Italian theatre of the seventeenth and eighteenth century was a truly European phenomenon, first because of the enduring popularity of the commedia dell’arte, and, at a later stage, of Goldoni’s reformed comedies and Italian opera. Secondly, its actors and musicians actively contributed to the circulation of ideas and cultural artefacts across geographical borders. Italian theatre was thus a true Erasmus programme of early modernity, as many celebrated playwrights, actors, impresarios, composers, librettists, and stage designers criss-crossed Europe and were employed at the courts of Paris, Vienna, Dresden, Warsaw, Prague, Copenhagen, and Saint Petersburg. If Europe was brought into being by the mobility of people and the circulation of ideas through theatrical performances, investigating the international careers of artists and the circulation of dramatic repertoires sheds light not only on the reception of Italian theatre but also on the cultural formation of Europe as a whole.

This conference addresses some of the key issues in the history of Italian theatre and opera, such as the transmission and reception of Italian dramatic genres outside of Italy and their adaptation to local cultures and tastes; the mobility and the routes of travel of theatre professionals and entrepreneurs; the world of theatre in the correspondences, memoirs, and periodical press as important sources for the reconstruction of careers and networks of actors, impresarios, singers, and operisti; and the impact of the artists involved in the production of performing arts on the European cultural heritage.

Freie Universität Berlin
Seminarzentrum L 115
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
14195 Berlin-Dahlem

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

THURSDAY, 11 APRIL 2019

9.30-10.00 Registration
10.00-10.15 Introduction and Welcome
Tatiana Korneeva (Freie Universität Berlin)

10.15-11.15 Keynote Address
Piermario Vescovo (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Dall’improvviso al premeditato: andata e ritorno. Il repertorio goldoniano a Dresda: la terra vista dalla luna

11.15-11.45 Coffee break

Panel 1: Networks and Mobility
Chair: Joachim Küpper (Freie Universität Berlin)

11.45-12.15 Nicola Usula (University of Vienna)
Leopoldo I e le riprese operistiche a Vienna: il caso del Carceriere di sé medesimo di Lodovico Adimari (1702)
12.15-12.45 Kordula Knaus & Andrea Zedler (University of Bayreuth)
Mapping Opera Buffa Performances outside of Italy (1745–1765)
12.45-13.15 Tatiana Korneeva (Freie Universität Berlin)
Il bagaglio dell’impresario. Un caso di circolazione dei repertori operistici tra Venezia e Mosca

13.15-14.45 Lunch break

Panel 2: European Paths and Trajectories
Chair: Daniele Vecchiato (King’s College London)

14.45-15.15 Gesa zur Nieden (Greifswald University)
Oh bel Pasticcio: Intermedial Aspects of Early Modern Operatic Transfers between Venice and Hamburg
15.15-15.45 Melania Bucciarelli (NTNU, Trondheim)
Lo sistema antico ch’ei sempre propone per mostrare che quanto si fa è il medesimo ch’era prima’. Negotiating Practices on the London Stage during the Early Years of the Royal Academy of Music
15.45-16.15 Andrea Fabiano (Sorbonne University, Paris)
La circolazione di cantanti, musicisti e spettatori e il dibattito estetico sull’opera nella Francia d’Ancien régime

16.15-16.45 Coffee break

Panel 3: Grand Tour to Eastern Europe
Chair: Christine Jeanneret (Museum of National History, Frederiksborg – Château de Versailles)

16.45-17.15 Marc Niubo (Charles University, Prague)
Opera between Prague, Dresden, and Brunswick
17.15-17.45 Anna Parkitna (Stony Brook University)
Pursuing Enlightenment Delights: Processes and Paths of Italian Operatic Migrations to Warsaw, 1765–1793
17.45-18.15 Anna Korndorf (State Institute for Art Studies, Moscow)
The Cycle of Epic Music Dramas by Catherine the Great. National History and Opera Seria Tradition

Friday, 12 April 2019

Panel 4: Theatre Costumes and Debates
Chair: Tatiana Korneeva (Freie Universität Berlin)

10.00-10.30 Petra Dotlačilová (Stockholm University)
Towards the “Reformed” Costume for Opera and Ballet in the Late Eighteenth Century: Franco-Italian Connections

10.30-11.00 Christine Jeanneret (Museum of National History, Frederiksborg – Château de Versailles)
Costumes and Cosmopolitanism: Italian Opera Productions in the North

11.00-11.30 Coffee break

Panel 5: Sources and resources on theatre
Chair: Gaia Gubbini (Freie Universität Berlin)

11.30-12.00 Bruno Capaci (University of Bologna)
La mia commedia è finita: Teatro nella vita e nella corrispondenza privata di Giacomo Casanova

12.00-12.30 Massimo Ciavolella (UCLA)
The Theater of Giacomo Casanova

12.30-14.30 Lunch break

Panel 6: In print and Behind the Stage
Chair: Nicola Usula (University of Vienna)

14.30-15.00 Elisa Bastianello, Iuav University of Venice
Festivals and Theatrical Performances in Vicenza in the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Centuries: the Echos of the Suburbs between Local News and the European Periodical Press
15.00-15.30 Nadezhda Chamina, National Research University HSE, Moscow
Le fantasie scenografiche di Giacomo Quarenghi: tra classico e romantico

15.30-16.00 Coffee break

Panel 7: Cultural Encounters and Adaptations
Chair: Irina Freixeiro Ayo (University of Santiago de Compostela)

16.00-16.30 Javier Gutierrez Carou (University of Santiago de Compostela)
Metastasio in Spagna sotto il regno di Ferdinando VI: per una storia evolutiva e interpretativa della Semiramide (1747)
16.30-17.00 Álvaro Torrente (Complutense University of Madrid)
Didone trasmutata: Aria Settings and the Expression of Emotions in Metastasian Opera

17.00-17.30 Break

17.30-18.30 Roundtable discussion and Q&A
chaired by Joachim Küpper (Freie Universität Berlin)