the period, genesis of this work, story and musical examples. Innovations were
brought about through the composer/librettist collaboration: the complex
finale, aria varied according to the character who sings, varying lengths for
numbers, and through-composed pieces. Great inventiveness was displayed by
both Galuppi and Goldoni, exemplifying what the latter called vis comica.- Heartz, Daniel. “Goldoni, opera buffa,and Mozart’s Advent in Vienna.” In
Opera buffa(#2141), 25–49.
Mozart’s first opera buffa, La finta giardiniera,was written for Vienna but not
performed there because of his father’s “clumsy manipulations”; meanwhile, it
was Salieri and Paisiello who were the successful comic composers there. Not
until Le nozze di Figaro(1786) was there a Mozart buffapremiere in Vienna. - Robinson, Michael F. “Three Versions of Goldoni’s Il filosofo di Campagna.”
In Muraro (#2576), 2, 75–85.
The third act of the opera buffagradually disappeared in the 1760s and 1770s;
Robinson attributes the cause more to the librettists than to the composers.
Goldoni, taken as the example here, dropped the third act as he reduced the
number of serious roles in his comic texts. He settled on just two serious char-
acters, a man and woman who represented an upper social stratum, opposed
by five to seven comic characters. Comparing the three versions of the text, it
seems the plot improved with the elimination of the third act. - Goldoni, Carlo. Memoirs of Goldoni, Written by Himself: Forming a Com-
plete History of His Life and Writings. Trans. John Black. London: Henry Col-
burn, 1814. 2v. PQ4698 .A6 E5 B58.
Originally published in French, 1787. Frequently translated and reissued. Of
interest for its panoramic view of contemporary life in Venice and Paris but of
little use for information on Goldoni as librettist. Although his libretti
accounted for 283 of the 2,000 comic operas (set by Galuppi, Piccinni, Duni,
and others) produced in Italy alone during the 18th century, his journals—
which cover his life to his 80th year—hardly mention music. His narrative is of
daily life and his personal tribulations, with comments about his plays and
comedies; the reader would hardly know they were musical enterprises.
Goldoni came from the melodic Italian tradition and had to adjust to the spare
French mode. His first visit to the Opéra, to hear Rameau’s Castor et Pollux,
brought this reaction: “Everything was beautiful, grand, and magnificent,
except the music.” - Weiss, Piero. “Carlo Goldoni, Librettist: The Early Years.” Ph.D. diss.,
Columbia U., 1970. 180p. - Strauss, Richard. The Correspondence between Richard Strauss and Hugo von
Hofmannsthal. Trans. Hanns Hammelmann and Ewald Osers. New York:
Cambridge U.P., 1980. xx, 558p. ISBN 0-521-23476-X. ML410 .S93 A463.
The translation is taken from the 1955 edition by Atlantis Verlag in Zurich.
Covering 1900–1929, the letters deal with each opera in great detail. A useful
appendix identifies the items by opera. Index of persons mentioned.
58 Opera