To the Court of the Tsarinas and Back Again: Italian Performers’ Itineraries, Careers, and Networks across Europe 9783110751062, 9783110751048

Table of contents :
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
A Note on Transcription, Transliteration, and Translation
Introduction
Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg: intermezzi comici, Production Practice, and Audience Reception
Chapter 3 Crossing Cultures: the commedia dell’arte for the Russian Court
Chapter 4 Woman Matters: Adriana Sacco and Carlo Goldoni
Chapter 5 Cultural Transfers between St Petersburg, Dresden, and Venice
Chapter 6 ‘Comedy of Errors’: Overlapping Identities and Travel Routes of the Two Antonio Sacco
Afterword
Appendix 1 Composition of the Three Italian Companies Active at the Russian Imperial Court in 1731–1738
Appendix 2 Repertoire of the Three Italian Companies Active at the Russian Imperial Court in 1731–1738
Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749
Appendix 4 Antonio Sacco’s Family Tree
Appendix 5 Giuseppe Sacco’s Family Tree
Appendix 6 Composition of Giovanni Battista Locatelli’s opera buffa troupes in St Petersburg and Moscow, 1757–c. 1762
Appendix 7 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets in St Petersburg in 1757–1761
Appendix 8 Transcription and Translation of Giuseppe Sarti’s Letter to Theatre Management in Copenhagen and the Draft of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Contract
Appendix 9 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets at the Danish Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in Copenhagen, 1763–1767 and 1785–1786
Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets and their Revivals in Warsaw, 1774–1776 and 1779–1780
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Tatiana Korneeva To the Court of the Tsarinas and Back Again

WeltLiteraturen / World Literatures

Schriftenreihe der Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule für literaturwissenschaftliche Studien

Herausgegeben von Jutta Müller-Tamm, Andrew James Johnston, Anne Eusterschulte, Susanne Frank, Stefan Keppler-Tasaki, Georg Witte, Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Joachim Küpper and Michael Gamper Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Ute Berns (Universität Hamburg), Stefan Keppler-Tasaki (Universität Tokyo), Renate Lachmann (Universität Konstanz), Catriona MacLeod (University of Chicago), Ken’ichi Mishima (Tokyo Keizai Universität), Glenn W. Most (Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa), Janet A. Walker (Rutgers University), Christy Wampole (Princeton University), Christopher Young (University of Cambridge)

Volume 23

Tatiana Korneeva

To the Court of the Tsarinas and Back Again Italian Performers’ Itineraries, Careers, and Networks across Europe

Gefördert durch die Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

ISBN 978-3-11-075104-8 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-075106-2 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-075108-6 ISSN 2198-9370 Library of Congress Control Number: 2023938402 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover: Designed by Jürgen Brinckmann, Berlin, using a graphic by Anne Eusterschulte Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmBH, Leck www.degruyter.com

Acknowledgements The research and writing of this book were made possible by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, which generously supported my project “Die Opera buffa und die europäischen Höfe: Künstlernetzwerke und transnationaler Wissenstransfer von Dresden bis Sankt Petersburg (1750–1790)” at the Freie Universität Berlin, where the research for this book began in 2017. I am also grateful to Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, which has supported two of my projects over the last three years – “Italian Theatre Reverberated: An Artistic Diaspora across Central Europe (1730–1790)” and “Attori italiani alle corti di San Pietroburgo e Dresda: indagini sul repertorio e drammaturgia”. The publication of this volume was also supported by a contribution from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. I am very grateful to Piermario Vescovo for his insightful comments on the final draft of the manuscript. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers’ close and sensitive reading and suggestions that improved this book. Special thanks are due to Brad Carlton Sisk, who took on the task of correcting my English and did so with grace and meticulous attention to detail. Some chapters or parts of this work are based on previously published essays of mine. However, recollecting involves reshaping, reconceiving, and making new connections; therefore, the original material has not been merely reproduced but extensively revised, rewritten, and supplemented with new additions or different interpretations. Early versions of Chapters 2, 4, and 6 appeared in “Italian Operisti in Early EighteenthCentury St Petersburg: Repertoire, Production, and Audience”, in Mapping Artistic Networks: Eighteenth-Century Italian Theatre and Opera Across Europe, ed. by Tatiana Korneeva (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), 89–110; “Adriana Sacco nella drammaturgia di Carlo Goldoni e Carlo Gozzi”, Studi goldoniani, 18, n.s., 10 (2021): 21–30; “Antonio SaccoTruffaldino e Antonio Sacco-ballerino: itinerari e peripezie nell’Europa del Settecento (con una postilla di Piermario Vescovo, “Ballando con i Sacco”)”, Studi goldoniani, 16, n.s., 8 (2019): 65–87. I thank all those involved in the original works – editors, reviewers, and other interlocutors – for their help at various stages of this research. I thank the publishers for their generous permission to republish these essays in my book.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-202

Contents Acknowledgements

V

List of Illustrations

XI

List of Abbreviations

XIII

A Note on Transcription, Transliteration, and Translation Introduction

XV

1

Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg: intermezzi comici, Production Practice, and Audience Reception 7 2.1 Behind the Scenes 11 2.2 The Curtain Rises 15 2.3 Russian Evolution of Italian Repertory Works 21 2.4 Music to my Ears, but Words to my Eyes: Interludes and their Audience 23 2.5 Conclusion 30 Chapter 3 Crossing Cultures: the commedia dell’arte for the Russian Court 33 3.1 The Comic Repertoire of the Italian comici 33 3.2 Sylloges vs. Scenarios and the Function of the St Petersburg Collection 3.3 Translators 39 3.4 Spectators and Readers 42 3.5 Actors’ Proficiencies 45 3.6 The Repertoire of the lazzi 47 3.7 Conclusion 54 Chapter 4 Woman Matters: Adriana Sacco and Carlo Goldoni 57 4.1 di loco in loco: Peregrinations, Engagements, and Roles of Adriana Sacco 57 4.2 Old Comedies and the New Comedy 64 4.3 Goldoni at the Crossroads between Impromptu and Scripted Comedies 66 4.4 From the Mischievous Woman to the Well-Mannered Lady 73

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Chapter 5 Cultural Transfers between St Petersburg, Dresden, and Venice 75 5.1 Travels, Relocations, and Specialty Roles of Gio: Camillo Canzachi 5.2 From Monsieur de L’Appetit to Monsieur Petiton 80 5.3 From the French petit-maître to the Venetian paronzin 88

76

Chapter 6 ‘Comedy of Errors’: Overlapping Identities and Travel Routes of the Two Antonio Sacco 97 6.1 “A’ confini d’Europa”: St Petersburg 98 6.2 Stopover in Prague 105 6.3 The Return to Italy 109 6.4 St Petersburg Again 111 6.5 Copenhagen and Venice 116 6.6 Warsaw 120 6.7 Vienna: a Job Application Declined 122 6.8 Warsaw and Copenhagen Again 122 6.9 The Sacco Family Network 123 Afterword

127

Appendix 1 Composition of the Three Italian Companies Active at the Russian Imperial Court in 1731–1738 129 Appendix 2 Repertoire of the Three Italian Companies Active at the Russian Imperial Court in 1731–1738 133 Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749 139 Appendix 4 Antonio Sacco’s Family Tree Appendix 5 Giuseppe Sacco’s Family Tree

145

147

Appendix 6 Composition of Giovanni Battista Locatelli’s opera buffa troupes in St Petersburg and Moscow, 1757–c. 1762 149

Contents

Appendix 7 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets in St Petersburg in 1757–1761 151 Appendix 8 Transcription and Translation of Giuseppe Sarti’s Letter to Theatre Management in Copenhagen and the Draft of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Contract 153 Appendix 9 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets at the Danish Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in Copenhagen, 1763–1767 and 1785–1786 157 Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets and their Revivals in Warsaw, 1774–1776 and 1779–1780 159 Bibliography Index

177

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IX

List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 9 Fig. 10 Fig. 11

Fig. 12 Fig. 13 Fig. 14 Fig. 15 Fig. 16 Fig. 17 Fig. 18 Fig. 19

Title page of Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie (The Opera Impresario in the Canary Islands) 24 First page of Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie (The Opera Impresario in the Canary Islands) 25 Title page of Smeraldina kikimora (Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost) 62 Title page of Smeraldina als ein umherschweiffender Geist (Smeraldina the Vagabond Spirit) 63 Title page of Portomoia dvorianka (The Noble Washerwoman) 70 First page of Portomoia dvorianka (The Noble Washerwoman) 71 Title page of Frantsuz v Venetsii (The Frenchman in Venice) 81 Title page of Der Frantzose in Venedig (The Frenchman in Venice) 82 Title page of Marki Gaskonets velichavyi (The Magnificent Marquis of Gascony) 84 Title page of Der lächerliche und affectirte Marquis (The Ridiculous and Affected Marquis) 85 Theatre programme of Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote (The Frenchman in Venice, who is Deceived by Brighella in his Love Affair with Colombina, Who Pretends to be a Roman Lady, and Arlichino, his Wife’s Supposed Servant, in Order to Acquire the Dowry) 86 Theatre programme of Momolo disinvolto, commedia di carattere Veneziano del dottor Carlo Goldoni 92 Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Antonio Sacco with his wife 100 Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Adriana Sacco with mother and sister 101 Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Giuseppe Sacco with his wife and son 103 Note on the issue of passports to Giuseppe, Adriana, and Antonio Sacco 104 Title page of La pastorella regnante (The Reigning Shepherdess) by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli 105 Cast list in La pastorella regnante by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli 106 Registration of Antonio Sacco’s application for permission to perform Italian comedies in Prague 107

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List of Abbreviations Archives and Libraries1 ASPV AVPRI BAN BNM I-Mb NLR NRČR RA RGIA RGADA SHSA SÚA SLUB SUB Wc

Archivio Storico del Patriarcato di Venezia (The Historical Archive of the Patriarchate of Venice) Archiv vneshnei politiki Rossiiskoi Imperii (The Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire), Moscow Biblioteka Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk (The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences), St Petersburg Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (The Marciana National Library), Venice Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense (The Braidense National Library), Milan Rossiiskaia Natsional’naia Biblioteka (The National Library of Russia), St Petersburg Národní knihovna Cěské republiky (The National Library of the Czech Republic), Prague Rigsarkivet København (The Danish National Archive), Copenhagen Rossiiskii gosudarstvenniyi istoricheskii arkhiv (The Russian State Historical Archive), St Petersburg Rossiiskii gosudarstvenniyi arkhiv drevnikh aktov (The Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts), Moscow Sächsisches Staatsarchiv Dresden (The Saxon State Archive), Dresden Státní ústřední archiv Praha (The National Archives of the Czech Republic), Prague Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (The Saxon State und University Library Dresden) Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (The Göttingen State and University Library) The Library of Congress, Music Division, Washington, DC

Other Abbreviations b. d. c. fl. r. s.a. s.l. s.t.

born died circa (used before a date that is not exact) floruit (living or active) reigning sine anno (no year of publication) sine loco (no place of publication) sine typographo (no publisher)

 Sigla are drawn from Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) I (Münich-Duisburg: G. Henle Verlag, 1960), 61–68; and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (London: Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1992), 1: xxxv–xl. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-205

A Note on Transcription, Transliteration, and Translation Early modern Italian, French, and German sources have been transcribed following the original, though occasionally punctuation has been added for clarity. Original spelling has been retained, but printing errors have been silently corrected. Abbreviations have been resolved in square brackets. Additional editorial interventions are indicated by square brackets. The overall aim has been for clarity and to assist comprehension of the original. The Library of Congress system without diacritics is followed for the transliteration from Cyrillic of Russian words and names. For readability, standard Western names are used for Russian rulers (Peter the Great, Catherine the Great). When quoting Russian texts, the original orthography has been used wherever possible, including pre-1917 spellings, to maintain the integrity of the texts. All translations of quotations are my own unless otherwise stated. I thank Brad Carlton Sisk for his aid with a few particularly tricky passages.

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Introduction From the mid-fifteenth to the late-eighteenth century, Italian theatre practitioners traversed the whole of Europe, promulgating musico-dramatic repertoires, artistic excellence, and socio-political ideas. From London to Vienna, from Dresden to Stockholm, from Madrid to Copenhagen and St Petersburg, there was hardly a court or city that did not employ Italian-born musicians, playwrights, singers, actors, dancers, theatre engineers, painters, and tailors. As crucial agents of cultural transfer and exchange, Italian artists actively contributed to the formation of many European values, institutions, and cultural identities. In the first decades of the eighteenth century, Italian theatre and its artists became vital to the Russian tsars, who wanted to emulate and surpass the examples of other European courts. They championed Italian opera and theatre as patrons, critics, and spectators, using them to amplify and mythologise their victories and to glorify their close ties to European modernity and Slavic identity.1 Russian rulers employed Italian musico-dramatic works to advance social and political goals, legitimise Russia’s position as a ‘European nation’, assert the Empire’s cultural competitiveness on the international stage, and emphasise Russia’s cultural uniqueness and cosmopolitan character. They designed their courts as theatres, in which theatregoing played a central role. This book, as the first part of its title suggests, is about Italian musico-theatrical repertoires performed by Italian comici and operisti at the Russian imperial court. Geographically located between, and even straddling, Europe and Asia, the faraway Russian Empire boasted, rather unexpectedly, a more cosmopolitan repertoire than any other European court. While elsewhere in Europe Italian drama was performed in the original language or in a national vernacular, performance practice and repertoire in Russia was governed by the principle of multilingualism. The British, Habsburg, and Saxon-Polish courts reflected a decided preference for Italian theatre and opera; Sweden and Dresden were more aligned with French tastes. In Imperial Russia, on the other hand, a wide variety of dramatic works by Metastasio, Voltaire, Goldoni, Beaumarchais, Kotzebue, and Iffland (to name but a few) were performed in Italian, French, German, and Russian. Usually considered at best peripheral to Europe, eighteenth-century Russia provides us with a particularly compelling example of the mobility of theatre practitioners and the circulation of their artistic practices. Indeed, the

 On Russian national consciousness as an aspect of Westernization and the complexities of Russian identity, see Richard Taruskin, Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 3–24. Cf. also the chapter “The Complexity of Russian Identity” in Marina Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music (Ashgate: Aldershot and Burlington, 2006), 9–11. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-001

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influence of Italian theatre was more widespread and longer lasting in Eastern and Northern Europe in general, and in Russia in particular, than in other countries.2 The period covered in this volume begins in the early years of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, Empress of Russia (1693–1740, r. 1730–1740) and niece of Peter the Great (1672–1725, r. 1696–1725), the first of the Tsars to ‘modernise’ (i.e. ‘Europeanise’) the Russian Empire, who imported Italian theatre, opera, and chamber music to St Petersburg. My study extends to the end of the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1709–1762, r. 1741–1762), Anna’s successor on the throne, who was also aware of the socio-political importance of the performing arts. Under her reign, opere serie and buffe were commissioned specifically for the Russian stage, as well as the first opera in Russian. Italian theatre and opera were imported, assimilated, and adapted to local tastes so that they came to serve as the quintessential Russian imperial genre and became part of Elizabeth’s political narrative.3 The reigns of Anna and Elizabeth received far less attention than that of Catherine the Great (1729–1796, r. 1762–1796), which was rich in literary and dramatic innovation. The surviving musico-dramatic repertoires of the Italian comici and operisti active in Russia in the first half of the eighteenth century are not yet available in modern critical editions and have rarely been studied by scholars. This is because they occupy a liminal space between disciplinary boundaries and the conventional outlines of national traditions. Supplementary archival material – such as press reports on public festivities, actors’ and musicians’ payrolls, diplomatic correspondence about their engagements, costume and scenery expense accounts, and records of passport issuance – constitute an invaluable scholarly resource for reconstructing the international careers and performance practices of Italian artists. However, their activities at the Russian court and their migration routes through Europe to Moscow and St Petersburg have not yet been adequately researched.  Fernand Braudel, “L’Italia fuori d’Italia: Due secoli e tre Italie”, in Storia d’Italia, vol. 2: Dalla caduta dell’Impero romano al secolo XVIII (Turin: Einaudi, 1974), 1935–2248 (esp. 2211); English translation by Sian Reynolds, Out of Italy, 1450–1650 (New York: St. Martins Press, 1991).  In his Muzykal’nyi teatr v Rossii: Ot istokov do Glinki: Ocherk [Musical Theatre in Russia: From the Origins to Glinka. An Essay] (Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe myzykal’noe izdatel’stvo, 1959), Abram Gozenpud initiated an informed discussion of the connections between the poetics of opera and absolutist politics on the Elizabethan court stage. Drawing on lines of enquiry explored by Gozepud, recent scholarly contributions have offered important insights into the relationship between the poetics of drama and political symbolism, and the importance of theatre and opera for the construction of the personal and political personae of the four Empresses who ruled Russia in the eighteenth century. Cf., for example, Cynthia Hyla Whittaker, Russian Monarchy: Eighteenth-Century Rulers and Writers in Political Dialogue (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003); Anna Korndorf, Dvortsy Khimery. Illiuzornaia arkhitektura i politicheskie alliuzii pridvornoi stseny [Palaces of Chimera: Phantom Architecture and Political Cues in the Royal Court Theatre] (Moscow: Progress-Traditsiia, 2011); Inna Naroditskaia, Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarina from State to Stage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); Kirill Ospovat, Terror and Pity: Court Drama and the Poetics of Power in Elizabethan Russia (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2016).

Introduction

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The reason for these oversights is threefold. A long line of dedicated theatre historians has collected documentary information on the emergence of spoken and sung theatre in Russia,4 and there has been a renewal of interest in recent decades in the French, German, and Italian troupes that performed at the Russian court;5 nevertheless, the role of theatre practitioners in the dissemination and transmission of artistic products and socio-political ideas is still not fully understood. From this point of view, this volume contributes to and complements research on foreign troupes in Imperial Russia. But it also productively explores other research avenues by shifting attention from the musico-dramatic works they performed to the complex processes of knowledge transfer that Italian theatre fostered in Western Europe and Russia. Unlike the valuable studies by Liudmila Starikova, Marialuisa Ferrazzi, and Alice Pieroni, this book does not limit itself to providing a more nuanced understanding of Italian theatre in Anna’s and Elizabethan Russia through analysis of multi-lingual and rarely evaluated musico-dramatic works. The Russian court, usually considered at best the periphery of Europe, is examined here as one of the cultural workshops that were central to societal developments in Europe in the early modern period. From this perspective, a “microhistory” of works performed by Italian troupes in a single location at the periphery of Europe can provide more broadly valid insights into the functioning of early modern theatre as a transnational

 Vsevolod Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri Imperatritse Anne Ioannovne i Imperatore Ioanne Antonoviche [The Theatre in Russia at the Time of the Empress Anna Ioannovna and the Emperor Ioann Antonovich] (Peterkhof: Tipografiia Imperatorskikh SPB teatrov, 1914); VsevolodskiiGerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri imperatritse Elizavete Petrovne [The Theatre in Russia at the Time of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna] (St Petersburg: Giperion, 2003); Nikolai Findeizen, Ocherki po istorii musyki v Rossii s drevneishikh vremen do kontsa XVIII veka [Essays on the History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to the End of the eighteenth Century] (Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Muzsektor, 1928). Here I cite the English translation, History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to 1800, ed. by Miloš Velimirović and Claudia R. Jensen, 2 vols. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008); Robert-Aloys Mooser, Annales de la musique et des musiciens en Russie en XVIIIe siècle, I: Des origines à la mort de Pierre III (1762) (Geneva: Mont-Blanc, 1948); Abram Gozenpud, Muzykal’nyi teatr v Rossii; Muzykal’nyi Peterburg: Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’. XVIII vek [Musical St Petersburg. Encyclopedic Dictionary], ed. by Anna Porfir’eva, 3 vols. (St Petersburg: Kompositor, 2000); Natal’ia Ogarkova, Tseremonii, prazdnestva, muzyka russkogo dvora XVIII-nachala XIX veka [Ceremonies, Festivals, and Music of the Russian Court of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries] (St Petersburg: Bulanin, 2004); Musik am Russischen Hof vor, während und nach Peter dem Großen (1650–1750), ed. by Lorenz Erren (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017).  Liudmila Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossii v epokhu Anny Ioannovny: dokumental’naia khronika, 1730–1740 [Russian Theatrical Life at Anna Ioannovna’s Time: A Documented Chronicle, 1730–1740], Vypusk I (Moscow: Radiks, 1995) and Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossii v epokhu Elizavety Petrovny: dokumental’naia khronika [Russian Theatrical Life at Elizabeth Petrovna’s Time: A Documented Chronicle], Vypusk II–III (Moscow: Nauka, 2003–2005); Marialuisa Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte italiani alla corte russa (1731–1738) (Rome: Bulzoni, 2000); Alice Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna (1731–1738) (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2017); Aleksei Evstratov, Les spectacles francophones à la cour de Russie (1743–1796): L’invention d’une société (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2016).

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medium.6 This volume combines a microhistorical study of dramatic works and individuals with a global historical approach that invokes the language of networks and circulation to explain the movement of specific groups across national ang global geographies of space, as well as the general processes that carried highly cosmopolitan theatre practitioners across the world.7 The second reason why many questions remain open in historical research on travelling theatre practitioners is due to their cosmopolitanism and the incomplete documentation of their whereabouts. Furthermore, their activities and migration routes across Europe to the Russian Empire have been insufficiently researched due to the serious hurdle of accessing data from Eastern European and Russian archives. Thirdly, transnational and transdisciplinary studies on the mobility of artists and the related cultural transfer of theatre and music repertoires in Western and Eastern Europe are still scarce. Although a highly nomadic lifestyle was the norm and necessity rather than the exception for almost all professional theatre performers and singers from Italy who acquired artistic experience by relocating from one country or theatre to another, the geographical origin of comici and operisti still determine their position in the theatre and music historiography.8 The focus of this volume on imperial Russia is

 On the potential of the application of the microhistorical approach to human mobility in early modern age used throughout this volume, see Carlo Ginzburg and Carlo Poni, “The Name and the Game: Unequal Exchange and the Historiographic Marketplace”, in Microhistory and the Lost Peoples of Europe, ed. by Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, trans. Eren Branch (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 1–10.  See Sebastian Conrad, What is Global History? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016). For the studies that productively intersect microhistory and global history, see Francesca Trivellato, “Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History”, California Italian Studies, 2.1 (2011), 3–4, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0z94n9hq4. Accessed 24 March 2023; Jean-Paul Ghobrial, “Moving Stories and What They Tell Us: Early Modern Mobility Between Microhistory and Global History”, Past & Present, Supplement 14 (2019): 243–280.  On the limits of the nation-based historical perspective, see Andreas Wimmer and Nina Glick Schiller, “Methodological Nationalism and Beyond: Nation-State Building, Migration and the Social Sciences”, Global Networks, 2.4 (2002): 301–334; and “Methodological Nationalism, the Social Sciences, and the Study of Migration: An Essay in Historical Epistemology”, The International Migration Review, 37.2 (2003): 576–610. On the potential of cosmopolitan and transnational perspectives to overcome the conceptual primacy of national identification, see William Weber, “Cosmopolitan, National, and Regional Identities in Eighteenth-Century European Musical Life”, in The Oxford Handbook of the New Cultural History of Music, ed. by Jane F. Fulcher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 209–227 and Sarah Collins and Dana Gooley, “Music and the New Cosmopolitanism: Problems and Possibilities”, Musical Quarterly, 99 (2016): 139–165; Axel Körner, “Transnational History: Identities, Structures, States”, in International History in Theory and Praxis, ed. by Barbara Haider-Wilson, William D. Godsey, and Wolfgang Mueller (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2017), 265–290; Italian Opera in Global and Transnational Perspective. Reimagining Italianità in the Long Nineteenth Century, ed. by Axel Körner and Paulo M. Kühl (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022). For the “cross-border” study of performance see also the volume Transnational Connections in Early Modern Theatre, ed. by M. A. Katritzky and Pavel Drábek (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019).

Introduction

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therefore new. It departs from the traditional historiographical emphasis on Western Europe and takes a transnational approach to theatre and music history. By examining a multilingual corpus of Italian musico-dramatic works and exploring the web of relationships between Italian theatre practitioners, their patrons, and their intermediaries, this volume not only offers a new perspective on Italian theatre as a cosmopolitan medium, but it also situates Imperial Russia more firmly within the transnational context of early-modern European culture. In order to provide a new perspective on the dissemination and circulation of Italian theatre in East-Central Europe and Russia, the chapters of this book engage with three macro-topics mentioned in the subtitle: the itineraries of Italian theatre practitioners who were willing to cross multiple borders to include St Petersburg and Moscow as a part of their pan-European theatrical circuit; their transnational careers and practices before and after their sojourn in Russia; and the personal and professional networks and channels of communication used by Italian artists to facilitate their travels, acquire knowledge of the host country, negotiate contracts, and adapt to new contexts.9 Chapter 2 shows that the gradual integration of the Russian Empire into theatre networks, which had already established links between various European courts and entertainment capitals, took place thanks to the initiative of two companies of Italian actors, musicians, choreographers, dancers, and theatre architects active at the Russian court from 1733 to 1735. Reconstruction of the troupe’s membership and analysis of its repertoire of intermezzi comici (comic interludes) provides insights into the communication channels Tsarina Anna Ioannovna and her agents used to recruit personnel, as well as the reception of intermezzi by local audiences, who had had no prior exposure to theatre or Italian culture. This chapter also addresses several key questions: What reasons did Italian theatre practitioners have for going to East? Who was responsible for scouting, recruiting, and casting actors and musicians? Chapter 2 also shows the importance of artists’ family and professional networks in negotiating contracts and employment abroad and how court agents used their web of connections to select actors. Examining networks of actors and singers makes it possible to better understand which texts and libretti travelled and how, and who were the intermediaries responsible for their dissemination. Chapter 3 analyses the collection of commedia dell’arte performance programmes associated with the repertoire of the second and third Italian companies in residence in Russia. This collection is an important source of information for reconstructing the

 On networks of artists which formed a cornerstone of musico-theatrical cultural transfer due to the high mobility of their members, see “Einführung. Die Operisti als künstlerisches Netzwerk im Spiegel der Pirker-Korrespondenz” in Die Operisti als kulturelles Netzwerk. Der Briefwechsel von Franz und Marianne Pirker, ed. by Daniel Brandenburg and Mirijam Beier (“Theatergeschichte Österreichs”, Band X, Heft 8), 2 vols. (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2021), I: 1–33 (esp. 19–22).

6

Introduction

personalities of the comici italiani, their working methods, and their know-how. This chapter shows that the St Petersburg court was by no means a mere financial El Dorado for travelling theatre professionals, but also a laboratory where actors developed their characteristic roles and experimented with acting styles. Chapter 3 thus shows that investigating the reception of commedia dell’arte in Imperial Russia means not only tracing its influence on the development of the national theatre, and thus on processes of identity formation, but also highlighting the mutually beneficial contacts among Italian theatre practitioners, translators, and audiences. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 shift attention to the multi-directionality of cultural transfer and away from the musico-dramatic repertoires that the Italian comici and operisti imported to Imperial Russia. These chapters are not only about the kinds of information Italian artists conveyed, but also how the time Italians spent abroad influenced theatre practice back in Italy. They examine in more detail the career paths and profiles of theatre practitioners who were active in St Petersburg: the actor and impresario Antonio Sacco and his family members, the actress Adriana Sacco and the dance master Giovanni Antonio Sacco, and the actor-comediograph Giovanni Camillo Canzachi. These four theatre professionals worked with or were associated with Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) to varying degrees after their return to Italy. By examining the ways in which their sojourn in St Petersburg stimulated creative solutions and innovations in the artists’ acting techniques and repertoires that in turn influenced Goldoni, we can see that the performers’ experiences abroad had an important impact on dramaturgical practices in their home country. Ultimately, this analysis challenges the widely held view that playwrights and composers were more central than performers and allows us to see that the theatre production system was based on a collaborative process in which performers were active creators alongside the impresario, librettist, and playwright. The study of the Sacco actors’ family networks in the last chapter also allows us to understand how transmission of know-how functioned and what the dynamics of family relationships were in European theatre life. Combining analysis of newly discovered archival documents, re-examination of already known facts, and case-study research, this volume’s reconstruction of the mobilities of Italian artists fills in gaps in their biographies and their itineraries across Europe and the related circulation of musico-dramatic repertoires. However, the most important contribution of this book is that the study of their activities at the Russian court also provides a fuller understanding of their crucial role in the dissemination of artistic practices; in the formation of a common European heritage that transcended differences and national and regional identities within and beyond Europe; and above all in effecting a cultural rapprochement between Western Europe and Russia. Overall, the chapters of this volume provide an overview of the complexity of theatrical and musical exchanges in spaces, such as at the eighteenth-century Russian court, of intercultural contact, with spoken and sung Italian theatre providing a crucial cosmopolitan medium for the development of a sense of belonging to a larger European community.

Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg: intermezzi comici, Production Practice, and Audience Reception It was not until 1730 – when a Courland princess became Anna Ioannovna, Empress of Russia – that the Russian empire became an active participant in the pan-European performance network that already connected various European courts.1 The demand for foreign expertise capable of improving Russian political, military, and court institutions, and the consequent importation of foreign scientists, architects, sculptors, and artists to St Petersburg, began during the reign of Peter the Great.2 In his efforts to modernize Russia in the image of western Europe, Peter I also ardently wished to have musicians at his court.3 It was, however, only under the auspices of his game-changing niece Anna that theatre and opera performances at the Russian court acquired a regular rather than an episodic character, and the first chapter of Russian theatre history was written. Energetically seeking to consolidate far-reaching Petrine reforms and Russia’s position in the European political and diplomatic arena, the Tsarina was acutely aware that Italian theatre was a cultural medium that connected courts, centres of power, and commerce from Naples to Madrid, London, Vienna, and Copenhagen. The reign of Anna, often negatively contrasted with that of the reformist Peter, has generally been

 The origins of theatre in Russia can be traced to the reigns of Alexei Mikhailovich (1629–1676, r. 1645–1676), who recruited his actors from Moscow’s German quarter, and Peter the Great, who imported a professional German troupe to start a public theatre in Moscow. Peter, like his predecessor, was more concerned with empire building than with developing cultural policies. He had a utilitarian view of literature and the fine and performing arts as decorative tools of state, whose function was to ‘civilize’ – or at least give the appearance of civilization to – his countrymen. Cf. Catherine A. Schuler, Theatre and Identity in Imperial Russia (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press, 2009), 13. On Russia’s early theatrical and musical history situated within the context of a broad Western European framework, see also Claudia R. Jensen, Musical Cultures in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009) and the collection of essays Russia’s Theatrical Past: Court Entertainment in the Seventeenth Century, ed. by Claudia R. Jensen et al. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021).  Cf. Simon Werrett, “Reconfiguring Academic Expertise across Dynasties in Eighteenth-Century Russia”, OSIRIS, 25 (2010): 104–125.  One of the most prominent musicians to visit Petrine Russia was Filippo Balatri (1682–1756), an accomplished castrato from Pisa. His two-year stint in Moscow (1699–1701) is documented in two autobiographical narratives – Vita e viaggi di F.B. nativo di Pisa (written between 1725 and 1732) and Frutti del Mondo (1735). Cf. Daniel L. Schlafly, “Filippo Balatri in Peter the Great’s Russia”, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, n.s., 45/2 (1997): 181–198 and Filippo Balatri, Vita e viaggi, ed. by Maria Di Salvo (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-002

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

viewed as the saddest and darkest period in Russian history.4 Her court, which she wished to transform into the most dazzling court in Europe and to some extent succeeded, was famous for its unsophisticated amusements.5 Yet, Anna’s impact on the development of the performing arts in Russia deserves a more sympathetic assessment. Indeed, her introduction of Italian theatre, opera, and chamber music, as well as her founding of the Russia ballet, point to the Tsarina’s understanding of the arts’ quintessentially socio-political significance. Anna’s efforts to cultivate theatre were intimately connected to her initiative of expanding St Petersburg’s court as a way of controlling the nobility and keeping its power in check. Far from being a lavish court entertainment, theatre served as a central meeting place for the ruling class and a particularly sensitive barometer of the Tsarina’s authority. Beginning with Anna’s reign, both opera and non-musical theatre were not only genres representative of Western Europe, they were also indispensable elements in the Empress’s statecraft and particularly powerful vehicles for a form of myth-building that was inextricably intertwined with her project of nation-building. At first the Italian artists who were such a valuable component of Anna’s courtbuilding enterprise were imported from the Saxon-Polish and German courts. The first Italian professional company was brought over from the operatic oasis of Dresden. Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1670–1733, r. 1694–1733), lent the Russian Tsarina his ensemble of experienced commedia dell’arte actors, singers, and orchestral musicians, who arrived in Moscow from Warsaw in February 1731, after a month-and-ahalf of travels full of misadventures.6 The actors were headed by the actor and capocomico Tommaso Ristori (1658–after 1733), and the musicians by his son Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692–1753), a young but already famous composer. In August 1731, Ristori’s troupe was reinforced by a company of musicians recruited from Germany by Johann Hübner (1696–c. 1750), violinist and concertmaster, who had been in the Empress’s service for

 On Anna’s image as a ruler, see Mina Curtiss, A Forgotten Empress: Anna Ivanovna and Her Era, 1730–1740 (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1974). An attempt to better contextualize and rehabilitate her rule has been made by Alexander Lipski, “A Re-Examination of the ‘Dark Era’ of Anna Ioannovna”, American Slavic and East European Review, 15 (1956): 477–488, and Evgenii Anisimov, Rossiia v seredine XVIII veka: bor’ba za nasledie Petra (Moscow: Mysl’, 1986), published in English as Empress Elizabeth: Her Reign and Her Russia, 1741–1761, trans. John Alexander (Gulf Breeze, Fla: Academic International Press, 1995).  On Anna’s court, see Evgenii Anisimov, Five Empresses: Court Life in Eighteenth Century Russia, trans. Kathleen Carroll (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 55–126.  Cf. Gozenpud, Muzykal’nyi teatr v Rossii; Starikova, “Novye dokumenty o deiatel’nosti italianskoi opernoi truppy v Rossii v 30–e gody XVIII v. i russkom liubitel’skom teatre etogo vremeni” [New Documents about the Activity of the Italian Opera Troupe in Russia in the 1730s and the Russian Amateur Theatre of that Time], in Pamiatniki kul’tury. Novye otkrytiia. Pismennost’, iskusstvo, arkheologia. Ezhegodnik, 1988 (Moscow: Nauka, 1989). Online at: https://facetia.ru/node/3139. Accessed 14 February 2023; Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 39–46.

Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

9

ten years.7 The repertoire of what is usually considered to be the first Italian company at the Russian court consisted of twenty-three improvised comedy titles, seven comic interludes, and the first ever musical comedy performed in Russia, Calandro.8 Anna found the Italian actors to be indispensable for reaffirming her ambitions in local and international politics. She saw them as both a vehicle for representing statecraft and as a medium through which she could engage with the West. For this reason, the search for a new troupe, this time carried out directly in Italy, began after the departure of the first troupe at the end of 1731. The second company of actors, musicians, choreographers, dancers, and theatre architects was an extraordinary one.9 It included Antonio Sacco (or Sacchi), who was to become a renowned Goldoni performer, and Pietro Pertici, the most important buffo singer of the eighteenth century. Other members of the troupe were the actors Gaetano, Libera, Adriana, and Antonia Franchi Sacco, Giovanni Camillo Canzachi, Ferdinando Colombo, Antonio Fioretti, Girolamo Ferrari, and Domenico Zanardi; the choreographers Giuseppe Sacco and Antonio Armano; the violinist Giovanni Piantanida, the singers Costanza Pusterli and Alessandra Stabili, the musicians Luigi and Antonio Madonis; and the scene designers Stefano Bufelli and Carlo Gibelli.10 Although neither the libretti nor the scores of the plays performed by the first Italian company have survived, the activities and repertoire of the second troupe are documented by two important sources of information. The first is the administrative account compiled in the years 1734–1735 by Giuseppe Avolio (or Avoglio), actor and librettist, who was appointed accountant to the second company. Avolio’s accounts list expenditures for costumes, scenery, and stage props, and identify some of members of the troupe and the dates of performance.11 The second source is a collection of surviving commedia dell’arte

 Johann Hübner arrived in St Petersburg in 1721 with the court of the Austrian ambassador Philip Joseph Kinsky (1700–1749). The company he recruited in Germany included the Kapellmeister Johann Kayser from Hamburg; his daughter, the singer Sophie Kayser; the soprano singer Christina-Maria Croumann Avo(g)lio; her sister, an intermezzo-performer; her husband Giuseppe Avolio, actor and librettist; the double bass player Eyselt (or Eiselt) from Bohemia; the oboist Döbbert from Berlin; the violinist Bindi; the castrato Giovanni Filippo Maria Dreyer and his brother the oboist Domenico Maria Dreyer; and the singer and theatre designer Giovanni Antonio Guerra.  For a list of titles, see Appendix 2.  The information we have about the composition of the company is imprecise. The list of beds prepared for the actors – 19 singles and 8 doubles – seems to indicate that the company comprised between 27 and 35 members. The list is preserved in RGIA, f. 466, op. 1, d. 20, l. 74. Cf. Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte, 45–46.  For a complete list of the actors in three Italian companies active at the Russian court in 1731–1738, see the Appendix 1.  Avolio’s account is published in Russian transcription in Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossii v epokhu Anny Ioannovny: dokumental’naia khronika, 1730–1740 [Russian Theatrical Life at Anna Ioannovna’s Time: A Documented Chronicle, 1730–1740], Vypusk I (Moscow: Radiks, 1995), 272–295. A partial translation into Italian can be found in Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte, 271–282, and a complete Italian translation is included in Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 333–357.

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

performance programmes and comic intermezzi performed by the second and the third Italian companies at Anna’s court between 1733 and 1735 and translated into Russian and German at the Empress’s request.12 Thirty improvised comedies, eight interludes, and one tragicomedy in Russian language were discovered by Vasilii Sipovskii,13 and were published by Vladimir Perets in 1917.14 This publication was later expanded by the discovery of five more comedies and interludes by Robert-Aloys Mooser and Marialuisa Ferrazzi.15 Both Avolio’s account and the collection of commedia performance programmes and libretti are known to scholars. These sources have been used to reconstruct the membership of the troupe and have been read as evidence of the impact of foreign repertoire on the local dramatic tradition.16 Here I propose to approach them from a different angle, namely to discover what the activities and repertoire of the second Italian company can tell us about the inner workings of the professional theatre world and about the systems of production and reception outside Italy in the early decades of the eighteenth century. In particular, I will provide new insights into (1) the complex communication channels used by patrons, agents, and actors, as well as events related to the recruitment of personnel; (2) the choice of repertoire and its dissemination across Europe; (3) the careers and migration paths of the artists whose willingness to undertake an arduous journey across multiple borders added Russia to a larger theatrical circuit for travelling troupes; and (4) the level of aesthetic connoisseurship of the local spectators and the way in which they received Italian theatre.

 See Chapter 3 for a detailed analysis of this collection and its translators.  Vasilii Sipovskii, “Italianskii teatr v S. Peterburge pri Anne Ioannovne (1733–1735 gg.)” [Italian Theatre in St Petersburg at the Time of Anna Ioannovna (1733–1735)], Russkaia starina, 102/6 (1900): 593–611.  Ital’ianskia komedii i intermedii predstavlennyia pri dvore Imperatritsy Anny Ioannovny v 1733–1735 gg. Teksty [Italian Comedies and Intermezzi Performed at Anna Ioannovna’s Court in the Years 1733–1735. Texts], ed. by Vladimir Perets (Petrograd: Tipografiia Imperatorskoi Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 1917).  The Genevan musicologist Robert-Aloys Mooser (1876–1969) discovered two intermezzi – Porsun’iak i Grilletta (undated) and Die verschmitzte Junge-Magd (The Clever Maid, 1735, performed by the third company) – as well as two comedies, Das bezauberte Arcadien (The Enchanted Arcadia, 1734) and the Kolombina volshebnitsa (Colombina the Magician, 1735), in the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg and the University Library in Göttingen. The commedia dell’arte performance programme, Der Streit der Betrugereyen zwischen Brighella und Arlequin (The Contest of Trickery between Brighella and Arlecchino, 1733), was found by Marialuisa Ferrazzi and attributed to the repertoire of the second company because it shares a similar narrative structure, publication year, and printing house with the other libretti of the troupe. Cf. Mooser, Annales de la musique, 116; Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte, 57–58.  The most exhaustive accounts of the Italian theatre in Russia remain Vsevolod VsevolodskiiGerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri Imperatritse Anne Ioannovne; Mooser’s Annales de la musique, Starikova’s Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossii v epokhu Anny Ioannovny; and Ferrazzi’s Commedie e comici dell’arte.

2.1 Behind the Scenes

11

2.1 Behind the Scenes As was mentioned above, the search for the second company began at the end of 1731, when the Empress dispatched the violinist Johann Kayser on a mission to Italy to find new performers. After receiving a significant sum for his travel expenses and for the recruitment of personnel, the agent disappeared and his further whereabouts are unknown.17 The Empress’s two other headhunters, Johann Hübner, a Viennese-trained Prussian conductor who had previously acted as agent for the troupe hired in Germany, and the musician Domenico Maria Dreyer (c. 1680–c. 1740), were more successful in their mission. Their search for personnel continued until September 1732,18 but it was not until the summer of 1733 that the Italian actors who would remain at the Russian court for nearly two years arrived in St Petersburg from Venice. Almost nothing is known about the behind-the-scenes operations that made the operisti and comici italiani’s performances possible. However, Avolio’s account allows for a reconstruction of the makeup of the troupe, and the network of locations and relationships between agents, singers, and musicians enables us to establish the communication channels through which the members of the ensemble were recruited. If we use “six degrees of separation” to connect artists with each other, we cannot help but notice that to build a new company the Empress’s headhunters used their personal and professional connections. Indeed, it appears likely that the choice of Domenico Dreyer as Anna’s agent was not accidental. The oboist was the brother of Giovanni Filippo Maria Dreyer (c. 1703–1772, nicknamed as ‘Il Tedeschino’), the little researched altocastrato singer and composer of intermezzi and oratori who would later act as the impresario of the third Italian company (1735–1737/1738). Along with his brother, Giovanni entered service in Russia in 1731 as a member of the ensemble engaged by Hübner in Germany. His fee of 1,237 roubles, the highest in the troupe, appears to confirm his role as a considerable artistic influence at the Russian court.19 Although the singer could not leave the already depleted ensemble after Ristori’s departure (and in fact he continued to sing in the chamber-music concerts with Christina-Maria Avolio and her sister), he must have given his brother a wish-list of singers and musicians he had previously collaborated with. His stage career hearkened back to 1721, and after performances in Viterbo, Rome, and Lucca, Dreyer sang at Venice’s Teatro San Cassiano in the 1725/1726 season. It must have been his idea to recruit Pietro Pertici (1709–1768). Indeed, both

 Mooser, Annales de la musique, 94.  The order to send the agents 5,000 roubles for the recruitment of actors and for their travel expenses was issued on 9 September 1732. Cf. Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri Imperatritse Anne Ioannovne, 16.  The list of the actors’ salaries is preserved in RGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, č. 105, d. 51844, l. 253. Cf. also Starikova, “Novye dokumenty”.

