 2nd ed. Livorno:
Coltellini, 1763. 157p. ML3858 .A37.
First edition, 1755. Translated as An Essay on the Opera Written in Italian by
Count Algarotti.. .(Glasgow: R. Urie, 1768). There is a partial translation in
Strunk. Algarotti’s essay was greatly influential in shaping ideas about good
and bad in opera. Mythological subjects were good, historical subjects bad.
Most of what Algarotti saw was in need of change: overtures were irrelevant,
secco recitative boring, arias lacked dramatic truth, stage behavior was fool-
ish, dances were extraneous. He called for reform, along more austere French
lines. - Lühning, Helga. “Die cavatinain der italienischen Oper um 1800.” Analecta
musicologica21 (1982): 333–368.
In the 18th century the open form and usual brevity of the cavatinacontrasted
with the formal and lengthy aria seria. In the 19th century cavatinawas simply
the name given to the opening aria of a lead singer—it had the same form and
length as any other. The transition is demonstrated through 17 extended
examples and a sure technical analysis. - Dent, Edward. “Ensembles and Finales in 18th-Century Italian Opera.” SIMG
11 (1909–1910): 543–569; 12 (1910–1911): 112–138.
A major study of the ensembles and finales in earlier Neapolitan operas, espe-
cially those by Alessandro Scarlatti. His ensembles are found to be like arias, in
the sense of conveying a single emotion instead of a complex interaction
among the characters. The evolving freedom in treatment of comic ensembles
is discussed. - Heartz, Daniel. “The Creation of the buffo finalein Italian Opera.” PRMA
104 (1977–1978): 67–78.
Traces the buffo finaleto Galuppi’s L’Arcadia in Brenta(1749) and Il mondo
della luna(1750). The texts were by Goldoni, who put a similar finaleinto
Mozart’s La finta giardiniera.
2459.The New Grove Italian Baroque Masters: Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Cavalli,
Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti. Ed. Denis Arnold. London: Macmillan, 1984.
376p. ISBN 0-333-38235-8. ML390 .N492.
Authoritative essays, revised from articles in NG,with updated bibliographies.
Expansive index.
458 Opera