Elfrida and Maria Carolina, between music and power
This speech aims to demonstrate that Elfrida, melodrama born under the collaboration between the librettist Ranieri de Calzabigi and the composer Giovanni Paisiello, is a clear example of how political power can influence, through culture, the society and the public opinion. In this period both, poe...
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| Formato: | capítulo de livro |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:288918 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/288918 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Elfrida Opera Maria Carolina Political power |
| Resumo: | This speech aims to demonstrate that Elfrida, melodrama born under the collaboration between the librettist Ranieri de Calzabigi and the composer Giovanni Paisiello, is a clear example of how political power can influence, through culture, the society and the public opinion. In this period both, poet and musician, lived in Naples with the respective task of Courtly Counselor of Her Majesty Francesco IV Borbone (unwaged), and Courtly Composer; the opera was commissioned by theater manager Giuseppe Colletta to open the operatic season on November 4th, 1792, and the request was sent to the two less than one month before the premiere. The poet ventured for the first time with a medieval subject, not so unusual for the programming of the major Neapolitan theatre, whose political culture was changed in the last years. The plot of the opera derived from a text of 1752 written by the English dramatist William Mason whom Calzabigi knew very well, and to whom he often referred in his theatrical writings, alike most of the English literature (Shakespeare, Milton, Gray). In Elfrida, whose plot will be briefly summarized in this report, the topics are obligations of dynastic marriage, forbidden love, deception, reason of state and honor; but what merges the wires of this narration is no doubt female sovereignty and the musical choices of Paisiello second the assertive structure of the libretto. The strongest message launched by this opera is that Elfrida is a militant warrior, ready to fight and sacrifice her life for the husband and this conviction is certainly near to the political conception of Maria Carolina. She became Queen after marrying Ferdinando IV of Bourbon in 1767 and from 1775 was member of the State Council, influencing all the decisions of the monarchy, above all in cultural ambit; it is not random that in the title page of the original opera libretto the dedication reads "dedicata alla real maestà di Ferdinando IV" but "per festeggiarsi il glorioso nome di sua maestà la regina", certainly Maria Carolina D'Asburgo. |
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