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

Dreyer and Pertici were Florentine.20 Given that they performed together in the opera Lucio Papirio (libretto by Antonio Salvi, music by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini)21 and Rodelinda (Salvi–Giovanni Antonio Canuti)22 at the Teatro of Lucca during the Carnival season in 1724, it is possible that the engagement of Pertici was suggested by Dreyer. In fact, as Gianni Cicali rightly argues, “un cast si forma anche per affinità elettive professionali-ruolistiche legate a precedenti attività, agli incontri tra gli interpreti” [“a cast is also formed according to professional, role-related elective affinities based on prior experience and encounters between the performers”].23 The recruitment of the Florentine soprano Alessandra Stabili seems to follow the same pattern. Little is known about her background, but in the years 1731–1732 Stabili was active in Tuscany and specialized in scene buffe. In 1731 Stabili and Pertici would have crossed paths at the Teatro del Cocomero in Florence, where they performed together in La commedia in commedia (Francesco Vanneschi–Giovanni Chinzer), one of the most successful comic operas of the first half of the eighteenth century, and in La vanità delusa by the same authors.24 Considering that comic actors usually formed small but stable touring ensembles, it is likely that Pertici and Stabili aimed to create a partnership modelled on renowned pairs of comic intermezzo specialists, such as Gioacchino Corrado and Celeste Resse (fl. 1725–1732), and Antonio Ristorini and Rosa Ungarelli (fl. 1710s–1720s).25 All indications are that the commedia dell’arte part of the troupe, with the Sacco family at its center – the capocomico Gaetano Sacco (?–1735), his wife Libera, his son Antonio (1708–1788) with his wife Antonia Franchi and his daughters Adriana (1707–1776) and Anna Caterina (1710–?) – were also recruited in Florence. The first traces of Truffaldino specialist Antonio Sacco’s experience come from the Teatro della Pergola, where he played the role of the second zanni in the intermezzi staged during the Carnival season of 1730, while his father’s company was active at the Teatro del Cocomero.26 It is highly probable that, upon accepting employment at the

 Pertici might not have been born in Florence, but he was surely of Tuscan origin. On the singer’s career prior to his Russian stay, see Gianni Cicali, Attori e ruoli nell’opera buffa italiana del Settecento (Florence: Le Lettere, 2005), 39–61. Cf. also Maria Augusta Morelli Timpanaro, Autori, stampatori, librai: Per una storia dell’editoria in Firenze nel secolo XVIII (Florence: Olschki, 1999), 43–48.  Claudio Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800, 7 vols. (Cuneo: Bertola & Locatelli, 1990–1994), no. 14450.  Sartori, no. 20059.  Cicali, Attori e ruoli nell’opera buffa, 51.  Sartori, nos. 5951, 24310. Also appears on the cast list of Chinzer’s La serva favorita (Pistoia, Teatro degli Accademici Risvegliati, 1732), cf. Sartori, no. 21758.  Franco Piperno, “Famiglie di cantanti e compagnie di opera buffa negli anni di Goldoni”, Il castello di Elsinore, 78.2 (2018): 29–39 (32) and by the same author, “L’intermezzo comico a Napoli negli anni di Pergolesi: Gioacchino Corrado e Celeste Resse”, Studi pergolesiani, 3 (1999): 157–172.  Cf. Francesco Bartoli, Notizie istoriche de’ comici italiani, ed. by Giovanna Sparacello, introduction by Franco Vazzoler, transcription by Maurizio Melai. “Les savoirs des acteurs italiens” (Institut de

2.1 Behind the Scenes

13

Russian court, the actors tried to get supplementary appointments for their relatives, and that the engagement of another member of the Sacco family, the choreographer Giuseppe Sacco (?–d. before 1761), was suggested by his kinsmen. We are once again led back to Florence by the biographies of two other performers, the violinist and composer Giovanni Piantanida (1706–1773) and his wife, the famous soprano singer Costanza Pusterli Piantanida (c. 1699–?), whose presence in Florence and Livorno is documented between 1731 and Carnival 1732.27 The rest of the troupe was hired in Venice, where Giovanni Dreyer was active during the 1725/1726 season and had numerous contacts and acquaintances. Among the personnel recruited there were the Venetian musicians and half-brothers Luigi (1695–c. 1770) and Antonio Madonis (1690–1746), and the Bolognese actor Giovanni Camillo Canzachi, who is known to have returned to Venice after his stint in Vienna. This evidence indicates that, although the troupe was assembled in Venice, the Empress’s agents must have travelled to Florence to hire some performers or else relied on the help of the impresario of the Teatro della Pergola, Luca Casimiro degli Albizzi (1664–1745). The impresario had personal contact with the Dreyer family and could have acted as adviser and intermediary between agents and performers.28 The characteristic feature of the recruitment model adopted by Russian court headhunters is thus its heavy reliance on both family networks and their interconnected networks of personal and professional relationships. However uncertain the information about the engagement of the artists, several clues are instructive in tracing their career paths. First, the artistic résumés of most of the actors, singers, and musicians were so comprehensive by the time they reached Russia that they could no longer be considered entirely Venetian, Florentine, or Italian, but cosmopolitan. In fact, at the time of their engagement for the Russian court, most of the performers had already acquired extensive experience working abroad. Due to the deep and long-lasting economic crisis that began in 1717 and did not end until 1739, Venice became an excellent place for young actors and singers to gain experience, but it provided no support for a long-term career. La Serenissima’s multiplicity of theatres formed an enormous network of performers

Recherche sur le Patrimoine Musical en France, 2010), 406; Lorenzo Colavecchia, “Sacco, Antonio”, in Archivio Multimediale Attori Italiani (AMAtI), online at: http://amati.fupress.net/Main.uri. Accessed 1 August 2022; Caterina Pagnini, Il teatro del Cocomero a Firenze (1701–1748) (Florence: Le Lettere, 2017), 84–91.  Sartori, nos. 1895, 13550, 715, 2936, 8953.  Recently, Richard Erkens’s research has unearthed evidence for Albizzi’s leading role in negotiations and hiring the actors for the third Italian company which was resident in Russia from 1735 to 1738. See Richard Erkens, “Engaging Italian Opera Singers for the Russian Court in 1734/35: An Insight into the Networks of Agents and Impresarios”, in Opera as Institution: Networks and Professions (1730–1917), ed. by Cristina Scuderi and Ingeborg Zechner (Vienna: Lit, 2019), 7–35. Cf. also William C. Holmes, Opera Observed: Views of a Florentine Impresario in the Early Eighteenth Century (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993).

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

that were recruited for Milanese, Parisian, and English stages,29 among other places. The careers of most of the artists in the second company offer an eloquent example of how the Venetian lagoon was the launching pad for travelling performers and opera troupes. Giovanni Antonio Guerra, the Venetian bass singer, harpsichordist, and composer, had been resident in Prague since the founding of the Sporck Theatre in 1724, staying there until 1726. Giovanni Dreyer arrived in St Petersburg after his engagement in Breslau (first as a singer and then as an impresario) and in Prague at the Sporck Theatre during the Carnival and spring seasons of 1726–1728.30 The violinist Luigi Madonis, who in 1725 joined a travelling company’s European tour, was active in Breslau in 1726 and in Paris in 1731.31 The Bolognese actor and dramatist Giovanni Camillo Canzachi had been previously employed at the court of Charles VI (1685–1746) in Vienna, first as a director of the Italian company, and later in the company of German actors at the Kärntnertortheater.32 The violinist Pietro Mira (?–after 1782) and the actor Giovanni Porazzisi, who actually arrived in St Petersburg in April 1732 before the second company, and Francesco Ermano), the actor who was a member of the first company and returned to Russia again in June of 1732, had thus already traversed the courts of Europe before finding employment in Russia.33 Whereas multifaceted international experience was also the norm rather than the exception for performers employed at other European operatic centres, the second clue relates to a peculiarity of the Russian court. The Empress’s agents adopted a recruitment model typical of opera seria, in which operas stars were hired individually for one season and then each went their own way in search of their next contract and suitable engagement. That the assembled company was not a stable ensemble, like Mingotti’s or Lapi’s troupes with singers who were already used to working together,34 but artists with different skills, had important consequences for opera production and practice in Russia. The intersection of the careers of performers from different artistic backgrounds created

 Eleanor Selfridge-Field, “The Teatro Sant’Angelo: Cradle of Fledgling Opera Troupes”, Musicologica Brunensia, 53 Supplementum (2018): 157–170 (158). On Sant’Angelo theatre, see Gianluca Stefani, Sebastiano Ricci impresario d’opera a Venezia (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2015).  Cf. Daniel E. Freeman, The Opera Theater of Count Franz Anton von Sporck in Prague (New York: Pendragon Press, 1992), 311–313; Marie Skalická, “Die Sänger der italienischen Oper in Prag 1724–1735 (Materialien aus den Libretti des Graf A. F. Sporckschen Operntheaters)”, De musica disputationes Pragenses, 2 (1974): 147–169 (159–160); Jana Spáčilová, “Orlandini’s Antigona (vendicata): Transformation of a Venetian Opera on its Transalpine Journey”, Musicologica Brunensia, 53 (2018): 227–248.  Cf. Mooser, “Violonistes-compositeurs italiens en Russie au XVIIIe siècle. Luigi Madonis”, Rivista musicale italiana, XLV, no. 5–6 (1941): 264–280.  On Giovanni Camillo Canzachi, see Chapter 5.  Starikova, “Novye dokumenty”, 67–95.  On travelling opera companies, see Reinhard Strohm, “Europäische Pendleroper: Alternativen zu Hoftheater und Wanderbühne”, in Gluck und Prag. Symposiumsbericht Gluck und Prag, Nürnberg, 20.– 22. Juli 2012, ed. by Thomas Betzwieser and Daniel Brandenburg (Gluck-Studien 7) (Kassel, Basel, London, New York, Praha: Bärenreiter, 2016), 11–28.

2.2 The Curtain Rises

15

opportunities for developing versatile professional acting skills through close observation of fellow actors, dancers, and singers. It is thus interesting to investigate what kind of repertoire they imported to the Russian capital.

2.2 The Curtain Rises The makeup of the troupe and the collection of commedia dell’arte performance programmes and intermezzi reveal that the company brought an essentially comic repertoire, unconnected to celebratory court occasions, to St Petersburg.35 The choice of plays, based on easily recognizable theatrical situations and slapstick comedy dependent on the acrobatic and mimetic abilities of the actors, was centred on works in which language was not a barrier for enjoyment despite being staged entirely in Italian. Among the nine titles staged by the company, four intermezzi can be identified as Venetian or northern Italian: Date Title

Source

Librettist and composer Performance venue

 Starik skupoi (The Old Miser)

Il vecchio avaro (Fiammetta e Pancrazio)

Antonio Salvi and Francesco Gasparini

 Igrok v karty (The Gambler at Cards)

Il marito giocatore e la moglie bacchettona (Serpilla e Baccoco)

Antonio Salvi and Verona, ; Venice, Teatro Giuseppe Maria Orlandini Sant’Angelo, , , 

Venice, Teatro Sant’Angelo, 

 In April 1734, after the court’s move from the old capital of Moscow to St Petersburg in 1732, Anna decided to build a new theatre. The task was entrusted to the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700–1771). The theatre hall was to be integrated into the new Winter Palace. Where the actors of the second company performed while waiting for the completion of the hall is not yet clear. They probably used the movable stage built by Tommaso Ristori, which was set up in one of the halls of the Winter Palace and in other private houses. During the summer months, the actors performed in the gardens of the Summer Palace, where Giovanni Antonio Guerra and Carlo Gibelli had created a backdrop for the plays. From Avolio’s administrative account we learn that on 15 August 1735 the actors of the third company moved to a room in the Winter Palace that had been intended for performances and was now completed. Cf. Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Teatral’nye zdaniia v Moskve i SanktPeterburge [Theatre Buildings in Moscow and St Petersburg] (St Petersburg State Theatre Library, St Petersburg: Chistyi list, 2018), 71–132.  Irène Mamczarz, Les intermèdes comiques italiens au XVIIIe siècle en France et en Italie (Paris: Éditions du CNRS, 1972), 437.

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(continued) Date Title

Source

Librettist and composer Performance venue

 Muzh revnivyi Il marito geloso (The Jealous (Giletta e Ombrone) Husband)

Antonio Salvi and Venice,  Giuseppe Maria Orlandini

?

Unknown or Marquise Giovanni Battista Trotti and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini

Porsun’iak i Grilletta (Porsugnacco and Grilletta)

Monsieur de Porsugnacco (Grilletta e Porsugnacco)

Milan, ; Venice, Teatro San Samuele, ; Florence, Teatro del Cocomero, ; Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 

Three interludes are of Florentine origin: Date Title

Source

Librettist and composer Performance venue

 Pritvornaia nemka (The Feigned German Woman)

La finta tedesca (Carlotta e Pantaleone)

() Unknown and Giovanni Nicola Ranieri Redi; () Bernardo Saddumene and Adolf Johann Hasse

 Bol’nym byt’ dymaiushchii (The Imaginary Invalid)

L’ammalato immaginario (Erighetta e Don Chilone)

() Antonio Salvi and () Venice, Teatro San Cassiano, Francesco Gasparini; () ; () Florence, Teatro della Antonio Salvi and Pergola,  and  Giuseppe Maria Orlandini

 Posadskoi dvorianin (The Bourgeois Gentleman)

L’artigiano gentiluomo (or Larinda e Vanesio)

() Antonio Salvi and Giuseppe Maria Orlandini; () Antonio Salvi and Johann Adolf Hasse

() Florence, Teatro del Cocomero, ; () Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 

() Florence, Teatro della Pergola, ; () Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 

The other two intermezzi are Neapolitan: Date Title

Source

 Podriadchik opery v ostrovy L’impresario delle Kanariiskie (The Opera Canarie Impresario in the Canary Islands)

Librettist and composer

Performance venue

Pietro Metastasio and Domenico Sarro

Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 

 The text was attributed to Marquis Giovanni Battista Trotti by Warren Kirkendale, The Court Musicians in Florence during the Principate of the Medici, with a Reconstruction of the Artistic Establishment (Florence: Olschki, 1993), 528.

2.2 The Curtain Rises

17

(continued) Date Title

Source

Librettist and composer

Performance venue

 Vliubivshiisia v samogo sebia Nartsiz (Narcissus in Love with Himself)

La contadina (Don Tabarrano e Scintilla)

Bernardo Saddumene and Johann Adolf Hasse

Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 

Numerous possible sources for the interludes staged in St Petersburg demonstrate that by the time they reached Russia the genre was already well-established in Italy.38 Venetian, Florentine, and Neapolitan intermezzi were so frequently performed outside their city of origin that not only did they become repertoire favorites across Italy, they also came to form a significant part of the repertoire in some of the leading European operatic centres. The comic interlude, however, was a genre in which the personality and vocal-performative profile of actor-singers was so important that it influenced the writing and arranging of libretti and music. The choice of works performed before the Russian audience must have been determined by and strongly oriented towards the talents of the singers Pietro Pertici, Alessandra Stabili, and Giovanni Dreyer. Indeed, some of the changes made to the original versions of libretti aimed at emphasizing their personalities and vocal-performative experience. This is the case with the Starik skupoi (The Old Miser), based on Il vecchio avaro, the first intermezzo written for the Teatro Sant’Angelo in 1720 by Antonio Salvi (1664–1724), a Florentine librettist in the employ of the Medici family, and set to music by the Lucchese composer Francesco Gasparini (1661–1727). The libretto remains largely faithful to its Italian version except for the substitution of Fiammetta’s entrance aria “Perché sia più bello il mondo / V’è chi sparge, e chi raguna” [“For the world to be more beautiful there are those who throw money around and those who take it up”] that sets the action in motion by describing her intention to trick Pancrazio, a silly and greedy but wealthy old man, into marriage. The substitute aria, “A

 Among the interludes performed at the Russian court, three types can be identified: (1) intermezzi that share kinship with improvised comedy; (2) intermezzi inspired by or adapted from Molière’s comedies; (3) meta-operatic intermezzi based on a complicated practice of parody and pastiche. The intermezzi satirized middle-class society and the contemporary customs of the bourgeoisie, but even such vocations as medicine and acting were subjected to cutting satire. The plots have many ingredients typical of successful plays of the eighteenth century, such as the ‘play within a play’, disguises, crossdressing, or satires of the opera world. The bibliography on the history of the comic intermezzo is vast; see at least Lucio Tufano, “L’intermezzo, Napoli e l’Europa”, in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero. Musica (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 2018), 269–278, and Franco Piperno, “Buffe e buffi (considerazioni sulla professionalità degli interpreti di scene buffe ed intermezzi)”, Rivista italiana di musicologia, 17 (1982): 240–284; Alice Pieroni, “Il viaggio di un intermezzo musicale nell’Europa del XVIII secolo. L’Ammalato immaginario”, Commedia dell’Arte. Studi storici, n.s., 2 (2019): 63–80.

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

me piace l’allegria / e nel far l’innamorata / non sono tanto appassionata” [“I like happiness, / and to be a lover / I am not so passionate”],39 contains a play on the words “innamorata”, an adjective meaning “to be in love with”, and also the stock role of the female lover, the “innamorata”, in Italian comedy. The wordplay is thus a meta-reference to the skills of the singer, probably Stabili, who was not successful in playing serious innamorata parts in spoken-word comedy but excelled as a buffo singer. Similarly, in the Pritvornaia nemka (The Feigned German Woman), another interlude about a witty maid willing to increase her status through marriage (which will be discussed later in detail), Stabili alludes to her Florentine origins: “Трудно другова Доктора сыскать такъ дурака какъ этотъ. Искалъ он себѣ въ служебницы одну нѣмку; а я, хотя флорентïнка, и притворилась нѣмкою, чтобъ воити к нему в домъ” [“It is difficult to find another Doctor so foolish as this one. He was looking for a German maid-servant; although I am from Florence, I feigned to be German to get into his house”; my italics].40 Interestingly, in the original as well as all Italian revival versions of La finta tedesca, the protagonist Sciarlotta has Bolognese origins.41 All evidence thus points to the fact that the singers must have travelled to Russia with their suitcases full of scripts and scores. The extant libretti of the collection are therefore not only some of the most important documents relating to Italian-Russian opera, but they are also a heritage that can shed light on the circulation of Italian opera on a European scale. The lack of surviving musical scores frustrates most efforts to detail the history of the troupe’s activities and the exact routes by which the intermezzi found their way to Russia. However, given that the texts of the arias are printed side-by-side with the Italian originals, it is possible to verify how Russian libretti adhered to their Italian sources and make plausible assumptions about how they reached St Petersburg. Furthermore, because the roles in the comic intermezzi were predetermined according to sex and vocal range, and the singers each had their own signature roles (i.e., parts they had premiered elsewhere and which they brought with them from one performance venue

 Starik skupoi, in Ital’ianskia komedii i intermedii, 132. The substitute aria is borrowed from Berenice, regina di Egitto, libretto by Antonio Salvi (Rome, Teatro Capranica, 1718). Cf. Sartori, no. 3975.  Pritvornaia nemka, in Ital’ianskia komedii i intermedii, 277.  The choice of repertoire based on the artistic personality and performative skills of the actors also holds true for the commedie dell’arte performed at Anna Ioannovna’s court. Indeed, in contrast to Flaminio Scala’s collection, it is not plot but the definition of the characters interpreted by Antonio and Adriana Sacco that take center stage in the comedies of the St Petersburg collection. The artistic profile of these interpreters will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 4 and 6. Cf. also Maria Chiara Pesenti, “Komediia masok v Rossii: pervye sviazi s Italiei, zarozhdenie novogo uvlechenia” [Comedy of Masks in Russia: The First Relationships with Italy and the Birth of a New Entertainment], Europa Orientalis, 16 (1997): 251–276 (269); Ferrazzi, “Peterburgskoe turne semeistva Sacco (1733–1734)” [St Petersburg’s Tournée of the Sacco Family (1733–1734)], in XVIII vek. Sbornik 26: Staroe i novoe v russkom literaturnom soznanii [Eighteenth Century. Volume 26: Old and New in the Russian Literary Consciousness], ed. by N. D. Kochetkova (St Petersburg: Nauka, 2011), 36–51.

2.2 The Curtain Rises

19

to another), it is possible to figure out in whose suitcase the libretti made their journey to Russia.42 One of the items that the singers of the second company possibly had in stock from previous productions is Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie (The Opera Impresario in the Canary Islands). The interlude L’impresario delle Canarie, presumably written by Metastasio and set to music by Domenico Sarro, was staged between the acts of Didone abbandonata at the Neapolitan Teatro San Bartolomeo in 1724. The next year, the buffo singers Gioacchino Corrado and Santa Marchesini took it on tour to Venice, where it was performed with new music by Tommaso Albinoni and embedded within the new host opera, Alcina delusa da Ruggero (Teatro San Cassiano, 1725). Given that the production featured Giovanni Dreyer in the role of Ruggero, it is safe to assume that the Venetian version of the libretto travelled to Russia in the castrato’s “suitcase”.43 The Starik skupoi, Posadskoi dvorianin (The Artisan Gentleman), Muzh revnivyi (The Jealous Husband), and Porsun’iak i Grilletta most probably came from the “suitcase” of Pietro Pertici, who specialized in roles of old men in the comic intermezzi.44 Indeed, Pertici was the interpreter of Pancrazio in Il vecchio avaro, staged as entr’acte entertainment in Salvi’s Lucio Papirio (Lucca, 1724). Sartori’s catalogue also reports him as performing in Monsieur de Porsugnacco (Rome, Teatro della Pace, 1729), L’artigiano gentiluomo, and Il marito geloso (both in Rome, Teatro di Torre Argentina, 1732).45 Connecting each play with a particular singer’s suitcase, is, however, less rewarding than the conclusions that can be drawn from the above examples. First, not only did the performers actively contribute to the importation of plays and manuscript scores, but – in the virtual absence of a secular literary and dramatic tradition in Russia – they also found themselves in a position to decide on repertoire programming. If the overall importance of singers in the economy of early eighteenth-century opera and their creative influence on the process of producing and adapting operatic works was already well known,46 what the St Petersburg experience of the Italian operisti

 On the practice of the arie di baule (the “truck arias”), in the sense of a successful piece or the solo number tried and tested by the performer himself to be freshly launched elsewhere, see Jennifer Williams Brown, “On the Road with the ‘Suitcase Aria’: The Transmission of Borrowed Arias in Late Seventeenth-Century Italian Opera Revivals”, Journal of Musicological Research, 15 (1995): 3–23. On the criteria for the selection of arias and the ways of acquisition, see also Daniel Brandenburg, “Italian operisti, Repertoire and the aria di baule. Insights from the Pirker Correspondence”, in Operatic Pasticcios in 18th-Century Europe. Contexts, Materials and Aesthetics, ed. by Berthold Over and Gesa zur Nieden (Bielefeld: transcript, 2021), 271–283.  Taddeo Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del Settecento. Catalogo delle opere in musica rappresentate nel secolo XVIII in Venezia, 1701–1800 (Venice: Prem. Stab. Tipo-litografico fratelli Visentini, 1897), 74–75; Mooser, Annales de la musique, 87.  Cicali, Attori e ruoli nell’opera buffa, 44–45.  Sartori, nos. 20187, 20166, 3961.  See, for instance, John Rosselli, “From Princely Service to the Open Market: Singers of Italian Opera and their Patrons, 1600–1850”, Cambridge Opera Journal, 1 (1989): 1–32; Berta Joncus, “The

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

suggest is that their control over the system of production and their role in shaping the repertoire was much more crucial than has hitherto been assumed. Second, repertoire was also disseminated through contacts between performers and the transmission of works from one singer to another. In fact, the enormously successful interlude Igrok v karty (The Gambler at Cards), which is traceable to Il marito giocatore with a libretto by Salvi and music by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini (1676–1769), one of the most influential authors of Venetian opera, arrived in Russia with the first Italian company. Its two extant translations, one in prose and the other in verse for use at the amateur theatre, testify to the intermezzo’s great popularity with the Russian public.47 It was subsequently revived in 1734 by the second troupe, featuring Pertici in the role of Baccoco. The singer, who remained in Russia until 1738 even after the departure of the second troupe, was paired with the newcomer Rosa Ruvinetti Bon (fl. 1730–1762), a comic actress in the third company, and the intermezzo was revived three more times (25 June, 1 July, and 21 December 1735).48 Given that the scores and libretti circulated with the same core group of principal singers who were responsible for and the beneficiaries of its success, it is no wonder that the interlude subsequently became part of Ruvinetti Bon’s “suitcase”, as she is known to have performed it in Potsdam with her new companion, Domenico Cricchi.49 Similarly, Pertici’s signature roles of old men remained in his personal repertoire after his departure from Russia.50 When he formed a new intermezzo pair with his wife, Caterina Brogi (?–1786), he continued playing Vanesio in La baronessa d’Arabella (Teatro de’ sigg. Accademici, Cortona, 1738), Porsugnacco in Monsieur de Porsugnacco (Teatro Sant’Angelo, Venice, 1741), and Ombrone in Il marito geloso (Teatro Sant’Angelo, Venice, 1742).51 Vliubivshiisia v samogo sebia Nartsiz (Narcissus in Love with Himself) is another good example of how singers facilitated the spread of repertoire throughout Europe by exchanging libretti, scores, and even roles they had in their trunks with each other if it suited the needs of a certain performance in a certain venue. The 1734 St Petersburg intermezzo (whose Russian title is misleading as the piece is actually a revival of Hasse’s La Contadina), with Pertici appearing as Don Tabarrano, was subsequently produced in 1737 in Dresden under the title Don Tabarrano with Pietro Mira and Rosa Ruvinetti Bon,

Handel-Senesino Rivalry”, Handel Institute Newsletter, 32, no. 1 (2021): 1–3. For a contrarian view on the authority for the placement of arias and the decision-making role of the music director (maestro di capella) in the context of Italian operas in London in the 1730/1731 season, see Reinhard Strohm, “Scipione impasticciato: Performing, Researching and Reviving London Operas from 1730–1731”, Musicology Today, 18.1 (2021): 89–98 (esp. 94–95).  See Starikova, “Novye dokumenty”; Mooser, Annales de la musique, 75.  See Avolio’s account in Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 346–357.  Sartori, no. 11956.  On the importance of an aria and its evolution for an eighteenth-century singer’s construction of a public persona, see Margaret R. Butler, “From Guadagni’s Suitcase: A Primo Uomo’s Signature Aria and its Transformation”, Cambridge Opera Journal, 27.3 (2015): 239–262.  Sartori, nos. 3815, 14863, 14863.

2.3 Russian Evolution of Italian Repertory Works

21

actors who knew each other from their time in Russia. In 1747 the interlude was revived in Dresden, this time featuring Domenico Cricchi. In 1748 it was staged again at the Königliche Schloß-Schaubühne in Potsdam, where in the meantime Cricchi had become a theatre director and the first buffo, while his partner Ruvinetti Bon was promoted to the prima donna assoluta, and in 1750 at the Orangery in Berlin.52 The travelling singers thus played a crucial role in establishing the interconnectivity of theatre networks, the cross-pollination of theatrical traditions, and the internationalization of European opera repertoire.

2.3 Russian Evolution of Italian Repertory Works Let us take a closer look at the mechanics of repurposing intermezzi originally premiered elsewhere for the context of the Russian court. The interlude Pritvornaia nemka (The Feigned German Woman) staged in St Petersburg on 3 June 1734 is not only the first instance of the libretto’s revival north of the Alps, but also of its exportation to still remote regions of the European opera circuit.53 Like other intermezzi, its stock conventional situation pits a nouveau riche against a young servant girl who uses her wits to trick her master into marriage. The plot thus revolves around matchmaking and its consequences: Sciarlotta, aware of Pantaleone’s weakness for German women, pretends to be German in order to entrap him in marriage. As for the source of the Russian revival, it might be the same La finta tedesca written by Bernardo Saddumene, set to music by Adolf Johann Hasse, and premiered in 1728 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples between the acts of Attalo re di Bitinia.54 But it could also be the Florentine interlude that bears the same title, with music composed by Giovanni Nicola Ranieri Redi (fl. 1718–1755) for the 1729 Viriate (Ranieri Redi–Metastasio) at the Teatro del Cocomero, which adheres to the first and the third parts of the Neapolitan intermezzo. According to Claudio Toscani, the two

 On the post-Russian activities of the buffo pair Ruvinetti Bonn-Cricchi, the major promoters of Hasse’s interludes in Europe, see Louis Schneider, Geschichte der Oper und des Königlichen Opernhauses in Berlin (Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 1852), 133; Moritz Fürstenau, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe der Kurfürsten von Sachsen und Koünige von Polen Friedrich August I. (August II.) und Friedrich August II. (August III.) (Dresden: Kuntze, 1862), 246; and Christoph Henzel, Die Schatulle Friedrichs II. von Preussen und die Hofmusik (Teil 1), in Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Instituts für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, ed. by Günther Wagner (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1999), 36–66.  The interlude subsequently attained a certain popularity, being produced in Madrid in 1738; in Hamburg in 1746 by Pietro Mingotti’s company; in Potsdam featuring Rosa Ruvinetti Bon and Domenico Cricchi; and in Copenhagen during the 1756/1757 season by Pietro Mingotti’s troupe. Cf. Claudio Toscani, “Introduzione”, in Johann Adolf Hasse, La finta tedesca (Carlotta e Pantaleone). Tre intermezzi per Attalo re di Bitinia, ed. by Claudio Toscani, “Musica teatrale del Settecento italiano” (Pisa: ETS, 2014), xi–xii.  Hasse, Three intermezzi (1728, 1729 and 1730), ed. by Gordana Lazarevich (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1992), xiv.

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intermezzi seem to belong to two distinct branches of tradition, which, however, can be traced to a common archetype.55 Neither Mooser, who declared the source of the libretto was Saddumene–Hasse’s intermezzo, nor Alice Pieroni, who uncritically accepted his attribution, noticed that there are substantial differences between the Russian and both Italian versions.56 Part I, in which Sciarlotta enters Pantaleone’s house disguised as a German maid-servant and makes him fall in love with her, remains faithful to both the Neapolitan and Florentine libretti up to the point of Sciarlotta’s disclosure of her trickery and her true identity. The characters’ duet that follows this revelation, “Se taci, Sciarlotta” [“If you be silent, Sciarlotta”], is changed into “Se credessi di morire” [“If I were to die”]. The musical number is borrowed from La finta pazza (The Feigned Madwoman), staged at the Teatro del Cocomero in 1732, which in turn was a re-make of Il finto chimico (The Feigned Chemist, 1686) composed by Giovanni Cosimo Villifranchi (1649–1699) and revived in 1723 in Livorno, featuring Pertici in the role of the central character Graticcio, a fact which explains how the substitute aria found its way into Pritvornaia nemka. Part II opens with Sciarlotta’s monologue summarizing the events that happened after the end of the first part. The spectators find out that Pantalone and Sciarlotta are now married, and she intends to have a bit of fun with her husband, for he is so silly that it impossible to live with him in peace. What we see next is how the two quarrel over Sciarlotta’s excessive expenses, but in the end resolve to live happily ever after. Part II differs from both Italian versions simply because it does not belong to La finta tedesca, but is borrowed from Part III of Monsieur de Porsugnacco, the interlude based on Molière’s comedy. Monsieur de Porsugnacco premiered in 1727 in Milan, featuring Rosa Ungarelli and Antonio Ristorini, and was followed by performances later the same year starring the same comic team at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice, the Teatro del Cocomero in Florence, and the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples (the last of these featuring Celeste Resse and Gioacchino Corrado). Since the Russian variant of Porsugnacco is incomplete (with only a general indication at certain points that an aria was sung but without printing its text), it is not possible to establish on which version – Milanese, Venetian, Florentine, or Neapolitan – it was based. Whichever it was, it is in any case clear that it was reduced down to its first two parts, as the third part migrated to the St Petersburg Finta tedesca. Seen from the perspective of the production system, the intermezzo as performed in Russia belongs to the category of the pasticcio, which was widespread in the eighteenth

 Toscani, “Introduzione”, xv.  Cf. Mooser, Opéras, intermezzos, ballets, cantates, oratorios, joués en Russie durant le XVIIIe siècle. Avec l’indication des œuvres de compositeurs russes parues en Occident à la même époque. Essai d’un répertoire alphabétique et chronologique (Geneva: A. Kundig, 1945), 57; Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 296.

2.4 Music to my Ears, but Words to my Eyes: Interludes and their Audience

23

century.57 More specifically, it is not an opera made up of items created for earlier occasions by the same composer or from newly composed pieces by different composers.58 It is a pasticcio resulting from an exchange between one singer and another, thereby guaranteeing the work’s revitalization and longevity on theatre stages, but at the price of radical changes to the original structure (e.g., insertion of sections from other intermezzi, rearrangements, cuts, and substitutions of arias). If the unscrupulous composition procedures show little regard for the integrity of the original work and suggest hastily improvised productions, they also show that the staging of an opera was the result of what Reinhard Strohm calls “shared agency”, i.e. collaboration between arrangers, performers, musicians, and patrons.59

2.4 Music to my Ears, but Words to my Eyes: Interludes and their Audience But how did local audiences receive the repertoire of the Italian company and what might their habits of theatre consumption tell us about their level of aesthetic connoisseurship? Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie, the very first interlude attended by the Russian court in 1733, featuring Pietro Pertici in the role of the impresario Nibbio, and, possibly, Christina-Maria Croumann Avolio or Giovanni Dreyer in the role of Dorina,60 can offer a useful glimpse into the Russian audience’s reception of Italian opera. (See Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, Title page and the first page of Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie). Its source, L’impresario delle Canarie, is an early example of a metatheatrical intermezzo depicting the world of opera and its protagonists, as well as the mechanisms by which operas themselves were created and staged. The choice of Podriadchik opery as the first interlude ever produced in Russia (and subsequently revived on 2 July 1734)61 was a smart and witty move, for not only was the play one of the most acclaimed metatheatrical works, becoming increasingly popular during the eighteenth century, but it was also a sort of mise en abyme of the events surrounding the company’s own engagement for the faraway Russian land.

 On eighteenth-century pasticcio principle, see Gesa zur Nieden and Berthold Over, “Introduction”, in Operatic Pasticcios in 18th-Century Europe. Contexts, Materials and Aesthetics, ed. by Berthold Over and Gesa zur Nieden (Bielefeld: transcript, 2021), 9–21. For the discussion of pasticcio aesthetic and practical procedures in opera, see Reinhard Strohm, “Italian Opera Pasticcio, 1700–1750: Practices and Repertoires”, in Over-zur Nieden, Operatic Pasticcios, 45–67 and Strohm, “Wer entscheidet? Möglichkeiten der Zusammenarbeit an Pasticcio-Opern”, in “Per ben vestir la virtuosa”. Die Oper des 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhunderts im Spannungsfeld zwischen Komponisten und Sängern, ed. by Daniel Brandenburg and Thomas Seedorf (Schliengen: Argus, 2011), 62–79.  On the types of operatic pasticcios, see Strohm, “Scipione impasticciato”, 90.  Strohm, “Scipione impasticciato”, 93.  It is possible that Dreyer played the female role, as most castrati did at the beginning of their careers.  Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 251.

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Fig. 1: Title page of Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie (The Opera Impresario in the Canary Islands).

In fact, its plot revolves around the impresario Nibbio’s visit from the Canary Islands to convince the Italian virtuosa Dorina to accept a contract at his opera house. The prima donna lists a number of problems and excuses as to why she cannot sing – the keyboard is out of tune and she has other appointments – but she finally agrees to perform one aria and one tragic opera seria scene, which inspires Nibbio to sing a cantata of his own composition. In the end the impresario asks the singer to sign a contract, but the resolution is open-ended. The flow of the action is not based on

2.4 Music to my Ears, but Words to my Eyes: Interludes and their Audience

25

Fig. 2: First page of Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie (The Opera Impresario in the Canary Islands).

series of consequent events, but rather on a series of conventional situations, such as the exhibition of the virtuosa’s vocal talents or her enumeration of immoderate requests. The comic effect is therefore based not so much on the logic of the plot but on a burlesque of theatrical models, musical structures, and the quirky behaviour of opera practitioners. The humour in these metatheatrical interludes was dependent on insider knowledge about opera’s conventions and the audience’s understanding of these conventions. Italian, or European, spectators of the 1730s would simply not laugh at the

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inside jokes about singers’ personalities and skills if they were not already sophisticated theatre-going connoisseurs.62 Precisely because the parodic intent of the metatheatrical interludes has to be apparent to the audience, the Podriadchik opery constitutes an important source of information about the level of aesthetic connoisseurship of the culturally remote audience for whom the Italian singers found themselves performing their standard repertoire. Additional evidence about the Russian spectators is provided by the textual structure of the libretti themselves. Lorenzo Colavecchia has rightly argued that the St Petersburg collection of Italian commedia performance programmes and intermezzi significantly differs from similar seventeenth – and eighteenth-century compilations because its function was not to serve as a working script for the actors, but to facilitate the spectators’ (and readers’) understanding of the performance.63 Indeed, throughout the collection, the translator places the audience at the forefront of the performing event by explaining terms or situations it might not be familiar with. In the Pritvornaia nemka, where the comic element is based on linguistic confusion, he translates phrases from both German and Italian. In the Podriadchik he feels the need to explain to his fellow compatriots that the expression “to applaud with both feet and hands” in Italy refers to the audience’s appraisal of a performance.64 While the European public was aware that L’impresario denounced opera seria conventions, the “Перечень всея ïнтермедïи” (“Summary of the full interlude”) that introduces every work in the collection provides a general background for the events about to unfold onstage and explains parody to the audience: “прочее все крïтïка, (то есть охулка) характеровъ, которые имѣли, оные обоего пола люди театральные” [“the rest of the action is a critique (that is to say a disapproval) of the habits that people of both sexes involved in theatre had”].65 The summary thus makes clear that the terms parody and satire did not yet exist in the Russian lexicon. Other musical terms that were apparently absent from the Russian vocabulary of the day and needed to be explained to the audience are: the scores (“бумаги музыкантские”, musicians’ papers),66 prima donna (“первая персона”, the first person),67 orchestra (“оркестра”, “the place in the theatre where the musicians sit”),68 libretto

 Toscani, “L’impresario delle Canarie: Due intonazioni a confronto”, Studi musicali, n.s., 1 (2010): 369–388.  Lorenzo Colavecchia, “Antonio Sacco alla corte di San Pietroburgo (1733–1734)”, Il castello di Elsinore, 63 (2011): 103–121 (109–110). See the next chapter on the difference between the St Petersburg collection and other Italian zibaldoni of improvised comedy scenarios.  Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie, in Ital’ianskia komedii i intermedii, 126.  Podriadchik opery, 120.  Podriadchik opery, 120.  Podriadchik opery, 126.  Podriadchik opery, 127.

2.4 Music to my Ears, but Words to my Eyes: Interludes and their Audience

27

(“книга Оперская”, literally: opera book).69 That in Dorina’s aria “Recitar è una miseria” the words ‘parte buffa’ and ‘parte seria’ are translated as “что играть важное, или смешное” [“to perform something important or something that makes one laugh”]70 suggests that Russian spectators had also not yet acquired a vocabulary for the codification of singers’ roles and professional skills. Another indication of how well audiences understood what Trediakovskii was translating or what they were watching at the theatre (or supposed to imagine while reading the libretto at home) is provided by the audition scene in Part I. After having listed the usual excuses for not singing (a cold, an out-of-tune spinet, and so on) Dorina agrees to perform an aria entitled “Amor prepara” for Nibbio. While the alleged opera star sings her number, the impresario continuously butts in with comments on her performance: [DOR. ‘Amor prepara’ . . . NIB. Oh cara! DOR. ‘Le mie catene’ . . . NIB. Oh bene! DOR. ‘Ch’io voglio perdere La libertà’ . . . NIB. Bel trillo in verità! Che dolce appoggiatura! È un miracolo, è un mostro di natura. DOR. ‘Tu m’imprigiona.’ . . . NIB. O buona! DOR. ‘Di lacci priva’ . . . NIB. Evviva! DOR. ‘No, che più vivere L’alma non sa.’ NIB. Da capo, in verità.

ДОР. Поетъ . . . любовь, приготовляи НИБ. Ласточка! ДОР . . . . мою цепь: НИБ. А по томъ? ДОР. По тому что я хочу потерять мою вольность. НИБ. Ахъ какъ изряднoи тонъ! коль приятные трели! право вы чудовище удивительное естества. ДОР. Поетъ . . . Ты меня полонишъ. НИБ. Очюнь хорошо! ДОР . . . . безъ твоихъ кандалъ. НИБ. И живо! ДОР . . . . Cердце мое не можетъ больше жить.

DOR. ‘Come, love, prepare’ . . . NIB. Oh dear! DOR. My chains . . . NIB. Oh fine! DOR. From my freedom I resign . . . NIB. What a truly lovely trill! What a sweet appoggiatura! You are a miracle, you are a prodigy of nature!

DOR. Sings . . . Come, love, prepare NIB. Oh swallow! DOR . . . . My chain: NIB. And then? DOR. From my freedom I resign. NIB. What a lovely tone! What a pleasant appoggiatura! You are a miracle, you are a prodigy of nature.

НИБ. Повторите ту пожалуите.71

 Podriadchik opery, 128.  Podriadchik opery, 126.  Podriadchik opery, 123. The Italian text is quoted from Pietro Metastasio, L’impresario delle Canarie. Intermezzi per Didone, in Tutte le opere di Pietro Metastasio, ed. by Bruno Brunelli, 5 vols. (Milan: Mondadori, 1953), 1: 58.

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Chapter 2 The First Italian Operisti in St Petersburg

DOR. You possess me . . . NIB. Oh, very good! DOR. ‘From the fetters freed’ . . . NIB. That’s fine indeed! DOR. ‘My heart cannot live any longer.’ NIB. This is truly a da capo!

DOR. Sings . . . You possess me. NIB. Very good! | DOR . . . . From your fetters freed NIB. That’s fine indeed! DOR. My heart cannot live any longer. NIB. One more time that again please!]

Nibbio’s last interjection, “Da capo, in verità” (“This is truly a da capo”), provides a meta-reference to and burlesque of the classic form of the da capo aria, whose effectiveness depends on the precise expectations of the audience. This scene implies audience awareness of opera seria musico-dramatic forms and achieves both its humour and its critical pungency by undermining these conventions. The Russian translation (“One more time that again please!”), in which Nibbio’s exclamation is instead taken to be a request to repeat the aria once again, reveals the translator’s understanding that the Russian audience lacked the knowledge of musico-dramatic conventions. Other persuasive evidence of the limits of what the Russian spectators could understand is found in Part II, where Nibbio asks Dorina to perform a tragic scene in which Cleopatra is the main character. At first, the virtuosa refuses to comply with his request because there is no orchestra to accompany her, but the impresario continues to insist, asking her to imagine one and offering her to play the role of Marco Antonio himself: [NIB. Potrebbe in grazia mia Farmi godere una scenetta a solo? DOR. Lo farei volentieri ma, senza i lumi, Senza scene, istrumenti, e a pian terreno, Manca l’azione e comparisce meno. NIB. Questo non dà fastidio: si figuri Che qui l’orchestra suoni Co’ soliti violini e violoni E che sia questa stanza Il fondo d’una torre, o quel che vuole. Esca pur Cleopatra, Porti seco la perla e l’antimonio: Io son qui, se bisogna, un Marc’Antonio.

