The Art of ‘Cooking’ a Pasticcio: Musical Recipes and Ingredients for Pasticcio Operas

Despite the rather pejorative implications that the musical pasticcio has today, it may have been an appreciated art form in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The term pasticcio is clearly derived from the culinary pasticcio, which was a highlight at aristocratic banquets in this time. The mixture of tastes and the spectacular presentation which characterises the culinary pasticcio, as well as the contemporary concept that culinary as well as painted ‘pasticcios’ are distinguished by ‘unity amidst variety’, can equally be found in the musical pasticcio. Several layers can be perceived, exemplified by the pasticcio Arione (Milan 1694) and those which George Frideric Handel and the Mingotti opera troupe staged in London and other places. The ‘noble’ pasticcio may be defined as characterised by a musical idea which, like a pastry, covers the entire piece and relates the individual elements to the whole. If it is lacking, the pasticcio becomes a conglomerate of music, like a dish whose ingredients are all thrown together.