Opera, Theatrical Culture and Society in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples

Anthony R. DelDonna, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Musicology and Director of the Music Program at Georgetown University. He is a specialist in eighteenth-century topics, in particular Neapolitan music, musicians and culture. Professor DelDonna’s research has focused primarily on opera, archival studies, performance practice and ballet, and has been published in the peer-reviewed journals, Early Music, Eighteenth-Century Music, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Recercare, Studi musicali and Civiltà musicale and in various scholarly collections on eighteenth-century music. He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera (with Pierpaolo Polzonetti; 2009) and editor for Genre in Eighteenth-Century Music (2008). Professor DelDonna is the co-editor (with Anna Celenza) of the forthcoming book, In Pursuit of a Cultural Mission: The Jesuits and Music and a collection of clarinet and piano transcriptions by Ferdinando Sebastiani (with Antonio Caroccia for Castejon Music Editions) as well as a forthcoming critical edition of the oratorio Trionfo per l’Assunzione della Santissima Vergine for the series Fondazione Arcadia.

• Introduction; 1: Opera, Antiquity, and the Neapolitan Enlightenment in Paisiello's Socrate immaginario (1775); 2: Naples, carnevale and the commedia per musica; 3: Giovanni Paisiello's Elfrida; 4: Nationalism, Cultural Identity and the Modern Neapolitan Kingdom; 5: Debora e Sisara and the Rise of Lenten Tragedy; 6: At the Precipice of Revolution; 7: The Neapolitan Ballet d'Action; 8: The Neapolitan Ballet d'Action and the Art of Experimentation

’All lovers of music theatre will welcome this book dealing with the development of opera and ballet in late eighteenth-century Naples, then one of the leading music centres in the Western world. Naples’ contribution to opera is well known, but its place in the development of ballet is less well documented. It is to DelDonna’s great credit that he gives ballet its rightful place in the history of theatre in the city. Concentrating on a few carefully selected operas and ballets, DelDonna highlights the theatrical politics of the time, the aims of the various dramatists, choreographers and musicians working in Naples, and the significance of the results they obtained.’ Michael Robinson, Cardiff University, UK ’Focusing on relevant episodes of the late eighteenth century, DelDonna provides insight into the most delicate phase of the golden age of Neapolitan theatre. The southern capital’s reputation as a major centre for musical and theatrical activities was firmly acknowledged and destined to last over the centuries; but Naples was also a centre for innovation, discussion of formulas, and promotion of new genres, which demonstrated a fascinating experimental attitude. DelDonna’s book reconstructs the vitality and prestige, which contributed to the rise and establishment of the Neapolitan myth.’ Francesco Cotticelli, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italy '... in conclusione, il vero pregio di questo volume, che risiede nella capacità di offrire solide sintesi di interi decenni di vita culturale napoletana e di incentivare il distanziamento da quell’autoreferenzialità disciplinare che spesso impedisce di connettere in rapporto dialettico vita sociale e melodrammaturgia, musica e storia, arte e politica.' [... in conclusion, the value of this volume resides in its capacity to offer robust syntheses of entire decades of Neapolitan cultural life while also encouraging a turning away from the disciplinary auto-referentiality that often i