НИБ. Вы можете учинить мне милость, потѣшить меня тою сценою одна. ДОР. Я бы это учинила охотно; но безъ иллyмïнацïи, безъ театра, безъ Iнструментов, и въ близи дѣиство уменьшается, и нимало не кажется. НИБ. Это нѣтъ ничево. Извольте думать, что бутто здесь теперь Оркестра [гдѣ музыканты сидятъ] играет на скрипкахъ; а эта бутто камора нутрь однои башни, или что вы изволите; что бутто Клеопатра изъ нея выходитъ съ своими перлами, и съ антïмонïем; а я ежели надобно, буду Маркъ Антонии.72

 Podriadchik opery, 127; Metastasio, L’impresario delle Canarie, 63.

2.4 Music to my Ears, but Words to my Eyes: Interludes and their Audience

NIB. Could you do me a favour and let me enjoy a da solo scene? DOR. I would be very pleased to do it, but without the lights, scenes, instruments, on the ground floor, the action, the grace is nothing! NIB. It does not matter: imagine here the orchestra playing with the usual violins and bass viols, and this chamber is a dungeon of some tower, or what you want; then Cleopatra comes in with her pearl and cup: and if necessary I am Mark Antony.

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NIB. Could you do me a favour and let me enjoy that scene where you appear alone? DOR. I would be very pleased to do it, but without the lights, theatre, or instruments, and from close up, the action becomes small and the effect is lost. NIB. It does not matter. Imagine here the orchestra [where musicians sit] playing violins; and this chamber is a dungeon of some tower, or what you want; then Cleopatra comes in with her pearl and cup, and if necessary I will be Mark Antony.]

What is interesting to note here is that, first of all, the term ‘a solo’ or ‘da solo’, which describes a scene in which a character is alone on stage, did not have any equivalent in eighteenth-century Russian. Furthermore, the instruments that Nibbio invokes, ‘violini e violoni’ (“fiddles and six-string bass viols”), represent typical elements of the early eighteenth-century Italian orchestra, characterized by the clear distinction between the high register, entrusted to violins, oboes, and possibly flutes, and the low register (cellos and bassoons). This scene reveals the Italian audience’s familiarity with vocabulary related to the principal instruments in the orchestra. Trediakovskii’s omission of ‘violoni’ from the translation points to the fact that the Russian public was not acquainted with the function of the bass viol in the Italian orchestra. This intermezzo parodies virtually all elements of opera seria, from its heroic style, aria types, and plot devices to its practitioners – a vain and temperamental singer and an amateur impresario who in his eagerness to exhibit himself sings an embarrassingly bad performance with music and verses of his own composing. But the explanations of musical vocabulary included in the libretto for the Russian audience convey the image of an operatically illiterate spectatorship, who were not yet able to grasp the targets of the interlude’s satire. The Empress’s commission to translate the commedia performance programmes and intermezzi of the Italian actors points to her intention to provide her subjects with a tool for appreciating the performances and understanding them on more than just a surface level.73 The reception and consumption of Italian theatre in a Russian context at the time of Anna Ioannovna can best be described by Nibbio’s words in the libretto: In trying to convince Dorina, who is reluctant to travel to the Canary

 For more information on the translators and the Russian and German translations, see the next chapter.

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Islands because she does not know the language and the local audiences will not understand her singing, the impresario states that texts are not important because the audience could not care less about the meaning: “Нѣтъ въ томъ вамъ никакои трудности, по тому что слогъ рѣчеи в оперѣ ни зачто людямъ; смакъ уже нынѣ въ томъ перемѣнился; довольно, чтобъ хорошо было пѣто, а на слова не смотрятъ” [“This is not at all a problem because in opera the words do not count, and now that the tastes have changed, it is sufficient to sing well and no one will pay attention to the words”].74

2.5 Conclusion At the time of the engagement of the second Italian company, the Russian court was most probably perceived as a magnet for theatre practitioners trying to better their lot. By 1734–1735, however, when the troupe’s contract reached expiration and most of the operisti decided to return to their homeland, St Petersburg came to be seen as an opportunity to reinforce the performers’ professional skills, their “suitcases”, and their artistic reputation and credentials. Since the ensemble was not hired as a unit but consisted of actors and singers with multifaceted artistic backgrounds who found themselves working together, these circumstances led to the enhancement of their skills and their “trunks” of arias, libretti, and other musicalia, as the cases of Pietro Pertici, Rosa Ruvinetti Bon, and Pietro Mira alone prove. In fact, there is no evidence of Pertici performing in L’impresario delle Canarie prior to his Russian tenure, whereas, judging from performances in Venice in 1741/ 1742 and in Parma in 1749, the part of Nibbio would become one of the singer’s signature roles.75 The St Petersburg court provided not only an inviting workplace for roving actors (and indeed some of them returned to Russia for a second time, as was the case with Francesco Ermano) and the choreographer Giovanni Antonio Sacco); it was also a launching pad for the brilliant careers several of them would go on to have. For the actor and dramatist Giovanni Camillo Canzachi, the Russian tournée led to an appointment at the Saxon-Polish court of Augustus III. It was also a turning point in the careers of ChristinaMaria Croumann Avolio and Costanza Pusterli Piantanida, who went on to become Handel’s favourite singers in London. During his Russian sojourn, Pietro Mira gained the Empress’s trust and the position of court jester, which led to his further high appointments at the Saxon-Polish court in Dresden.76 Pertici, who was described by Carlo Goldoni as “il  Podriadchik opery, 121.  Cf. Sartori, nos. 12907, 12909, and 12913.  Cf. Mooser, “Violonistes-compositeurs italiens en Russie au XVIIIe siècle. Pietro Mira”, Rivista musicale italiana, XLVI, no. 4 (1942): 273–293. Mira’s career after his Russian foray has been examined at length in Alina Żórawska-Witkowska, “Foreign Musicians at the Polish Court in the Eighteenth

2.5 Conclusion

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più bravo attore del mondo” [“the best actor in the world”],77 became widely recognised as one of the most talented performers of the century, who in 1750 was appointed director of the newly formed Teatro Nazionale della Toscana in Florence, which staged the latest Italian and foreign theatrical works. It is highly probable that both Pertici’s comic gift and his administrative skills were sharpened by his earlier multifaceted Russian experience, when actor-singers also acted as translators and arrangers of their plays and played a crucial role in programming the repertoire. A similar pattern can be seen in the artistic career of Antonio Sacco.78 Employed as both actor and dancer during his Russian tournée, Sacco went on to become a famous Truffaldino and the favourite actor of Carlo Gozzi (1720–1806). His fame in Russia probably extended well into the late eighteenth century, for Prince Paul (1754–1801) and his wife, during their stay in Venice, preferred to attend Sacco’s performance rather than a ball of the Venetian nobility.79 Appointment at the Russian court also led to prestigious positions at other European courts for the actors of the third company, such as Rosa Ruvinetti Bon and Domenico Cricchi, both of whom found employment first at the Saxon court (1747) and later at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712–1786, r. 1740–1786). In conclusion, it is worth noting that the second company paved the way for St Petersburg’s status as one of the most significant en route destinations for touring actors, musicians, virtuosi, instrumentalists, and stage designers.80 Thanks to this company and the ensemble that followed in its footsteps, theatre in Russia was soon upgraded from a pure entertainment and court divertissement to a state event, and St Petersburg’s Italian opera came to be the equal of Europe’s most respected theatres.

Century: The Case of Pietro Mira”, in Musicians’ Mobilities and Music Migrations in Early Modern Europe: Biographical Patterns and Cultural Exchanges, ed. by Gesa zur Nieden and Berthold Over (Bielefeld: transcript, 2016), 151–170.  Carlo Goldoni, preface to Il Cavaliere e la Dama (1749). On Pertici after the St Petersburg phase of his career, see Gianni Cicali, “Il buffo internazionale. Sulle tracce di Pietro Pertici”, Problemi di critica goldoniana, 12 (2005): 5–50, and by the same author Attori e ruoli nell’opera buffa, 61–84.  See Chapter 6 on Antonio Sacco’s travels to and activities in Russia and his artistic career in Italy.  Descrizione degli spettacoli, e feste datesi in Venezia con occasione della venuta di LL. AA. II. il Gran Duca, e Gran Duchessa di Moscovia, sotto il nome di CONTI Del NORT Nel Mese di Gennaio 1782 (Venice: presso Vincenzo Formaleoni, 1782), 6–7.  Indeed, the next – third – Italian company was assembled by Pietro Mira and included some of the very best singers of the day. Mira’s mission also led to the engagement of the Neapolitan composer Francesco Araja (1709–1770), who became the first Italian maestro di cappella at the Russian and the composer of the first Italian opera seen in St Petersburg. See Appendix 1.

Chapter 3 Crossing Cultures: the commedia dell’arte for the Russian Court While the previous chapter analysed the comic intermezzi of the Italian operisti in St Petersburg, the main focus of Chapter 3 will be on a collection of commedia dell’arte performance programmes, an important source of information on the activities of the comici italiani who contributed to the pan-European proliferation of Italian theatre. In particular, this chapter will be devoted to the features that distinguish the St Petersburg programmes from other collections of commedia improvvisa scenarios, namely the Russian and German translations in which they were printed and their function as a means of communication between actors and spectators. Chapter 3 will also examine the role that translators played in helping the audience to make sense of the actors’ language and gestures and will ask what acting techniques Italian actors used not only to make themselves understood, but also to elicit audience participation and applause. Moreover, the texts of the Russian collection are more detailed than the usual scenarios improvised by the actors, as they scrupulously report features of the performers’ acting to the audience by providing descriptions of their facial expressions, gestures, costumes, and physical and verbal lazzi. For this reason, these programmes offer good investigative material not only for grasping aspects of commedia dell’arte’s reception in Russia, but also for reconstructing the personalities of the comici italiani, their working methods, and their know-how.

3.1 The Comic Repertoire of the Italian comici As mentioned in Chapter 2, the collection of commedia dell’arte performance programmes associated with the repertoire of the second and third Italian companies in residence in Russia was first discovered in 1900. In 1917, 39 texts (including 30 improvised comedies, 1 tragicomedy and 8 intermezzi comici) were published without a historical-critical apparatus by the Russian philologist Vladimir Perets. This publication was later supplemented by the discovery in St Petersburg and Göttingen libraries of three more comedies and two intermezzi comici, as well as the German-language versions of almost all the comedies and intermezzi. A total of 62 commedia dell’arte programmes have been preserved, 33 of them in Russian versions and 29 in German.1 In

 The documents are currently kept in three places: the Library of the Academy of Sciences (BAN) in St Petersburg, the State Public Historical Library (GPIB) in Moscow, and the State and University Library (SUB) in Göttingen. See Appendix 2 for the repertoire of the second and third Italian companies in residence at the Russian court. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-003

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Chapter 3 Crossing Cultures: the commedia dell’arte for the Russian Court

all likelihood, the surviving material does not represent the entire repertoire of the Italian companies during their residence in St Petersburg in the years 1733–1735. Indeed, Giuseppe Avolio’s administrative account lists expenses for comedies that are not found in the corpus of surviving works.2 It is not known whether some comedies were lost or else the companies’ impresarios or translators, in their haste to print the programmes prior to the performances, made an anthological selection. Recently, all of these performance programmes were published in their entirety by the author of this book in a digital scholarly edition that includes both facsimiles and transcriptions of the Russian and German versions as well as Italian translations and commentaries on the texts.3 The improvised comedies were performed entirely in Italian, and it is only thanks to the Empress’s commission to translate them into the languages spoken at her court that the extant collection has come down to us. The libretti were published by the printing house of the Academy of Sciences in a limited edition of 100 copies in Russian and 100 copies in German in a small quarto format of eight to eighteen pages each. These detailed performance sketches are preceded by a title and subtitle indicating the genre (comedy, tragicomedy, or tragedy), the year but not the exact date of performance, and a summary of the events preceding the staged action, which is useful for following the plot and has the function of a prologue. This is followed by a list of the dramatis personae, in which each character is defined either by social rank (the Duke of Calabria, the Sardinian princess, the Marquis d’Altapolvere, advisers, servants, etc.) or by their relationship to other characters (“Pantalone, father of Diana and Aurelia”, “The Doctor, friend of Pantalone”) or by a combination of family and social affiliations: e.g., “Diana, under the name of Fiammetta, daughter of Pantalone and servant of Arlecchino”. Sometimes a characteristic feature of the characters (“Brighella, swindler” or “cunning inquisitive”) or their profession (“Silvio, painter”, “Smeraldina, innkeeper” or “laundress”, “Arlecchino, merchant”, “Momolo, gondolier”) is also indicated. The names are arranged typographically according to family or dramaturgical affiliation. The beginning of the first act is preceded by the geographical location where the action takes place. The libretti contain neither a list of the props used onstage nor information about the exact composition of individual scenes and scenography. The plays are divided into three acts, which are in turn divided into unnumbered scenes for which the name of the character entering the stage, and perhaps a stage

 For example, the comedies indicated in Avolio’s account as La tartana, La Contessa Arbellina, L’insalata, and Alverado, as well as the interlude Bassetto e Petrilla, are not preserved or were never printed.  Commedia dell’arte a San Pietroburgo, 1733–1735. Edizione scientifica digitale e la traduzione italiana della raccolta degli argomenti delle commedie dell’arte rappresentate alla corte di San Pietroburgo dal 1733 al 1735. Ed. by Tatiana Korneeva, 2022. Online at: https://www.comedig.com. Accessed 4 May 2023. All subsequent quotations, given by act and page number, refer to this edition. English translations are done from the Russian-language versions of the plays.

3.1 The Comic Repertoire of the Italian comici

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direction for the entrance such as “at this point comes X” or “as he/she enters”, are printed in capital letters (in Russian-language prints) or italics (in some German prints). Each scene ends with the lazzi (comic routines) of one of the two zanni (indicated by “he performs a theatrical joke”) or devolves into brawls, beatings, shouts, or chases: “Старики увидѣвъ что то насмѣшка надъ ними, хотятъ ихъ бить, что причинило великои крикъ, и испортило хитрость брïгеллïну, такъ же и окончило Дѣиствïе второе” [“The old men understand the ruse and want to beat up the zanni. They all start shouting, which ruins Brighella’s ruse, and so the second act ends”, Brighella’s Weapons and Travelling Devices, Act II, p. 15]. Sometimes, especially in the magical comedies, scenes or acts end with a transformation special effect: “Арлекїнъ остался; и вышедъ изъ боязни, говоритъ, что хотѣлъ бы онъ еще поѣсть макароновъ. Тотчасъ оные принесены ему; и какъ онъ хотѣлъ ихъ ѣсть, тогда послѣдовало преображенїе, да и пропало все” [“Arlecchino stays behind and, having recovered from his fright, says that he would like to eat some more macaroni. It is brought to him immediately, but just as he is about to eat it, a transformation begins and everything disappears” (Colombina the Magician, Act III, p. 9)]. The endings of all the St Petersburg plays follow a definitive pattern, with the exception of Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost, which is notable for its lack of a traditional happy ending. The writing style is laconic, and the texts are essentially uninterrupted stage directions describing the action. They use the present tense, indicate the time of the action as if it were happening now, and repeat formulas such as “at this moment he enters”, “he leaves”, or “he says” over and over again. The outline of the plot lists the actions in dizzying succession, suggesting that the pace of the performance was brisk. The sylloges pinpoint where the jokes occur but describe them indirectly. Only in a few cases is there a partial transcription of parts of the dialogue, as in Arlecchino’s Disguises (1733), which contains the comic letter-writing scene between Arlecchino and Brighella with Smeraldina’s meddling. The themes that appear most frequently in the St Petersburg collection revolve around thwarted love and an obsessive doubling or characters, with pairs formed by two masters, two servants, and four lovers, resulting in an unpredictable multiplication of situations based on comic confusion and misunderstanding. Among the recurrent themes is the motif of the infant abducted by gypsies (The Fulfilment of Apollo’s Oracle, or an Innocent Girl Sold and Redeemed, 1734), exchanged or lost in extraordinary circumstances (The Good-For-Nothing Messenger, 1734) and who, after a series of misunderstandings, appears in the guise of a servant until a final recognition scene (The Great Basilisk from Bernagasso, 1733). The 16 plays performed in 1733 follow the traditional pattern of the commedie di fatica, i.e. plays composed to let the main characters shine, especially Arlecchino and Smeraldina, who are typically on stage for almost the entire duration of the performance. The title character status given to Arlecchino in Arlecchino the Statue, The Birth of Arlecchino, The Four Arlecchinos, and The Metamorphoses, or the Transformations of Arlecchino, and to Smeraldina in the scenarios Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost

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Chapter 3 Crossing Cultures: the commedia dell’arte for the Russian Court

and The Spiteful Smeraldina, announce a departure from the traditional balance of roles and a new emphasis on the second zanni Arlecchino and the female servant Smeraldina in the plots. The 13 plays from the year 1734 are in the same vein, but some of the plots are more closely related to social realities of the time, such as The Perjurer, and are characterised by greater care in depicting the characters and an attempt to draw on the comedy of manners. The plots are organised around a unifying theme and rely increasingly on dazzling effects produced by stage machinery (e.g., The Spell of Pietro D’Abano and Smeraldina, Queen of the Ghosts). A comedic approach alternates with broad farce, and new characters are introduced (e.g., Sabatino instead of the Dottore) who in some comedies lose the rigidity of stock types and are satirized for the flaws and foibles of the class to which they belong. Thus in The Perjurer Tabarino, a “rich but cowardly man”, is willing to “buy himself a title of nobility” and pay twenty thousand roubles in dowry to marry Smeraldina, the sister of the Count of Tarantola. But the rich bourgeois suffers from an insurmountable inferiority complex, and in the “tea scene” his social awkwardness comes through: “Между тѣмъ принесенъ былъ Чаи. И когда они тотъ пили; Брїгеллъ къ нимъ приходитъ съ Табарїномъ, которои, по невѣжеству мужицкому, видя себя между дворянствомъ, сталъ смиряться. Спрашиваетъ онъ у Брїгелла, что какои бы надлежало дать тїтлъ симъ дамамъ и симъ Кавалерамъ” [“Meanwhile, the tea is brought; and while they are drinking it, Brighella enters with Tabarino, who is submissive because of his ignorance as a simple man who finds himself among nobles. He asks Brighella how he should address these women and gentlemen”, Act II, p. 11]. The six comedies from the year 1735 make use of serious, tragic and tragicomic elements of literary origin. Thus, The Greatest Glory of a Prince is to Conquer Himself is based on a play by Lope de Vega, while The Enchanted Arcadia is a pastoral describing an Arcadian realm in which supernatural, magical forces reign. In The Honest Poverty of Rinaldo, Knight of Ancient Gaul in Charlemagne’s Court, the influence of French chivalric poems is evident. While comic interpolations in the plays of 1735 are often marginal, Sampson, which is defined in the subtitle as an “Italian tragedy”, completely dispenses with all burlesque elements.

3.2 Sylloges vs. Scenarios and the Function of the St Petersburg Collection Considering that these booklets served the purpose of giving spectators with no knowledge of Italian an overview of the stage action, it would be appropriate to call the materials from the St Petersburg collection “performance programmes” or

3.2 Sylloges vs. Scenarios and the Function of the St Petersburg Collection

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“sylloges”. 4 They are indeed different from scenarios or canovacci (sketches), a kind of shorthand used exclusively by actors.5 Unlike these outlines of the action to which the actors improvised, or the zibaldoni (actor’s notebooks) of the seventeenth – and eighteenth-century scenarios, which were created and used by professional actors and indicated who was on stage, when, and with whom, the St Petersburg sylloges update the actors’ material through a written record of the memory of a performance.6 They ensured that the audience of Russian courtiers and foreign diplomats at Tsarina Anna’s imperial court could understand the plot sequence and the comici italiani’s language, gestures, and facial expressions. A similar purpose was served by the collection of theatre programmes for the Italian company’s performances in Dresden and Warsaw between 1748 and 1756. These were small, multi-purpose booklets which functioned both as a kind of libretto (with a brief summary of the play, sometimes act by act, providing enough contextual information about characters and situations to understand the plot) and as a programme (listing the date and place of the performance and sometimes the cast). The programmes were distributed to the spectators at the theatre entrance before the performances and were printed in Italian and German for the

 In the critical literature on the St Petersburg collection the terms “scenario” or “canovaccio” (canevas) are used. Cf. Perets, Ital’ianskia komedii i intermedii; Mooser, Annales de la musique; Pietro Colombi, “La Commedia dell’Arte alla corte di Anna Ioannovna (1733–1735)”, Il castello di Elsinore, 4.11 (1991): 43–61; Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossiiv epokhu Anny Ioannovny; Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte; Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna.  For the terminological distinction between “scenario”, “ossatura” (skeletal narrative of an anticipated performance event), “argomento” (sylloge) and “programma di sala” (theatre programme), see Piermario Vescovo, “‘Farvi sopra le parole’: scenario, ossatura, canovaccio”, Commedia dell’arte, 3 (2010): 95–116 and Vescovo, “Discorso sull’Arte”, Annuario Lope de Vega. Texto, literatura, cultura, 23 (2017): 203–228.  Cf. Flaminio Scala’s collection Il teatro delle favole rappresentative (The Theatre of Tales for Performance, 1611), Basilio Locatelli’s Della scena dei soggetti comici (Scenarios Based on Comic Subjects, 1618–1622), the Corsianiana collection Scenari più scelti di istrioni (Collection of Selected Scenarios, mid–1600s), the collection of anonymous scenarios compiled pseudonymously by “Ciro Monarca” (1642), the scenarios collected by the Count of Casamarciano Annibale Sersale, the collection of scenarios owned by the library of the Museo Correr in Venice (the latter two from the late seventeenth century), and Friar Placido Adriani’s Selva overo Zibaldone di concetti comici (Selva, or Zibaldone of Comic Concepts, 1734). For the discussion of the major scenario collections, see Ludovico Zorzi, “La raccolta degli scenari italiani della Commedia dell’Arte,” in Alle origini del teatro moderno. La Commedia dell’Arte. Atti del convegno di studi di Pontedera (28-29-30 maggio 1976), ed. by Luciano Mariti, Biblioteca teatrale. Quaderni (Rome: Bulzoni, 1980), 104–115; I canovacci della commedia dell’arte, ed. by Anna Maria Testaverde, transcription of texts and notes by Anna Evangelista, preface by Roberto De Simone (Turin: Einaudi, 2007); Valentina Gallo, La “Selva” di Placido Adriani. La commedia dell’arte nel Settecento, “La fenice dei teatri”, 7 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1998); The Commedia dell’Arte in Naples: A Bilingual Edition of the 176 Casamarciano Scenarios, ed. by Francesco Cotticelli, Anne Goodrich, and Thomas F. Heck, 2 vols. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001); Stefan Huffeld, Scenari più scelti d’istrioni. Italienisch-deutsche Edition der einhundert Commedia all’improvviso-Szenarien aus der Sammlung Corsiana, 2 vols. (Vienna: Vienna University Press, 2014).

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Dresden audience and in Italian and Polish for the Warsaw audience.7 The Saxon programmes offer little information about the production and are instead mainly devoted to telling the story on which the performance was based. One can assume that they matched the stage action to some degree, but the nature of the correspondence is difficult to assess. Unlike the Saxon theatre programmes, however, the St Petersburg sylloges were intended as a means of mediation and communication between the actors and the audience. For this reason, the texts in the Russian compilation are more detailed and place particular emphasis on specific qualities of the performers’ acting styles, thereby providing many valuable descriptions of their actions, motivations, facial expressions, gestures, costumes, and physical and verbal puns. In what follows, I will focus on what distinguishes the St Petersburg collection from both the Italian zibaldoni of improvised comedy scenarios and the Saxon collection of theatre programmes – namely its mediating function between Italian theatre practitioners and Russian spectators, and its transmission in Russian and German translations. Firstly, I will ask what role translators played in facilitating the understanding of spectators for whom the performances of commedia dell’arte at Anna’s court represented their first ever encounter with Italian theatre culture. Secondly, I will examine what acting techniques Italian actors used not only to make themselves understood, but also to elicit laughter and applause from the audience. As Jacky Bratton has convincingly argued, performance programmes are extremely underrated documents. They are more than just sources of factual information about performance dates, venues, and so on. They help us to understand the “most difficult and evanescent aspects of theatre history – the expectations, and dispositions of the audience, their personal experience of theatre”.8 Following Bratton’s call for an intertheatrical reading that takes into account audience expectations and inclinations, this chapter attempts to answer the question of how Russian and German spectators at the St Petersburg court might have experienced the Italian plays. Information along these lines provided by the St Petersburg performance programmes will allow us to reconstruct a profile of both the audience and the theatre professionals who were the first to export commedia dell’arte to the Russian empire.

 These theatre programmes will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 5. The facsimiles of over 120 programmes have been published by Mieczysław Klimowicz and Wanda Roszkowska, La Commedia dell’Arte alla corte di Augusto III di Sassonia (1748–1756), “Memorie. Classe di Scienze morali, Lettere ed Arti”, 41.1 (Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 1988).  Jacky Bratton, New Readings in Theatre History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 39.

3.3 Translators

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3.3 Translators Based on the scant information and documents that have come down to us, the authorship of the Russian translations is traditionally attributed to the philologist, court poet, and translator of the Academy of Sciences, Vasilii Kirillovich Trediakovskii (1703–1768).9 The sylloges were translated into German by Jacob von Stählin (1709– 1785), considered the first historiographer of Russian theatre,10 who was professor of elocution at the Academy of Sciences from 1738, permanent secretary of this institution from 1766, editor-in-chief of the Peterburgische Zeitung (1735–1737) and director of the Academy of Fine Arts (1757–1768). That is the extent of the reliable data available to researchers, as it has not yet been possible to determine what language the sylloges were translated from, or whether they were based on an oral report or on printed or handwritten texts. A comparison of the Russian and German versions allows us to rule out the hypothesis that the sylloges are translations of actors’ oral summaries or accurate accounts of the performance as observed by the translators. Instead, the similarity of the versions suggests that Trediakovskii and Stählin made the translations from a prepared written text and – judging by the presence of typos in the prints – relatively quickly, in order to get them to the audience before the opening of the performances. According to the hypothesis put forward by Vladimir Sipovskii, the scholar to whom we owe the discovery of the collection in the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg, and which was later taken up by Vsevolod Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, the author of the study of early eighteenth-century theatre in Russia, the translators used French as a mediating language, and the plays were translated first from Italian into French and then from French into Russian.11 This theory is supported firstly by Trediakovskii’s contract with the Academy of Sciences dated 14 October 1733, in which the

 A major creative writer of the first half of the eighteenth century and a prolific translator of European literary, historical, and philosophical works, Trediakovskii is considered one of the founders of modern Russian literature. He initiated a reform of Russian versification, helped codify the Russian literary language, and provided models for virtually every genre by transplanting the European genre system to Russia. See also Perets, “Ital’ianskaia intermediia 1730-kh godov v stikhotvornom russkom perevode” [Italian Interludes of 1730s in Verse Translation], in Perets, Starinnyi teatr v Rossii XVII–XVIII vv. [Ancient Theatre in Russia, XVII and XVIII Centuries] (St Petersburg: Academia, 1923), 143–151 (147).  Petr Pekarskii, Istoriia imperatorskoi Akademii nauk v Peterburge [The History of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg], 2 vols. (St Petersburg: Tipografiia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk, 1870), 1: 562. On Stählin see also Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan, “Jacob von Stählin, académicien et courtisan”, Cahiers du monde russe, 43/2–3 (2002): 321–332; and Liechtenhan [F. D. Liechtenhan], “Iakob von Shtelin, pridvornyi istoriograf i pedagog XVIII v.” [Jacob von Stählin, Eighteenth-Century Court and Educator], Quaestio Rossica, 1 (2013): 160–170.  Cf. Sipovskii, “Italianskii teatr”, 597–598; Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri Imperatritse Anne, 29.

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poet undertakes to translate his commissions from French. A second indication of the use of French as a mediating language is provided by the “Увѣщанïе” (“Comment”) for the reader inserted at the end of the intermezzo Starik skupoi (The Old Miser, 1733). In it, Trediakovskii informs the reader-spectator that the arias and duets were translated into Russian from French, but are printed with the original Italian side by side with the Russian translation according to the will of the person who had translated them into French: Чрезъ сïе объявляется любопытному читателю, что Арïи, и двоеголосные попѣвки, которыя здѣсь Италïянскимъ языкомъ переведены съ Французскаго, съ котораго Переводчикъ взялся переводить. [. . .] А по Италïaнски оныя тутъ приложены по желанïю того, кто ихъ на Французскои пишетъ съ Италïанского; чего онъ и въ предъ такъ же требуетъ.12 [This is to bring to the attention of the curious reader that the Arias and two-voice melodies, which are here reproduced in Italian, were translated [into Russian] by the present Translator from French. [. . .] They are printed here in Italian at the request of the person who translated them from Italian to French, and who also insists that the same should be done so for the other libretti as well.]

The “Comment” thus seems to legitimise the idea that the intermezzi were written in Italian from which they were then translated into French, the language of mediation between actors and translators. Another example from the corpus of comedies supports this hypothesis. In the last act of the play The Hiding Place (1735), the lover Odoardo fetches perfumed water to revive his beloved Isabella, who seems to have fainted. The perfume the character uses for this purpose is Eau de la Reine, the Queen’s Water, the first perfume in Western history made from rosemary distillate, a cure-all and elixir of beauty. The name of this aromatic water is not translated into Russian, but simply transliterated into Cyrillic, which is unusual, considering that, as we will see later, the Russian translator always adds an explanation in brackets to comment on words or concepts that might not be familiar to the audience. This fact seems to confirm that the play was translated into Russian via an intermediate French translation. As for the identity of the author of the intermediate translation into French, the fact that “the person who translated” the arias insisted on always rendering them in Italian alongside the Russian translation seems to indicate that it was an actor or singer from the Italian company. In fact, as we saw in Chapter 2, almost all the performers had already gained considerable experience abroad by the time of their St Petersburg appointment. The frequency of verbal lazzi of parlar foreste (speaking in a foreign language), most of which were improvised in French, indicate the actors’ familiarity with that language. It is likely that the author of the intermediate French translation was the actor and playwright Giovanni Camillo Canzachi, who had a good  Starik skupoi, in Ital’ianskia komedii i intermedii, 147.

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knowledge of French and German, or the actor and buffo singer Pietro Pertici, who was to translate Diderot’s Père de famille (The Father of the Family) in 1764.13 The above examples, however, do not make it clear whether the comedies were translated into French specifically for the translators or whether the actors drew their repertoire, at least in part, from collections of canovacci already compiled in French. The performers might have drawn their inspiration from Domenico Biancolelli’s notes on 82 of his roles in as many improvised comedies,14 or else from Théâtre italien (1700) by Evaristo Gherardi (1663–1700), the last Arlecchino of the Ancien Théâtre Italien, who replaced Biancolelli (1636–1688) in 1689 and collected in six volumes some 50 plays performed at the Hôtel de Bourgone.15 Since there are no exact correspondences between the St Petersburg sylloges and the plot outlines contained in Biancolelli’s notes, Gherardi’s collection, or other collections of improvised comedy scenarios, it seems safe to assume that at least some sylloges must have been translated directly from Italian. Jacob von Stählin’s knowledge of Italian, as well as French and Latin, is documented by his translations of opera libretti. In 1734, before moving to Russia, Stählin translated Scipione Maffei’s La fida ninfa (The Faithful Shepherdess).16 Once in St Petersburg, he translated Metastasio’s serious operas La Semiramide riconosciuta (Semiramis Revealed, 1737), L’Artaserse (1738), and La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus, 1742). In his history of the Academy of Sciences, Petr Pekarskii notes that “writing articles for [the newspaper] Vedomosti, composing odes for specific occasions, e.g. for the birth of the Empress or the anniversary of her coronation, etc., and translating Italian intermezzi into German were Stählin’s activities in the first years of his stay in St Petersburg”.17 There is no mention of the use of French as a language of mediation between actors and translators. As for the Russian translator’s knowledge of Italian, it is known that Trediakovskii attended the school of the Capuchin friars from Rome in his home town of Astrakhan beginning in 1713.18 Although it cannot be assumed that the Italian monks taught their

 See Morelli Timpanaro, Autori, stampatori, librai, 47–48, and Barbara Innocenti, “Pietro Pertici autore goldoniano: intorno a un manoscritto del Padre amoroso”, Seicento e Settecento, 7 (2012): 103–132.  Cf. Canevas et Compliments inédits de pièces italiennes-francaises, représentées sur le Théâtre Italien, XVIII siecle, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, fonds fr. 9310. Copie de la traduction du scenario de Dominique [Biancolelli], faite par Gueullette, XVIIle siecle, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, fonds fr. 9328.  Evaristo Gherardi, Le théâtre italien, ou, Le recueil général de toutes les comédies & scènes françoises joüées par les comédiens italiens du Roy, pendant tout le temps qu’ils ont été au service de sa majesté, 6 vols. (Paris: Cusson et Witte, 1700).  Die treue Schäferin Licoris, ein theatralisches Singspiel des Hn. Grafen Scipio Maffei; aus dem Italienischen übersetzt. See Pekarskii, Istoriia imperatorskoi Akademii nauk v Peterburge, 1: 539.  Ibid.  See V. P. Samarenko, “V. K. Trediakovskii v Astrakhani (Novye materialy k biografii V. K. Trediakovskogo)” [V. K. Trediakovskii in Astrakhan. New Materials on Trediakovskii’s Biography], in XVIII vek [Eighteenth Century], sbornik 5 (Moscow-Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, 1962), 358–363 (359).

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pupils Italian in addition to Latin, Trediakovskii had the opportunity to learn it during his stay in Europe and his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris (1726–1730).19 In any case, it is undeniable that Trediakovskii, with his knowledge of Latin and French, was able to understand Italian well. In fact, Vasilii Sopikov, author of the first bibliographic repertory of books printed in Russia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, in which the existence of the collection of sylloges is mentioned for the first time, wrote that the comedies and intermezzi were “translations from Italian and French”.20 Il’ia Serman, the eighteenth-century specialist who studied Trediakovskii’s early works in depth, claimed, unfortunately without providing evidence, that “in 1734 Trediakovskii had sufficient knowledge not only of Latin and French verse, but also of German verse through his translations of the odes of the German court poets and of Italian verse from the comedies, which he translated from the originals”.21 Neither Trediakovskii nor Stählin was probably the only translator of the sylloges. There were 32 translation titles for which Trediakovskii was paid in the years between 1733 and 1735, while the number of Russian prints, including intermezzi comici, which have come down to us today is 43.22 Marialuisa Ferrazzi has suggested that the other translator might have been Petr Medvedev, who was officially assigned to the third company as an interpreter, resided at the Russian court between 1734 and 1735, and is mentioned in the register of actors’ salaries.23 Stählin cannot have been the only person who made German translations either, for he did not arrive in St Petersburg until 25 June 1735. Currently, there is no provisional authorial attribution for the German translations from the years 1733–1734.

3.4 Spectators and Readers Although the St Petersburg performance programmes were read primarily by those who attended the Italian-language performances, the references to readers and reading in both the plays and the intermezzi show that the translators, especially Trediakovskii, also wanted to reach those who could not go to the theatre. In the aforementioned

 On Trediakovskii’s sojourn in Europa, see B. A. Uspenskii and A. B. Shishkin, “Trediakovskii i iansenisty” [Trediakovskii and Jansenists], Simbol, 23 (1990): 105–262.  Vasilii Sopikov, Opyt rossiiskoi bibliografii, ili Polnyi slovar’ sochinenii i perevodov, napechatannykh na slavenskom i rossiiskom iazykakh ot nachala zavedeniia tipografii do 1813 goda [Experience of Russian Bibliography, or Complete Dictionary of Works and Translations Printed in Slavonic and Russian from the Establishment of Printing Houses till 1813], 5 vols. (St Petersburg: V Tipografii Imperatorskogo Teatra, 1815), 3: 321–323 (321).  Il’ia Serman, “Russkaia poesia nachala XVIII veka. Kantemir. Trediakovskii. Lomonosov” [Russian Poetry of the Early Eighteenth Century], in Istoriia russkoi poesii [History of Russian Poetry], 2 vols. (Leningrad: Nauka, 1968), 1: 55–89 (63).  The list is reproduced in Pekarskii, Istoriia imperatorskoi Akademii nauk, 2: 59.  Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte, 67.

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intermezzo The Old Miser, for example, the summary is addressed directly to the reader: “Читающему їнтермедїи можно видѣть, что какъ Фїяметта показываяся въ двухъ лицахъ сдерживаетъ свое слово, и выходитъ за старика” [“The reader of the intermezzo will be able to see how Fiammetta, who takes on the appearance of two different people, keeps her word and marries the old man”, Summary, p. 2].24 The comedy The Perjurer (1734) provides additional evidence that the sylloges were also printed for reading outside the theatre: “Чрезъ чтенїе сея комедїим можно будетъ увидѣть, какъ сердился Панталонъ, и какъ ругался надъ Табарїномъ за его клятвопреступленїе” [“If you read this comedy, you can see how Pantalone became angry and how Tabarino was punished for his false oath”, Summary, p. 2; my italics]. The insertion into the comedies of parentheticals meant to comment on or explain terms unknown to the audience seems to confirm the hypothesis that the libretti were translated into Russian and German and printed, not only to make it easier for the audience to follow the actions of the Italian actors, but also to read and study them at home. For example, in the list of characters in the play The Frenchman in Venice (1733), Momolo’s profession is translated for Russian spectators in square brackets: “Momolo, his gondoliere [boatman]”. The summary of the play also includes an explanation of the word “episode”: “Любовь, и свадьба Сïлвïева и Одоардова съ дочерьми панталоновыми, не что иное, какъ Эпïзодъ, [званïе пïитïческое, которое значитъ нѣкоторое другое дѣиствïе присовокупленное кь начальному дѣлу по нуждѣ, или по правдоподобïю] которои дѣлаетъ завязку и развязанïе сея комедïи” [“The love and marriage of Silvio and Odoardo to Pantalone’s daughters is nothing more than an Episode – i.e. a poetic term denoting an action added to the main theme out of necessity or verisimilitude – which marks the beginning and resolution of this play”, Summary, p. 2]. The spectator-reader also receives information about the exchange value of the currency mentioned in the text: “Старикъ выходить говоря, по многихъ что онъ принесъ ему 400 пистолеи [то есть, 800 рублеи; когда пистоль ходить по 10 ливров. А буде когда ходить по 12 ливровъ; то 960 рублеи] которыя должень онъ ему отдать по силе векселя” [“The old man enters and says that he brought him 400 pistols – i.e. 800 roubles, if a pistol is equal to 10 lire; if it is equal to 12 lire, then 960 roubles – of his bill of exchange”, Act I, p. 6]. In the abovementioned play The Hiding Place, the word for perfume used by the translator is not really “the perfume”, but “the wave”, which seems to indicate that there was no specific word for perfume in the Russian lexicon at that time. As mentioned above, the Russian and German translations are almost identical, but sometimes one of the versions is more detailed than the other and provides additional details about the way the play was performed, the lazzi, or the actors’ costumes.

 In the digital edition quoted above, I have decided to translate the Russian “perechen’” with “argomento”, rendered here in English as “summary”.

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For example, in the comedy Arlecchino and Smeraldina, Mischievous Lovers (1733), the German version informs us that Brighella’s lazzo was performed in French: Напослѣдокъ Арлекïнъ закричалъ; Ахъ я убитъ! и бросился къ воротамъ Смералдïны, которая выходитъ; Брïгеллъ слышя, что она идетъ, перемѣнилъ голось, и сталъ еи говорить: ТАКЪ ТО, ЖЕНЩИНА НЕВѢРНАЯ, И БЕЗДѢЛЬНАЯ, ВЕТЬ ЭТО АРЛЕКІНЪ ТВОИ ЛЮБОВНИКЪ, КОТОРАГО Я ТЕПЕРЬ УБИЛЪ ВЪ ОТМЩЕНІЕ ТВОЕЯ НЕВѢРНОСТИ. (Act III, p. 9)

Zuletzt ſchreyt der Arlequin; Jch bin umgebracht! u. legt ſich vor der Smeraldina Thuͤ re. Dieſe koͤ mmt heraus; Brighella verſtellet ſeine Stimme u. ſagt ihr auf Frantzoͤ ſiſch: Oui femme infidele et ſcelerate, c’eſt Arlequin ton amant que je viens de tuer pour me venger de tes infidelité. D. i. Ja du untreue u verruchte! dieſes iſt der Arlequin, dein Liebhaber, den ich zur Rache deiner Untreue, um des Leben gebracht. (Act III, p. 7)

[At the end Arlecchino begins to cry out: Ah, I have been killed! and lies down in front of Smeraldina’s door. She comes out; Brighella, hearing her coming, changes his voice and says to her: O, THE FAITHLESS AND WICKED WOMAN! THIS IS ARLECCHINO, YOUR LOVER, WHOM I KILLED IN REVENGE FOR YOUR INFIDELITY.]

In the comedy Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost, the German version reveals more details about the actors’ costumes than the Russian programme: Докторъ въ отчаянïи остался; на то приходитъ СМЕРАЛДIНА судовшикомъ, сказываетъ Доктору, что какъ Сïлвïи убилъ бѣдную Смералдïну влюбившися въ Дïану дочь Панталонову, что онъ видѣлъ самъ своими глазами. (Act I, p. 6)

Der Doctor bleibet gantz beſtuͤ rtzt zuruͤ cke, da denn Smeraldina als ein Gondolier zu ihm koͤ mmt, und erzehlet, daß Silvio die arme Smeraldina umgebracht, weil er in des Pantalons Tochter, Diana, verliebt ſey, und bekraͤ fftiget, daß ſie es mit ihren Augen geſehen habe. (Act I, pp. 3–4)

[The Doctor is in despair. At this moment SMERALDINA enters disguised as a gondolier and tells the Doctor how Silvio killed poor Smeraldina for love of Diana, Pantalone’s daughter, claiming to have seen it with “his” own eyes.]

