Arias
Textual tradition of arias in opera seria in the first half of the eighteenth century
Pier Leone Ghezzi, caricature of Gaetano Caffarelli, c. 1735
contact person: Angelo Pompilio
The re-use of opera arias is one of the relevant phenomena in Italian opera, particularly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the first half of the eighteenth century, opera production split into two autonomous genres distinct in terms of dramaturgy, style, and production: opera seria and opera comica. The writing of music dramas was significantly redefined due to the reflections carried out by literary writers at the turn of the two centuries; from the second quarter of the eighteenth century onward, Metastasio's dramas took on the role of the paradigm of opera seria until the end of the century.
Investigating the tradition of the texts of arias in the opera seria of the first half of the eighteenth century makes it possible to identify stylistic and morphological changes recorded by this particular form in that period. Moreover, the rich harvest of historical data in Corago allows for combining textual investigation with information on the circulation of singers and operas in different European theatres. Such a broad and diverse information base makes it possible to evaluate the information gathered from different perspectives and formulate hypotheses on re-using an aria from one libretto to another.
In order to reconstruct the dynamics of reuse of arias, or at least their text, it is necessary to carry out an extensive repertory, as comprehensive as possible, to provide a reliable picture of the phenomenon. Therefore, the complete transcription of arias from librettos published between 1700 and 1760 available online was carried out. From this corpus of librettos, 129'817 arias from 3,860 librettos were transcribed: 53'189 are new arias, approx. 42% of the total; 40'389 are arias that were revived with or without variants; the remaining 36'239 are those that were revived in later stagings without changes to the text and music. Arias from librettos from before 1700, which are bibliographical antecedents of librettos from later years, were also taken into account in the calculation.
The transcribed texts were compared and critically evaluated to identify instances of derivation of one aria from another. This activity was conducted with the help of a software tool for comparing matches verse-by-verse. The observed derivation phenomena were defined according to the following classification (musical intonation is also taken into account for some definitions):
- new = original text;
- re-proposal = same text and music, re-proposed in a new staging;
- reprise = identical text with new music;
- local variants = substitution of some words;
- extensive variants = substitution of several words or an entire stanza;
- rewriting= substitution of many words in the first and second stanzas, sometimes placed in another position;
- affinity = mere fragments or faint reminiscences of the antecedent;
- paraphrase = same poetic theme, expressed in a completely different text.
The aria description card also states the performer and the setting. Critical evaluation of the texts and related historical information makes it possible to trace the textual tradition of each aria, represented in the usual form of a stemma on the appropriate web page.
A delicate and complex aspect in the repertorization of arias concerns the attribution of authorial responsibilities: who are the authors of the text and music? In setting up such a large repertoire, it was felt that a timely verification of authorial responsibility, which requires a careful critical evaluation of numerous other primary and secondary sources, was not sustainable given the limited resources available. For each aria listed, we have limited ourselves to reporting the authorial indications obtained from the information source consulted, i.e. the libretto, without further verification. It is therefore recommended that this precautionary choice be taken into account and that the authors’ names be considered only as a first indication of attribution, always worthy of verification.
Numbers at a glance (updated January 9, 2024):
3860 librettos consulted;
129'817 arias surveyed.
Angelo Pompilio - Giovanna Casali - Paolo Bonora, “Soavissime ariette”: impiego di repertori digitali per lo studio della tradizione delle arie d'opera, in La memoria digitale: forme del testo e organizzazione della conoscenza, Atti del XII Convegno annuale AIUCD, Siena: Università degli Studi di Siena, a cura di Emmanuela Carbé et alia, s.l., AIUCD, 2023, pp. 154-158.