<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Within the aesthetic framework of the work concept and author-centred approach to music history, the practice of aria substitution in the eighteenth-century Italian <italic>dramma per musica</italic> has frequently been viewed as hostile interference with the composer’s authorial intention and attributed to singers’ vanity, laziness and ignorance. However, the substitution of both the texts and musical settings of arias constituted the default production practice in a period in which scores were not conceptualised as fixed texts but functioned as performance materials for specific productions. Moreover, the practice of aria substitution was deeply rooted in the socio-cultural context of opera production and the arts consumption practices of the social elite. A manifestation of period preoccupation with displaying and gauging rank and status, it was crucial to singers’ professional success.</p>
<p>Analysing the reasons for the substitution of three specific arias in revivals of settings by both Hasse and Vinci of Metastasio’s <italic>Artaserse</italic> in 1730 and 1731, this paper accounts for typical scenarios for this practice in opera production. Rather than focusing predominantly on the arias’ musical parameters, it also evaluates their dramatic features, scope for stage action and potential for engaging period audiences. Brief consideration is also given to two unusual <italic>drammi per musica</italic> of 1734 featuring an exceptionally high number of <italic>arie di tempesta.</italic></p>
</abstract>

Within the aesthetic framework of the work concept and author-centred approach to music history, the practice of aria substitution in the eighteenth-century Italian dramma per musica has frequently been viewed as hostile interference with the composer’s authorial intention and attributed to singers’ vanity, laziness and ignorance. However, the substitution of both the texts and musical settings of arias constituted the default production practice in a period in which scores were not conceptualised as fixed texts but functioned as performance materials for specific productions. Moreover, the practice of aria substitution was deeply rooted in the socio-cultural context of opera production and the arts consumption practices of the social elite. A manifestation of period preoccupation with displaying and gauging rank and status, it was crucial to singers’ professional success.
Analysing the reasons for the substitution of three specific arias in revivals of settings by both Hasse and Vinci of Metastasio’s Artaserse in 1730 and 1731, this paper accounts for typical scenarios for this practice in opera production. Rather than focusing predominantly on the arias’ musical parameters, it also evaluates their dramatic features, scope for stage action and potential for engaging period audiences. Brief consideration is also given to two unusual drammi per musica of 1734 featuring an exceptionally high number of arie di tempesta.

‘Per desiderio di farsi onore’: Singers and the Adaptation of Arias in Italian <italic>drammi per musica</italic> of the Early Eighteenth-Century Italy

Musicology Today

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

‘Per desiderio di farsi onore’: Singers and the Adaptation of Arias in Italian  of the Early Eighteenth-Century Italy

Within the aesthetic framework of the work concept and author-centred approach to music history, the practice of aria substitution in the eighteenth-century...

‘Per desiderio di farsi onore’: Singers and the Adaptation of Arias in Italian drammi per musica of the Early Eighteenth-Century Italy

Published Online: Dec 31, 2021

Page range: 53 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/muso-2021-0006

Keywords
dramma per musica, substitute aria, Farinelli, Nicolini, opera patronage

© 2021 Anne Desler, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

‘Per desiderio di farsi onore’: Singers and the Adaptation of Arias in Italian drammi per musica of the Early Eighteenth-Century Italy

Published Online: Dec 31, 2021

Page range: 53 - 64

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/muso-2021-0006

Keywordsdramma per musica, substitute aria, Farinelli, Nicolini, opera patronage

© 2021 Anne Desler, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
dramma per musica, substitute aria, Farinelli, Nicolini, opera patronage