The word sudovshchik, used in the Russian version to describe Smeraldina’s costume, has the meaning of boatswain or sailor. The use of Gondolier in the German version, on the other hand, suggests that the actress was wearing the costume of a Venetian gondoliere and not the generic costume of a sailor. Since explanatory parentheticals are usually missing from the performance programmes of the German-language booklets, we can assume that the translators made distinct assumptions about Russian – and German-speaking spectators. Indeed, while Trediakovskii always translates into Russian lines spoken by the characters in French, Stählin almost never does so. It is likely that the German courtiers at this time understood French better than the Russian nobility. This is confirmed by the comedy The Birth of Arlecchino (1733), in which the lazzi in French are translated in the Russian version and remain untranslated in the German sylloge:

3.5 Actors’ Proficiencies

выходитъ думая а грозахъ Одоардовыхъ, и о томъ, что ему сказалъ Сïлвïи отъ Волхва. Арлекïнъ увидѣвъ его пришолъ къ нему, и тотъ часъ сказалъ: МОИ ГОСПОДИНЪ, Я ДО ВАШИХЪ УСЛУГЪ. Панталонъ такимъ же голосомъ отвѣтствуетъ ему немедленно: А Я ТЕБЯ ПРИНИМАЮ. (Act I, p. 5) ПАНТАЛОНЪ

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Hierauf kommt Pantalon, lacht uͤ ber die Drohungen des Odoardo u. dasjenige, was ihm Silvio, im Nahmen des Zaubers, geſaget. Wie ihn Arlequin gewahr wird gehet er ploͤ tzlich auf ihn zu und ſaget: Monſieur je ſuis a votre ſervice; und Pantalon antwortet ihm gleich: et moi je te prens. (Act I, p. 4)

[PANTALONE comes out and thinks about Odoardo’s threats and the magician’s words that Silvio had relayed to him. Arlecchino, noticing Pantalone’s presence, approaches him and promptly says: MY LORD, I AM AT YOUR SERVICE. Pantalone replies in the same voice: YOU’RE HIRED.]

It is clear from the above examples that Trediakovskii regarded the Italian performances not only as a source of diversion, but as an opportunity to sharpen the spectators’ ears with regard to the language of the actors. Reading the plays facilitated the viewing experience while providing an opportunity to expand the audience’s vocabulary. In addition to the paratextual function of providing contextual information about characters, situations, and language so that the plot can be understood, the St Petersburg sylloges also served an educational function, taking care that the performance was interpreted correctly and encouraging good spectatorship. Moreover, the comparison of the Russian – and German-language performance programmes allows us to profile the audience of the time, which was unfamiliar with Italian language and theatrical culture and thus different from contemporary audiences in other European entertainment capitals, who had already been accustomed to the conventions of commedia dell’arte for almost two centuries. Just as important as the work of the translators who facilitated communication with (and helped educate) this unlettered audience was the contribution of the performers who succeeded in spreading Italian as a theatrical lingua franca beyond the borders of Europe. Therefore, let us take a closer look at the acting techniques and expressive skills that Italian actors used to ensure the success of their performances by engaging their foreign audience in what was happening on stage.

3.5 Actors’ Proficiencies Commedia dell’arte performers were renowned and sought after throughout Europe for their exceptional acting skills calibrated to be intelligible to audiences of different languages, cultures, and social classes. When it came to winning the approval and applause of the audience, actors could draw on their command of various musical instruments and choreographic and pantomime skills. In their mastery and exploitation of the possibilities of song, sound and dance, these performers were true living multimedia systems. The play The Lovers Contest, or Arlecchino the False Pasha (1734) about the love of Pantalone, the Dottore, Brighella and Arlecchino for Smeraldina, a washerwoman from the countryside, opens with a demonstration of the play’s “implicit balletic

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musicality”:25 “ПАНТАЛОНЪ говоритъ, что онъ прибылъ въ полевои свои домъ подъ видомъ охоты, дабы ему видѣть Смералдïну, которую онъ любитъ. На то слышитъ онъ, что она поетъ, да и видитъ, что она идеть держя за руку Арлекïна, съ которымъ онa танцуетъ” [“PANTALONE says that under the pretext of hunting he has come to his country house to see Smeraldina, whom he loves. Then he hears her sing and sees her coming, while she holds Arlecchino’s hand and dances with him”, Act I, p. 3]. The choreographic and musical skills of Antonio and Adriana Sacco, the performers of Arlecchino and Smeraldina, were certainly appreciated by the non-Italian audience members and overcame their lack of local language skills. The overall plot of The Great Basilisco of Bernagasso also features vocal displays by Arlecchino, whose extreme gullibility and lavish largesse towards his ungrateful servant are counterbalanced by his sung and danced lazzi, such as when he “blows a little wind in Basilisco’s face and then sings and dances” at Basilisco’s request to soothe his flare-up of hysterical bravaccio (Act I, p. 6). In The Conversation between Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost and Pantalone (1733), Adriana Sacco ends her performance with “a dance in the Russian style” and asks old Pantalone to dance with her. The Enchantement of Pietro D’Abano and Smeraldina, Queen of Spirits (1734) provides another example of the versatile skills of Antonio Sacco, who was talented both as an actor and as a musician and apparently did not find it difficult to switch from one to the other: “Смералдїна выходитъ съ однимъ духомъ, [. . .] которому она приказываетъ чтобъ насмѣяться Арлекïну. Дала она ему одну гїтарру. [. . .] Арлекїнъ видя гїттарру, взялъ оную, и сталъ на неи играть, из того произходятъ многїя шутки своиственныя Театру [. . .]” [“Smeraldina enters with a ghost, whom she orders to make fun of Arlecchino. She gives him a guitar. Arlecchino takes it and begins to play; this is the prelude to various theatrical lazzi”, Act II, p. 6). Pantomime had been Antonio Sacco’s forte since his debut at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in 1729, and his ability to combine dialogue with comic pantomime gestures was undoubtedly of use to him in St Petersburg, where there was a linguistic barrier between him and most of the audience. In Climbing Over the Fence (1733), for example, Arlecchino is disguised as a skeleton. This disguise serves as a pretext for the pantomime lazzo of Arlecchino frightening an old man with “various contortions of his body” (Act I, p. 5). In the commedia dell’arte, therefore, actors not only had to be able to act, but also to show musical, acrobatic, and pantomime skills. That the Italian company resident in St Petersburg consisted of actors with double or triple skills, actors who were occasionally also musicians or dancers, is illustrated by the complex pantomimic scene that concludes Act II of Brighella’s Weapons and Travelling Devices (1733):

 Siro Ferrone, Introduzione, in Carlo Goldoni, Servitore dei due padroni, ed. by Valentina Gallo (Venice: Marsilio, 2011), 9–99 (31).

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Театръ показываетъ камору съ любовниками, женскимъ поломъ, Брïгелломъ, и Арлекïномъ, которые изображаютъ обои. съ метлою притворяется, что бутто она очищаетъ обои, и метïотъ камору. Между тѣмъ ПАНТАЛОНЪ приходитъ съ Докторомъ, которои удивляется хорошству обоевъ, и фïгурамъ очюнь натуральнымъ; по томъ говоритъ, что онъ не знаетъ, что какая бы то была гïсторïя. Смералдïна обѣщается имъ ту вытолковать. Панталонъ называетъ ту дурочкою. Докторъ ево проситъ, чтобъ онъ еи далъ говорить. Смералдïна хотя имъ розсказывать ту гïсторïю сказываетъ имъ о любви дïанïнои, и аурелïинои съ ихъ любовниками, которымъ противятся, и стерегутъ отцы ихъ дураки; однако чрезъ хитрость Брïгеллïну вся та ихъ осторожность тщетна становится. Услышавъ то имя Арлекïнъ въ себя приходитъ. Старики увидѣвъ что то насмѣшка надъ ними, хотятъ ихъ бить, что причинило великои крикъ, и испортило хитрость Брïгеллïну, такъ же и окончило Дѣиствïе второе. (Act II, pp. 15–16) СМЕРАЛДІНА

[The scene reveals a room with the lovers, the girls, Brighella, and Arlecchino pretending to be decorative figures on the walls. pretends to wipe down the wall decor with a broom and sweep the room. Meanwhile arrives with the Dottore, who is very surprised by the beauty of the wall decor and the naturalness of the figures. Then he says that he does not know what story is depicted there. Smeraldina offers to explain it to him. Pantalone calls her stupid. The Dottore asks him to let her talk. Smeraldina tells the story of the love between Diana and Aurelia and their fiancés, disturbed by their stupid fathers’ overprotectiveness, which is circumvented by Brighella’s cunning. When Arlecchino hears this name, he comes to life. The old men see through the deception and are ready to fight. Everyone starts shouting. Brighella’s cover is thus blown and so ends Act II.]

SMERALDINA PANTALONE

3.6 The Repertoire of the lazzi The ability of the comici dell’arte to make the audience partake in the pleasure of the performance owes much to a staple of their art, the lazzi. Puns and comic gags were perhaps the most famous elements of the comici’s improvisation and a prime feature of the comic plots. In most collections, however, information for understanding the nature lazzi is very scarce. In some scenarios, the mention of the term lazzo is accompanied by the stage direction “at this point they do lazzi”, which is indecipherable to us because of the lack of a brief description of the gags. The lazzi therefore represent the most difficult and obscure part of the commedia dell’arte phenomenon. The interest of the St Petersburg collection lies precisely in the fact that the sylloges enrich the plot synopsis with detailed descriptions of age-old gags, making it possible to reconstruct the stock of lazzi the actors used to make spectators laugh or draw their attention to a new dramaturgical situation. Among the different types of lazzi – physical, acrobatic, and mimed lazzi; lazzi of fear, anger, crying, hunger, money; lazzi of disguise and misunderstanding; lazzi of cunning and mockery; lazzi of magic; as well as hybrid lazzi – which Nicoletta Capozza has catalogued on the basis of some eight hundred scenarios, almost all find a

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counterpart in the St Petersburg performance programmes, with the sole exception of obscene and scatological lazzi.26 Since the lazzo is the synthesis of the art of commedia, a careful study of examples found in the sylloges can give us an idea of the expressive, interpretive and acrobatic skills of the actors, helping us reconstruct the features of the stock characters they performed. In addition to the various physical lazzi, which served primarily to highlight the acrobatic skills of the actors, the St Petersburg sylloges feature a considerable number of mimed gestural lazzi, most of which were used to indicate the emotions or reactions of the characters. The emotions described in the programmes are characteristically very strong: crying, anger, love, fear, grief, and jealousy. Just how strong the emotions were and how vivid the acting had to be to portray them is perhaps most clearly seen in Brighella’s Weapons and Travelling Devices (1733), in which “Арлекïнъ безъ души бѣгучи ударился въ Панталона, и упалъ уронивъ и ево; Панталонъ встаючи посылаетъ ево ко всѣмъ чертямъ” [“Arlecchino runs so fast that he runs out of breath and bumps into Pantalone, so that they both fall down. When he gets up again, Pantalone tells him to go to hell”, Act I, p. 5]. In this scene, Arlecchino’s mimed lazzo of losing his breath is combined with the age-old lazzo di cascata (of falling), which had an extraordinary and immediate effect on the audience. Another example comes from The Honest Courtesan (1733), where “Брïгеллъ на Арлекïна за его глупость такъ сердится, что почти изъ кожи вонъ лѣзетъ” [“Brighella is so angry with Arlecchino for his stupidity that he almost jumps out of his skin”, Act I, p. 4]. The verbal lazzi used in the St Petersburg performance programmes can be divided into three sub-categories: lazzi puns, logical-illogical inversion lazzi and foreign languages and dialect lazzi. The lazzi of the first group almost always focus on the figure of the zanni and his particular way of dealing with the things and people around him. Thus, The Doctor with Two Faces (1734) begins with Arlecchino bursting onto the scene, interrupting Silvio and Odoardo’s conversation and shouting that “городъ весь окруженъ. Любовники спрашиваютъ у него съ прилѣжанïемъ, что отъ когобъ былъ окруженъ городъ? Арлекïнъ показавъ себя такова, чтобъ ему прошену быть, по томъ сказываетъ, что городъ окруженъ весь стѣнами” [“the whole town is surrounded. The lovers ask him with interest who is surrounding the town. Arlecchino hesitates for a moment and then replies that ‘the city is surrounded by walls’”, Act I, p. 3]. Arlecchino’s impertinence dissolves into ambiguities and misunderstandings resulting from the stock character’s tendency to take metaphorical language literally. In the same play, there is another example of a verbal lazzo, still amusing today, based on a logicalillogical inversion satirising physicians as a profession: Арлекïнъ изъ внутри притворяется, что будто пишетъ рецепты, дабы дать зрѣнïе одному глухому, жизнь, одному мертвому. [. . .] По томъ ему Панталонъ говорить, что онъ боленъ

 Nicoletta Capozza, Tutti i lazzi della commedia dell’arte. Un catalogo ragionato del patrimonio dei comici (Rome: Dino Audino, 2006).

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и самъ удушьемъ, и что онъ на силу можетъ дыхать. Арлекïнъ говорить, что онъ то скоро вылѣчитъ; и взявъ мѣхъ хочетъ ему надуть духу, что причиняетъ игрушку своиственную театру, которою кончится дѣиствïе первое. (Act I, p. 5) [Arlecchino, offstage, pretends to write prescriptions to give sight to a deaf man and life to a dead man. [. . .] Then Pantalone tells him that he is out of breath and has difficulty breathing. Arlecchino replies that he can cure him very quickly. He takes a bellows and tries to blow him up, which triggers a funny lazzo with which Act I ends.]

As for the third – and most interesting – group of verbal lazzi, those of foreign languages and dialects, the actors seem to have adhered to the recommendations of the amateur actor who theorised rules for improvisation, Andrea Perrucci (1651–1704). In his 1699 treatise Dell’arte rappresentativa premeditata e all’improvviso (A Treatise on Acting, from Memory and by Improvisation), Perrucci argued that “la diversità delle lingue suole dare gran diletto nelle Comedie” [“linguistic variety usually gives great pleasure in comedy”].27 Indeed, foreign language and dialect lazzi are used in abundance by the actors, but verbal acrobatics and multilingualism are particularly evident in the stage action of Arlecchino and Brighella. In The Honest Courtesan, for example, Arlecchino impersonates the Dottore by not only wearing his clothes, but also speaking macaronic Latin and imitating erudite language: Брïгеллъ похваляетъ Арлекïново намѣренïе, что онъ Доктора показывать хочетъ; но Арлекïнъ ему объявляеть, что онъ по латïнѣ говорить не умѣетъ. Брïгеллъ учить его нѣкоторымъ словамъ и оба отходятъ, чтобъ къ обманыванïю приготовится. Сïлвïи входить съ своимъ слугою и сказываеть будто онъ слышалъ, что Докторъ, его тесть, на сеи улицѣ живетъ, а какъ онъ двора смотритъ, то приходитъ Брïгеллъ. Сïлвïи у него спрашиваеть, гдѣ Докторъ живетъ? Брïгеллъ сказываеть что онъ его дворецкои. Сïлвïи радуется, что онъ служителя своего мнимаго тестя нашолъ, и ему о себѣ сказываеть. Брïгеллъ такожде себя радостнымъ показываетъ, что онъ жениха своеи молодои госпожи увидѣлъ и кличетъ Арлекïна. Сеи вышедъ говоритъ по латïнѣ себѣ подъ носъ и опять въ свои домъ уходить. (Act I, p. 6) [Brighella praises Arlecchino’s intention to impersonate the Doctor, but Arlecchino tells him that he cannot speak Latin. Brighella teaches him a few words and they both leave to prepare for the trick. Silvio comes in with his servant and says he has heard that the Doctor, his father-in-law, lives on this street. As he looks into the courtyard, Brighella comes in. Silvio asks him where the Doctor lives. Brighella says he is his butler. Silvio is delighted to have found his father-in-law’s servant and tells him about himself. Brighella is also delighted to have seen his mistress’s fiancé and calls for Arlecchino. The latter comes out, mumbles some Latin and re-enters his house.]

Macaronic speech was used by actors not only for comic effect, but also because it added an extra layer of virtuosity to the commedia dell’arte performance. The Great Basilisco of Bernagasso provides us with another apt example of Arlecchino’s wit and multilingualism. In order to re-enter his own house, which he has been thrown out of,

 Andrea Perrucci, Dell’Arte rappresentativa, premeditata ed all’improvviso, ed. by Anton Giulio Bragaglia (Florence: Sansoni, 1961), part II, rule VI, 194.

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Arlecchino (who for the first time in the collection is not a foolish servant but a naïve merchant) disguises himself as a French maid and speaks “half in French and half in Italian” (Act III, p. 12). Considering that improvising in a second language is a tour de force for a performer, this example shows that the actor’s ability to improvise not only in Italian but also in other languages must have been truly extraordinary. Arlecchino’s linguistic acrobatics and imitation of dialects can be seen in Arlecchino’s Disguises (1733). The plot of the play, which is about the usual attempts of the two zanni to marry their masters to their mistresses despite the opposition of elderly father-figures, is a pretext for Arlecchino’s puns. His verbal lazzi reach their hilarious climax in the scene in which he learns the Venetian dialect: возвращается нарядившись въ Панталона; однако очюнь смущенъ, для того что онъ не умѣетъ говорить по пантолонскому. Брïгеллъ ево научаетъ, чтобъ онъ прилагалъ слогъ ао, їо, и уо, къ нѣкоторымъ реченїямъ, и что того довольно будетъ для языка венецїанскаго. Арлекїнъ сталъ тѣми слогами употреблять ко всякому реченїю; что чинитъ игрушку театру своиственную. Брïгеллъ смѣючись уходитъ. (Act I, p. 6)

АРЛЕКIНЪ

[ARLECCHINO returns disguised as Pantalone, but he is very embarrassed because he cannot speak Pantalonesque. Brighella teaches him to add the syllables ao, io and uo to certain expressions and says that this is enough to imitate the Venetian dialect. Arlecchino begins to add these syllables to each word, which leads to an amusing lazzo. Brighella walks away laughing.]

The scene shows cleverness, both in action and wit, of the performer playing Arlecchino, but the zanni’s verbal lazzo probably also contained an allusion to how the audience perceived the language of Italian actors. Indeed, the large number of such lazzi found in the Russian collection seems to indicate that the actors used them as a kind of commentary on how acting itself could transcend linguistic boundaries. Another example of Arlecchino’s verbal nonchalance and creative power is found a little later in the same play when, in a striking scene, the zanni improvises “the bull’s roar for Czech, the pig’s grunt for French, and for Spanish he adds an os to each word”: приходитъ; а видя Арлекïна при своихъ воротахъ бранитъ ево; Арлекїнъ у него прощенїя проситъ за прошлое, и говоритъ ему, что онъ уже не служитъ Дїанѣ, и что онъ хочетъ отъѣхать служить толмачомъ господамъ, которые хотятъ ѣздить по Еvропѣ. Панталонъ ево хвалитъ, и спрашиваетъ у него, что знаетъ ли онъ иностранные языки. Арлекїнъ ему сказываетъ, что онъ знаетъ по Чешски, по Французски, и по Гïшпанки. Панталонъ ево проситъ, чтобъ онъ поговорилъ этими языками. Арлекїнъ подражаетъ рыку бычачьему для чешскаго языка; поросячьему хрюканью для французскаго; а для гїшпанскаго ко всякому слогу прибавливая Осъ [. . .]. (Act I, p. 7) ПАНТАЛОНЪ

[PANTALONE enters and scolds Arlecchino for being at his gate. Arlecchino asks him to forgive him for what he has done to him in the past and tells him that he is no longer in Diana’s service but wants to be an interpreter for gentlemen on their grand tour across Europe. Pantalone praises him and asks him if he knows foreign languages. Arlecchino replies that he can speak Czech, French and Spanish. Pantalone asks him to speak in these languages. Arlecchino imitates

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roar of the bull for Czech, the grunt of the pig for French and for Spanish he adds an os to each word [. . .].]

If the role of Arlecchino was played by Antonio Sacco, we may assume that during his stay in St Petersburg the 25-year-old actor had already begun to develop his characteristic approach to improvisation described by Giacomo Casanova. In the most detailed description of Sacco available to us, Casanova praises the salient features of his acting and made clear what distinguished Sacco from other actors in the role of the second zanni: La tessitura de’ lepidi suoi discorsi sempre nuovi, e non mai premeditati è talmente stravolta, ed intralciata in tutti i membri suoi, con tante strane frasi, ed impastate con tale scelta di parole, tutte fatte per differenti altri soggetti, in guisa tale inaspettate, ed appropriate al caso con metafore tanto spropositate, che sembra che il tutto insieme dovrebbe essere un informe garbuglio, e pure è un metodo, che si verifica fino nella stramberia dello stile, con cui egli solo sa vestirlo. [. . .] Egli ha poi l’arte unica, ed inimitabile d’attirar seco gli uditori medesimi negl’imbrogli di narrazioni, nelle quali s’ingolfa e s’immerge con facetissimi imbarazzi d’elocuzione intricata, ch’intraprende sempre ardito, e ne’ quali sembra imboscato a non poterne più uscire; ma in un istante scioglie i nodi, ed esce dal labirinto, appunto quando pare all’uditore attentissimo, sedotto dalle di lui disperate circonlocuzioni, che non gli sia più possibile l’uscirne.28 [The intricacy of his lepidic speeches, always new and never premeditated, is so entirely twisted and contorted, with so many odd phrases, and mixed with such a choice of words, all drawn from different subjects, in such unexpected ways, fitting such exaggerated metaphors to the matter at hand, that it seems as if the whole were a formless jumble, and yet it is a method which shows through even in the eccentricity of style with which he alone can adorn it [. . .]. He has the singular and inimitable art of drawing his hearers into the very intrigues of the narratives in which he gets entangled and overwhelmed, with extremely witty predicaments arising from his convoluted oratory, which he always delivers with audaciousness, and from which he seems to be unable to extricate himself; but in the twinkling of an eye he unties the knots and steps out of the labyrinth just when the attentive listener, seduced by his desperate circumlocutions, has given up hope that he can ever escape.]

The profile of Sacco sketched by Casanova gives us the image of an actor who succeeded in entertaining all kinds of audiences, from commoners to the learned, from Italians to foreigners. But no less valuable were the dramatic skills and verbal virtuosity of Domenico Zanardi, who played the stock character of Brighella. In The Frenchman in Venice, Brighella, a bully and a swindler, interprets the amorous conversation between the French petit-maître and Smeraldina, a Venetian laundress disguised as a Marquise: Между тѣмъ стали стучаться; Брïгеллъ пошолъ, и возвратился съ Mocïo Aпетïтомъ, которои сталъ чинить комплïменты Смералдïне. Смералдïна не разумѣетъ ни мало ево языка. Mocïo такъ же ея. Каждои кличетъ Брïгелла для переводу. Брïгеллъ имъ толкуетъ все по своему, и на ихъ сторону. (Act I, p. 7)

 Giacomo Casanova, Supplimento all’opera intitolata Confutazione della storia del governo veneto d’Amelot de la Houssaje (Amsterdam [Lugano], Mortier [Agnelli], 1769), 285–288.

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[In the meantime, someone knocks; Brighella leaves and returns with Mosio Appetit, who compliments Smeraldina. She does not understand his language and Mosio does not understand her either. Both ask Brighella to translate what the other is saying. Brighella takes advantage of the situation and translates so that they each hear what they want to hear.]

From this overview, it is clear how predominant verbal lazzi were in the St Petersburg collection. From a comic afterthought, seemingly unimportant in the dramaturgical framework of the play or only marginally related to the plot, verbal lazzi come to occupy the centre of the stage action. Proof of this is the long scene from Arlecchino’s Disguises, worth quoting in full, in which Arlecchino dictates to Brighella the loving letter to his mother that he wants to write, but which Smeraldina, vocally interrupting Arlecchino’s dictation, fills with impertinences that the other zanni reproduce in writing with farcical effect: АРЛЕКIНЪ, которои видя Брïгелла, проситъ ево, чтобъ онъ написалъ ему писмо къ матери. Брїгеллъ извиняется говоря, что онъ не знаетъ тово языка, которымъ надобно было писать. Арлекїнъ ему говоритъ, чтобъ онъ написалъ лїтерами їталїанскими рѣчи, которыя онъ ему будетъ сказывать. Брïгеллъ отвѣтствуетъ, что добро. Арлекїнъ всїо ему приноситъ, что надлежитъ къ писму. И какъ, послѣ нѣкоторыхъ игрушекъ своиственныхъ театру, Брїгеллъ хотѣлъ писать, СМЕРАЛДIНА, которая то подслушала, и думая, что Арлекїнъ хочетъ писать къ какои нибудь любовницѣ, и дабы ему въ томъ досадить, она стала такъ же сказывать. И оба сочиняютъ одно писмо, которое Брïгеллъ пишетъ. ПИСМО

говоритъ Брïгеллу, чтобъ онъ писалъ Любезнѣишая моя матушка. СМЕР: - - - бездѣльница, непотребная. БРIГEЛЛЪ не зная, что то Смералдїна удивился о томъ тïтулѣ, спрашиваетъ у Арлекїна: - - матери своеи? АРЛ: - - - матери моеи, пиши. я вамъ посылаю чрезъ сїе.

АРЛ:

ПИСМО

- - - моръ, которои бы тебя убилъ. БРIГEЛЛЪ такъ же, какъ выше, - - - матери своеи? АРЛ: - - - да; матери моеи; пиши тока. кузовъ полнои. СМЕР:

ПИСМО

- - - смертоносныя отравы. БРIГEЛЛЪ Арлекïну: - - - матери своеи? АРЛ: - - - какъ терпѣть! матери моеи. калбасъ, и другихъ вещеи.

СМЕР:

ПИСМО

- - - чтобъ тебѣ трѣснуть. БРIГEЛЛЪ Арлекïну: - матери своеи? АРЛ: - - да; да; матери моеи.

СМЕР:

ПИСМО

- - - съ палачомъ, которои бы тебя кнутомъ охлïоснулъ. БРIГEЛЛЪ- - - матери своеи?

СМЕР:

ПИСМО

- - - матери моеи. поклонись батюшкѣ. СМЕР: - - - которои повѣшенъ.

АРЛ:

3.6 The Repertoire of the lazzi

53

- - - матери своеи? - - - ещо таки! матери моеи. и прошу васъ о вашемъ. . .

БРIГEЛЛЪ АРЛ:

ПИСМО

- - - проклятїи. БРIГEЛЛЪ: - - - матери своеи? АРЛ: - - - матери моеи. вашъ сынъ.

СМЕР:

ПИСМО СМЕР:

- - - и всего общества. ПИСМО

- - - Арлекїнъ Батоккïо. СМЕР: - - - шпïонъ публїчнои во всемъ городѣ. СМЕРАЛДIНА смѣяся уходитъ. Арлекïнъ говоритъ Брïгеллу, чтобъ онъ прочолъ писмо. Брïгеллъ сталъ читать, и когда онъ дошолъ до Смералдїныхъ рѣчеи, тогда Арлекїнъ сталъ въ томъ сердиться на Брїгелла, которои извинялся говоря, что онъ писалъ все то, что ему сказывано было, что чинитъ смѣшную игрушку. На послѣдокъ Арлекїнъ разпалившись раздираетъ писмо. (Act II, pp. 9–10)

АРЛ:

[On seeing Brighella, ARLECCHINO asks him to write a letter for his mother. Brighella apologises, saying that he does not know the language in which to write. Arlecchino asks him to write what he dictates in Italian. Brighella agrees. Arlecchino brings him everything he needs to write. And when Brighella, after some laughter, wants to start writing SMERALDINA, who has overheard everything and thinks Arlecchino wants to write to a mistress, interferes in order to annoy him. They both dictate the letter that Brighella writes. LETTER

asks Brighella to write My dear mother. SMERALDINA: indecent lazybones. BRIGHELLA, not knowing that it is Smeraldina who is speaking, is surprised to hear this title and asks Arlecchino . . . To your mother? ARLECCHINO: To my mother, write. I am sending this on to you. ARLECCHINO

LETTER SMERALDINA:

The plague that will kill you. BRIGHELLA: As before: to your mother? ARLECCHINO: Yes, to my mother, write. A basket full of LETTER SMERALDINA:

of deadly poisons. BRIGHELLA to Arlecchino: To your mother? ARLECCHINO: Of course! To my mother. Of sausages and other things. LETTER

SMERALDINA: To make you burst. BRIGHELLA: To your mother? ARLECCHINO: Yes, yes, to my mother. So that you can eat them. SMERALDINA: With an executioner beating you with a whip. BRIGHELLA: To your mother? LETTER ARLECCHINO:

To my mother. Greetings to the father. SMERALDINA: Who is about to be hanged. BRIGHELLA: To your mother? ARLECCHINO: Again! To my mother, and I ask for your

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LETTER SMERALDINA:

Curse. BRIGHELLA: To your mother? ARLECCHINO: To my mother. Your son. LETTER SMERALDINA:

and all the fair company. ARLECCHINO: Arlecchino Batocchio. LETTER SMERALDINA:

Public spy throughout the city. SMERALDINA, laughing, leaves. Arlecchino asks Brighella to read the letter. Brighella begins to read and when he gets to Smeraldina’s lines, Arlecchino gets angry at Brighella, who apologises, saying he only wrote what he was told, and this causes a theatrical lazzo. In the end, Arlecchino angrily tears up the letter.]

The quoted passage shows that the lazzi in the St Petersburg collection are sometimes so long and elaborate that they are no longer merely comic interludes in the stage action, but a centrepiece of the whole comedy. The frequency of verbal lazzi shows how much they made the St Petersburg audiences laugh, despite the language barrier, because an essential part of the pleasure commedia dell’arte provided was its linguistic intricacy. Even if the Venetian, Tuscan, or Bergamasque dialect was not understandable to Russians or Germans, the audience enjoyed hearing a variety of languages on stage. As Marvin Carlson observes, the mixture of languages on stage had the essential aim of creating “a closer relationship with the audience”, and this relationship was ultimately more important to the audience than a literal understanding of the performance.29 Similarly, but from a musicological perspective, Emily Wilbourne argues that “commedia dell’arte theatre succeeded not in spite of its moments of unintelligibility, but because the sound of the words remained meaningful even where the words themselves were impossible to understand”.30 Finally, returning to the question of how Russian and other non-Italian spectators might have experienced Italian-language performances, we can assume that even if the audience did not understand the language spoken on stage, they could have fun deciphering meanings with the help of the actors’ bodily and facial expressions.

3.7 Conclusion The analysis of the work of the translators and the acting skills and techniques of the comici italiani in this chapter has shown that the universal appeal of commedia dell’arte to non-Italian audiences was not only due to the masked characters and easily

 Marvin Carlson, Speaking in Tongues: Language at Play in the Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2006), 46.  Emily Wilbourne, Seventeenth-Century Opera and the Sound of the Commedia dell’Arte (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016), 50.

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understandable situations. Italian comedy became a cultural medium of unprecedented and lasting influence because it was a carefully planned and constructed performance genre that helped audiences overcome language barriers. Improvisation, in fact, does not mean doing something spontaneously without thinking about it beforehand, but a performance that is designed to help the audience to overcome dimensions of text and language. By adapting their language and repertoire to the different countries of Europe, Italian actors were able to make themselves understood and engage spectators as active participants in the performance. The first two chapters examined Italian comici and operisti’s employment and musico-theatrical repertoires at the Russian court, while also reconstructing recruitment strategies and travel itineraries necessitating several border crossings in order to include St Petersburg in their wider theatrical circuit. The next chapters will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the crucial role of Italian theatre practitioners in the dissemination and transmission of artistic artefacts and performance practices. By investigating the transnational career paths and profiles of four theatre practitioners resident in St Petersburg – the actors Antonio Sacco and his sister Adriana Sacco, their relative and maestro di ballo Giovanni Antonio Sacco, and the actor and playwright Giovanni Camillo Canzachi – Chapters 4 to 6 will also consider the multi-directionality of knowledge transfer. These chapters will not only address the question of what kind of information Italian artists passed on to their foreign colleagues, but also how their mobility and their sojourn in St Petersburg stimulated creative solutions and led to innovations in dramaturgy and acting techniques. The remaining chapters will focus in particular on how the professional skills and knowhow of the artists, enriched by their experiences in Russia, influenced playwrights and impresarios back home in Italy.

Chapter 4 Woman Matters: Adriana Sacco and Carlo Goldoni As demonstrated in Chapter 2, St Petersburg was an important stepping stone for performers’ careers. From there, Italian theatre practitioners could find and then continue on to further engagements at other European courts and capitals with their repertoires in hand and in head. Chapter 4 provides a more detailed investigation into actors’ career paths and profiles. A comparison of the repertoire of the actress Adriana Sacco, who played the stock character of Smeraldina in improvised comedies staged in St Petersburg, with the plays of Carlo Goldoni, the great Venetian reformer of comic theatre, reveals that St Petersburg was a laboratory where the actress developed her signature role and experimented with acting styles that influenced the playwright’s reformed character comedies. The present chapter therefore demonstrates that the European migration of Italian artists and texts had important consequences on theatrical and dramaturgical practices in their country of origin.

4.1 di loco in loco: Peregrinations, Engagements, and Roles of Adriana Sacco Carlo Goldoni’s associations with actors and actresses (which the playwright cultivated from the time of his theatrical apprenticeship and repeatedly referenced in the forewords and dedicatory prologues of his comedies and in his Mémoires), and particularly with the renowned Truffaldino Antonio Sacco (1708–1788), have been the subject of wide-ranging critical study.1 The same attention has not however been devoted to the relationship between the Venetian playwright and Adriana Sacco (or Andriana, 1707–1776), Antonio’s older sister, who worked alongside her brother throughout her entire career, sharing in his many artistic triumphs as they ventured far and wide together throughout Europe and Russia.2 Adriana began her career in the company directed by her father, the

 For works on Goldoni’s practice of adapting his dramaturgical invention to suit individual performers’ skills, talents, and characteristics, see especially Carmelo Alberti, “Il segreto di un Truffaldino. L’itinerario di Antonio Sacco, comico sapiente, da Venezia a Lisbona nell’età di Goldoni”, Estudios Italianos en Portugal, 54–56 (1991–1993): 215–226, Elena Sala Di Felice, “Goldoni e gli attori: una relazione di imprescindibile reciprocità”, Quaderni d’Italia, 2 (1997): 47–85; Giorgio Padoan, “Gli Arlecchini di Carlo Goldoni,” in Putte, Zanni, Rusteghi. Scena e testo nella commedia goldoniana, ed. by Ilaria Crotti, Gilberto Pizzamiglio, and Piermario Vescovo (Ravenna: Longo, 2001), 81–110 (87–93); Franco Vazzoler, “La critica goldoniana e il problema degli attori”, Problemi di critica goldoniana, 16 (2009): 267–279; Siro Ferrone, La vita e il teatro di Carlo Goldoni (Venice: Marsilio, 2011).  As Bartoli recalls in the entry dedicated to the actress (Notizie istoriche, 416), “stette sempre questa Commediante unita alla Truppa diretta da suo fratello, e quantunque fatta vecchia, presentava a recitare, e si portava valorosamente” [“this comic actress always stayed with the troupe led by her https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-004

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capocomico (director) Gaetano Sacco (?–1735), playing the stock romantic character of Beatrice and also distinguishing herself as a dancer.3 As a young girl, Adriana performed at Venice’s Teatro San Luca, owned by the Vendramin family, with whom her familyenterprise had stipulated a contract (1716–1731), which did not however prevent the Saccos from touring Pavia, Florence, Genoa, and abroad. From 1733 to 1734, Adriana took over the role of the servetta (the young female servant) with the fanciful name “Smeraldina” in the commedia dell’arte repertoire performed at the court of the Tsarina Anna Ioannovna in St Petersburg. In 1738, after the death of Adriana’s father and a stopover in Prague, the company, then directed by her brother Antonio, was engaged by the theatre manager Giuseppe Imer (1690–1770) at Venice’s Teatro San Samuele, where Goldoni was house poet. In Imer’s troupe, Adriana replaced Elisabetta Passalacqua (1715–1760) in the role of the servetta and, according to Francesco Bartoli, was “una delle migliori comiche, che [avesse] l’arte nell’esercizio di questo spiritoso personaggio” [“one of the best actresses who ever had the talent to properly play this witty character”].4 Antonio and Adriana remained inseparable on stage and in their migratory lives, travelling together di loco in loco5 in search of new engagements. According to a recent hypothesis, after leaving the Teatro San Samuele in 1742, the Sacco troupe spent a few years at the Teatro Sant’Angelo in the same city and then returned to the San Samuele in 1746.6 In the summer and autumn of 1749, Adriana was active as a dancer at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.7 In 1751, the Saccos moved to the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, and in 1753 they went to Lisbon after first touring Milan and Genoa. By Carlo Gozzi’s account, Adriana took refuge in Paris after the Lisbon earthquake in 1755.8 Beginning in 1761, she played numerous female characters in Gozzi’s Fiabe teatrali (Fairy Tales for the Theatre, 1761–1765) and Spanish-themed plays. Adriana was active until shortly before she died in Venice in 1776.

brother, and although she had become old, she could still be relied upon to perform, and acquitted herself admirably”].  See Bartoli, Notizie istoriche, 416.  Bartoli, Notizie istoriche, 416.  The expression di loco in loco is taken from the contract which was notarised in Padua on Wednesday 25 February 1545 and can be related to the establishment of the first commedia dell’arte troupe under the direction of the capocomico “ser Maphio ditto Zanini da Padova”, whose objective was to “recitar commedie di loco in loco” [“perform comedies from place to place”] in order to “guadagnar denaro” [“earn money”]. This contract is transcribed and published in Ferdinando Taviani and Mirella Schino, Il segreto della commedia dell’arte. La memoria delle compagnie italiane del XVI, XVII, XVIII secolo (Florence: La Casa Usher, 2007), 184–185.  Anna Scannapieco, “L’avventura teatrale dei coniugi Gozzi”, in Gasparo Gozzi e la sua famiglia (1713–1786). Atti del Convegno (Venezia, 13–14 novembre 2014), ed. by Manlio Pastore Stocchi and Gilberto Pizzamiglio (Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, 2015), 163–191, see in part. 184–185 and notes.  Giulietta Bazoli, L’orditura e la truppa. Le fiabe di Carlo Gozzi tra scrittoio e palcoscenico (Padua: Il Poligrafo, 2012), 210 n. 47.  Carlo Gozzi, Lettere, ed. by Fabio Soldini (Venice: Marsilio, 2004), 413.

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She married twice, first in 1739 to the “Dottore” character specialist Rodrigo Lombardi, and then, after becoming widowed, in 1749 to the Brighella specialist Atanasio Zanoni. During the years following their Russian tournée when they collaborated with Goldoni (1738–1742), the Saccos continued performing the ‘old’ genre of improvised comedy, which was still very much alive and well on Venetian stages and indeed throughout Europe.9 At the same time, the actors were also looking for new ways to enrich their repertoire and approached Goldoni with a request to revise some commedia scenarios for them. The Sacco company’s return to Venice exercised a decisive influence on Goldoni, prompting him to create new characters tailored specifically to their talents and writing new plays for them, including the hit Il servitore di due padroni (The Servant of Two Masters, 1745).10 In his so-called Memorie italiane (Italian Memoirs), which first appeared as prefaces to the single volumes of the Pasquali edition of his collected works (1761–1778), Goldoni recalls that: la novità del Sacchi, celebre nel suo personaggio, metteva ancora in maggior credito le recite all’improvviso, e non poteva sperarsi di tentar le Commedie scritte. Mi lasciai anch’io persuadere dalla bravura de’ Comici a dar loro una commedia a soggetto, e come tanto più piacevano, quant’erano più caricate d’accidenti e d’intrigo, ne feci una intitolata: Cento e quattro accidenti in una notte.11 [the novelty of Sacchi, renowned for the standard character type he played, only increased the demand for improvised performances, and there was no hope of trying to bring fully written out comedies for staging. I, too, allowed myself to be persuaded by the actors’ talents to give them a comedy a soggetto [i.e., a scenario or a scene-by-scene plot outline that was the basis for the actors’s improvisation], and since these scenarios met with greater approval the more they were loaded with incident and intrigue, I wrote one entitled: A Hundred and Four Incidents in One Night.]

Antonio and Adriana’s influence on Goldoni in terms of plots, masked characters, and lazzi’s would remain significant not only after the Saccos left the Teatro San Samuele in 1742, but also after 1746, the year when the relationship between the playwright and the members of the Sacco family would come to an end. While on several occasions Goldoni

 Piermario Vescovo, “La riforma nella tradizione”, in Carlo Goldoni 1793–1993. Atti del Convegno del Bicentenario (Venezia, 11–13 aprile 1994), ed. by Carmelo Alberti and Gilberto Pizzamiglio (Venice, Regione del Veneto: Il Poligrafo, 1994), 137–155.  In his autobiographic writings, Goldoni – aware of his role as a revolutionary of the theatre – only mentions two comedies a soggetto he wrote on the actors’ commission, Il servitore di due padroni and Cento e quattro accidenti in una notte. It is his arch-rival Carlo Gozzi who informs us of the existence of La congiura de’ Carbonari, Il Truffaldino ubbriaco e Re dormendo, I due gemelli Truffaldini, Le trentadue disgrazie d’Arlecchino, Truffaldino confuso tra il bene e il male, and “molte altre Commedie di quest’arte avventurate, [che] nascono da’ soggetti prodotti a’ nostri tempi dal Signor Goldoni” [“and many other comedies of this fortunate Art that were derived from the scenarios composed in our times by Mr. Goldoni]. Carlo Gozzi, “Appendice al Ragionamento ingenuo” (1773), in Gozzi, Ragionamento ingenuo. Dai “preamboli” all’«Appendice». Scritti di teoria teatrale, ed. by Anna Scannapieco (Venice: Marsilio, 2013), 555.  Carlo Goldoni, Memorie italiane. Prefazioni e polemiche. III, ed. by Roberta Turchi (Venice: Marsilio, 2008), 264.

