Thesis submission ID 373 | created
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Michael Lee, “Il vero di tante meraviglie”: Tasso’s Armida and the power of fantasy in late seventeenth-century opera
Volumes, pp.: 1 (303pp.) Wordcount: 93807
Supervisor(s): Professor Jan Smaczny; Dr Sarah McCleave
Repository (hard copy): McClay Library, Queen's University, Belfast
General specialism: Musicology
Historical timeframe: 1580-1700
Key terms, concepts: Adaptation; Cultural Transfer; Reception; Opera Studies
Key terms, persons: Torquato Tasso; Philippe Quinault; Jean-Baptiste Lully; John Dennis; John Eccles; Carlo Pallavicino
Key terms, places: Venice; Paris; Dresden; London
Key terms, genres, instruments: Opera
Abstract:
The romance of Armida and Rinaldo, an episode in Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata (1581), was a popular subject for adaptations in opera from the 1680s, and formed the basis for over sixty operas in the eighteenth century. This study examines the nature and appeal of the character of the enchantress Armida, both in its original poetic context and as a figure for later adaptation on the operatic stage. Tasso’s poem, set in the First Crusade and written during the Counter-Reformation, contains overtones of cultural and religious conflict, as well as a fantasy of the re-integration of a divided community. The structure of the poem, Armida’s place in it, and the associations that underpin the character are discussed, as well as the reception of the work in the century following its publication. In the second half of the thesis, three of the first operatic treatments of this subject are discussed: Armide (1686) by Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully, La Gierusalemme Liberata (1687) by Giulio Cesare Corradi and Carlo Pallavicino, and Rinaldo and Armida (1698) by John Dennis and John Eccles. Each work, one French, one Italian, and one English, is found to approach the narrative and character from different perspectives, bringing to bear issues of social identity, theatrical form, cultural value and political imagery. The success of Armida as a subject for operatic adaptation is found to be due partly to the means with which the character supported a range of expressive and representational practices, extending the virtuosic power of fantasy in epic poetry onto the stage.
Michael Lee, “Il vero di tante meraviglie”: Tasso’s Armida and the power of fantasy in late seventeenth-century opera
PhD, Queen’s University Belfast, 2013
Volumes, pp.: 1 (303pp.) Wordcount: 93807
Supervisor(s): Professor Jan Smaczny; Dr Sarah McCleave
Repository (hard copy): McClay Library, Queen's University, Belfast
General specialism: Musicology
Historical timeframe: 1580-1700
Key terms, concepts: Adaptation; Cultural Transfer; Reception; Opera Studies
Key terms, persons: Torquato Tasso; Philippe Quinault; Jean-Baptiste Lully; John Dennis; John Eccles; Carlo Pallavicino
Key terms, places: Venice; Paris; Dresden; London
Key terms, genres, instruments: Opera
Abstract:
The romance of Armida and Rinaldo, an episode in Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata (1581), was a popular subject for adaptations in opera from the 1680s, and formed the basis for over sixty operas in the eighteenth century. This study examines the nature and appeal of the character of the enchantress Armida, both in its original poetic context and as a figure for later adaptation on the operatic stage. Tasso’s poem, set in the First Crusade and written during the Counter-Reformation, contains overtones of cultural and religious conflict, as well as a fantasy of the re-integration of a divided community. The structure of the poem, Armida’s place in it, and the associations that underpin the character are discussed, as well as the reception of the work in the century following its publication. In the second half of the thesis, three of the first operatic treatments of this subject are discussed: Armide (1686) by Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptiste Lully, La Gierusalemme Liberata (1687) by Giulio Cesare Corradi and Carlo Pallavicino, and Rinaldo and Armida (1698) by John Dennis and John Eccles. Each work, one French, one Italian, and one English, is found to approach the narrative and character from different perspectives, bringing to bear issues of social identity, theatrical form, cultural value and political imagery. The success of Armida as a subject for operatic adaptation is found to be due partly to the means with which the character supported a range of expressive and representational practices, extending the virtuosic power of fantasy in epic poetry onto the stage.
Thesis submission ID 373