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lavished flattering praise on the celebrated Truffaldino, defining him as one of the most acclaimed actors of his century,12 the dramatist left only two brief descriptions of the characteristics and acting skills of his sister Adriana. In the Preface to Volume XV of the Pasquali edition, Goldoni’s describes the actress as a “servetta, pronta e vivace” [“lively and spirited servant girl”] who has “la più fina conoscenza dell’arte” [“the finest knowledge of her art”]. In his Mémoires, Goldoni says of her: “à quelque charge près, soutenoit fort bien l’emploi de Soubrette” [“apart from a few caricatures, she played the part of the soubrette very well”].13 Biographical accounts of the playwright seem to have hindered an adequate critical evaluation of Adriana’s role in the rich experimentalism of Goldoni’s theatre, beginning with Attilio Gentile’s book, which offered the first comprehensive overview of the reciprocal collaboration between the playwright and his actors and argued that the four actresses who played the role of the servetta in the Imer company at the time of its association with Goldoni – Rosa Pontremoli, Elisabetta Passalacqua, Adriana Sacco, and Anna Baccherini, – did not make any substantive contribution to Goldoni’s theatre reform.14 More frequently, Adriana has attracted attention from scholars studying Gozzi’s ten Fiabe teatrali, in which, beginning in 1761, her specialty role of Smeraldina gained increasing and considerable prominence.15 Can we then accept at face value that a gifted and versatile actress, singer, dancer, and improvisor like Adriana Sacco left no significant mark on a playwright like Goldoni who had always been attracted to the soubrette character?16 Instead, we should examine Goldoni’s plays themselves to see what traces of Adriana’s art we may find in them, given that the period in which they worked together was a time of intense experimentation for both artists. In order to explore the extent to which the playwright’s dramaturgy was enhanced and transformed by his work with the actress, the remainder of this chapter will be devoted to a comparative reading of two plays. The first is Goldoni’s La donna di garbo (The Well-Mannered Lady), composed between the end of 1742 and the beginning of 1743. It is

 Goldoni, Mémoires (1787), part III, chap. IV (hereafter, Mémoires, followed by part in Roman numbers and chapter in Arabic numerals, in Tutte le opere, ed. by Giuseppe Ortolani, 14 vols. (Milan: Mondadori, 1954) (hereafter TO, followed by both volume and page number(s) in Arabic numerals.  Goldoni, Mémoires, part I, chap. XL, in TO, 1: 184.  Attilio Gentile, Carlo Goldoni e gli attori. Preface by Renato Simoni (Trieste: Libreria Cappelli, 1951), 257.  On the actress’s contribution to Gozzi’s theatrical fairy tales and the playwright’s dramaturgy, see Marzia Pieri, “Da Andriana Sacchi a Teodora Ricci: percorsi di drammaturgia”, Problemi di critica goldoniana, 13 (2007): 29–50; Vescovo, “Il repertorio e la ‘morte dei sorzi’. La compagnia di Antonio Sacco alla prova”, Problemi di critica goldoniana, 13 (2007): 141–153; Bazoli, L’orditura e la truppa, 210–211; Scannapieco, Comici & Poeti. Attori e autori nel teatro italiano del Settecento (Venice: Marsilio, 2019).  Goldoni, who excelled in portraits of young female maids, writes of his fondness for and longstanding interest in soubrettes: “J’ai toujours eu par la suite un goût de préférence pour les Soubrettes” [“I have always had a preference for Soubrettes”]. (Goldoni, Mémoires, part I, chap. VI, in TO, 1: 29).

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a comedy of considerable importance, first because it marked Goldoni’s transition from practicing law to becoming a contracted “scrittor di commedie” (“writer of comedies”), and secondly because it served as a bridge between the impromptu scenarios he wrote at actors’ request and his fully-scripted character comedies written to be performed without improvisation and without masks. As Laura Riccò has noted, this work occupies a turning point in Goldoni’s production not only because it is his first fully-written comedy, but also because it is “the first experience in the field of dramaturgy of the servant girl, raised to the status of protagonist of a reformed transformation play”.17 The second work is a commedia dell’arte performance programme from 1733 entitled Smeraldina kikimora (which can be loosely translated as Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost, or The Nightmarish Smeraldina), in which Adriana Sacco played the part of the title character Smeraldina during her stay at the Russian court from 1733 to 1734.18 (See Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, Title pages of Smeraldina kikimora and Smeraldina als ein umherschweiffender Geist) In a significant number of plays from her St Petersburg repertoire, it is her resourceful heroine, more than any other character, who keeps the plot moving and operates on many different comedic levels at once. The originality of the role Adriana developed and the plots that revolve exclusively around her character suggest that some of the plays were written, tailored, or specifically adapted for the actress.19 Her Smeraldina is not just a servant girl and a female trickster, but assumes a variety of other roles (e.g. lover or fiancée to Harlequin; mother, aunt, or friend to the innamorata Diana or Aurelia, Pantalone’s granddaughter; or a fairy queen) as well as many disguises, which typically involve male and female cross-dressing. The role of the soubrette (Smeraldina, Colombina, Arlecchina, Franceschina, Zerbinetta, Diamantina) is the female comic role par excellence. But unlike male comic parts, female commedia roles were largely the creation of the actresses themselves, who, to a significant degree, merged their private and stage personae.20 My belief is that Adriana Sacco largely authored her role as Smeraldina in a way that incorporated both her own personality and the rich tradition of female commedia roles and performance practice.21 She imbued the character of the female trickster with a more subversive and richly comic quality. Adriana’s

 Laura Riccò, Introduction to Goldoni, La castalda. La gastalda, ed. by Laura Riccò (Venice: Marsilio, 1994), 28.  In Slavic mythology, kikimora denotes a peculiar female domestic spirit who engages in all kinds of mischief. As this fantasy character has no easy analogues in the mythologies of other countries, the scenario’s title is difficult to translate into other languages. For example, the title of the German version of the play is Smeraldina als ein umherschweiffender Geist, or Smeraldina, The Vagabond Spirit.  Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 132.  See Taviani and Schino, Il segreto, 330–345; Jane Tylus, “Women at the Windows: Commedia dell’Arte and Theatrical Practice in Early Modern Italy”, Theatre Journal, 49 (1997): 323–342.  On the role of improvisation in the actress’s repertoire, as well as the crucial contribution of women actors, such as Isabella Andreini (1562–1604) and Caterina Biancolelli (1665–1716), to the development of the art of commedia improvisation, see Katheleen McGill’s study on women in commedia dell’arte, “Women and Performance: The Development of Improvisation by the Sixteenth-Century

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personal store of experience – her wit, voice, physicality, slapstick, pranks, and disguises – merge into, and emerge from, all the St Petersburg plays, shaping a character with distinctive traits and an unmistakable personality that attest to the effervescent creativity of the actress herself.

Fig. 3: Title page of Smeraldina kikimora (Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost).

Commedia dell’Arte”, Theatre Journal, 43 (1991): 59–69; Domnica Radulescu, “Caterina’s Colombina: The Birth of a Female Trickster in Seventeenth-Century France”, Theatre Journal, 60.1 (2008): 87–113.

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Fig. 4: Title page of Smeraldina als ein umherschweiffender Geist (Smeraldina the Vagabond Spirit).

As has been remarked in Chapter 3, the St Petersburg performance programmes, printed in both Russian and German versions, served as communication and mediation tools between the Italian actors and the Russian spectators. They directed the audience’s attention towards the characteristics of the performers’ acting, providing us with significant clues about their movement, grimaces, gestures, and physical and verbal lazzi (i.e., comic interludes and actions performed by the Italian actors meant to link scenes and entertain the public). The textual form of the St Petersburg programmes thus helps sketch a portrait of the vibrant nature of Adriana’s comedic

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genius and reconstruct the creative impact her personality and improvisatory skills had on the creation of Goldoni’s theatrical characters. At first glance, La donna di garbo and Smeraldina kikimora do not have much to do with each other, as one exemplifies Goldoni’s early reformist attempts, while the other, staged far from Italy, belongs to the ‘old’ repertoire of commedia dell’arte canevas. While the first was composed after the departure of the Sacco company from the Teatro San Samuele, the second predates the Sacco-Goldoni collaboration during their San Samuele period. As this chapter will attempt to demonstrate, the presence of Adriana Sacco is the point of connection between the two texts.22

4.2 Old Comedies and the New Comedy The vicissitudes of the shrewd laundry girl who travels to Bologna to take revenge on the student who seduced and abandoned her in Pavia represent a crucial episode in Goldoni’s career. The playwright attributed to La donna di garbo the “primogeniture” of his comedies – that is, the role of the first in the series of reform works in which all the characters are endowed with original characteristics.23 According to Goldoni’s intentions, “original” was in relation to both literary traditions and, even more so, to those of commedia dell’arte. In fact, the figures of the innamorati and their romantic complications – whereby Rosaura is in love with the student Florindo, who has not kept his promise to marry her and in turn loves Isabella who, for her part, disguises herself as a man and makes Florindo’s sister Diana fall in love with “him” – belong to the realm of Renaissance comedy. Rounding out the cast of characters are commedia dell’arte types: the Bolognese Doctor, who is Florindo’s father; Brighella, a wise and trustworthy servant; and Arlecchino, a foolish servant. By the end of the play, everyone is cured of their foibles and weaknesses, and the marriages tie up loose ends: Rosaura marries Florindo, Diana marries Momolo, Isabella marries Lelio, while the Doctor realises his mistake and repents. If the plays’s topos of a girl who goes to serve in the house of the man who betrayed her dates back to Renaissance comedy, its central figure of a female trickster and her many disguises (magician, lawyer, etc.) is a widespread, dramaturgically tried-and-true motif from commedia dell’arte. The titles of the canovacci quoted by Goldoni in the Preface to the Volume XVII of the Pasquali

 The texts are quoted respectively from: Goldoni, La donna di garbo, in TO, 1: 1013–1084; Smeraldina kikimora. Komediia italianskaia v Santkpeterburge 1733 goda, [s.l.], 1733, in Commedia dell’arte a San Pietroburgo, 1733–1735. Edizione scientifica digitale e la traduzione italiana della raccolta di argomenti delle commedie dell’arte rappresentate alla corte di San Pietroburgo dal 1733 al 1735, ed. by Tatiana Korneeva, 2022. Online at: http://www.comedig.com. Unless otherwise indicated, quotations that retain original orthography, are from this edition. The page number(s) following the act number refer to the original text held in the Göttingen State and University Library, SUB, 8 Poet Dram IV 8250 (13b) RARA.  Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 286.

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edition of his comedies are indicative of the type of plays on magical and supernatural subjects that the playwright intended to reform in a verisimilar key: Tutte le Servette de’ Comici erano in una specie di obbligazione di rappresentare la Serva Maga, lo Spirito Folletto ed altre simili Commedie dell’Arte, nelle quali la Servetta, cambiando di abito e di linguaggio, sostiene vari differenti Personaggi e caratteri; ma vi vorrebbe realmente quell’arte Magica, che si finge in tali Commedie, per sostenerli con verità e ragione; e ordinariamente non riescono che azioni sconcie e forzate, cattive scene di Commedie peggiori. Non si potrebbe, dicea fra me stesso, far sostenere un Personaggio diversi caratteri senza il sognato soccorso della Magia? A che serve il cangiamento degli abiti? A che serve la varietà de’ linguaggi? Difficilmente riescono bene; e se fossero anche a perfezione eseguiti, mancando il verisimile manca il miglior merito della Commedia. Ma come far sostenere ad un Personaggio più, e diversi caratteri in una stessa Commedia, salvando la verisimiglianza, la ragione, e la buona condotta?24 [All the comic actresses who played the servette were under a sort of obligation to perform The Servant Magician, The Fairy Spirit, and other similar improvised comedies, in which the servetta, changing dress and language, plays various personages and characters; but it would really take magic, which is only make-believe in such Comedies, to play them with truth and reason; and ordinarily they are only capable of bawdy and forced actions, bad scenes of worse Comedies. Could one not, I said to myself, perform different characters without the dreamed-of help of magic? What use is the change of clothes? What good are all the different speech types? They hardly ever work out well; and even if they were perfectly executed, the lack of verisimilitude means Comedy lacks its chief merit. But how can one play several different characters in the same Comedy, while preserving truthfulness, reason, and good behaviour?]

The premise of La donna di garbo thus originates from the author’s reflection on how he might revolutionise the conventional elements of those pièces de transformations (transformation plays) centred on the typology of an unruly woman of many disguises and transformations, the execution of which relied on the acrobatic abilities of the servetta actress. The answer was the creation of a new protagonist tailored to the interpretative potential of the actress who would give her life and voice: Pensando e ripensando, fu allora che mi cade in mente La Donna di garbo; una Donna che, bisognosa di amicizie e di protezioni, cerca d’insinuarsi nell’animo delle persone, secondando le passioni ed i caratteri di ciascheduno, e trasformandosi quasi in tante differenti figure, quanti sono coloro coi quali deve trattare.25 [Thinking and rethinking, it was then that La Donna di garbo came to mind; a woman who, in need of friendship and protection, tries to insinuate herself into people’s good graces, accommodating the passions and quirks of each one, and transforming herself almost into as many different figures as there are people she has to interact with.]

Goldoni wrote the comedy for the soubrette Anna Baccherini (c. 1720–1743), a Florentine actress at the beginning of her career who replaced Adriana after the Saccos left

 Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 285.  Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 285–286.

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the Teatro San Samuele. A number of convergences between La donna di garbo and Smeraldina kikimora, as well as the similarities between the heroines of Rosaura and Smeraldina, suggest that Goldoni absorbed lessons, and his play thereby benefitted, from his collaboration with Adriana.

4.3 Goldoni at the Crossroads between Impromptu and Scripted Comedies The plot of the St Petersburg performance programme can be summarised as follows: In Bologna, Silvio woos Diana and promises to marry her, telling her that he is single. He therefore takes his wife Smeraldina to a forest, orders an assassin to kill her, and leaves. The assassin, moved to compassion by Smeraldina’s tears, spares her life on condition that she does not let Silvio see her again. Smeraldina entrusts herself to Pluto, who gives her a magical spirit to serve her and grant her the power to take on any appearance and speak any language she likes, a skill Smeraldina uses to get revenge for the outrage she has suffered. In the three acts of the play, Smeraldina employs an overwhelming array of disguises. In Act I, she appears as a candle-seller to Arlecchino, as a Roman nobleman to Diana, as a dwarf to Pantalone (Diana’s father) to whom she recounts Smeraldina’s misfortunes, as a gondolier who informs the Dottore (her father) that Silvio had had her killed, and as an assassin to Silvio. In Act II, she dresses up as the Doctor when she talks to Pantalone. She also appears to the two old men, Dottore and Pantalone, in the guise of Silvio’s Neapolitan wife who has come to seek justice because he abandoned her and their children. Dressed as a noble gentleman, Smeraldina intervenes in the fight between Silvio and Odoardo, Diana’s husband-to-be. Alone with Silvio, however, she takes the appearance of Diana to accuse him of polygamy. In Act III, she dresses up as a judge to force Silvio to confess his wife’s murder and condemn him to death. During the preparations for Diana and Odoardo’s wedding, she takes on the guises of an innkeeper, servants, and maids who complain about Silvio’s infidelity and lament Smeraldina’s cruel fate. When Silvio is about to be executed, Smeraldina reveals her true identity and acknowledges Pluto’s help, thanks to which she was able to assume the appearance of so many characters. Silvio comes to his senses, but the closure of the play is not an entirely happy ending, as the spectator does not learn whether the two will live happily ever after. Adriana/ Smeraldina’s use of disguises does not thus provide integrative closure, but rather disintegrates and explodes accepted notions of women’s fulfilment and virtue. Although the performance programme belongs to the well-codified genre of the commedia canevas featuring a female trickster or a woman believed to be a spirit, as referenced by Goldoni in his Italian Memoirs, the St Petersburg play’s only real nod to the genre’s narrative conventions are the numerous disguises of the protagonist. A comparison between the Russian scenario and La dama creduta spirito folletto (The Lady Taken for a Mischievous Ghost) in the Zibaldone di soggetti by Annibale Sersale, Count

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of Casamarciano, shows that the Neapolitan plot is substantially different in that it features misunderstandings, occasioned by jealousy and intrigues, and romantic entanglements that are fully and happily resolved after a series of incidents.26 La dame démon et la servante diable (The Invisible Lady and the Servant Devil), staged in Russia in 1731 by the first imported company of Italian actors under Tommaso Ristori’s direction, seems to have focused on the character of Harlequin as pursued by an invisible female trickster.27 As such, both pièces are free imitations of Calderón’s “cloak-and-dagger” play La dama duende (The Phantom Lady, 1629), which was extensively mined for commedia dell’arte subjects.28 In 1722, a comedy entitled L’Esprit follet (Le lutin amoreux) was staged at the Comédie-Italienne in Paris, while in 1744, a revised version called Coraline esprit follet was performed to great acclaim starring Carlino Bertinazzi (1713–1783) and Anna Veronese. Both French plays tell the story of a spirit banished from Pluto’s realm and condemned to walk the earth where his violent love will torment the first maiden he meets, but they were not derived from Calderón’s La dama duende. On the one hand, pre-existing models circulating throughout Europe confirm the serial nature of the St Petersburg comedies. On the other hand, the difficulty of identifying a direct source for the performance programme confirms the actors-creators’ customary practice of assemblage, or borrowing an element of the plot from one source in order to weave more-or-less original situations into it, adapted to their new local context and their new audience. In fact, Smeraldina kikimora reveals more points of convergence with the play Colombine avocat pro et contre (Colombina, Counsel for the Prosecution and the Defense, 1685) found in Evaristo Gherardi’s collection Théâtre italien. The St Petersburg performance programme borrowed several plot elements from this work, including Colombina’s various disguises, her impersonation of both men and women of various nationalities and professions, her supposed death, her pursuit of an unfaithful Harlequin, her ability to speak several foreign languages, and the final trial scene.29 There are however moments in which the comici preferred to adopt different solutions. One of these is the agency afforded to Smeraldina, on whom the entire action of the play is centred, and who assumes the key role in the plot development. The dissimilarities between the St Petersburg performance programme and the Italian and French imitations of Calderón, and the divergence between its central character and her counterparts in the canevas of the same type, all indicate that the comedy  Cf. La dama creduta spirito folletto [i/68], in The Commedia dell’Arte in Naples: A Bilingual Edition of the 176 Casamarciano Scenarios / La Commedia dell’arte a Napoli: Edizione Bilingue dei 176 Scenari Casamarciano, trans. and eds. Francesco Cotticelli, Anne Goodrich Heck, and Thomas F. Heck, 2 vols. (Lanham, DM: Scarecrow Press, 2001), 1: 213–216 (Italian version) and 2: 219–222 (English translation).  Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte, 116–117.  Monica Pavesio, Calderón in Francia. Ispanismo ed italianismo nel teatro francese del XVII secolo (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2000), 61–120.  Colombine Avocat pour et contre, in Evaristo Gherardi, Le Théâtre italien, ou le Recueil de toutes les comédies et scénes françoises jouées par les comédiens italiens du Roi, pendant tout le temps qu’ils ont été au service de sa majesté, 6 vols. (Paris: Briasson, 1741; reprint: Genéve: Slatkine, 1969), 291–378.

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was composed specifically for Adriana Sacco. Adriana’s improvisational genius and acting manner, which made her the undisputed protagonist of Smeraldina kikimora, seem to have inspired Goldoni to orient the entire dramatic movement of La donna di garbo around the servetta and bring the role of the female trickster to unparalleled heights. The playwright recounts that during the reading of the play to the company, the protagonism of the soubrette, which was normally reserved for the prima amorosa (the first lover), was perceived as a veritable attack on the hierarchical system of roles. The unprecedented centrality of the servetta aroused the envy of the actresses in the troupe, especially the prima donna, Marta Focher (or Foccheri), known as “La Bastona” (1712–1762). This violent jalousie de métier, professional pride, petty, and personal squabbling hindered the play’s première as scheduled for the Carnival of 1743: La Servetta, che recitava col nome Colombina, era gloriosa della sua parte; ma le altre Donne la riguardavano con gelosia, e specialmente la Prima; sosteneva che la parte non era per una Serva; che dovevasi darla alla prima Donna; ch’io avea mancato alle regole; e che solamene per compiacermi avrebbe sofferto che la Baccherini la recitasse; ma tirarono tanto innanzi, che arrivò la fine del Carnovale senza rappresentarla.30 [The Servetta, who performed under the stage name of Colombina, was glorious in her part; but the other Women were very jealous of her, and especially the Prima; she argued that the part was not for a Servant; that it should be given to the prima donna; that I had broken the rules; and that only to please me she would have suffered Baccherini to perform it; but they went on so long that the end of the Carnival arrived without the play being staged.]

It thus seems reasonable to imagine that the unusual centrality of the servetta (who in the first draft was named Colombina and not yet Rosaura) might have been suggested to Goldoni by Adriana’s acting skills and the female protagonist she had impersonated in the St Petersburg performance programme. Another inconsistency in La donna di garbo that so irritated both the actress Marta Bastona as well as eighteenth-century theatre critics was Rosaura’s surprisingly erudite character, considering that she was the daughter of a laundry woman who in Pavia “[si] esercitava nell’inamidare le camicie dei collegiali” [“went about starching the shirts of boarding schools students”].31 Goldoni defended the play against these objections by claiming that Rosaura’s profession as a laundry maid served to explain

 Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 286–287. The debut of the play was suspended first because of rivalry between actresses, then due to Anna Baccherini’s sudden death. The following year the play was staged at the Teatro Falcone in Genoa with Marta Focher La Bastona. Goldoni saw the play performed four years later in Livorno with Teodora Raffi Medebach in the leading role. The vicissitudes of the play’s first performances are detailed most completely in Simona Bonomi and Piermario Vescovo, “‘In due si fanno l’opre famose’: il sodalizio Goldoni-Medebach (I)”, Studi goldoniani, 15, n.s., 7 (2018): 45–75.  Goldoni, La donna di garbo, in TO, 1: 1025.

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how and where “una povera figlia di una miserabile lavandaia” [“a poor daughter of a penniless laundry woman”] could come into contact with Florindo, a student of law: Due difetti sono stati da’ Critici particolarmente imputati a questa mia prima Commedia: l’uno che il Carattere principale della Donna di Garbo sia fuor di natura, avendola fatta comparir troppo erudita, e troppo di varie scienze informata; [. . .] Ma io replicherei francamente che gl’intelletti non si misurano dalla nascita, né dal sangue, e che anche una Femmina abbietta e vile, la quale abbia il comodo di studiare ed il talento disposto ad apprendere, può erudirsi, può farsi dotta, può diventare una Dottoressa; il che suppongo io essere accaduto nella mia Rosaura, appunto per esser figlia di una lavandaia che serviva d’imbiancare agli scolari e a’ Maestri della Università di Pavia, alcuno de’ quali, invaghito forse del bello spirito della ragazza, la può aver resa ammaestrata ne’ buoni principii [. . .].32 [Two defects in particular have been attributed to this first Comedy of mine by the Critics: one, that the main character of the Donna di Garbo is unnatural, since I made her to appear too erudite and too well-informed of various sciences; [. . .] But I would reply frankly that intellects are not measured by birth or blood, and that even a poor, lowly woman who has the opportunity to study and the talent to learn, can indeed learn, can become erudite, can become a Doctor. This I suppose is what happened to my Rosaura, precisely because she was the daughter of a laundry woman who served as a whitewasher to the pupils and professors at the University of Pavia, some of whom, perhaps infatuated with the girl’s beautiful spirit, may have taught her good principles [. . .].]

Although the playwright’s explanation seems convincing, it does not exclude the possibility that the protagonist’s profession may have been suggested to him by the fact that a laundry woman was one of Adriana Sacco’s signature roles. The actress had played a laundry maid in the St Petersburg play Portomoia dvorianka / Die adliche Wäscherin (The Noble Washerwoman), in which Smeraldina accompanies her friend Diana to Pavia to search for the latter’s father and, in order to maintain themselves, the two girls begin to work as laundry maids. (See Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, Title page and first page of Portomaia dvorianka). On her return to Venice from the St Petersburg tournée, Adriana also played the part of Smeraldina the laundry woman in Goldoni’s Momolo cortesan, a comedy that opened the 1738/1739 season at the Teatro San Samuele.33 Another distinctive trait of the Smeraldina character as created by Adriana, and which is recognizable in the character of Rosaura, is her vindictive and manipulative personality. This characteristic is already explicit in the title of the St Petersburg play, wherein the word kikimora denotes a female domestic spirit, ugly and full of spite, who pesters the inhabitants of the house with her mischief, e.g. by damaging their belongings, disturbing their sleep, or frightening them at night. Adriana is at once a restless, combative, ruthless, and fragile heroine. Her Smeraldina takes on the guise

 Goldoni, “L’Autore a chi legge” to La donna di garbo, in TO, 1: 1017–1018.  The Venetian adjective cortesan has no exact counterpart in other languages. Goldoni himself translates it into Italian as uomo di mondo in the version of the play revised for the printed edition. It refers to a young man who behaves in a daring and reckless way while always remaining within the bounds of decorum.

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Fig. 5: Title page of Portomoia dvorianka (The Noble Washerwoman).

of a judge, as does her counterpart Colombina in Gherardi’s recueil, but with different aims. Unlike Colombina who, in the guise of a lawyer, defends her faithless lover Harlequin, Smeraldina transforms herself into a judge to force her unfaithful husband to confess his crimes and sentence him to death. Her negative energy lives on in new guises in the theatrical tales of Gozzi, the playwright who makes full use of her store of verbal gags and slapstick physicality. In L’Amore delle tre melarance (The Love of the Three Oranges, 1761), the first of Gozzi’s theatrical fairy tales to became a major success, Adriana plays a ruthless and perfidious black slave, a character who in some

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Fig. 6: First page of Portomoia dvorianka (The Noble Washerwoman).

ways recalls the etymological meaning of kikimora, in which the first part, kiki-, means hunchback, while the second, – mora, sorceress. Fostering a dramaturgy based on the protagonism of female characters, Gozzi makes the actress appear as a warrior who fights against Canzade in La donna serpente (The Serpent Woman, 1762); as a warrior, once again, in the service of the evil black queen in Zeim, re de’ geni (Zeim, King of the Genies, 1765); and as a battered and disappointed shopkeeper in L’Augelin bel verde (The Green Bird, 1765). In all of Gozzi’s fairy tales for the theatre, Adriana/ Smeraldina constantly mixes shrewdness and aggressiveness with an emotional and

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sentimental naïveté. In all likelihood, Adriana’s acting virtuosity – her naturalness combined with her linguistic prowess, and the blend of tragic and comic elements in the characters she created – might well have helped Goldoni figure out how to temper the implausibility of a single masked character playing wildly diverse roles. In fact, in the St Petersburg performance programme, Adriana is a servant girl with manifold nuances: she impersonates Silvio’s repudiated wife, the Doctor’s daughter, a candle seller, a dwarf, Silvio’s Neapolitan lover, an assassin, a Roman nobleman, a vengeful spirit, an innkeeper, and a judge. The actress’s ability to transform her own appearance must thus have been truly extraordinary. But the main interest of Smeraldina kikimora lies in the way the actress overcomes the fixity of the mask through behavioural camouflage and verbal transformation which is applied to every character she encounters. This camouflage, which is precisely what we find in Goldoni’s Rosaura, helps her to win the affection of her unfaithful husband’s family. Also, in Act I, Smeraldina in the guise of a Roman nobleman speaks to Diana using the intimate language of lovers. In Act II, she not only assumes the guise of the Doctor, but imitates his professorial speech, when she “spins out a long speech of praise that bores Pantalone”: ПАНТАЛОНЪ говоритъ выходя, что онъ хочетъ спросить у Доктора, что увѣдомился ль онои извѣстно о своеи дочери Смералдïнѣ; и стучится у его двора. СМЕРАЛДIНА въ лицѣ Докторовѣ спрашиваетъ у него, что чего онъ желаетъ? Панталонъ ему отвѣтствуетъ, что онъ хочетъ ему молвить одно слово только. Смералдïна подхватываетъ то ОДНО СЛОВО, и чинитъ похвалу ТОМУ ОДНОМУ долгои рѣчью, которая надокучила Панталону.34 [PANTALONE enters and says that he wants to ask the Doctor if he has heard from his daughter Smeraldina and knocks at his door. SMERALDINA in the guise of the Doctor asks him what he wants. Pantalone replies that he wants to say just one word to him. SMERALDINA picks up that ONE word and praises THAT ONE word with a long speech that bores Pantalone.]

In Act III, Smeraldina transforms herself into a judge and, showing off her interrogation skills, forces her unfaithful husband to confess his wrongdoings. Even more exceptional is the actress’s verbal mimicry in the final scenes. With Silvio sentenced to death, the play shifts to Diana and Odoardo’s wedding celebrations at an inn. It is at this point that the scenario reveals Adriana’s complete command of communication, with equal mastery of voice, gesture, mime, and intense physicality. Her Smeraldina is transformed into an innkeeper who выходитъ приходя и возвращаяся много разъ въ образѣ разныхъ слугъ и служанокъ вольнодомскихъ, а всегда жалуяся на невѣрность Сïлвïину, и сожалѣя о нещастïи Смералдïномъ. Она пристрояетъ всѣ эти разные характеры тѣмъ странамъ своиственными, изъ которыхъ она притворяетъ себя быть, и все то чинитъ поючи, танцуючи, и дѣлаючи многïя игрушки приличныя театру [. . .].35

 Smeraldina kikimora, Act II, p. 8.  Smeraldina kikimora, Act III, p. 14.

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[enters and exits many times in the guise of various servants and maids of the inn, complaining incessantly about Silvio’s unfaithfulness and lamenting Smeraldina’s cruel fate. She conforms to all these characters through the languages of the countries from which she pretends to come, and does all this by singing, dancing, and performing many gags [. . .].]

The combination of the actress’s physical and verbal acrobatics, which the St Petersburg performance programme allows us to reconstruct, and her ability to imitate the idiosyncrasies of her interlocutors and take on their psychology, left a decisive imprint on the Rosaura of La donna di garbo, who “h[a] appreso la facoltà di saper[si] uniformare a tutti i caratteri delle persone” [“has learned the ability of knowing how to adapt herself to all people’s characters”].36

4.4 From the Mischievous Woman to the Well-Mannered Lady It seems possible at this point to draw some preliminary conclusions regarding Italian professional players’ foray into the Russian theatre scene and its consequent effects on theatrical practices in Italy, as well as the multi-directionality of knowledge transfer in the theatre generally. Evidence collected here confirms that Italian comici did not consider the Russian court as a mere marketplace. For these theatre professionals who had travelled to a sort of musical terra incognita, the St Petersburg scene became a performance laboratory, where they could experiment with acting styles and create their own signature roles. After the actors had returned to their homeland, the distinctive traits of the new characters they brought with them, tailored to their own personalities, profoundly influenced the dramaturgy of canonical Italian playwrights, such as Goldoni and Gozzi. But we may go a step farther. A comparison between La donna di garbo and the St Petersburg performance programme Smeraldina kikimora provides useful evidence for reassessing the cultural background in which Goldoni’s comedies were conceived and for reconstructing his models of inspiration. Many of Goldoni’s fully scripted plays as we know them from published versions are grounded in actorial improvisation. More importantly, a comparative reading of the two plays demonstrates that Adriana Sacco’s acting language and powers of expression influenced Goldoni’s dramaturgy in a more incisive and modern way than the playwright was willing to admit. The resourcefulness of the Smeraldina character created by Adriana prior to her association with the playwright allows us to observe the inextricably collaborative nature of Goldoni’s fully scripted texts and the extent of the actress’s effective influence on him. Adriana’s creative input, extraordinary wit, eloquence, and in particular the character she developed and brought to an unprecedented level of psychological

 Goldoni, La donna di garbo, in TO, 1: 1026.

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complexity and comedic vibrancy, were important catalysts for Goldoni’s creation of Rosaura in La donna di garbo. Investigating the Russian repertoire of Italian actors thus sheds a very different light on Goldoni’s reform of Italian theatre practice. More specifically, the study of the relationship between the playwright and Adriana Sacco allows us to correct the image of Goldoni as a playwright who waged war on impromptu plays in order to reform the theatre with fully scripted texts that left no room for actors’ improvisation.37 The traces of Adriana in La donna di garbo support the hypothesis that the play, despite what the author would have us believe in his autobiographical accounts, was most probably preceded by a preparatory text with commedia dell’arte outlines. The convergences between La donna di garbo and the St Petersburg performance programme therefore reinforce the hypothesis expressed in two recent studies by Piermario Vescovo and Riccardo Drusi that the playwright’s intentions were not immediately crystallised in a fully scripted text. A scenario entitled Personaggi di Rosaura (Characters of Rosaura), contained in the Nota delle Commedie, che fa Girolamo Medebach Capo Comico (Note of the Comedies, Staged by the Impresario Girolamo Medebach) – a document which includes notes, annotations, and titles of the comedies performed in Lucca in the mid-1740s – suggests that a Donna di garbo precursor circulated before the published version.38 Riccardo Drusi’s analysis of a Donna di garbo production in Warsaw in 1748, which preceded the printed version, reveals a strong presence of commedia dell’arte elements and characters.39 Considering all the available evidence, I would argue that the radical novelty of Goldoni’s dramatic writing does not consist in a break with the past or the replacement of improvisational practices with the premeditato (that is, a subject not yet written out though already conceived mentally). Rather, Goldoni’s innovation consists of his desire to preserve expressive forms of impromptu acting and assimilate them into his fully scripted texts.

 Vescovo, “La riforma”, in Goldoni e il teatro comico del Settecento, ed. by Piermario Vescovo (Rome: Carocci, 2019), 199–211.  Vescovo and Simona Bonomi, Introduzione to Due gemelli veneziani, ed. by Piermario Vescovo and Simona Bonomi (Venice: Marsilio, 2021), 28–29; Vescovo, “Carlo Goldoni’s Repertoire in Dresden: The Earth Seen from the Moon”, in Mapping Artistic Networks: Eighteenth-Century Italian Theatre and Opera across Europe, ed. by Tatiana Korneeva (Turnhout: Brepols, 2021), 203–211.  Riccardo Drusi, “Una rappresentazione varsaviense della goldoniana Donna di garbo”, in La detection della critica: Studi in onore di Ilaria Crotti, ed. by Ricciarda Ricorda and Alberto Zava (“Studi e ricerche”, 23) (Venice: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari, 2020), 19–30.

Chapter 5 Cultural Transfers between St Petersburg, Dresden, and Venice Chapter 5 continues the investigation into the impact of the Italian actors’ Russian tour on theatre practice back in Italy. It attempts to fill a gap in Goldoni scholarship by providing new insights into the first phase of the playwright’s production. In particular, the study of the relationship between Goldoni and Giovanni Camillo Canzachi, an actorcomediograph who worked in Venice after his return from St Petersburg while Goldoni was employed as a house poet at the Teatro San Samuele, allows us to reconstruct the playwright’s sources of inspiration, find traces of his now-lost texts, and improve our understanding of the actors’ contribution to his theatrical output. This chapter also draws attention to the impact of the Italian comici’s Russian sojourn on other European theatre capitals. The focus of the study is the collection of theatre programmes relating to the performances of Italian actors at the court of Augustus III (1696–1763, r. 1733–1763) in the theatres of Dresden and Warsaw.1 While this collection contains some texts that are revivals of Italian comedies performed in St Petersburg, especially those authored by Canzachi, other texts were penned by Goldoni. However, Goldoni’s comedies were performed in the Saxon theatres in a different form than the way we know them from the later printed versions: There is a strong presence of commedia masks in these earlier versions, precursors of his ‘reformed’ comedies. A comparative analysis of (a) the playwright’s intermezzi comici and spoken-word comedies Goldoni wrote for the company of Venice’s Teatro San Samuele, (b) Canzachi’s comedies revived in Saxony, and (c) the versions of Goldoni’s plays written for the Italian company of the Saxon-Polish King allow us to reflect on the crucial role that Italian theatre practitioners in general, and Canzachi in particular, played in disseminating Goldoni’s works in East-Central Europe and creating an increasingly transnational theatre network. I argue that the very fact that the same Italian musico-dramatic works were performed in so many

 The collection of theatre programmes documenting plays performed in Warsaw and Dresden by Italian actors in the service of Augustus III is kept in Dresden at the two locations: the comedies performed in Dresden are now in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats – und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (hereafter SLUB), while the comedies performed in Warsaw during the court’s sojourns in the Polish city are kept in the Sächsisches Staatsarchiv Dresden (hereafter SHSA), bound among the printed sheets attached to the account books detailing the expenses incurred for the Italian actors’ performances. The SLUB’s corpus of theatre programmes was also published by Mieczysław Klimowicz and Wanda Roszkowska, La Commedia dell’Arte alla corte di Augusto III di Sassonia (1748–1756), “Memorie. Classe di Scienze morali, Lettere ed Arti”, 41.1 (Venice: Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 1988). On this collection, see Bohdan Korzeniewski, “Komedia dell’Arte w Warszawie”, Pamiętnik Teatralny, t. 3, 3–4 (11–12) (1954): 29–56; Mieczyslaw Klimowicz, “Teatr Augusta III w Warszawie”, Pamiętnik Teatralny, t. 14, 1 (53) (1965): 22–43. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-005

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different places suggests that a shared musical and theatrical experience was an important tool for the internationalisation of theatre repertoire and the development of a sense of belonging to a larger European community.

5.1 Travels, Relocations, and Specialty Roles of Gio: Camillo Canzachi Around the same time as the Sacco family, but probably as early as 1735, Venice saw the return of another member of the second Italian company active at the Russian court: Giovanni Camillo Canzachi (? – d. Dresden, < 1770), an actor and scriptwriter of Bolognese origin, on whose biography and artistic output, of considerable success at the time, not enough light has yet been shed.2 What is known about Canzachi’s activities is that he was active at the court of the Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) around 1730, where he was director of a troupe of Italian performers at Vienna’s Ballroom of the Franciscans. Canzachi then moved to the Kärntnertortheater, where he provided German actors with commedia dell’arte scenarios.3 After the death of the Emperor, Canzachi went to Venice, where he was engaged for the St Petersburg company and travelled with the Sacco troupe in 1733.4 When the company’s contract expired in late 1734 or early 1735, the actor returned to  On Canzachi’s biography, see Repertoire des theatres de la ville de Vienne depuis l’Année 1752 jusqu’à l’Année 1757 (Vienna: Ghelen, 1757), fol. C10b; Carl Christian Schmid, Chronologie des deutschen Theaters [1775], ed. by Paul Legband (Berlin: Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 1902), 44; Francesco Bartoli, “Giovanni Camillo Canzachi”, in Notizie istoriche, 158–159; Moritz Fürstenau, Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe zu Dresden, 2 vols. (Dresden: Kuntze, 1862) (reprint Hildesheim: Olms, 1971), 2: 227–228; Oscar Teuber, Das K. K. Hofburgtheater seit seiner Begründung (Vienna: Verlag für vervielfältigende Kunst, 1896), 32; Luigi Rasi, “Canzachi Giovanni Camilllo”, in I comici italiani: biografia, bibliografia, iconografia, 2 vols. (Florence: Fratello Bocca, 1897), 1: 583; Cesare Morinello, “G. C. Canzachi”, in Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 11 vols. (Rome: Le Maschere, 1954–1968), 2 (1954): 1703–1704; Vito Pandolfi, La Commedia dell’Arte: Storia e testo, 6 vols. (Florence: Sansoni, 1955–1961, reprint Florence: Le Lettere, 1988), 5: 375–379; Zbigniew Raszewski, “Za króla Sasa”, Pamiętnik Teatralny, t. 14.1 (1965): 94–101; Alfredo E. Bellingeri, “Giovanni Camilllo Canzachi”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 1975), 18: 355; Otto G. Schindler, “‘Il famoso Tabarino’: una maschera italiana tra Vienna, Parigi e Napoli,” in Commedia dell’Arte e spettacolo in musica tra Sei e Settecento, ed. by Alessandro Lattanzi and Paologiovanni Maione (Naples: Editoriale Scientifica, 2003), 147–163 (esp. 161–163).  On Vienna’s Kärntnertortheater, see Das Wiener Kärntnertortheater 1728–1748. Vom städtischen Schauspielhaus zum höfischen Opernbetrieb, ed. by Andrea Sommer-Mathis and Reinhard Strohm (Vienna: Hollitzer, 2023).  Canzachi’s Russian sojourn is not mentioned in Francesco Bartoli’s well-documented Notizie istoriche (ad vocem) or Marialuisa Ferrazzi’s Commedie e comici dell’arte, 49. It is thanks to Alice Pieroni that Canzachi, whose name appears in Russian records on the issuance of passports as “Kandake” or “Camillo Ganzaga,” was identified as a member of the second Italian company active in St Petersburg. See Pieroni’s Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 89–90.

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Italy. Canzachi found employment in the company of the Teatro San Luca while Goldoni was working as a house poet at the rival Teatro San Samuele.5 At the San Luca theatre, according to Francesco Bartoli’s account, Canzachi’s comedy L’Adulatore (The Flatterer) was a failure in 1740, although it had previously had “l’onore d’essere udita con piacere dall’Imperatore in Vienna” [“the honour of being heard with pleasure by the Emperor in Vienna”].6 There is some evidence that Canzachi was in Brescia with the ensemble of the Teatro San Luca in the summer of 1743.7 In 1747 Canzachi moved to Dresden with the other Goldonian actors – Francesco Golinetti (Pantalone), Marta Focher (“La Bastona”), and three amorosi (lovers) – Pietro Moretti, Gioacchino Limbergher, and Antonio Focher – and, to join the troupe of the impresario Andrea Bertoldi.8 In the Italian company at the Saxon-Polish court of Augustus III, Canzachi replaced Nicoletto Articchio in the role of the Dottore.9 However, Canzachi was active not only as an actor, but also as a playwright. He wrote around 16 comedies for the Saxon theatres, 11 of which were performed in the 1748/1749 season, the first year of his employment:

 The competition between the theatres was played out at the level of genre specialisation: if the Teatro San Luca could boast a supremacy in commedie a soggetto, the San Samuele responded with the eclecticism and diversity of its performances, thanks also to the large number of actors in its company. This rivalry is portrayed by Goldoni, who describes the personnel of the two companies at the time of his employment in the summer of 1734: “Due erano in quel tempo le Compagnie de’ Comici di Venezia, le quali poi si moltiplicarono sino a cinque in un anno. La Compagnia del Teatro di San Luca, della Nobile famiglia de’ Vendramini, passava per la migliore. Il famoso Garreli Pantalone, il bravo Campioni Fichetto, il graziosissimo Cattoli Traccagnino: l’erudita Eularia moglie di Pompilio Mitti Prima Donna, il gentile amoroso Bernardo Vulcani, e lo strepitoso Argante, uniti ad altri personaggi di mediocre valore, rappresentavano le Commedie dell’arte con tutta quella perfezione, della quale eran capaci le Commedie di cotal genere. La Compagnia di S. Samuele si sosteneva colle Tragedie, coi Drammi del Metastasio e cogl’intermezzi; ma la buona Commedia non erasi ancora introdotta né in Venezia, né in alcun altro Paese d’Italia” [“The Company of the Teatro San Luca, owned by the noble Vendramini family, was the best. The famous Garreli Pantalone, the talented Campioni Fichetto, the very graceful Cattoli Traccagnino, the learned Eularia, Prima Donna and wife of Pompilio Mitti, the gentle lover Bernardo Vulcani and the stunning Argante, together with other characters of average worth, played the Commedie dell’arte with all the perfection of which comedies of this type were capable. The Company of the Teatro San Samuele kept its head above water with tragedies, with Metastasio’s Dramas and with intermezzi, but a good Comedy had not yet been introduced, either in Venice or in any other part of Italy”] (Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 234).  Bartoli, Notizie istoriche, 158.  Simona Bonomi and Piermario Vescovo, “‘In due si fanno l’opre famose’: il sodalizio GoldoniMedebach (I)”, Studi goldoniani, 15, n.s., 7 (2018): 45–75 (54–55).  The impresario Andrea Bertoldi left for Venice in autumn 1747 to hire the new actors. Canzachi’s presence in Warsaw is attested in SHSA, OHMA, I No. 120, fol. 18; OHMA T III No. 31 [unnumbered sheets]; OHMA T III No. 33 [unnumbered sheets]. See also Alina Żórawska-Witkowska, “The Comici Italiani Ensemble at the Warsaw Court of Augustus III”, Musicology Today, 2 (2005): 72–105 (84, 86–87).  Klimowitc and Roszkowska, La commedia dell’arte alla corte di Augusto III, 93.

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Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote (The Frenchman in Venice, who is Deceived by Brighella in his Love Affair with Colombina, Who Pretends to be a Roman Lady, and Arlichino, his Wife’s Supposed Servant, in Order to Acquire the Dowry; Dresden, 10 January 1748; Warsaw, 18 September 1748); Li due gemelli (The Two Twins; Dresden, 13 February 1748; Warsaw, 5 September 1748); L’impostura vendicata with the heroic ballet Centrum virtutum in templo Gloriae by Antoine Pitrot (The Avenged Imposture; Warsaw, 7 October 1748; Dresden, 1749) L’ubriaco (The Drunkard, Warsaw, 22 October 1748); Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore (The Venetian Paronzino Made Ridiculous by Love, Warsaw, 28 October 1748); Monsieur de l’Appetit, nobile per opinione, o povero francese (Monsieur de l’Appetit, Noble by Reputation, or Poor Frenchman, Warsaw, 8 November 1748) Il diavolo maritato (The Married Devil, Warsaw, 15 November 1748; Dresden 5 August 1749); Il disertore francese (The French Deserter, Warsaw, 24 January 1749; Dresden, Carnival 1751); Amor non ha riguardi (Love Has no Respect, Warsaw, January 1749; Dresden, 15 July 1749); Il francese sposo del proprio amico (The Frenchman as The Bridegroom of his Own Friend, Warsaw, 18 July 1749); Pantalone mancatore innocente di sua parola (Pantalone Who Innocently Could Not Keep his Word, Warsaw, 29 July 1749); Il francese studente a Venezia, con Aurelia sua competitrice (The French Student in Venice with Aurelia, his Rival, Dresden, Carnival 1750); Il francese rapitore deluso di Momola putta veneziana (The Disappointed French Kidnapper of the Venetian Maiden Momola, Dresden, Carnival 1750; 1754); L’avarizia di Pantalone corretta dalla generosità del francese (Pantalone’s Greed, Corrected by the Generosity of the Frenchman, Dresden, Carnival 1751); La casa invasata da’ spiriti (The House Haunted by Ghosts, Dresden, Carnival 1753) I matrimoni conclusi nella reggia di Nettuno (Weddings Celebrated in the Palace of Neptune, Dresden, Carnival 1753).

In the Saxon theatres Canzachi played the roles of the Dottore; Tabarino, father of the first lover Celio or the innamorata (Aurelia, Eleonora, Rosaura); and the husband of Colombina. His specialty role, however, was the one he created for himself: the character of the Italianised Frenchman Monsieur de l’Appetit, speaking in an Italian full of ridiculous Gallicisms. A comparison of the St Petersburg collection of programmes with the collection of theatre programmes documenting the Italian company’s performances in

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Saxony shows that after the St Petersburg tournée Canzachi played his favourite role numerous times in Dresden and Warsaw, in Il francese in Venezia; Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore (the French title is Le petit-maitre); Monsieur de l’Appetit, nobile per opinione o povero francese; Il francese sposo del proprio amico; Il francese studente a Venezia, con Aurelia sua competitrice; Il francese rapitore deluso di Momola putta veneziana; and Il disertore francese. By Francesco Bartoli’s account, this character “fu poi da altri Comici imitato, e seguito” [“was later taken up and imitated by other actors”].10 An anonymous correspondent from the Stuttgart journal, directed by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Christoph Mylius, writing about the state of Dresden theatres in 1750, provides the following description of the actor: “ein kleiner untersetzter Mann. Ohngeachtet er auf einem Beine hinkt, so ist er doch ein vollkommener Acteur. Jede Rolle kleidet ihn; auch die Marquis weis er gut zu bilden; doch ist er meistens Tabarino” [“a short, stocky man. Although he limps on one leg, he is nevertheless an excellent actor. He can embody any role; he can also portray a marquis; but he appears most often as Tabarino”].11 After the Treaty of Hubertusburg, which marked the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), the Italian artists were officially dismissed. When the company was disbanded, the court took care to be as gracious as possible with the artists, many of whom received allowances and pensions. The 1764 list of salaries and pensions includes the name of Canzachi, who received a pension of 400 thalers (200 thalers less than the annual pension of the better-paid Zanetta Casanova, 1708–1776).12 Giovanni Camillo Canzachi was never mentioned along with the names of Goldonian actors of the first rank, from Antonio Sacco (1708–1788) to Francesco Golinetti (c. 1710–1767) and Cesare D’Arbes (1710–1778). However, comparing his plays performed in Russia and Saxony with the Goldonian intermezzos and comedies can reveal this writer-performer’s decisive influence on the Venetian playwright’s dramatic writing. As we shall see, this comparison also points to the fact that the theatres of Augustus III, both in Warsaw and Dresden, were among the first to disseminate Goldoni’s works north of the Alps.

 Bartoli, Notizie istoriche, 158.  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Christoph Mylius, “Nachricht von dem gegenwärtigen Zustande des Theaters in Dresden”, in Beyträge zur Historie und Aufnahme des Theaters. Viertes Stück (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1750), 273–282 (esp. 279).  See the itemised payments dated 1 January 1764, in SHSA, 10026 Geheimes Kabinett, Loc. 910/I, fols. 23r–28r.

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5.2 From Monsieur de L’Appetit to Monsieur Petiton The Venice Carnival of 1736 featured Il Monsieur Petiton, the last of the intermezzos Goldoni wrote for the comic actors of the Teatro San Samuele.13 The simple story of this two-part musical farce revolves around a strained marriage and a couple’s typical quarrel, in which a narcissistic French cicisbeo gets entangled. The Gascon petit-maître Monsieur Petiton courts the Tuscan Graziosa, the vain wife of Petronio, her Bolognese husband à la mode. Lindora, Petiton’s Venetian wife, learns of the affair and becomes furious. Graziosa mocks Petiton, who is ultimately rejected and disillusioned.14 Goldoni’s graceful intermezzo bears a strong resemblance to the characters and situations of two comedies performed in St Petersburg by the Italian actors in the service of Tsarina Anna: Frantsuz v Venetsii (The Frenchman in Venice, 1733) and Marki Gaskonets velichavyi (The Magnificent Marquis of Gascony, 1734).15 (See Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, Title pages of Frantsuz v Venetsii and Der Frantzose in Venedig). In the first of the two comedies, Mosio Apetit,16 the son of a merchant who has become a nobleman thanks to his wealth, is sent by his father on a journey through Europe, and as the action of the play begins, arrives in Venice. Here he falls into the clutches of the Venetian swindler Brighella, who immediately hatches a plot to exploit the young man’s stupidity and vanity and rob him of his fortune. Brighella introduces him to Smeraldina, who pretends to be a Roman marquise. In order to take all of Mosio Apetit’s money in a card game, Brighella and Arlecchino, Smeraldina’s fiancé, disguise themselves as German barons during the ball. In the end, Momolo, a gondolier in the service of Mosio Apetit, saves him from ruin by reporting the fraud to Pantalone, a friend and correspondent of the young man’s father, Brighella’s ruse fails. In the very first scene of Act I of the St Petersburg comedy, Brighella’s snide description of Mosio Apetit’s “warm-heartedness and gallant manners, taste in clothes and fondness for luxury”17 depicts the Frenchman as a petit-maître. In the next scene, Mosio Apetit appears before the audience as he “does his hair, powders himself, etc.,

 Carlo Goldoni, Monsieur Petiton, in Goldoni, Intermezzi e farsette per musica, ed. by Anna Vencato, introduction by Gian Giacomo Stiffoni (Venice: Marsilio, 2008), 293–320.  The cast of the performance consisted of the actors of the Imer company: Lindora was performed by Agnese Amurat, Graziosa by Rosa Costa, Petronio by Rodrigo Lombardi, and Giuseppe Imer played Petiton. Cf. Lorenzo Galletti, Lo spettacolo senza riforma. La compagnia del San Samuele di Venezia (1726–1749) (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2016), 144–145.  The texts are quoted respectively from Commedia dell’arte a San Pietroburgo, 1733–1735. The page number(s) following the act number refer to the original texts held in the Göttingen State and University Library, SUB, 8 Poet Dram IV 8250 (9b) RARA and (21b) RARA and reproduced in the facsimile as well as in the transcription and Italian translation in the digital edition.  Mosio Apetit is the Russian phonetic spelling for Monsieur Appetit; in the German-language version of the play the character’s name is Monsieur de L’Appetit.  “добросердечïе, и нравъ чивои того Француза, такъ же и доброи ево смакъ въ платье, и склонность ко всякимъ роскошамъ” (Frantsuz v Venetsii, Act I, p. 4).

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Fig. 7: Title page of Frantsuz v Venetsii (The Frenchman in Venice).

all with panache, but also with much slapstick.”18 These lazzi undoubtedly made much comic hay out of the character’s obsession with his beauty. At that moment, Pantalone arrives to bring Mosio Apetit the money his father sent him, and the Frenchman “wants to offer him coffee, tea, and chocolate and insists on having lunch

 “по томъ сталъ волосы убирать, пудриться, и прочая; а все то онъ чинилъ съ чванствомъ” (Ivi, Act I, p. 5).

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Fig. 8: Title page of Der Frantzose in Venedig (The Frenchman in Venice).

with him”.19 But Brighella arrives and brings Mosio news of a noblewoman who wants to meet him, so the Frenchman forgets that he has just invited Pantalone to lunch. In the fourth scene, probably one of the funniest ever seen by the play’s audience, Mosio Apetit invites Smeraldina, dressed as a Roman marquise, to lunch in

 “что хочетъ его потчивать кафеемъ, чаемъ, шоколатомъ; принуждаетъ его, чтобъ тотъ у него пожаловалъ отъобѣдалъ” (Ivi, Act I, p. 6).

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order to court her. The two do not get along and ask Brighella to mediate; hilarity ensures from his simultaneous translations. During lunch, Mosio Apetit gets drunk and falls asleep. In the second scene of Act II, the Frenchman continues to woo Smeraldina “with affected language to show his love for her”.20 He instructs Brighella to prepare a ball and to buy a dress for the fake marquise. When, during the ball, the false German barons’ and the false Roman noblewoman’s scheme to deprive Mosio Apetit of all his money are revealed, the Frenchman declares that he has learned his lesson, and the comedy ends by emphasising his generosity: he forgives the impostors and donates everything he has lost in the card game to Smeraldina for her dowry. The summary of the St Petersburg play makes it clear that Goldoni’s Monsieur Petiton is an heir to Mosio Apetit, a frivolous, flirtatious, and somewhat permissive young Frenchman, obsessed with appearances, prone to female flattery, and expressing himself and behaving with affectation. Like Mosio Apetit, Petiton first appears as a gentleman, only to turn out to be a womaniser. Even Graziosina, who tries hard to hide her lowly origins by striving to speak erudite Italian, which she does not manage perfectly, also resembles Smeraldina, who wants to move up the social ladder.21 But what is perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Goldoni also borrows the freewheeling language play and verbal-mimickry lazzi from the St Petersburg comedy. While the plot of the intermezzo is extremely simple, the function of language in Monsieur Petiton is very sophisticated. Indeed, the four characters, all very stereotypical, each express themselves in their own dialect: Petronio in Bolognese, Graziosina in Tuscan, Petiton’s wife Lindora in Venetian and Petiton in French-Italian. Petiton’s French is an artificial language constructed so that it can be understood by Italianspeaking spectators. Franco Folena has shown that Petiton’s French-Italian is based on Italian more than French. In fact, in several places Goldoni gives the French pronunciation in a phonetic spelling based on Italian (“votre tresumble servitor”, “si vou plè”).22 As in the St Petersburg comedy, in which language becomes the protagonist, Goldoni’s libretto is altogether captivating in its multilingualism. Whereas in Frantsuz v Venetsii, French nationality is a function of the character’s foreignness and his sheltered ignorance of the outside world, in another comedy from the St Petersburg collection, Marki Gaskonets velichavyi (The Magnificent Marquis of

 “рѣчьми излишними показываетъ еи свою любовь” (Ivi, Act I, p. 10).  Goldoni, Monsieur Petiton, 307: [LINDORA]: “Oh poveretta mi, l’ò fatta grossa! / Ho tiolto per mario / sto monsù de Guascogna / sperando de avanzar de condizion, / e son precipitada a tombolon” [“Oh poor me, I really messed up! / I took for a husband / the monsieur from Gascogne / in hopes of improving my lot / and instead I’ve squandered it”].  On Goldoni’s multilingualism, see Gianfranco Folena, “Goldoni librettista comico, in Folena, L’italiano in Europa. Esperienze linguistiche del Settecento (Turin: Einaudi, 1983), 306–324 (315); Daniela Goldin, La vera fenice. Librettisti e libretti fra Sette e Ottocento (Turin: Einaudi, 1985), 25–27; Fabio Rossi, “Imitazione e deformazione di lingue e dialetti in Goldoni”, in Studi linguistici per Luca Serianni, ed. by Valeria Della Valle and Pietro Trifone (Rome: Salerno, 2007), 147–162.

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Gascony; the title of the German version is different and emphasises that the protagonist is a petit-maître: Der lächerliche und affectirte Marquis, or The Ridiculous and Affected Marquis), the protagonist is given a specific provincial origin, from Gascony, just like Goldoni’s Monsieur Petiton. (See Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, Title pages of Marki Gaskonets velichavyi and Der lächerliche und affectirte Marquis).

Fig. 9: Title page of Marki Gaskonets velichavyi (The Magnificent Marquis of Gascony).

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Fig. 10: Title page of Der lächerliche und affectirte Marquis (The Ridiculous and Affected Marquis).

The plot centres on Marquis Silvio d’Altapolvere, an old, devilish, and manipulative petit-maître. The play’s synopsis states that the Marquis “is a certain man who tries to gain people’s respect with grandiose gestures, but beneath his outward magnificence he hides a base and wicked soul”.23 These qualities are partly reflected in Goldoni’s Petiton,

 “Сїлвïи Маркї дальтаполвере такои есть господинъ, которои чрезъ свою тщивость, и чрезъ поступки величавые старается имѣть себѣ почтенїе отъ народа, а подъ внѣшнимъ своимъ великолѣпїемъ укрывалъ весьма худую низкость духа” (Marki Gaskonets velichavyi, Summary, p. 1).

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especially in his affiliation with the world of the parvenus and in his false aristocratic gallantry. One could therefore speculate that the combination of the character traits from Mosio Apetit and Marquis d’Altapolvere led Goldoni to the figure of Monsieur Petiton.24 The two plays, like other scenarios in the St Petersburg collection, were printed anonymously, but Canzachi’s authorship is confirmed by a comedy performed in Warsaw on 18 September 1748. The frontispiece of the theatre programme, entitled Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote makes Canzachi’s authorship explicit: “COMEDIA DI GIO: CAMILLO CANZACHI”. (See Fig. 11, Theatre programme

Fig. 11: Theatre programme of Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote (The Frenchman in Venice, who is Deceived by Brighella in his Love Affair with Colombina, Who Pretends to be a Roman Lady, and Arlichino, his Wife’s Supposed Servant, in Order to Acquire the Dowry).

 In early eighteenth-century theatre, one can encounter many real or fictional French characters. The St Petersburg play, however, provides an important link between Goldoni’s intermezzo and the long-standing dramatic tradition of caricaturing foreigners, for what distinguishes Canzachi’s character from the foreigners in the comedies of Giovanni Battista Fagiuoli, Iacopo Angelo Nelli, and the Marquis Gorini Corio is his precise characterisation as a petit-maître.

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of Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote). The plot summary and the relationships between the characters as set forth in the list of dramatis personae suggest that the content of the two comedies was almost identical: Monsieur de l’Appetti Cavaliere Francese, dopo aver fatto il giro dell’Jtalia capita in Venezia, dove per la poca esperienza del Mondo si lascia lusingare dalla finta, & affettata pontualità di Brighella; quale nell’animo del Francese, si acquista tanto credito, che non vale tutta la fedeltà, e zelo del rimanente de’ suoi domestici per disingannarlo. Le accortezze e l’arti, che usa l’indegno servo per spogliare il forastiere, e farlo vittima delle sue frodi sono gli episodi, che danno adito agl’intrecci, e condotta della presente Comedia.25 [After a journey through Italy, Monsieur de l’Appetti, a French gentleman, ends up in Venice, where, due to his lack of experience in the world, he is flattered by the feigned and affected attentions of Brighella, who wins over the Frenchman so completely that all the loyalty and zeal of the other servants cannot suffice to disenchant him. The cunning and guile used by the unworthy servant to fleece the outsider and make him the victim of his deception are the episodes from which the plot and entanglements of this comedy emerge.]

What confirms that Goldoni was not only familiar with the stock character of the petit-maître or with Canzachi’s interpretation of this signature part on Venetian stages, but also indebted to the actor-commediograph for the idea of basing characters on verbal idiosyncracies and multilingualisms, is the Prologo apologetico alla commedia intitolata “La vedova scaltra”. With this apologetic prologue to The Cunning Widow (1748), the playwright defended his play against Pietro Chiari’s criticism in La scuola delle vedove (The School for Widows, 1749), in which the rival playwright attacked one of the main components of Goldoni’s reform by claiming that comic characters coming from different regions should each speak in their own language, as happens in commedia dell’arte. In his response to Chiari, Goldoni explained that he had the foreigners speak Italian “perché sarebbe necessario trovar tre Personaggi, che sapessero così bene affettar la lingua oltramontana, mista coll’italiana, come sapeva egregiamente fare quel Comico italiano che chiamar si faceva Mons. della Petite” [“because it was necessary to find three characters who spoke the ultramontane language, mixed with Italian, as that Italian actor who called himself Mons. della Petite did so marvelously”].26

 Italienische Komödien, so auf dem Königl. Hoftheater in Warsaw aufgeführet worden, 1748, 1749, in SHSA, 1006 Oberhofmarschallamt, Nr. G, Nr. 57b. Online at: https://www.archiv.sachsen.de/archiv/be stand.jsp?guid=a42831c9-babf-4e64-b3b0-463bce38fdbe&_ptabs=%7B%22%23tab-digitalisat%22%3A1% 7D#digitalisat, fols. 120–121. Accessed 12 July 2023.  Goldoni, Prologo apologetico alla commedia intitolata “La vedova scaltra”, in Goldoni, TO, 2: 410.

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5.3 From the French petit-maître to the Venetian paronzin The combinatorial possibilities offered by Canzachi’s St Petersburg play, suggesting themes and characters that could be taken up in other genres and texts, provided the Venetian playwright with material for the creation of another character. Indeed, the broad outlines of Goldoni’s Venetian paronzin can be found in Canzachi’s Mosio Appetit. In the 1738/1739 season, Goldoni wrote Momolo cortesan (Momolo the Gentleman), his debut comedy, which from the time of the 1750 Bettinelli edition he identified as the starting point of his so-called ‘reform’, whose main elements could already be found in embryonic form in the play, organised around a character who “era vestito de’ suoi convenienti costumi, parole, e sali” [“was dressed in his appropriate costumes, words, and salts”].27 The reasons why Goldoni was able to revitalise not only his dramaturgy, but the whole of Italian theatre, and why he succeeded in winning the approval of an audience that until then had appreciated commedia dell’arte and its incidents and intrigue, lie in his experimentation with new forms of text composition and with playing to the strengths of the company’s actors. Goldoni explains that by observing the acting style of Francesco Golinetti, who was recruited to play Primo Vecchio (the first old man) in the Imer troupe, he was inspired to create a new type of character [i.e. Pantalone without a mask], on which to base the entire comedy: Passabile era il Golinetti colla maschera di Pantalone, ma riusciva mirabilmente senza la maschera nel personaggio di veneziano giovane brillante gioioso, e specialmente nella commedia dell’arte che chiamavasi il Paroncin. [. . .] L’osservai attentamente sopra la Scena, l’esaminai ancora meglio alla Tavola, alla conversazione, al passeggio, e mi parve uno di quegli Attori, che io andava cercando. Composi dunque una Commedia a lui principalmente appoggiata, col titolo di Momolo Cortesan.28 [Golinetti was not bad in the mask of Pantalone, but he was excellent without a mask in the role of a brilliant, cheerful young Venetian gentleman, especially in the commedia dell’arte entitled the Paroncin. [. . .] I observed him attentively on the Stage, I examined him better at Table, in conversation, while walking, and he seemed to me one of the actors I was looking for. So I wrote a Comedy based mainly on him, called Momolo Cortesan.]

Goldoni thus claimed to have recognised in Golinetti the potential to overcome the portrayal of the social and theatrical stereotype of the old merchant. In doing so, he would create a new type of character closer to contemporary Venetian reality, freer from theatrical conventions and therefore more suitable to the author’s artistic expression. To better understand the playwright’s approach, however, we must first clarify the initial situation. By the time of Goldoni’s debut in comedy, the traditional depiction of the character of Pantalone had already undergone an evolution. In fact, at the end of the

 Goldoni, Prefazione to Le commedie del Dottore Carlo Goldoni avvocato veneto (Venice: Bettinelli, 1750), 1: 11.  Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 266–267.

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seventeenth century, a new genre of urban or ‘national’ comedy had established itself in Venice, in which the character no longer wore the garb of the authoritarian but ridiculed father, overshadowed by the tirades of the innamorati and the jokes of the zanni, but played the leading role.29 Among the authors who distinguished themselves for the success of their works both in print and onstage were Giovanni Bonicelli and Tomaso Mondini. For the creation of the role of Momolo, which became Golinetti’s specialty, Goldoni drew particularly on Bonicelli’s Pantalone bullo (Pantalone the Lout) and Mondini’s very popular Pantalone mercante fallito (Pantalone Gone Bankrupt, 1690), as well as the commedia dell’arte scenarios derived from them.30 With the Momolo cortesan, Goldoni thus inserted himself into cultural praxis that had already been consolidated in Venice for at least half a century, although he managed to put tradition at the service of his individual project and to renew the company’s repertoire. In Bonicelli’s Pantalone bullo, for example, the protagonist was portrayed as a character caustically, as quarrelsome and addicted to drink, constantly embroiled with prostitutes and policemen, and an oppressive father to his daughter Rosaura. Goldoni’s Momolo thus shows great differences from Bonicelli and Mondini’s Pantalone. But how exactly did Goldoni transform the figure of Pantalone, the lout, into a cortesan? The playwright made use of two dramaturgical devices: firstly, he introduced a pair of foreigners, Silvio and Beatrice, and constructed a thoroughly evil character to play the role of antagonist, Ludro. In this way, the figure of Momolo, who is portrayed as a young libertine accustomed to the society of common people and uninterested in the vocation of a merchant, became the protagonist of a heroic plot, as he succeeds in restoring the honour to the town. On the other hand, the boorish aspect of the character is replaced by that of the petit-maître. In the preface to the XV volume of the Pasquali edition, Goldoni explains that “[i]l Paroncin Veneziano è quasi lo stesso che il petit-Maître francese: il nome almeno significa la stessa cosa; ma il paroncin imita il petit-Maître imbecille, ed evvi il Cortesan Veneziano, che imita il petitMaitre di spirito. Il Golinetti era più fatto per questo secondo carattere, che per il primo” [“[t]he Venetian Paroncin is almost the same as the French petit-Maître: the name at least means the same thing; but the paroncin imitates the petit-Maître’s

 Vescovo, “Per la storia della commedia cittadina veneziana pregoldoniana”, Quaderni veneti, 5 (1987): 37–80.  Cf. Pantalone bullo, overo la pusillanimità coverta, comedia di Bonvicino Gioanelli [Giovanni Bonicelli] (Venice: Pittoni, 1688); Pantalon spezier, con le metamorfosi d’Arlechino per amore, scenica rappresentanza dell’Eccell. Sig. Dottor Giovanni Bonicelli (Venice: Lovisa, s.d. [but approx. 1693]); Pantalone mercante fallito, comedia esemplare, nuovamente data in luce dal dottor Simon Tomadoni [Tomaso Mondini] (Venice: Lovisa, 1693) were part of the Teatro San Samuele’s repertoire before Goldoni’s recruitment. See Giuseppe Ortolani, La riforma del teatro nel Settecento e altri scritti, ed. by Gino Damerini (Venice-Rome: Istituto per la collaborazione culturale, 1962), 26.

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imbecility, while the Venetian cortesan imitates the petit-Maître in spirit. Golinetti was made more made for this second figure than for the first”].31 In its basic outline, Goldoni’s Momolo cortesan bears striking similarities to The Frenchman in Venice, which was performed in St Petersburg and later in Saxony, in both cases with Canzachi in the leading role. Momolo, like Mosio Apetit, is a reckless young man who wants to enjoy life and the pleasures of youth. Like Canzachi’s protagonist, he loves gambling, with the difference that he does not allow himself to be cheated. Like the Venetian gondolier in Canzachi’s play, he generously helps the cheated Bolognese merchant Celio, who has just arrived in Venice and, having lost at the game, finds himself without any money. Like Smeraldina, Colombina is no ordinary servant girl, but a young washerwoman who deludes herself that she can rise above her humble circumstances by nurturing the love of Lucindo and seeking the protection of Momolo. Like Mosio Apetit, who helps Smeraldina by giving her a dowry, Momolo selflessly protects Colombina, who no longer wants to work as a laundress. Arlecchino, who shows commendable deviations from the traditional type in the St Petersburg comedy, also prefigures the Arlecchino in Momolo cortesan. While the character retains his typical traces of peasant rudeness and readiness for disguise, this Arlecchino is no longer a stupid servant without malice, but a pretentious, cynical, and parasitic slacker who is willing to turn a blind eye to his fiancée’s moral failings. The character of Ludro is reminiscent of Brighella, the lout, in the St Petersburg play. Canzachi’s comedy also sets the moralistic tone echoed in the final repentance of Momolo, who wisely abandons the cortesan life to become responsible and settle down with Eleonora, which parallels Mosio Appetit’s intention to abandon his dissolute life. It was Lorenzo Colavecchia who identified the source of Momolo cortesan in The Frenchman in Venice and hypothesised that it was Antonio Sacco who suggested that Goldoni should adapt the scenario for the Teatro San Samuele ensemble.32 Since Goldoni had already drawn upon the play for the 1736 intermezzo Monsieur Petiton, it can be assumed that he had learned about the play from Canzachi and not from Sacco, who only returned to Venice in 1738 after a stopover in Prague.33 In any case, two of Colavecchia’s observations are valid: first, that the actors probably did not expect Goldoni to be able to use the St Petersburg scenario “in a completely original way [. . .]

 Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 266. The role of Momolo, which became Golinetti’s specialty, recurs in two further plays in the following season: Momolo sulla Brenta (1739–1740, Momolo on the Brenta) and Momolo mercante fallito (1740–1741, Momolo Gone Bankrupt).  Lorenzo Colavecchia, Antonio Sacco comico italiano dalla corte di San Pietroburgo alle commedie di Goldoni e Chiari (1733–1753), tesi di dottorato in Storia dello spettacolo, tutor prof. Siro Ferrone, Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2010, 122.  For the reconstruction of Antonio Sacco’s travel from St Petersburg to Italy, see Chapter 6 in this volume.

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to create a character with no precedent in either commedia dell’arte or commedia bullesca”;34 and secondly, that thanks to his exposure to the comic tradition represented by Canzachi (but also by Sacco and the actors in his company), Goldoni gained a better and more precise understanding of the conventions of professional theatre and understood how he could succeed in transcending them. Let us now turn back again to the collection of theatre programmes documenting comedies performed in Saxony by Italian actors in the service of Augustus III. Goldoni did not bother to print the Momolo cortesan, and the comedy was published in a revised version in 1757 in the Paperini edition under the title L’uomo di mondo (The Man of the World). In the complex chain of transmission that begins with Bonicelli’s and Mondini’s urban comedies and, via Canzachi’s scenario, leads to Goldoni’s printed version, an important link and the only remaining trace of Momolo cortesan is Momolo disinvolto, commedia di carattere Veneziano del dottor Carlo Goldoni (a Venetian character comedy by Dr Carlo Goldoni), which was performed in Warsaw on 11 September 1748 and revived in Dresden the following year.35 (See Fig. 12, Theatre programme of Momolo disinvolto). The existence of this theatre programme with the explicit reference to Goldoni’s authorship on the title page, is known to scholars.36 What has gone unnoticed, however, is that Momolo disinvolto was only the first in a series of Goldoni’s comedies performed at the Royal Theatre in Warsaw in the 1748/1749 season. The season began in Dresden on 10 January 1748 with the arrival of Canzachi and other Italian actors who had been hired to fill the company vacancies and with whom Goldoni had worked during his San Samuele period (1734–1744). On 5 June 1748, the court moved to Warsaw, where it remained for an unusually long period, during which a new theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1748.37 Although this venue was suitable for operas and drammi per musica, the 1748/1749 season was filled exclusively with productions of commedia dell’arte and ballet performances by the King’s ballet troupe, with the sole exception of the opera seria parody, Le contese di Mestre e Malghera per il trono (4 November 1748), with music by Salvatore Apolloni and a libretto by Antonio Gori, although Zanetta Casanova attributed its authorship to herself.38 During the court’s

 Colavecchia, Antonio Sacco comico italiano, 122.  Italienische Komödien, so auf dem Königl. Hoftheater in Warsaw aufgeführet worden, fols. 117–118.  For the comparison between the theatre programme and Goldoni’s printed text, see Vescovo, “Momolo a Varsavia (Postilla a una postilla goldoniana)”, Problemi di critica goldoniana, 7 (2000): 8–25.  See Żórawska-Witkowska, “The Comici Italiani Ensemble”, 84, and “The Saxon Court of the Kingdom of Poland”, in Music at German Courts, 1715–1760: Changing Artistic Priorities, ed. by Samantha Owens, Barbara M. Reul, Janice B. Stockigt (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2011), 51–77 (esp. 68).  Julian Lewański, “Buranella e l’opera. Le contese di Mestre e di Malghera per il trono (1748)”, in Vita teatrale in Italia e Polonia fra Seicento e Settecento. Atti del VI Convegno di Studi, ed. by Michał Bristiger, Jerzy Kowalczyk, and Jacek Lipiński (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1984), 209–217; Antonio Gori and Salvatore Apolloni, Le metamorfosi odiamorose in birba trionfale nelle gare delle terre amanti (Mestre e Malghera), ed. by Maria Giovanna Miggiani and Piermario Vescovo, Problemi di critica goldoniana, 10–11 (2004): 77–352.

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Fig. 12: Theatre programme of Momolo disinvolto. commedia di carattere Veneziano del dottor Carlo Goldoni.

eight-month stay in Warsaw from June 1748 to February 1749, the troupe of Italian actors performed 35 different plays, with performances taking place every Monday and Friday.39 A striking feature of the season’s repertoire is the alternation of Goldoni’s comedies with those of Canzachi, and occasionally with the Venetian urban comedies of Tomaso Mondini (in one case) and of Giovanni Bonicelli (in two cases), and with two adaptations of Spanish comedies and a scenario by Flaminio Scala.40  Information about the days on which the Italian actors performed can be gleaned from the entry pertaining to the comedy La fille en habit d’homme on 11 October 1748 in the Warsaw court diaries: “Comme les lundis et les vendredis de chaque semaine sont assignés pour les comedies Italiennes, qui se representent sur le theatre de la Cour, c’est en consequence de cet’arrangement, que la comedie intitulée: la fille en habit d’homme y a eté representée ce soir” [“Since the Monday and Friday of each week are designated for the performance of Italian comedies at the court theatre, the comedy entitled The Girl in a Man’s Dress was performed there this evening”]. Cf. Warschauer Hoftagebücher, 1747– 1749, in SHSA, 10006 Oberhofmarschallamt, Nr. O 02, Nr. 005 (1748, unnumbered pages).  For the season’s complete repertoire, see Appendix 3, Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749.

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In September, on the occasion of the Prince Friedrich Christian’s birthday (1722–1763),41 the play Li due gemelli by Canzachi was performed, which, according to the Warsaw court diaries, was “parfaitement bien executée”.42 It was followed by Goldoni’s Momolo disinvolto. After Goldoni’s play, Canzachi’s Il francese in Venezia was performed, followed by Goldoni’s La donna di garbo, with the authorship of each author explicitly acknowledged on the respective title pages. It is interesting that Momolo disinvolto and Il Francese in Venezia, which have a similar plot, were performed one after the other, proving that the repertoire of the Saxon theatre was based on the principle of variations on the theme of the young Venetian cortesan and the young French cicisbeo, as if Canzachi’s comedy was programmed specifically to broaden the regional context of Goldoni’s play.  September 

Li due gemelli

Giov. Camillo Canzachi

 September 

Momolo disinvolto

Carlo Goldoni

 September 

Il francese in Venezia

Giov. Camillo Canzachi

 September 

La donna di garbo

Carlo Goldoni

The same pairing of titles by Goldoni and Canzachi can be observed in subsequent months, with Goldoni’s Il prodigo (The Prodigal) followed by Canzachi’s L’ubriaco (The Drunkard), itself followed by Le trenta tre disgrazie ridicole d’Arlecchino (The Thirty-three Ridiculous Misadventures of Arlecchino), attributed to Goldoni.43 Canzachi’s Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore was followed by Le allegrezze in casa d’Arlechino per la nascita del suo primogenito (The Merriment in the House of Arlecchino on the Occasion of the Birth of His First Child), another single trace of Goldoni’s comedy a soggetto, written at the request of Antonio Sacco.44  October 

Il prodigo

[Carlo Goldoni, Momolo sulla Brenta]

 October 

L’ubriaco

Giov. Camillo Canzachi

 Żórawska-Witkowska, “The Comici Italiani Ensemble”, 89.  Warschauer Hoftagebücher, 1747–1749, in SHSA, 10006 Oberhofmarschallamt, Nr. O 02, Nr. 005 (1748, notizia relativa al 5 settembre 1748, unnumbered pages).  Klimowicz, “Teatr Augusta III w Warszawie”, 30–31, and Żórawska-Witkowska, “The Comici Italiani Ensemble”, 91 hypothesise that Le trenta tre disgrazie ridicole d’Arlecchino is the only trace of Goldoni’s script.  It is possible that the sylloge was the basis for Goldoni’s non-surviving scenario written for Sacco in 1746, Il figlio di Truffaldino perduto e ritrovato (other titles: Il primogenito di Truffaldino, La nascita del primogenito del Truffaldino, Le allegrezze nelle vallate di Bergamo per la nascita del primogenito d’Arlecchino). Based on this scenario, Goldoni wrote the comedy Les fils d’Arlequin perdu et retrove, staged at Fontainebleau on 13 October 1762.

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(continued)  October

Le trentatré disgrazie ridicole d’Arlechino

 October

Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore Giov. Camillo Canzachi

 January 

Colombina maga

 January 

Le allegrezze in casa d’Arlechino per la nascita [Carlo Goldoni] del suo primogenito

[Carlo Goldoni]

It is worth noting that the Goldonian works did not appear in the company’s repertoire until after the court moved to Warsaw. The existence of a contract obliging the playwright to supply scripts to the theatres of Augustus III is known from his letter of 22 October 1751 to the Marquis Giuseppe Arconati Visconti, in which Goldoni writes: “Son fitto al tavolino di giorno e di notte, e sono dodici sere ch’io non vado a teatro. Ho due teatri sulle spalle a Venezia, e di più un ordine di due commedie all’anno per Dresda, e due per Firenze” [“I am busy day and night at my desk, and it has been twelve evenings since I have been to the theatre. I have two theatres in Venice [i.e. Teatro Sant’Angelo for comedies and San Samuele for drammi giocosi] and also a commission of two comedies a year for Dresden and two for Florence”].45 We do not know, however, when and through whose mediation the not-yet-famous Venetian playwright received the prestigious and probably well-paid commission. The peculiar alternation of Goldoni’s and Canzachi’s comedies during the Varsavian season of 1748/1749 suggests that it was Canzachi who procured the commission for Goldoni. Further evidence can be found in a record from the Saxon court treasury, dated 11 April 1748, which documents an expenditure of 900 thalers to Canzachi for his trip to Venice: 900.-- an Giovanno Camillo Canzacki zu seiner Reise nacher Venedig gegen Quittung: 600. rt -- mit Credit-Brieff an Jacob Derlings46 Erben ausgestellt, und 300. rt -- baarem Gelde. uts: 30. --- Wechßel- und Übernachungs-Spesen, an Jacob Derlings Erben, wegen nur gedachten Credit-Briefs an 600 rt -- in Venedig auszahlen zu laßen, gegen Quittung.47 [900.-- to Giovanno Camillo Canzacki for his journey to Venice against receipt: 600. thalers -- with letter of credit issued to Jacob Derling’s heirs and 300. thalers -- in cash. uts:

 Letter by Carlo Goldoni to Giuseppe Antonio Arconati Visconti, 22 October 1751, in Goldoni, TO, 14: 176–177.  Could also be “Dalings” or “Declings”.  Die italienischen Sänger und Sängerinnen, das Orchester, die Tänzer und Tänzerinnen, auch andere zur Oper gehörige Personen, 1740–1784, in SHSA, 10026 Geheimes Kabinett, Nr. Loc. 907/05, vol. III, fol. 134.

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30. thalers--- bill of exchange and lodging expenses, to Jacob Derling’s heirs, on sole account of the said letter of credit, to be paid 600 thalers in Venice, against receipt.]

According to this report, Canzachi, who had been in Dresden since the end of 1747, and whose play opened the season on 10 January 1748, travelled to Venice in the spring of 1748. His stay in the city of lagoons was very short, for by June the actor was already back in Warsaw with the rest of Bertoldi’s troupe. When all these facts are taken together, i.e. the considerable sum of 900 thalers issued to Canzachi for his trip to Venice and the presence of Goldoni’s plays in the company’s repertoire after his return, we can assume that the reason for Canzachi’s trip and the purpose of the sum was to engage Goldoni’s services with a view to the opening of the new theatre in Warsaw and consequently the need to expand the troupe’s repertoire to satisfy a larger audience.48 If this hypothesis is correct, it would confirm what Piermario Vescovo has claimed in a recent article, namely that the considerable presence of the playwright’s comedies in the Dresden and Warsaw repertoires cannot be explained as a free and more or less dishonest appropriation of Goldoni’s works by the actors at the court, especially by those previously engaged in his own troupe in Venice, such as Giovanna Farussi Casanova, Marta Focher, Francesco Golinetti, and Cesare D’Arbes. Vescovo suggests that the performances of Goldoni’s works in Saxony and the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth are rather evidence of the paid ‘help’ the playwright provided to Saxon-Polish theatres.49 The document attesting Canzachi’s trip to Venice, in the absence of further evidence, is not sufficient to confirm with certainty that Canzachi brokered a commission for Goldoni, nor is it sufficient to reconstruct the full nature of the relationship between the two theatre professionals. The comparison of Canzachi’s St Petersburg and Saxon plays with Goldoni’s intermezzi and spoken-word comedies, as well as the analysis of the repertoire in the theatres of Dresden and Warsaw, seem to indicate that Canzachi’s role in Goldoni’s artistic development and in the dissemination of his works north of the Alps was more decisive than the Venetian playwright liked to mention in his autobiographical writings. More broadly, Canzachi’s mobility, his contribution to the dissemination of Goldoni’s works, and the circulation of repertoires between many diverse and geographically distant places indicate that Italian-born theatre practitioners played a crucial role in the internationalisation of theatre and opera repertoire and in the creation of a transnational theatre network.50

 In fact, the theatre was built for 540 seats, but already at the second performance the audience had already doubled to 1144 spectators for the production of Goldoni’s Donna di garbo.  Vescovo, “Carlo Goldoni’s Repertoire in Dresden: The Earth Seen from the Moon”, in Mapping Artistic Networks, 203–211 (esp. 205).  On the de-nationalization of national musical styles due to the circulation of Italian opera and the mobility of its performers, see Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker, A History of Opera: The Last Four Hundred Years (New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), 95.

Chapter 6 ‘Comedy of Errors’: Overlapping Identities and Travel Routes of the Two Antonio Sacco Antonio Sacco, the celebrated interpreter of the stock role of Truffaldino and a member of the second Italian company in St Petersburg, has been mentioned several times in the preceding chapters. Goldoni defined him as one of the greatest actors of his time (along with David Garrick in England and Pierre-Louis Préville in France), and Giacomo Casanova praised the actor’s eloquence.1 But Sacco also displayed different talents in different circumstances: he was a writer, a theatre manager, and a world traveller. Throughout his life (he was born in Vienna in 1708 and died in 1788 en route to Marseille), his travels across Europe advanced cultural diffusion of Italian theatrical practices.2 It is precisely his cosmopolitanism, together with the incomplete documentation of his whereabouts, which explains why the actor became the protagonist of his own ‘comedy of errors’ after his death. Our uncertainties about Sacco’s comings, goings, and doings on the one hand, and the presence of a dancing master of the same name in Russia from 1758 to 1761 on the other, have led to cases of mistaken identity involving two different theatre professionals. Chapter 6 provides an answer to the question of how many times the actor and the ballet master each travelled to Russia and fills in several gaps in their respective travel itineraries. New evidence from archives in Moscow, Prague, Venice, and Copenhagen provide conclusive proof that Sacco the actor and Sacco the choreographer were two different people. Not only does this research allow us to reconstruct the résumés of two artists who were both actively involved in the circulation of ideas and cultural heritage across

 Goldoni, Mémoires, part III, chap. IV, in TO, 1: 454; Giacomo Casanova, Supplemento dell’opera intitolata Confutazione della storia del governo veneto d’Amelot de la Houssaje (Amsterdam: Mortier, 1769), 288.  From Sacco’s obituary published in Gazzetta Urbana Veneta, n. 93, Wednesday 19 Novembre 1788: “Quest’uomo famoso che ammirare si fece fino a’ confini d’Europa: che fu chiamato fuori d’Italia, dove non intendesi la nostra lingua: che volar fece il suo nome appresso tutte le nazioni dove conoscesi e pregiasi la comic’arte: che nelle nostri parti rese col suo valore angusti al concorso i maggiori teatri, è morto indigentemente nel suo tragitto da Genova a Marsiglia e il suo cadavere soggiacque al comune destino de’ passeggeri marittimi d’esser gettato in mare. Sarà vero che molto in sua vita egli abbia guadagnato e molto speso: ma è vero non meno che l’arte comica in Italia non arricchisce nemmeno chi l’esercita colla più grande fortuna” [“This famous man, who was acclaimed even to the far reaches of Europe, who was in demand far beyond Italy, where our language was not understood, whose fame soared among all nations where the art of comedy was known and treasured, and who, with his mastery, made the greatest theatres seem small because of the people crammed into them to see him, died indigently on his way from Genoa to Marseilles, and his body was cast into sea, the common fate of sea passengers. It may be true that in his life he earned a lot and spent a lot: but it is no less true that the art of comedy in Italy does not enrich even the most fortunate who practice it”]. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-006

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geographical boundaries; it also enhances our understanding of the role of family networks as conduits for the transmission of know-how.3

6.1 “A’ confini d’Europa”: St Petersburg The first open question in the biography of the actor Antonio Sacco, which eventually led him to become the protagonist of his own ‘comedy of errors’ and saw his identity confused with that of a choreographer of the same name, concerns his sojourn in St Petersburg, his experiences there, and his return to Italy.4 As already described in Chapter 2, the actor arrived in Russia in 1733 with the other members of his family – his father Gaetano Sacco, his mother Libera, his wife Antonia Franchi Sacco, Antonio’s elder sister Adriana, and his younger sister Anna Caterina. Their professional activities in Russia are confirmed by plentiful archival documents, some of which were already known to scholars but misinterpreted, while others have only recently been unearthed. One such document is the administrative report of Giuseppe Avolio, who worked as an accountant for the second company to which the Saccos belonged. Between May and September 1734, Avolio’s Щет, коликое число в роcходе денег издержано мною на всякие мелочные покупки, касающиеся к опере, к комедиям и интермедиям и танцам, о том явствует ниже сего, а имянно (“Report of total funds spent by me [Avolio] on various minute purchases, for operas, comedies, interludes, and dances, as described in the following list, in thorough detail”) records various expenditures for the purchase or repair of costumes and stage props for various members of the Sacco family. For the performance of the comedy La tartana (18 May 1734), for instance, a pair of embroidered gloves was purchased for Sacco, who may have been the capocomico Gaetano, since references to Sacco fils in Avolio’s report are usually supplemented by the name Antonio. In fact, expenses for the interlude Contessa Arbellina (performed on 20 May 1734) include the purchase of black trousers for Antonio Sacco and costume repair for the “petit meister Sacco”, perhaps another way of referring to the son of the capocomico Gaetano. Avolio’s expense accounts for the comedies La lavandaia (11 June 1734), La nascita di Arlecchino (20 June 1734), and the interlude Bassetto e Petrilla (19 June 1734) document the purchase of crinolines, the tailoring of the German courtesan’s dress and an elegant dress with trimmings, as well as pearls, stockings, and

 While the discussion in this chapter is based on my “Antonio Sacco-Truffaldino e Antonio Saccoballerino: itinerari e peripezie nell’Europa del Settecento”, Studi goldoniani, 16, n.s., 8 (2019): 65–87, it includes additional evidence and corrects some errors concerning the chronology of the artists’ activities and their relocations from one country or theatre to another.  On Sacco’s career and activities, see Luigi Rasi, “Sacco, Giovanni Antonio”, in I comici italiani, 2 vols. (Florence: Francesco Lumachi, 1897–1905), 2: 460; Piermario Vescovo, “Sacco (Sacchi), Antonio”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 2017, vol. 89. Online at: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-sacco_% 28Dizionario-Biografico%29/. Accessed 4 May 2023; Lorenzo Colavecchia, “Sacco, Antonio”. On Sacco’s last years, see Giuletta Bazoli, “Antonio Sacchi: ultimo atto”, Rivista di letteratura teatrale, 3 (2020): 27–39.

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a pair of shoes for Antonia Franchi Sacco (indicated as “Nina Sacco”). For the comedy L’odiata (7 July 1734), Avolio reports that a Russian dress for Adriana Sacco (given as “Jana Sacco”) was purchased. For the performance of Alverado (25 August 1734), a pair of large gloves was bought for Antonio Sacco, while for the comedy L’insalata (8 September 1734), a ladder was specially made for him.5 Since the contract of the second Italian company expired at the end of 1734, but also due to the death of the capocomico Gaetano on 4 July 1734, the Sacco family left the St Petersburg court.6 Evidence of the Saccos’ departure comes from the records of the Customs Office’s Делa о даче паспортов для выезду из России 1735 года (“Acts on the Issuance of Passports for Departures from Russia in 1735”), preserved in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire in Moscow. Dated 31 December 1734, these documents confirm that a permit for departure was granted to Antonio Sacco (indicated as “Antonii Sak”) and his wife (See Fig. 13, Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Antonio Sacco with his wife): По указу Ея Императорского Величества самодержицы всероссïискои и протчая, и протчая, и протчая Отпущенъ из Санктъ Питербурха отъ двора Ея Императорского Величества итальянскои компанïи камедиантъ Антонии Сакъ з женои; того ради от Санктъ Питербурха лежащимъ трактомъ ко отечеству его въ россïискихъ городѣхъ и прочихъ мѣстахъ, кому гдѣ ведать поручено, оному Саку чинить свободнои пропускъ безъ всякого задержания; чего во вѣрное свидетельство данъ ему сеи пашпортъ Ея Императорского Величества ис придвонои канторы при подписанïи руки Ея Императорского Величества обѣръ гофъ маршала и орденов святаго апостола Андрея и Черного Орла и святаго Александра ковалера графа господина фон Левенфолда за печатью тои канторы. В Санктъ Питербурхе 1734 году декабря 31 дня.7 [By order of Her Imperial Majesty, Sovereign of All the Russias, etc., etc., etc. Permission to leave St Petersburg and the court of Her Imperial Majesty is granted to the actor of the Italian company Antonii Sak with his wife. For this purpose, on his way from St Peterburg to his homeland, authorities in Russian cities and other places must give the above mentioned Sak free passage without detaining or hindering him in any way. In confirmation of this, this passport has been issued to him by the Сourt Chancellery of Her Imperial Majesty, and signed by the hand of her Imperial Majesty’s Ober-Marshal and Knight of the Orders of St Andrew the Apostle,

 Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossii v epokhu v epochy Anny Ioannovny, 275–279; Pieroni, Attori italiani alla corte della zarina Anna Ioannovna, 336–341. With La lavandaia Avolio refers to the comedy Портомая дворянка / Die adliche Wäscherin (The Noble Washerwoman); with La nascita di Arlecchino to Рожденїе Арлекиново / Die Geburth des Arlequins (The Birth of Arlecchino); with L’odiata to Въ ненависть пришедшая Смералдїна / Die verhaßte Smeraldina (The Spiteful Smeraldina).  Sbornik Imperatorskogo Russkogo Istoricheskago Obshchestva [The Collected Works of the Imperial Russian Historical Society], 148 vols. (St Petersburg: Tipografiia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk, 1867–1916), 62 (1888), 744. Francesco Bartoli erroneously stated that the capocomico died in 1735, after the company had already left Russia: “fu in Moscovia al servizio della gran Zara, ed ivi pose fine a’ suoi giorni nel 1735” [“he was in Muscovy at the service of the great Tsarina where he ended his days in 1735”] (Notizie istoriche, 414).  AVPRI, f. 15, op. 4, d. 192 (1736 g.), l. 9.

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Black Eagle and St Aleksandr, Sir Count [Karl Gustav] von Levenvolde, under the seal of this Chancellery. St Petersburg, 31 December 1734]

Fig. 13: Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Antonio Sacco with his wife.

The same permission was granted to Adriana Sacco (indicated as “Andreian Sak”) and her mother and sister (See Fig. 14, Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Adriana Sacco with mother and sister):

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Fig. 14: Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Adriana Sacco with mother and sister. По указу Ея Императорского Величества самодержицы всероссïискои и протчая, и протчая, и протчая Отпущены из Санктъ Питербурха отъ двора Ея Императорского Величества итальянския компанïи камедианты Андреянъ Сакъ с матерью и сестрою да с служителемъ Петромъ Капракомъ. Того ради отъ Санктъ Питербурха лежащимъ трактомъ ко отечеству ихъ въ россïискихъ городѣхъ и прочихъ мѣстахъ, кому гдѣ вѣдать поручено, онымъ чинить свободныи пропускъ бѣз всякаго задержания; чего во вѣрное свидетельство данъ имъ сеи пашпортъ

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Ея Императорского Величества ис Придвонои канторы при подписанïи руки Ея Императорского Величества обѣръ гофъ маршала и орденовъ святого апостола Андрея и Черного Орла и святаго Александра ковалера графа господина фон Левенфолда за печатью тои канторы. В Cанктъ Питербурхе 1734 году декабря 31 дня.8 [By order of Her Imperial Majesty, Sovereign of All the Russias, etc., etc., etc. Permission to leave St Petersburg and the court of Her Imperial Majesty is granted to the actors of the Italian company Andreian Sak with her mother and sister, and the servant Piotr Kaprak. For this purpose, on their way from St Peterburg to their homeland, authorities in Russian cities and other places must give them free passage without detaining them or hindering them in any way. In confirmation of this, this passport has been issued to them by the Сourt Chancellery of Her Imperial Majesty, and signed by the hand of her Imperial Majesty’s Ober-Marshal and Knight of the Orders of St Andrew the Apostle, Black Eagle and St Aleksandr, Sir Count [Karl Gustav] von Levenvolde, under the seal of this Chancellery. St Petersburg, 31 December 1734]

Another passport was issued to a certain Giuseppe Sac or San with his wife and son (Fig. 15, Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Giuseppe Sacco with his wife and son): По указу Ея Императорского Величества самодержицы всероссïискои и протчая, и протчая, и протчая Отпущены из Санктъ Питербурха отъ двора Ея Императорского Величества италиянскои компанïи танцъ меистеръ Жузепъ Санъ [Сакъ?] з женою, с сыномъ, с слугою Жованом Николаемъ. Того ради от Санктъ Питербурха лежащимъ трактомъ по отечеству ихъ в россïискихъ городѣхъ и прочихъ мѣстахъ, кому гдѣ вѣдать поручено, онымъ чинить свободныи пропускъ безъ всякого задержания; чего во верное свидетельство данъ имъ сеи пашпортъ Ея Императорского Величества ис Придвонои канторы при подписанïи руки Ея Императорского Величества обѣръ гофъ маршала и орденов святого апостола Андрея и Черного Орла и святаго Александра ковалера графа господина фон Левенфолда за печатью тои канторы. В Санктъ Питербурхе 1734 году декабря 31 дня.9 [By order of Her Imperial Majesty, Sovereign of All the Russias, etc., etc., etc. Permission to leave St Petersburg and the court of Her Imperial Majesty is granted to the actor of the Italian company Giuseppe San [Sak?] with his wife and son, and the servant Zhovan Nicolai. For this purpose, on their way from St Peterburg to their homeland, authorities in Russian cities and other places must give them free passage without detaining them or hindering them in any way. In confirmation of this, this passport has been issued to them by the Сourt Chancellery of Her Imperial Majesty, and signed by the hand of her Imperial Majesty’s Ober-Marshal and Knight of the Orders of St. Andrew the Apostle, Black Eagle and St Aleksandr, Sir Count [Karl Gustav] von Levenvolde, under the seal of this Chancellery. St Peterburg, 31 December 1734]

Although the issuance of these passports makes it possible to determine how long the Saccos stayed in St Petersburg, the last document raises another question: Who is Giuseppe San or Sak? Liudmila Starikova read his name as “Giusen San”, and therefore  AVPRI, f. 15, op. 4, d. 192 (1736 g.), l. 8 retro.  AVPRI, f. 15, op. 4, d. 192 (1736 g.), l. 8.

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Fig. 15: Concession of the passport authorising the departure of Giuseppe Sacco with his wife and son.

assumed that he was a choreographer who was not related to the Sacco family.10 In fact, in the scribe’s handwriting, the form of the letter ‘к’ (k) used for the phonetic transliteration of the Italian letter ‘c’ in the surname Sacco is very similar to the form of the letter ‘н’ (n), the Italian ‘n’ in “San”. Fortunately, another report from Книга записи выдачи

 Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ Rossii v epokhy Anny Ioannovny, 28 and 259, no. 133.

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паспортов (“The Book of Records Related to the Issuance of Passports”), preserved in the same archive but in another bundle of documents, helps to solve the mystery of the identity of the passport holder named Giuseppe. This report confirms the issuance of three passports for Sacco family members in January 1735 (See Fig. 16, Note on the issue of passports to Giuseppe, Adriana, and Antonio Sacco dated 3 January 1735):

Fig. 16: Note on the issue of passports to Giuseppe, Adriana, and Antonio Sacco. Запечатаны три пашпорта за подписаниемъ таиного советника Господина Степанова данные по абшиту из придворнои Ея императорского Величества канторы, 1. итальянскои компаниi танцмеистеру Жузепе Санъ [Сакъ] съ женои, съ сыном, съ слугои Жованомъ Николаемъ; 2. jтальянскои компани кaмедианту Андреяну Сакъ с матерью и съ сестрои да съ служителемъ Петромъ Капракомъ; 3. итальянскои компаниi камедиантамъ Антониi Сакъ съ женои. Отпущены из Россиi чрезъ Ригу во отечество въ Ыталию.11 [Under the signature of the secret adviser Sir Stepanov three passports are sealed, having been issued by the Court Chancellery of her Imperial Majesty on their resignation, 1. for the ballet master Zhuzep San [Sak?] with his wife, son, and servant Zhovan Nikolai; 2. for the actress of the Italian company Andriana Sak with her mother and sister; 3. for the actor Antonio Sak with his wife. With permission to leave Russia via Riga and return to Italy, their native land.]

 AVPRI, f. 15, op. 4, d. 105 (1731 g.), l. 91.

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6.2 Stopover in Prague The fact that Antonio, Adriana, and Giuseppe are all mentioned together in a single document confirms that Giuseppe belonged to the Sacco family. Moreover, proof of kinship between the actor Antonio Sacco and the ballet master Giuseppe Sacco is conclusively provided by the libretto of the azzione musicale drammatica (musico-dramatic action) performed in Prague, where the Sacco family/company sojourned after leaving St Petersburg. The libretto by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli (1710–1763) of La pastorella regnante (The Reigning Shepherdess), staged in the spring of 1735 at the opera house owned by Count Franz Anton von Sporck (1662–1738), names Giuseppe Sacco as the choreographer of the dances: “Li balli, sono Inventati dal Sig. Giuseppe Sacchi & esequiti dalla Famiglia prodetta, all’attuale servizio di sua Maesta Czarina Autocratrice di tutte le Russie” [“The dances have been choreographed by Sir Giuseppe Sacchi and performed by members of his family currently in the service of Her Majesty the Tsarina, Autocrat of All the Russias”].12 (See Fig. 17, Title page of La pastorella regnante by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli and Fig. 18, Cast list in La pastorella regnante by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli).

Fig. 17: Title page of La pastorella regnante by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli.

 La pastorella regnante. Azzione musicale drammatica, fraposta alle comedie italiane, Che si rappresentano nel Teatro Di Sua Eccellenza Il Signor Francesco Antonio del S.R.I. Conte di Sporck. Nella Primavera dell’Anno 1735. Con Licenza de Superiori. WiederGedruckt in der Altstadt in der Caroliner Buchdruckerey [1735]. NRČR, Sign. UK 65 E 4435.

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Fig. 18: Cast list in La pastorella regnante by Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli.

While Daniel Freeman assumes on the basis of the libretto that Giuseppe Sacco was visiting Prague while was still employed by the Russian Empress, the abovementioned passport records confirm that the choreographer stopped over in the Bohemian city on his way back to Italy.13 The libretto thus clarifies the identity of the ballet master mentioned in the passport records: the choreographer Giuseppe Sacco. Given that at the time of his employment in St Petersburg and stopover in Prague Giuseppe’s family consisted only of his wife and young son, it is safe to assume that the “famiglia prodetta”, i.e. the family members who performed the ballets in La Pastorella regnante, also included Giuseppe’s other relatives, namely Antonio, Antonia, Adriana, and Anna Caterina Sacco. Indeed, Antonio Sacco’s application for permission to perform Italian comedies for one year at the Malá Strana Theatre, registered on 8 October 1735 at the Statthalterei, the highest civil authority in the province of Bohemia, confirms his presence in Prague. (Fig. 19, Registration of Antonio Sacco’s application for permission to perform Italian comedies in Prague): S pos. 8 obris. Antonio Sacco et Compagnie bitten in ansehen des mit denen Kleinseiths operisten respectu des Ball Hauß Theatri getroffenen Vergleichs umb consens wällische Comedien auf ein Jahr produciren zu können.14

 Daniel E. Freeman, The Opera Theatre of Franz Anton von Sporck in Prague (New York: Pendragon Press, 1992), 70.  SÚA, Fond KK, Sign. 927 (new sign. 1162), sub. Comoedianten, 8 Okt. 1735. Cfr. inoltre Adolf Scherl, Berufstheater in Prag, 1680–1739 (Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999), 127, 214; Freeman, The Opera Theatre of Franz Anton von Sporck in Prague, 70 n. 76.

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Fig. 19: Registration of Antonio Sacco’s application for permission to perform Italian comedies in Prague. [On 8 October, Antonio Sacco appeared in our presence, asking for a permit for himself and his company to perform Italian comedies for one year, on the basis of the same contractual arrangements that had (previously) been made with the musicians of the BallHaus Theatre in Kleinseite.]

Two hypotheses can be advanced regarding the identity of Giuseppe Sacco and his degree of kinship with Antonio Sacco. First, Giuseppe might well have been one of Gaetano Sacco’s brothers and therefore the son of Gennaro Sacco (? Malta–March 1712, Madrid),15 a famous Neapolitan Coviello, and Maddalena Sacco. In this case, Giuseppe would be Antonio’s uncle. The second, and less likely, hypothesis is that Giuseppe was Antonio’s elder brother and therefore another son of Gaetano of whom there had hitherto been no traces. (See Appendix 4, Antonio Sacco’s Family Tree). It is not yet possible to establish with certainty the degree of kinship between the actor and the choreographer. It is, however, possible to reconstruct Giuseppe Sacco’s immediate family on the basis of archival documents and extant libretti. (See Appendix 5, Giuseppe Sacco’s Family Tree). This family included his first-born son Giovanni Antonio Sacco (c. 1731–1796), sometimes referred to only as “Antonio” both in libretti and in the draft of his contract stipulated with the Royal Danish Theatre (which will

 Gennaro Sacco’s date of death is recorded in his will, which is published in Fernando Doménech Rico, Los Trufaldines y el Teatro de los Caños del Peral (La commedia dell’arte en la España de Felipe V) (Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 2007), 53.

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be discussed later in detail).16 Moreover, Giuseppe was the father of two daughters, Adriana (also Andrianna or Andreana, born in Brescia c. 1730) and Libera (born in Parma in 1738), as can be established from records filed in the Patriarchal Chancellery on the occasion of Adriana Sacco’s 1761 marriage to the buffo singer Giacomo Fiorini (1731–?) in Venice.17 I have proposed that [Giovanni] Antonio was Giuseppe’s firstborn son because he accompanied his father, the choreographer, to Russia. If my hypothesis is correct and Antonio is the elder brother of Adriana and Libera, then his 1731 date of birth as reported in the Dansk Biografisk Leksikon should be set back by a few years.18 Adriana’s examen matrimoniorum and the testimonies preserved in the Patriarchal Archive of Venice, as well as the catalogue of libretti compiled by Claudio Sartori, allow a partial reconstruction of Giuseppe Sacco’s career. Given that various libretti designate him as inventore or compositore of dances, it is safe to assume that Giuseppe was in charge of providing the choice of subject and the music for stagings of choreographed scenes in opera performances. The figure of the inventore, until the end of the eighteenth century when it was replaced by the term “choreographer”, usually coincided with the primo ballerino, the first dancer, who while performing the dances also supervised their overall execution.19 In fact, some of the libretti that designate Giuseppe as inventore de’ balli also include him in the list of dancers. Giuseppe specialized in danced interludes which were performed between the acts of opera seria productions and, beginning in the 1720s, gradually started replacing spoken interludes.20 Our first traces of Giuseppe are in 1731 in Brescia where, as hinted above, his daughter Adriana was born. After his return from Prague in 1738, we find him in Parma, where his third daughter Libera was born.21 In October 1740, Giuseppe and Adriana Sacco, who would have been approximately 10 years old, are included in the

 Formerly lacking (and just-discovered) evidence led scholars to believe that Giovanni Antonio was the son of the actor Antonio Sacco and Antonia Franchi. See Lorenzo Colavecchia’s entry “Sacco, Antonio”.  ASPV, Curia Patriarcale di Venezia, Curia sezione antica, Examinum matrimoniorum, 1761, R. 259, cc. 114–115.  See Robert Neiiendam’s entry “Antonio Sacco” in Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 3. udg., Gyldendal 1979–1984. Online at: https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Antonio_Sacco. Accessed 28 March 2023.  Maria Nevilla Massaro, “Il Ballo pantomimo al Teatro Nuovo di Padova (1751–1830),” Acta Musicologica, 57.2 (1985): 215–275 (esp. 224–225); Edward Nye, “Choreography is Narrative: The Programmes of the Eighteenth-Century Ballet d’Action,” Dance Research, 26.1 (2008): 42–59.  On the use of dance in Venetian opera, see Irene Alm, Wendy Heller, and Rebecca Harris-Warrick, “Winged Feet and Mute Eloquence: Dance in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera”, Cambridge Opera Journal, 15.3 (November 2003): 216–280. For a discussion of eighteenth-century conventions of danced intermezzi, see Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell, Opera and Ballet at the Regio Ducal Teatro of Milan, 1771–1776: A Musical and Social History, doctoral thesis, University of California Berkeley, 1979, 613–618.  ASPV, Curia Patriarcale di Venezia, Curia sezione antica, Examinum matrimoniorum, 1761, R. 259, c. 115.

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list of dancers for Il Bajazet, performed at the Teatro Solerio d’Alessandria. In 1741 the choreographer travelled to Crema, as can be gathered from the libretto for Arsace, which designates Giuseppe Sacco as the ballet master.22 In 1743 Giuseppe and Adriana were in Vicenza, as confirmed by the libretto for La Finta cameriera, an opera performed at the Nuovo Teatro delle Grazie.23 During the Carnival of 1743, Giuseppe was in Verona, according to extant libretti for Il Ciro riconosciuto and I fratelli riconosciuti performed at the Teatro dell’Accademia Filarmonica.24 The choreographer then returned to Verona in 1744 to oversee the ballets for Siroe and Tigrane.25 The last libretto attesting to dances choreographed by Giuseppe Sacco is La finta schiava, the dramma per musica performed at Venice’s Teatro Sant’Angelo for the 1744 Ascension celebrations.26 The following year Giuseppe took up permanent residence in Venice, as can be deduced from his daughter Adriana’s statement in the examen matrimoniorum that she had lived in Venice since she was fourteen, i.e. since 1745.27 In 1761, when Adriana married, the choreographer was already deceased as he is given as “quondam Giuseppe Sacco” (“deceased”) in the marriage certificate.28

6.3 The Return to Italy To come back to Giuseppe’s more famous relative, Antonio Sacco the Truffaldino specialist, his own travels after the stopover in Prague are more fully documented. In 1738, Antonio returned to Italy, probably with Giuseppe, where they parted ways. While the choreographer went to Parma, the actor returned to Venice, where he found employment at the Teatro San Samuele. His return is recounted by no less than Goldoni: “molto più si rinforzò la Compagnia l’anno seguente, per la venuta in Italia ed in quel Teatro della famiglia Sacchi, che ritornava dalla Russia” [“the following year, the company was greatly strengthened by the arrival in Italy of the Sacchi family, who joined the Theatre after returning from Russia”].29 In 1742 Antonio and his family members moved to the Teatro Sant’Angelo, and in October 1751 to the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo. In 1753 the Saccos travelled to Portugal, returning to Italy in the spring or summer of 1756 due to the great earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755. Antonio Sacco’s movements between

 Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa, 1 (1990): 302–303 no. 2868.  Sartori, 3 (1991): 178, no. 10424.  Sartori, 2 (1990): 136, no. 5701 and 3 (1991): 238, no. 11024.  Sartori, 5 (1992): 227, no. 22071 and Sartori, 5 (1992): 326, no. 23132.  Sartori, 3 (1991): 190, no. 10544; Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del Settecento, 151.  ASPV, Curia Patriarcale di Venezia, Curia sezione antica, Examinum matrimoniorum, 1761, R. 259, cc. 114–115.  ASPV, Curia Patriarcale di Venezia, Registro matrimoni della Parrocchia di San Benedetto, reg. II (1761), p. 247.  Goldoni, Memorie italiane, 263.

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different Venetian theatres and countries are therefore sufficiently well documented.30 However, the presence in St Petersburg of Italian dancers named Antonio, Libera, and Adriana Sacco, who were engaged in theatre manager Giovanni Battista Locatelli’s company from 1758 to 1761, has led to confusion about the identities and roles of the actor and the dancer of the same name and their respective sisters. The conflation of the two different Sacco’s had already begun with Giuseppe Ortolani, the editor of Goldoni’s complete works for the editions published by the Municipio di Venezia (1907–1936) and by Mondadori (1935–1956). In his commentaries for both editions, Ortolani identifies Antonio-Truffaldino as the dancer who appeared in the production of Goldoni’s Portentosi effetti della madre natura (The Prodigous Effects of Mother Nature), the opera giocosa performed at the Teatro San Samuele in 1752, which is precisely when the Saccos were known to be working at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo.31 Beginning with Abram Gozenpud in 1959, various scholars have pointed out that the hypothesis of the actor’s subsequent return to Russia is uncorroborated by any evidence.32 But precisely because the absence of evidence provides no evidence of absence, modern critics up to our own day have continued to confuse the identities of the two different theatre professionals.33 The remainder of this chapter will explore new archival evidence in order to reconstruct the professional engagements, fields of expertise, and migrations across Europe of the actor and the ballet master Sacco, providing conclusive proof of distinct career paths for two homonymous artists.

 Scannapieco, Comici & Poeti. Attori e autori nel teatro italiano del Settecento (Venice: Marsilio, 2019), 155–161.  Ortolani, Nota to I portentosi effetti della madre natura, in Goldoni, TO, 10: 1315: “Nell’elenco poi dei ballerini ci colpisce il nome d’Antonio Sacchi, il celebre Truffaldino che nella primavera del ’53 s’imbarcava per il Portogallo, e quello di Adriana, sua sorella, famosa Smeraldina” [“In the list of dancers, we are struck by the name of Antonio Sacchi, the celebrated Truffaldino, who left for Portugal in the spring of 1753, and that of Adriana, his sister, the famous Smeraldina”]. See also Opere complete di Carlo Goldoni, edite dal Municipio di Venezia nel II centenario della nascita, ed. by Giuseppe Ortolani, 36 vols. (Venice: Istituto Veneto di Arti Grafiche, 1907–1936), 28 (1930), 569. On Ortolani’s notes see Vescovo’s afterword “Ballando con i Sacco. Postilla” to my “Antonio Sacco-Truffaldino e Antonio Sacco-ballerino”, 84–85.  Gozenpud, Muzykal’nyi teatr v Rossii, 78 n; Scannapieco, “Noterelle gozziane (‘in margine’ al teatro di Antonio Sacco e di Carlo Gozzi): Aggiuntavi qualche schermaglia”, Studi goldoniani, 11, n.s., 3 (2014): 101–123 (102–103); Marialuisa Ferrazzi “Due baletmejstery italiani alla corte di Anna Ioannovna e di Elisabetta Petrovna: Antonio Rinaldi (Fusano) e Giovanni Antonio Sacco”, Studi goldoniani, 17, n.s., 9 (2020): 67–101 (93–95).  Bazoli, L’orditura e la truppa, 199; Colavecchia “Sacco, Antonio”; Galina Nikolaevna Dobrovol’skaia, “Сакко (Sacco)”, in Russkii balet. Entsiklopedia [Russian Ballet. Encyclopedia], ed. by E. P. Belova et al. (Moscow: Bolshaia Rossiiskaia Entsiklopedia, 1997), online at: https://www.booksite.ru/localtxt/rus/sky/ bal/let/64.htm. Accessed 7 February 2023; Natal’ia Nikolaevna Zozulina, “Sacco”, in Peterburgskii balet: Tri veka: Khronika [St Petersburg Ballet: Three Centuries: A Chronicle], 6 vols. (St Petersburg: Akademiia russkogo baleta im. A. Ia. Vaganovoi, 2014–2016), 1 (2014): 269.

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6.4 St Petersburg Again Dramatist, librettist, and entrepreneur Giovanni Battista Locatelli (1713–after 1790) was active in Prague and north-eastern Germany between 1744 and 1755, first as a versifier for the troupe of Pietro Mingotti (1702–1759) and subsequently for his own company.34 In the autumn of 1757 Locatelli accepted an invitation from Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and moved to Russia to escape both his debts with Prague authorities and the beginning of the Seven Years’ War, which prevented him from working in Dresden and Leipzig, two of the company’s most profitable theatrical centres. The customs register recording the arrival of part of his company in St Petersburg on 16 September 1757 contains a list of actors and members of the corps de ballet who travelled with the impresario: Государственной Коллегии Иностранных дел из Лифляндской Генерал Губернской канцелярии Репорт Сего сентября 15 дня проехали чрез Ригу из за границы в Санктпетербург: прибывшей из Варшавы c паспортом, от пребывающаго при королевском Полском и Кур Саксонском дворе господина действителнаго статскаго советника и чрезвычайного посланника Гроса, комической оперы содержатель Локателли и при нем актриса Фаринела с мужем и з дочерью, девица Адриана Сако, девица ж Либера Сако, актер Сако з женой, актриса Коста с мужем и з дочерью, девица Вигна с отцом и матерью, девица Лазари, актер Биасути и актер же Манфредини с служителницею Юлианою и с служителем Яганом Андреасом Бемом, да конюхи Фридрих Фенгель, Гатцен Брилински, Георги Церн и Михель Осен; да с оным содержателем прибыл сюда той же оперы актер Делюци, который вышеписанного ж числа здесь заболел и остался до выздоровления в Риге с служитетелем Иоганом Готфридом Фрейнером [. . .] Федор Воейков Секретарь Тимофей Суровцов Сентября 16 дня Рига Получен в 21 день сентября 175735

 Tomilav Volek, “Locatelli”, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. by Stanley Sadie, 4 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1997), 2: 1300–1301; Milada Jonášová, “Giovanni Battista Locatelli,” in Theater in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien. Von den Anfängen bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts. Ein Lexikon, ed. by Alena Jakubcová and Matthias J. Pernerstorfer (Vienna: OAW, 2013), 394–399; Manuel Bärwald, Italienische Oper in Leipzig (1744–1756), 2 vols. (Beeskow: Ortus, 2016), 1: 242–268.  Quoted from Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ v Rossii v epokhy Elizavety Petrovny. Dokumental’naia khronika, 1751–1761, Vypusk 3, kniga 1 (Moscow: Nauka, 2011), 662–663, no. 1350. The transcription of the records given by Starikova has been modernized.

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[State Collegium of Foreign Affairs from the Livonian Governor General’s Office Report On this day, 1 September, traveling from Riga to St Petersburg were: a comic opera director Locatelli, having previously come from Warsaw with a passport issued by Sir and Advisor of the State [Heinrich Gottried] Groß, Extraordinary Envoy at the Royal Court of Saxony and Constantinople, and with him an actress Farinella [Maria Camati] with her husband and daughter, the maid Adriana Sacco and the maid Libera Sacco, the actor36 Sacco and his wife, the actress [Rosa] Costa and her husband and daughter, the maid Vigna [Giovanna Vigna] and her father and mother, the maid Lazzari, the actor Biasuti and the actor [Giuseppe] Manfredini with the maid Giuliana and the servant Iagan Andreas Bem, and the stablemen Friedrich Fengel, Hatzen Brilinskii, Georgi Tsern, and Michael Osen; Also with this director was the actor Deluzzi [?Carlo Belluzzi], who fell ill here and remained in Riga with the servant Johan Gottfried Freiner until he recovered [. . .]. Fiodor Voeikov. Secretary Timofei Surovtsov 16 September Riga Received 21 September 1757]

Antonio Sacco had already been part of Locatelli’s corps of dancers beginning in autumn 1757 (and not from 1758 as Mooser assumed).37 Recruited as a dancer, he also acted as ballet master while the court was waiting for the arrival of Franz Anton Christoph Hilverding (1710–1768, in Russia from 1759 to 1764), the Viennese choreographer who was hired to replace Antonio Rinaldi.38 In fact, for the opening of the season on 3 December 1757, Sacco choreographed two ballets for Locatelli’s original work Il retiro degli dei / Убѣжище боговъ. Дѣйствiе драмматическое, представленое передъ балетомъ боговъ морскихъ (The Retreat of the Gods. A dramatic action with a ballet of sea gods; set to music by Francesco Zoppis). Sacco oversaw many danced and pantomimed interludes which Locatelli included in opere buffe and serie performances. For the 1758 Carnival, he created Il ballo da Inglesi (The Ballet in English Style) placed at the end of Act II of Lo speziale (The Apothecary, Goldoni–Domenico Fischietti). In September 1758 he staged Il ballo dell’addio delle matelotti (The Ballet of the Seamen’s Farewell) placed at the end of the Act II of Il filosofo di campagna (The Country Philosopher, Goldoni–Baldassare Galuppi). In the summer of the same year, he created Il ballo delle Amazzoni vittoriose (The Ballet of the Triumphant Amazons), placed at the end of the Act II of Il mondo della luna (The World on the Moon, Goldoni–Baldassare Galuppi). In the autumn of 1758,

 The word “actor” is to be understood in this context in the broadest sense of a performer belonging to the theatrical profession and not as a distinction between actors of spoken-word dramas and singers or dancers. Indeed, the castrato singer Giuseppe Manfredini is also defined in the report as an actor.  Mooser, Annales de la musique, 290. See Appendix 6 for the composition of Locatelli’s troupe.  On ballet at the Russian court and its relationship to European culture, see Aleksandra Maksimova, Russkii baletnyi teatr Ekaterininskikh vremen. Rossiia-Zapad [Russian Ballet Theatre at the Time of Catherine the Great. Russia-West] (Moscow: Kompositor, 2010).

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Sacco choreographed Il ballo di Psiche (Psyche’s Ballet) and Il ballo degli homini selvatici (The Ballet of the Wild Men) for La cascina (The Farmstead, Goldoni–Giuseppe Scolari), as well as Il balletto eroico (The Heroic Ballet) and Il ritorno dei marinai (The Return of the Seamen) for La Didone abbandonata (Metastasio–Francesco Zoppis).39 During his tenure in St Petersburg, Sacco also created several other independent ballets that were not part of larger opera productions. Among these were Amore e Psiche (Cupid and Psyche), Le feste di Cleopatra (Cleopatra’s Festivities), Le dame del serraglio (The Ladies of Seraglio), Apollo e Dafne (Apollo and Dafne), Le Pandore (Pandoras), and La fiera di Londra o il giardino dei divertimenti (The London Fair, or Vauxhall).40 (See Appendix 7, Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets in St Petersburg, 1757–1761). A glance at the titles of Sacco’s ballets, which is largely all that remains of his work at the Russian court, reveals that, along with acquainting Russian spectators with opera buffa and Goldoni’s drammi per musica, Locatelli’s troupe also imported new forms of staged dance, characterized by an extraordinary variety of subject, style, and tone.41 Indeed, according to Jacob von Stählin, the first historian of Russian theatre, “foreign ministers claimed that nothing in Europe could be found to better these ballets, and that Sacco’s productions could hold their own with the best ballets performed in Italy or Paris”.42 The name of the choreographer’s wife, Anna Conti de Sales – that is, a different person from Antonia Franchi, the wife of the actor Sacco – is Exhibit “A” that the identities of the dancing master and the actor Sacco do not coincide. By Mooser’s account, Anna Conti de Sales was popular on Venetian stages in 1746–1757.43 In the 1747/1748 and 1753/1754 seasons she is named as dancer in the cast lists of Ezio, Demetrio, and Demofoonte performed in Turin.44 In 1751 she was in Lucca, as the libretto of Semiramide lists her among the dancers, together with Adriana and Libera Sacco.45 In 1757

 Mooser, Annales de la musique, 295–303.  Jakob von Stählin, “Nachrichten von der Tanzkunst und Balleten in Russland,” in Beilagen zum neuveränderten Russland, ed. by August Ludwig Schlözer, 2 vols. (Riga-Mietau-Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1769–1770), 2: 17–18.  It seems that Sacco took mythological and historical themes from the established repertoire for his ballets and that they did not play a critical role in advancing the action. Furthermore, some ballets subjects, such as the balli of peasants, sailors, fishermen, guards, or soldiers, were already wellestablished in the dances performed between the acts of Venetian opera. Cf. Alm, Heller, and HarrisWarrick, “Winged Feet and Mute Eloquence”, 242.  Stählin, “Nachrichten von der Tanzkunst und Balleten”, 17.  Mooser, Annales de la musique, 289. Anna Conti’s de Sales presence in the corps of dancers is attested by the extant libretti of Alcibiade (music by Giuseppe Carcani), Autumn 1746, Catone in Utica (Leonardo Vinci–Pietro Metastasio), and Caio Marzio Coriolano, both performed at the Teatro San Cassiano, Carnival 1747.  Marie-Thérèse Bouquet, Il teatro di corte: dalle origini al 1788, vol. 1 of Storia del Teatro Regio di Torino, ed. by Alberto Basso (Turin: Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, 1976), 279–280 and 290–291.  Vincenzo Turchi and Pietro Metastasio, Semiramide. Dramma per musica del signor Pietro Metastasio da rappresentarsi nel teatro di Lucca Nell’Autunno dell’Anno 1751 (Lucca: Per Filippo Maria Benedini, 1751). Online at: https://www.loc.gov/item/2010665073/. Accessed 8 February 2023.

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Anna Conti de Sales was hired by Locatelli to work for him in St Petersburg, where she travelled with her husband and his two sisters, entering the following year in the service of the Grand Duke Piotr Fiodorovich (the future Emperor Peter III, 1728–1762) and dancing for him at the theatre located in the imperial villa in Oranienbaum. After Locatelli’s company went bankrupt, Anna Conti de Sales left Russia in December 1761, without her husband, to continue her career in Venice46 (where she was nicknamed La Russienne, due, of course, to her stay in Russia), and then in Prague before returning once again to Venice.47 Exhibit “B” that the actor and the dancer are two different artists is the fact that Libera Sacco was the ballet master’s sister and not his mother as in the case of the actor Sacco. At the time of her stay in Russia, Libera was still unmarried (customs records list her marital status as “maid”) and aged about twenty.48 In fact, the first sonnet in Russian literature containing praises of Libera Sacco’s youth and beauty was published in February 1759 in Сочинения и переводы, к пользе и увеселению служащия (Compositions and Translations for Use and Amusement).49 This anonymous sonnet in honor of the pretty dancer was not well-received at the court and was cut from the pages of the monthly magazine, which had already been printed and distributed.50 The reason for the unfortunate reception of this harmless sonnet is that the beauty of the dancer aroused the jealousy of the Empress herself. Indeed, Elizabeth Petrovna encouraged and personally supervised various social events – at masquerades, public festivities, and of course at the theatre – and would not have tolerated anyone who dared to challenge her monopoly in this field. The third piece of evidence that the dancer and the actor Antonio Sacco are not the same person lies in the fact that the latter, after his return from Portugal, travelled to Milan (for the spring season of 1757), Turin (for the summer and autumn seasons of 1757) and Genoa (for the 1757/1758 Carnival season). It is also known that he offered his services to Ferdinand IV of Naples on 20 October 1759, exactly when his relative of the same name was still in St Petersburg.51 In fact, passports for Adriana and Libera Sacco

 Cf. Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ v Rossii v epokhy Elizavety Petrovny, Vypusk 3, kniga 1, 539–541, nos. 1191/a, 1191/b, and 1192/a. Oddly enough, the name of Anna Conti de Sales is indicated in the documents transcribed by Starikova as “Anna Gaetano Sacco”.  Mooser, Annales de la musique, 289.  The age and place of birth of the dancer can be established from the statements signed by witnesses at her sister Adriana’s wedding to Giacomo Fiorini, also an actor and buffo singer previously engaged in Locatelli’s troupe in Moscow. In her statement, Libera declared that she was born in Parma, was 23 years old, and had been living in Venice for three months. See the Examinum matrimoniorum quoted above.  Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri imperatritse Elizavete Petrovne, 118–119.  Mooser, Annales de la musique, 291.  Antonio Sacco’s letter to the King Ferdinand IV is published in the first edition of Benedetto Croce, Teatri di Napoli (Naples: Pierro, 1891), 489–491. See also Vescovo, “Antonio Sacco”, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 89, 2017; Bazoli, L’orditura e la truppa, 203.

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were issued on 5 June 1760, and the dancers left the country on 22 June 1760.52 Antonio’s wife left in December 1761, as can be seen from the advertisement published in the column “Об отъезжающих из Петербурга” (“Persons Leaving St Petersburg”), published in The News of St Petersburg newspaper on 21 December 1761.53 At this point it seems appropriate to attempt a reconstruction of the ballerino Sacco’s professional activities and repertoire, albeit in incomplete form and, hopefully, subject to further additions. Giovanni Antonio’s first recorded professional appearance after returning with his father to Italy from the Russian-Bohemian tournée dates to 1740 when, while still a child, he performed in Goldoni’s Osmano re di Tunisi (Osmano, King of Tunisia) at Venice’s Teatro San Samuele. The performance programme of the now lost Goldonian tragicomedy lists Antonia and Antonio Sacco, Francesca Sacco, Adriana Sacco Lombardi, Anna Sacco, and Giovanni Antonio Sacco, who played the part of Osmino, son of Osmano.54 In the summer of 1750, the dancer had a walkon role in the performance of La vittoria di Imeneo at the Teatro Reggio in Turin.55 In the 1750/1751 season his name, this time alongside Adriana and Libera, appears in the cast lists for Farnace and Dario, both performed at the Teatro Reggio in Turin.56 The next year, “Il Sig. Gio: Antonio Sacco Figlio del Sig. Giuseppe” [“Sir Giovanni Antonio Sacco, son of Sir Giuseppe”] appears, as mentioned above, in the list of dancers in the Portentosi effetti della madre natura (Goldoni–Giuseppe Scarlatti), a remake of Calderón’s La vida es sueño, performed on 11 November 1752 at the Teatro San Samuele.57 In the autumn of 1753, Giovanni Antonio was engaged as ballet master for the production of Cajo Mario at the theatre of Casale di Monferrato, for the libretto’s list of dancers includes both Antonio and his sisters.58 For the Carnival of 1754, he was the second dancer in the ballets placed between the acts of Metastasio’s Siroe, set to music by Baldassare Galuppi and performed at the Teatro di Torre Argentina in Rome.59 The libretto of Attalo staged in Padua in June 1755 registers the presence of Giovanni Antonio and Adriana Sacco as the primi ballerini.60 In the 1756 Carnival season Antonio  Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ v Rossii v epokhu Elizavety Petrovny, Vypusk 3, kniga 1, 685–686, nos. 1377/a and 1377/b.  Mooser, Annales de la musique, 290 n. 5.  The performance programme of Goldoni’s tragicomedy was discovered by Scannapieco in BNM, “Sezione Drammatica”, Dramm. 1056. See her “Alla ricerca di un Goldoni perduto: Osmano re di Tunisi”, Quaderni veneti, 20 (1994): 9–56.  See Bouquet, Il teatro di corte: dalle origini al 1788, 285.  See Ferrazzi, “Due baletmejstery italiani”, 83.  Goldoni, Portentosi effetti della madre natura, in TO, 10: 503.  Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa, 2 (1990): 16, no. 4447.  For an analysis of the ballets performed as part of the Siroe production, see Flavia Pappacena, “Per una storia della danza. Danza italiana e/o francese? Ripensare il Settecento”, Acting Archives Review, 5.9 (2015): 84–156 (97–98).  Attalo, dramma per musica da rappresentarsi nel nuovo Teatro di Padova per la solita fiera di giugno dell’anno 1755. Dedicato a S.E. il N.H. Francesco Molin degnissimo podestà e vice capitanio (Venice: Fenzo, 1755). I-Mb, RACC. DRAM. 4134, IT–MI0185.

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returned to the Teatro Regio in Turin and was engaged as the ballerino grottesco in the productions of Ricimero and Solimano.61 In 1757 Giovanni Antonio was in Venice, having been recruited by the impresario Locatelli. Contrary to Mooser’s assertion, it does not seem that Giovanni Antonio returned to Venice after the bankruptcy of Locatelli’s company, or at least not directly.62 All evidence suggests that the choreographer remained in northern Europe in search of another engagement that paid as well as his services to the Russian court. In fact, on 26 November 1761, Sacco applied for permission to return to Italy, but on 2 March he was still in Russia, stating that he was unable to leave due to his illness and that now wished to go to Sweden instead. After the new passport was issued, Sacco left for Stockholm on 11 March, accompanied by Danish choreographer Erasmus Zolberg.63 In August 1762 Sacco returned to St Petersburg once more, claiming he needed to collect some debts. On 12 August a new permit to leave Russia was issued, and Sacco again left for the Swedish capital.64 Marialuisa Ferrazzi is right to assume that Sacco probably wanted to go to Denmark from the beginning and Sweden was only the first stop on this route.65 In fact, in 1762, as Peter III was preparing an attack on Frederick V (r. 1746–1766), King of Denmark and Norway, to regain his formerly held lands of the Duchy of Holstein, it would have been rather impossible for Sacco to travel to Denmark directly.

6.5 Copenhagen and Venice Giovanni Antonio Sacco was finally able to get to Denmark, and from 1763 we find him employed as the King’s ballet master at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.66 Proof of this can be found in a letter written by Giuseppe Sarti (1729–1802), in which the composer, then-director of Copenhagen’s first permanent opera house, informs the theatre management of his negotiations with Sacco, culminating in the choreographer’s

 See Pappacena, “Per una storia della danza”, 126–129; Ferrazzi, “Due baletmejstery italiani”, 83–84.  Mooser, Annales de la musique, 290: “En 1761, [. . .] le chorégraphe italien repartit, avec les siens, pour Venise où il travailla jusqu’en 1772, pour passer ensuite au service de la cour palatine de HesseCassel” [“In 1761, the Italian choreographer went with his family to Venice, where he was active until 1772, when he entered the service of the Palatine court of Hessen-Kassel”].  Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ v Rossii v epokhy Elizavety Petrovny, Vypusk 3, kniga 1, 550–551, nos. 1206/b and 1207.  Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ v Rossii v epokhy Elizavety Petrovny, Vypusk 3, kniga 1, 552–554, nos. 1208/a, 1208b, and 1208/v.  Ferrazzi, “Due baletmejstery italiani”, 90–91.  Arthur Aumont, “Sacco, Antonio”, in Dansk Biografisk Lexikon, ed. by Carl Frederick Bricka, 19 vols. (Kjøbenhavn, Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1887–1905), 14: 546–547. Online at: http://rune berg.org/dbl/. Accessed 28 March 2023.

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employment.67 Sarti enclosed a draft of Sacco’s contract with his letter, which has now been discovered in the Danish National Archive in Copenhagen.68 This letter, transcribed and published for the first time in Appendix 8, allows us a glimpse into how the ballet master was viewed by his contemporaries and provides a few curious details about Sacco’s convictions in terms of repertoire. Sarti’s letter includes the first and so far only surviving description of the dancing master’s personality: “Je l’ai trouvé à ce qu il me semble fort raisonable, prêt à tout faire, sans ambitions affectée, sçachant vivre, et connoissant le monde” [“I found him very reasonable, accommodating, without any affected ambitions, fully versed in the ways of life and the ways of the world”]. The composer emphasizes the truly cosmopolitan nature of Sacco’s stage experience by the time he reached Copenhagen. The terms of the contract awarded Sacco a salary of 2,000 rigsdaler per year for the management of the dance troupe. Interestingly, Sarti gave his own negotiating skills the credit for persuading the maître de ballets to accept such a modest compensation, as the latter was accustomed to the salaries of the Russia Empire, a veritable El Dorado for travelling artists: La demande de bouche etoit plus forte que cela, comme l’on peut immaginer d’un homme qui a joui des appointements de Russie; mais je l’ai reduit a ne demander que simplement le moins qu il pouvoit, et d’y comprendre logement, et tout pour moindre embarras pour la Direction. [His verbal request was higher than this, as can be imagined from a man who has received engagements in Russia; but I persuaded him to ask for as little as he could, including lodging and all other expenses, in order to embarrass the Management as little as possible.]

As for the repertoire, the contract, which obliged Sacco to prepare ballets for comedies as well as for opere serie and buffe, testifies to the astonishing versatility of the Italian dancing master. Concerning Sacco’s dramaturgical vision, Sarti wrote that during negotiations the choreographer souhaiteroit fort de faire ses ballets comme il a fait ailleurs, et comme l’on fait à present à toutes les courts; c’est que dépuis le commencements jusque à la fin le ballet represente quelque chose de suivi, dont les padedeuse, pasdetrois etc: ont tous trait à l’intrigue, de façon que toutes les parties forment un enchainement neccessaire au tout. [emphasized that he would like to compose his ballets as he has done before elsewhere, and as is done at present in courts everywhere; that is, that the ballet, from the beginning to the end,

 On Sarti’s stay in Denmark (1753–1775) and the first Italian opera season at the permanent theatre in Copenhagen (1761–1762) under the direction of the Italian composer, see Christine Jeanneret, “Making Opera in Migration: Giuseppe Sarti’s Danish Recipe for Italian Opera”, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, 43 (2018), 111–133; “Costumes and Cosmopolitanism: Italian Opera in the North”, Cambridge Opera Journal, 32.1 (2020): 27–51; and “Made in Italy, Tailored for the Danes: Giuseppe Sarti and Italian Opera in Copenhagen”, Music & Letters, 102.2 (2021): 1–23.  RA, Det Kongelige Teater og Kapel, 1752–1756, Breve resolutioner og lignende, Envelop 220 [hereafter RA Breve 220], Giuseppe Sarti’s letter to the opera management in Copenhagen and the draft of Antonio Sacco’s contract. I thank Christine Jeanneret for sharing this document with me.

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should represent something consistent with the rest, and that the padedeuse, pasdetrois, etc. should all be in line with the main action, so that all the parts are a necessary consequence of the whole.]

Choreography for Sacco was therefore dramatic narrative reinforced by pantomimic gesture. In fact, according to Thomas Overskou, the nineteenth-century Danish actor and theatre historian, Sacco was the first dancing master in Denmark to transform ballet into a choreographed presentation with coherent dramatic development, in which scenes and dances were connected with thematic through-lines such as jealousy, love, or madness. Overskou maintained that Sacco var ingen udmærket Dandser, men en meget dannet ung Mand, der, i samme Skole som Galeotti og ved siden af ham, havde i Italien udviklet et Compositionstalent, hvorved han stod langt over de mange Dandsere, som dengang, uden Fagkundskab eller mindste Begreb om et dramatisk Værks Natur og Indret ning, gave sig af med at være Balletmestere, idet de, af hvad der faldt dem ind eller hvad de havde jeet i Andres Balletter, sammenmængede endeel Scener og Dandse, som vare uden al indre Forbindelse.69 [Sacco was not an excellent dancer, but a very educated young man, who, from the same school as Galeotti, and along with him, had developed in Italy a talent for composition, which placed him far above the many dancers who, without the slightest knowledge or comprehension of the nature and arrangement of a dramatic work, would go on to become ballet-masters, combining anything that happens to occur to them with things they have seen in the ballets of others, so that several scenes and dances are without any internal connection.]

Arthur Aumont, the nineteenth-century Danish biographer, claims that Sacco showed extraordinary imagination in the composition of dances and a fondness for tableaux vivants.70 Robert Neiiendam, in the entry of the more recent Dansk Biografisk Leksikon which however partly draws on Overskou’s work, adds that Sacco’s dramaturgy was inspired by the ballet d’actions of Jean-George Noverre (1727–1810) and Gasparo Angiolini (1731–1803), which came into being in the 1750s and 1760s and was a curious hybrid of dance, mime, and music.71 He adds that during rehearsals this passionate Italian man jumped around the dancers and demonstrated their postures and gestures for them. It can be assumed that Sacco’s aim was to dignify the art of dance and the

 Thomas Overskou, Den danske skueplads, i dens Histoirie fra de første Spor af danske Skuespil indtil vor Tid [The Danish Stage, in its History from the First Traces of Danish Plays to the Present Time], 7 vols. (Kjøbenhavn: Samfundet til den danke Literaturs Fremme, 1854–1876), 2 (1856): 293.  Arthur Aumont, “Sacco, Antonio”.  See Robert Neiiendam’s entry “Antonio Sacco”. Sacco learned ballet technique mainly from the dancing master and ballet reformer Vincenzo Galeotti (1733–1813), but apparently both in Denmark and, later, in Poland he was regarded as Noverre’s pupil. See Karyna Wierzbicka-Michalska, “Balety z akcją w teatrze warszawskim za Stanisława Augusta” [Ballet d’action in the Warsaw Theatre During the Reign of Stanisław August], in Teatr Narodowy w dobie oświecenia: Księga pamiątkowa sesji poświęconej 200-leciu Teatru Narodowego, ed. by Ewa Heise and Karyna Wierzbicka-Michalska (Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich, 1967), 188–206 (196–197).

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profession of the ballet master at the same time. In fact, thanks to his exceptional artistic skills and talents, the choreographer gained access to Danish high society, which appreciated the tenor voice he often used to accompany the staging of his ballets.72 The 1763 season in Copenhagen opened with Sacco’s ballet De ved en Skovhex hjulpne Elskende (The Lovers Helped by a Wood Sourceress, 30 September). According to the Dansk Forfatterleksikon. Det kongelige Teaters repertoire (Danish Royal Theatre Repertoire), the ballet’s premiere was followed by eight further performances in the 1763 season and eleven in the 1764 season, all to great acclaim from the audience. (See Appendix 9, Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets at the Danish Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, 1763–1767 and 1785–1786). Sacco was the first choreographer to stage a ballet based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, entitled Kjærlighed stærkere end Døden (Love Stronger than Death, 26 September 1764). In the first two years of his engagement Sacco also composed ballets for Sarti’s operas Cesare in Egitto (Autumn 1763),73 Il gran Tamerlano (9 February 1764),74 and the pastoral drama Il naufragio di Cipro (Carnival 1764).75 In the 1765 and 1766 seasons, the number of new ballets declined significantly (six productions in 1765 and three in 1766), resulting in only one ballet staged in 1767. This decline was not due to Sacco’s lack of invention, but to the budgetary constraints of the Danish Royal Theatre.76 The high production costs and Sacco’s failure to keep his promise to Sarti to limit staging expenses led to his dismissal at the end of the 1766/1767 season.77  On the history of ballet in Copenhagen, both before and after Sacco’s presence in Denmark, see at least: Jørgen Jersild, “Le ballet d’action italien du 18e siècle au Danemark. Versions danoises des ballets de Gluck: Don Juan et L’Orphelin de la Chine”, Acta Musicologica, 14 (January–December 1942): 74–93; Knud Arne Jürgensen, “Il balletto italiano nella Copenhagen del secolo XVIII”, in La danza italiana in Europa nel Settecento, ed. by José Sasportes (Rome: Bulzoni, 2011), 11–44; Bent Holm, “Between Romanticism and Reality: Dancing Danish Turks (1764–1870)”, in Gluck and the Turkish Subject in Ballet and Dance, vol. 5 of Ottoman Empire and European Theatre, Ottomania 8 (Vienna: Hollitzer, 2019), 199–225.  Giuseppe Sarti, Cesare in Egitto. Dramma per musica da rappresentarsi sul regio teatro danese, l’autunno 1763 (Kiøbenhavn: Trykt hos Lars Nielsen Svare, [1763]).  Giuseppe Sarti, Giuseppe Mazzioli, Il Gran Tamerlano. Tragedia per musica, da rappresentarsi sul Regio teatro danese nel principio dell’anno 1764 (Kiøbenhavn: Trykt hos Lars Nielsen Svare, 1764).  Giuseppe Sarti, Pietro Antonio Zani, Il naufragio di Cipro. Dramma pastorale (Kiøbenhavn: Trykt hos Lars Nielsen Svare, 1764).  Aumont, “Sacco, Antonio”; Neiiendam, “Antonio Sacco”.  RA Breve 220, Sarti’s letter to the opera management: “Il m’a assuré de bouche qu il tachera d’epargner autant qu il pourra la depense de nouveaux abits, et qu il espere d’en trouver assez de faits dans la garderobe, selon les relations que je lui en ai donné exepté quand il faudra de certains caracteres dont on aura pa d’habits qu’allors il faudra absolument les faire, mais avec le consentement de la Direction dont elle sera toujours informée a tems comme du sujet des ballets” [“He has assured me that he will try to be as sparing as he can in new costume expenses, and that based on the information I gave him he hopes to find enough in the existing wardrobe, except for when certain characters are needed for which no costumes are onhand, so that it will be necessary to make them, but with the consent of the Management, which will always be informed in a timely manner, on the subjects of the ballets as well”].

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He was replaced by the French maître Jean-Baptiste Martin (dir. 1767–1768), who came to Denmark after working for theatres in Venice and Turin.78 Danish sources, which are interesting for what they reveal about Sacco’s dramaturgical approach, provide no further information on his activities before his departure from Denmark. According to the entries in the bibliographic encyclopedias cited above, the choreographer received a large severance pension of 4,200 rigsdaler after his dismissal, which was paid in a single installment.79 As soon as he received the pension, Sacco left Copenhagen. He set out for Italy, but on his way back to his native land he stopped over in Hamburg where on 1 August 1771 he married the German actress and dancer Johanna Richard (16 November 1754, Prague – 21 December 1802, near Vienna).80 A review of Sartori’s catalogue shows that the couple was in Venice between 1771 and 1772, where Sacco composed the ballets for L’erede riconosciuta (autumn 1771)81 and Andromaca (1772),82 both performed at the Teatro San Benedetto.

6.6 Warsaw However, Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Venetian stay was short-lived and in 1773 he was already employed at the Palatine court of Hessen-Kassel. His tenure in Germany was also brief, and in October 1774 he was recruited by the impresario François Ryx (1732–1799) and appointed as ballet master for the King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732–1798, r. 1764–1795).83 Sacco composed numerous ballets for the Warsaw theatres, beginning with Die Desertörin (The Female Deserter, 16 October 1774), which

 RA Breve 220, Lettre de J. B. Martin maitre des Balets à Mr Beck Directeur. The draft of JeanBaptiste Martin’s contract is dated 18 June 1767.  Aumont, “Sacco, Antonio”; Neiiendam, “Antonio Sacco”.  Wojciech Bogusławski, Dzieje Teatru Narodowego na trzy części podzielone oraz wiadomość o życiu sławnych artystów [History of the National Theatre Divided into Three Parts and Information about the Lives of Famous Artists] (Warsaw: Glücksberg, 1820), 107; Neiiendam, “Antonio Sacco”; Paul Schlenther, “Sacco, Johanna”, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 1890, 30: 111. Online-version, https:// www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz77516.html#adbcontent. Accessed 3 June 2023. See also the portrait of the actress kept at the Austrian National Library: http://www.portraitindex.de/documents/obj/oai:baa. onb.at:9153427/onB9153427T9153433. Accessed 8 February 2023.  Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa, 3 (1991), 47, no. 9073; Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del Settecento, 284–285.  Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa, 1 (1990), 200, no. 1917; Wiel, I teatri musicali veneziani del Settecento, 288.  See the entry “Sacco Antonio” in Małgorzata Pieczara, Włosi w Polsce Stanislawa Augusta. Słovnik obecności [Italians in the Poland of Stanisław August. The Glossary of Presences] (Warszawa: Wydzial Polonistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2012), 223. On the organization of musical establishments in Stanislavian Warsaw, including the recruitment and hiring of theatre professionals, see Anna Parkitna, “Pursuing Enlightenment Delights: Processes and Paths of Italian Operatic Migration to Warsaw, 1765–93”, in Mapping Artistic Networks, 53–63.

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was performed as part of the German play Olivie, oder die gerettete Tugend, featuring his wife Johanna. This debut work, according to an eyewitness account, was “the most beautiful ballet composed by Mr. Sacco, which, even when performed twenty times, is still readily liked” and remained in the repertoire, inserted into productions of various comedies and comic operas, until 1776.84 Sacco’s inaugural performance was followed by the composition of Tyrsis und Chloris (premiered on 16 January 1775), Silvain, oder der Waldmann (Silvain, or the Woodcutter, 17 January 1775), Don Alvar, oder die traurigen Folgen der Eifersucht (Don Alvar, or the Sad Consequences of Jealosy) which was part of a performance of the opera buffa L’amore artigiano on 22 January 1775), Das chinesische Ballett (The Chinese Ballet, 27 March 1775), Das Urtheil des Paris (The Judgement of Paris, 5 March 1775), Constantia, oder die strafbar beurtheilte, und endlich für unschuldig erkannte Braut (Constantia, or the Bride Condemned to Punishment and Finally Found Innocent, 20 May 1775), Der verliebte Schutzgeist (The Protective Spirit in Love, 25 June 1775), Die Stärke der Liebe einer Wilden, oder die Undankbarkeit (The Power of a Savage’s Love, or Ingratitude, 19 August 1775), Der Schmidt (The Blacksmith, 9 October 1775), Pan und Syrinx (Pan and Syrinx, 27 November 1775), Der betrogene Geitzige (The Cheated Miser, 30 December 1775), Die Liebe des Glaucus und der Scylla, oder die Wirkung der Eifersucht der Circe (The Love of Glaucus and Scylla, or the Effect of Circe’s Jealous, 28 January 1776), and Cephal und Procris (Cephal and Procris) and Der eifersüchtige Böhm (The Jealous Bohemian), which were performed between the acts of La Didone abbandonata on 29 February 1776 and subsequently revived at least eight times. (See Appendix 10 for a Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets and their Revivals in Warsaw, 1774–1776 and 1779–1780). The titles of Sacco’s ballets speak to their variety of situations (in which revivals of works performed elsewhere, such as Vauxhall or The Judgement of Paris, are rare), actions, and roles for dancers, evidently entailing considerable commitment from the choreographer. A comparison of the ballets staged in Warsaw with Sacco’s repertoire in Russia and Denmark confirms the originality the various themes and Sacco’s mastery of a multiplicity of styles and techniques. Anna Parkitna claims that Sacco and his fellow choreographer Giuseppe Anelli’s presence in Warsaw between 1774 and 1776 “allowed innovative ballet aesthetics to take firm root in Warsaw, even earlier than in Paris, where Noverre introduced his work in 1777”.85 Perhaps it is safest to make no assumption about the extent of Sacco’s choreographic innovations. However, it seems likely that Giovanni Antonio helped to promote a truly European genre of ballet d’action, overcoming national borders and spreading a new lingua franca in dance.

 Quoted in Ludwik Bernacki, Theatr, dramat i muzyka za Stanisława Augusta [Theatre, Drama, and Music during the Reign of Stanisław August], 2 vols. (Lviv: Wydawnictwo Zakładu Narodowego Imienia Ossolińskich, 1925), 1: 97–98.  Anna Parkitna, Opera in Warsaw, 1765–1830: Operatic Migration, Adaptation, and Reception in the Enlightenment, doctoral thesis, Stony Brook University, 2020, 76.

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6.7 Vienna: a Job Application Declined In the second half of 1776, the ballet master and his wife went to Vienna, where Johanna Sacco made her very successful debut at the Burgtheater in Beaumarchais’s drama Eugenie (10 June 1776), previously staged in Warsaw.86 Antonio was employed in the company of Francesco Caselli, a noted ballerino grottesco and dancer in Noverre’s Vienna troupe who became the ballet master after his teacher’s departure for Milan in 1774 and whom Sacco knew from his Polish tenure. On 8 September 1776 Sacco staged Die Grönländische Vermählung (The Greenlandic Wedding), which was well received by Viennese theatre-goers and which contained a preface (which will be discussed in greater detail later) that served as his “job application” of sorts for the Viennese stage.87 His second work was Die weibliche Deserteur, which, judging from the title, was a revival of Die Desertörin which had been so popular with Warsaw audiences that it was repeated at least twenty-three times. Sacco staged two more ballets in Vienna, but he and his wife Johanna soon parted ways. Due to the financial difficulties of the theatre and the poor working conditions there, Sacco and his fellow choreographer Caselli returned to Warsaw in the autumn of 1779.88

6.8 Warsaw and Copenhagen Again When the new public theatre on Krasinski Square opened in 1779, Sacco was the ballet master for the first season.89 In 1779, he staged his Viennese ballet d’action Die Grönländische Vermählung under the French title Le Mariage Groenlandais.90 He was engaged in the company of the Polish theatre entrepreneur of Italian descent Michał Bessesti (known as Bizesti 1744–?).91 During the tenure of Bessesti’s company (1780–1781), all opere buffe were performed alongside Sacco’s ballets, which “paralleled the operas most closely, contributing to their attractiveness”.92 After the end of Sacco’s stay in Poland, which coincided with the bankruptcy of Bessesti’s enterprise, records show no further trace of him until his visit to Copenhagen for

 See Taschenbuch des Wiener Theater (Vienna: Johann Thomas Edler von Trattner u. Karl von Zahlheim, 1777), 72–74 and 256–257.  Die Grönländische Vermählung oder die zur rechten Zeit entdeckte Verrätherey. Ein Ballet Von Erfindung, und Ausführung des Herrn Sacco (Vienna: Gedruckt bey Joseph Kurzböck, 1776).  See the magazine Neue Thalia, edited by Johann Erichson from 1811 to 1814 in Vienna, 19 December, 1812, n. 33, 273–274; Theater-Journal für Deutschland (1777), n. 2, 123–125.  Wierzbicka-Michalska, Teatr w Polsce w XVIII wieku [Theatre in Poland in the Eighteenth Century] (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1977), 202.  Wierzbicka-Michalska, “Balety z akcją w teatrze warszawskim”, 198.  See Małgorzata Pieczara’s entry “Sacco Antonio” in Włosi w Polsce Stanislawa Augusta, 223. On Bessesti’s enterprise and repertoire, see Parkitna, Opera in Warsaw, 112–113.  Parkitna, Opera in Warsaw, 137.

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the 1785/1786 season, when he composed three new ballets (see Appendix 9). Sacco was however disappointed by the cold reception from the public and the compensation he received. At the end of the 1787 season, he left Denmark, this time forever. The last mention of Sacco in Danish biographical encyclopaedias relates to his death on 20 December 1796 in Breslau, where he ended his career as a ballet teacher.

6.9 The Sacco Family Network Giuseppe Sacco’s unfortunate choice to give his three children the same names of capocomico Gaetano’s offspring and wife – Antonio as Antonio in arte Truffaldino, Adriana as Adriana in arte Smeraldina, and Libera as Gaetano’s wife – led to the ‘comedy of errors’ that for a long time has conflated the two Sacco cousins, giving rise to many erroneous interpretations of their careers paths and travel routes. Insights into newly discovered archival documents and a re-examination of already-known facts provide conclusive proof of the distinct identities of the two theatre professionals. This evidence leads to the conclusion that the actor Sacco visited St Petersburg only once, in 1733–1734. In contrast, his cousin, the ballerino Sacco, travelled to Russia twice, once as a child, and later already as an experienced dancer, where he further established himself as a dancing master. A study of the individual and occasionally overlapping career paths of the Sacco family members helps to better understand the place of family networks within European theatrical life. In the early modern period, the family was one of the preferred models of itinerant theatrical production and distribution, while also functioning as an engine of induction, training, and inheritance within the profession. That was certainly the case with the Saccos, a family in which the children immediately embarked on the same career path as their parents and no doubt profited from the experience and contacts they provided. In fact, the motivating force behind the dancing master Sacco’s promotion of the ballet d’action, a dramatic mime dance to some extent akin to the commedia dell’arte with its extensive use of expressive gesture and mime, was certainly his experience with his relatives, performers of improvised comedy. Not only did the ballet master have working knowledge of impromptu comedy, but he was also clearly able to draw on a fund of techniques, styles, and material inherited over generations which he could exploit to devise new forms of stage dance.93 The two branches of the Sacco family had two different areas of specialization: Gaetano and his offspring specialized in improvised acting, while Giuseppe Sacco and his descendants’ forte was dancing. This family portrait is however further complicated by

 On similarities and differences between the commedia dell’arte and the ballet d’action, see Edward Nye, Mime, Music and Drama on the Eighteenth-Century Stage: The Ballet d’Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), esp. the chapter “No place for Harlequin”, 62–83.

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the variety of skills attributed to the two cousins. In fact, according to Francesco Bartoli’s account, Sacco-Truffaldino began his career at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence as a dancer.94 Various comedies from the St Petersburg collection point to his dancing and singing abilities.95 The expenses in Avolio’s account book also confirm that Antonio sometimes did not play his signature role of Harlequin, but was employed in the company’s corps of dancers.96 Mime, dance, acrobatics, and somatic expression in general were ultimately as important to the performance of commedia dell’arte as spoken words. As for Antonio the dancing master’s mixed professional training, the pantomime composed by Giuseppe Brigonzi Отецъ солюбовникъ сыну своему или Завороженная табакерка (Father Rival to His Son, or The Bewitched Snuff-Box) and performed in St Petersburg on 30 September 1758 is revealing in this regard. In this performance Antonio played the part of Pantalone, while his sister Libera impersonated the lover Isabella.97 Even though the genre of this mimed play is designated as a pantomime on the frontispiece of the scenario published in Russian and French, the plot outlined in the 35-page booklet, revolving around a simple-minded father, two lovers, a cunning maid, and two zanni (one of which is a cunning schemer and the other a more slow-witted Harlequin), is strongly reflective of the commedia tradition. Pantomime ballet was therefore more than just a ballet, and the dancers were more than just dancers, because they were also actors who conveyed the passions of their characters through communicative mime and speech. This danced play therefore clearly points to Antonio and Libera’s acting background, thanks to their having  See Bartoli, Notizie istoriche, 406, and Chapter 2.  A musical example is the 1733 comedy Метаморфозы, или Преображенїя арлекїновы / Die Verwandelung des Arlequin (The Metamorphosis, or the Transformation of Arlecchino, Act II), in which Sacco-Harlequin feigns to be a singer and sings an aria to Pantalone: “БРIГЕЛЛЪ [. . .] говоритъ, что это хорошои случаи, чтобъ получить отвѣтъ отъ Дїаны на писмо своего господина хотя нарошно учинить Арлекїна главнымъ надъ пѣвчими, и вышелъ. [. . .] и находитъ ПАНТАЛОНЪ с АРЛЕКIНОМЪ, которои притворился быть главнымъ надъ пѣчими, и требовалъ платы должнои. Чинитъ онъ тутъ многїя комплїменты женщинамъ. Панталонъ скучившися отсылаетъ ево, Арлекїнъ ево проситъ, чтобъ послушалъ онъ одну арїю ево выкладки. Сталъ онъ пѣть, и чрезъ игрушку приличную театру поючи принялъ писма отъ Смералдїны.” [“Brighella says that this is a good chance to get Diana’s reply to his master’s letter and wants to make Arlecchino pretend to be the lead singer, and leaves. [. . .] Pantalone comes with Arlecchino feigning to be the lead singer and demanding a due fee. He pays some compliments to the women. Bored, Pantalone sends him away, but Arlecchino asks him to listen to an aria of his composition. He begins to sing and, while doing a lazzo, takes a letter from Smeraldina.”]  Starikova, Teatral’naia zhizn’ v Rossii v epokhy Anny Ioannovny, 273.  Giuseppe Brigonzi, Отецъ солюбовникъ сыну своему или Завороженная табакерка, пантомима в трехъ дѣйствияхъ украшенная разными машинами: представлена на Императорскомъ театрѣ близъ сада у Лѣтняго дворца 1758 года = Le père rival de son fils, ou La tabatière enchantée. Pantomime en trois actes ornée de plusieurs voles, machines, et decorations pour représenter sur le Théâtre Impérial, pres du Jardin du Palais d’Eté, l’An. 1758. St Petersburg: s.t. [Tipografiia Akademii Nauk], 1758. NLR, 18.169.2.118.

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being raised in proximity to relatives who specialized in acting. As was hinted above, Antonio-ballerino also knew how to sing well, as this was the skill that gained him access to Danish high society. According to Clarice Bini, the prima ballerina in Sacco’s corps of dancers in Warsaw, the choreographer not only emphasized dance technique but also the dramatic expression of feelings through mime and gestures.98 And if we are to believe Sacco’s ballet scenario for Die Grönländische Vermählung as performed in Vienna, the choreographer was also a music composer (“Die Musik ist vom Hr. Sacco selbst verfertiget worden”, “the music was written by Sir Sacco himself”).99 The case of the members of the Sacco family as well as the professional actors and operisti mentioned in the Chapter 2, thus show that there was no sharp division between musical and spoken theatre in the eighteenth century. Actors were also singers in the intermezzi, singers and dancers were actors. While there were separate theatres for opera and spoken comedy in Venice, the division between two theatrical professions, constructed retroactively in our time, became blurred as Italian artists migrated towards European courts and cities. The illustrious careers and intricate travel routes between different cities, courts, and theatres of the two Saccos are exemplary of common patterns in the mobility and performance practice of eighteenth-century Italian artists. What is also true for almost all theatre professionals, and for the Saccos in particular, is that the familial network was important in helping family members to get engagements and salaried positions at theatres and courts. Revealing in this regard is Sacco’s preface entitled “An das einsichtsvolle, und zugleich gütige Publikum in Wien” [“To the insightful, and at the same time benevolent audience in Vienna”], which is included in the aforementioned Die Grönländische Vermählung ballet scenario and which for all intents and purposes was the choreographer’s “job application”. In this preface, Sacco publicly uses his wife’s reputation and popularity with Viennese theatre-goers to promote his ballet: “Die unterscheidende Güte, und ganz eigene Nachsicht, mit welcher ein so verehrungswürdiges Publikum dem schwachen Talente meiner Gattin ihren Beyfall schenkte, hat auch mich verleitet, es zu wagen für diese Bühnen ein Ballet zu verfertigen” [“The exceptional kindness and indulgence, with which such an honorable audience applauded the weak talent of my wife, has also tempted me to dare to make a ballet for these stages”].100 At the same time, however, the professional activity of the Sacco family of actors and dancers was grounded more in their ability to juggle different skills, engagements, and fields of expertise than in common travels, joint productions, or family patronage.

 Wierzbicka-Michalska, Teatr w Polsce w XVIII wieku, 201–202; Wierzbicka-Michalska, “Balety z akcją w teatrze warszawskim”, 197.  Die Gröndlänsche Vermählung, title page.  Die Grönländische Vermählung, preface, unnumbered pages.

Afterword This book has presented the history of the performing arts in the first decades of the eighteenth century from the perspective of Italian theatre practitioners, shifting attention from the central role traditionally assigned to composers, playwrights, and their masterpieces to performers’ métiers, their travel routes, and the dissemination of the musico-dramatic works they performed throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The case studies of Italian artists who travelled to Russia – the actors Antonio and Adriana Sacco, the dancer and ballet master Giovanni Antonio Sacco, and the actor and playwright Giovanni Camillo Canzachi – have shown that the Russian imperial court, traditionally considered to be on the European periphery, was one of the cultural workshops that best represents the complexity of theatrical and musical exchange in the eighteenth century. A comparative analysis of the largely unexplored corpus of commedia dell’arte performance programmes and comic interludes performed in St Petersburg has not only provided a new perspective on Italian theatre as a transcultural medium, but has also placed Imperial Russia more firmly within the transnational context of early modern European theatre culture. The reconstruction of the professional activities of Italianborn artists in Russia has also underlined the role they played in establishing the artistic supremacy of Italian theatre throughout Europe, which became the predominant public entertainment repertoire in practically all major cities. Italian musico-theatrical works became an “international art form”,1 and were deeply interwoven with the lives of the upper classes, so that their texts and cultural implications took on new significance in different countries. In this way, Italian theatre and opera became a sign of belonging to a network that knew no linguistic, political, or religious boundaries. Close examination of the mobility and international careers of Italian artists and the resulting cultural transfer of dramatic repertoires and artistic excellence has therefore allowed for a more multi-faceted treatment of European theatre as a literary and musical genre that is also a socio-political institution, building cultural bridges between and within nations. The micro-historical approach used in this volume to reconstruct biographies and itineraries of actors and operisti has contributed to the understanding that the history of Italian theatre and opera has never been just about Italy. For eighteenth-century theatre practitioners, space was not just an obstacle to be overcome through mobility. Rather, space changed people as they moved. This book is not just about migration of artists, but about understanding the significance of general patterns of mobility and circulation as experienced by contemporaries. While we have seen that the St Petersburg scene was a performance laboratory for Italian actors, singers, and choreographers – where they were able to develop their signature  David Kimbell, Italian Opera (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), xiii; Tim Carter, Understanding Italian Opera (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), x. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-007

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Afterword

roles, experiment with acting styles, add to their “suitcases” of arias, and enrich their stock of professional experience – the book’s global historical perspective and focus on issues of transcultural encounter and exchange that arise from circulation have illuminated the multi-directionality of knowledge transfer. In addition, this approach has also allowed for new and revealing insights into the transmission of know-how and the impact of Italians’ experiences abroad on theatre practice in Italy. By examining the ways in which their St Petersburg sojourn stimulated creative solutions in the artists’ techniques and forms of expression, which in turn influenced the canonical playwrights Goldoni and Gozzi, were disseminated to other European theatre capitals, and were absorbed into these non-Russian repertoires, this volume has shown that the Italian performers’ Russian foray had an important impact on dramaturgical practices both in their home country and throughout Europe. Lastly, and most importantly, this book has also explored the importance of the encounters between the West and the East for European musico-theatrical culture and the internationalisation of European dramatic repertoire. Travels, migrations, and activities of Italian artists outside Italy stimulated innovations in dramaturgy, changes in style and taste, hybridisation of theatre practices, and contributed significantly to the Europeanisation, an early form of globalisation, and to the creation of a musico-theatrical cosmopolitanism. There are still many unanswered questions about the trajectories of the unusually worldly Italians travelling from Italy all the way to Russia and about the Italian dramatic works performed under the aegis of the Tsarinas Anna Ioannovna and Elizabeth Petrovna. But as more of the story is told, it will become increasingly important to acknowledge the significance of the eighteenthcentury Imperial Russia as a vibrant market for theatre practitioners, an attractive musico-theatrical destination, and one of the major centres for the dissemination of Italian theatre, opera, and ballet.

Appendix 1 Composition of the Three Italian Companies Active at the Russian Imperial Court in 1731–1738 First company, 1731 Actors Tommaso Ristori (1660–after 1732), capocomico and Scaramuccia Caterina Ristori (?1656–?), wife of Tommaso, actress Natale Bellotti, Arlecchino Andrea Bertoldi (fl. 1715–1748), Pantalone Marianna Bertoldi (fl. 1715–1748), serva Rosetta Carlo Malucelli (1650–1747) with wife, il Dottore Luca Caffani, Brighella Francesco Ermano (or Ermani), amoroso Filippo del (dal) Fantasia, Valerio, amoroso Rosalia del (dal) Fantasia, actress and singer Giovanni Verder, innamorato Florindo Francesca Dima, actress Musicians Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692–1753), maestro di cappella and composer Margherita Ermini (?–d. 1765) buffo singer, contralto Cosimo Ermini (?–d. 1745), basso singer Gasparo Janeschi (?–1758), cellist Ludovica Seyfried, soprano singer Giovanni Verocai (?–1745), violinist The troupe recruited by Johann Hübner in Germany in 1731 Giuseppe Avo(g)lio, actor and librettist Christina-Maria Croumann Avo(g)lio, soprano singer Elisabetta Croumann, sister of Christina-Maria Croumann Avo(g)lio, performer in the intermezzi Bindi, violinist Eyselt (or Eiselt), double bass player Giovanni Filippo Maria Dreyer, (Il Tedeschino) (c. 1703–1772), alto castrato singer; composer Domenico Maria Dreyer (c. 1680–1740), musician, oboist Döbbert, oboist Giovanni Antonio Guerra, singer and theatre designer https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-008

130

Appendix 1 Composition of the Three Italian Companies

Johann Kayser, Kapellmeister Sophie Kayser, singer Second company, c. late spring 1733–end of 1734 or beginning of 1735 Agents Johann Hübner and Domenico Dreyer Administrator Giuseppe Avo(g)lio, actor and librettist Actors Gaetano Sacco (or Sacchi) (?–d. 1734), capocomico Libera Sacco, wife of Gaetano Sacco, actress Adriana Sacco (1706–1776), Smeraldina Giovanni Antonio Sacco (1708–1788), Truffaldino Antonia Franchi Sacco (?–d. after 1782), innamorata (Beatrice) and dancer in the intermezzi Anna Caterina Sacco (1710–?) Domenico Zanardi, Brighella and author of some scenarios and comedies Ferdinando Colombo (?–after 1781), Arlecchino Antonio Fioretti (?–1761), Pantalone Giovanni Camillo Canzachi (?–d. before 1770), Monsieur de l’Appetit, Dottore, Tabarino, father of the first lover or the innamorata Giovanni Porazzisi, innamorato Geronimo (Girolamo) Ferrari, innamorato Francesco Ermano (or Ermani), secondo amoroso Singers Christina-Maria Croumann Avo(g)lio, singer Elisabetta Croumann, singer Giovanni Filippo Maria Dreyer (Il Tedeschino) (c. 1703–1772), alto castrato singer; composer Giovanni Antonio Guerra, bass singer and theatre designer Pietro Pertici (1709–1768), buffo singer Costanza Pusterli Piantanida (other names: La Posterla, Pusterla, Posterli, Costanzina) (b. c. 1699), soprano Alessandra Stabili, singer Apollonia Stabilli, mother of Alessandra; role unknown Musicians Pietro Mira (?–after 1782), violinist Giovanni Piantanida (1706–1773), violinist and composer

Appendix 1 Composition of the Three Italian Companies

131

Domenico Maria Dreyer (c. 1680–1740), musician, oboist Gasparo Janeschi (?–1758), cellist Luigi Madonis (1695–c. 1770), violinist Antonio Madonis (before 1690–1746), violinist, horn player Dancers Giuseppe Sacco (?–d. before 1761), choreographer wife of Giuseppe Sacco, dancer Giovanni Antonio Sacco, son of Giuseppe Sacco (c. 1730–1796) Antonio Armano, choreographer wife of Antonio Armano, dancer Technical staff Carlo Gibelli, machinist Stefano Bufelli, scenery designer Third company, spring 1735–1737/1738 Agent Pietro Mira Musicians Francesco Araja (1709–c. 1770), maestro di cappella and composer Domenico Dall’Oglio (c. 1700–1764), violinist and composer Giuseppe Dall’Oglio, cellist Pietro Peri (or Pieri), violinist Giovanni Piantanida (1706–1773), violinist and composer Stefano Ruvinetti; instrument not indicated (first name unknown) Ripinno, violinist Singers Domenico Cricchi (fl. 1727–1758), buffo singer Filippo Giorgi (d. 1775), tenor Caterina Giorgi (fl. 1729–1756), singer, seconda donna Rosa Ruvinetti Bon, buffo singer Caterina Mazani (or Mazary, Manzani, Masani, Massani, la Caterla), singer and dancer Pietro Morigi (fl. 1729–1768), castrato singer Pietro Pertici (1709–1768), buffo singer Costanza Pusterli Piantanida, prima donna Actors Carlo Antonio Bertinazzi (1710–1783), Arlecchino Giovanna (Zanetta) Casanova (1708–1776), Rosaura Antonio Costantini (1694–1764), Arlecchino

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Appendix 1 Composition of the Three Italian Companies

Francesco Ermano (or Ermani), secondo amoroso Geronimo (Girolamo) Ferrari, amoroso Antonio Maria Piva (d. 1764), Pantalone Rosa Pontremoli (Rosetta), serva Elia Portesi, role unknown Bernardo Vulcani (or Vulcano) (?–1760), primo amoroso Elisabetta Vulcani (or Vulcano), prima amorosa Domenico Zanardi, Brighella Dancers Giuseppe Brunoro (or Brunoni) Antonia Costantini (after the death of Giulia Portesi marries Antonio Rinaldi) Antonio Rinaldi (Fossano or Fusano) (c. 1715–d. 1759), choreographer Giulia Portesi Rinaldi (d. 1736, wife of Antonio Rinaldi), dancer Cosimo Damiano (or Cosmo Gasparo) Tesi wife of Cosimo Tesi Extras Technical staff Girolamo Bon (c. 1700–1760), painter, scenographer, librettist Carlo Gibelli, scenery carpenter Antonio Peresinotti (1708–1778), painter, decorator Bartolomeo Tarsia, decorator, stage designer Servants Paolo Nioli and Ludovico Pasquini

Appendix 2 Repertoire of the Three Italian Companies Active at the Russian Imperial Court in 1731–1738 Repertoire of the First Italian Company in Moscow, February 1731–December 1731 Date

Title

 March 

L’inganno fortunato (The Happy Deception) accompanied by the interlude Velasco e Tilla

 March 

Le Cocu imaginaire (The Imaginary Cuckold) and the interlude Pimpinon

 March 

Pantalon désabusé (Disillusioned Pantalone) or: Pantalon interrompu dans ses amours (Pantalone’s Truncated Love Affaires)

 March 

Scaramouche joueur qui joue sa femme (Scaramouche Gambles Away his Wife) accompanied by the interlude Le mary joueur et la femme bigote (The Gambling Husband and the Bigoted Wife)

 March 

Arlequin prince feint (Arlecchino the False Prince)

 April 

Pantalon petit-maître

 April 

L’Amant trahi (The Betrayed Lover) accompanied by the interlude Pimpinon

 April 

Rosetta jardinière ou la Comtesse de Tortone (Rosetta the Gardener, or the Countess of Tortona) accompanied by the interlude Lidia e Ircano

 April 

Arlequin maître d’école (Arlecchino the School Teacher)

 April 

Scaramouche sorcier, ou l’innocence protégée (Scaramouche the Sorcerer, or Innocence Preserved)

 May 

La dame démon et la servante diable (The Devil Lady and the Devil Servant)

 Sources: Mooser, Annales de la musique, 70–84 on the basis of the diplomatic correspondence between baron Johann Le Fort, the Saxon minister at the Russian court, and Peter Robert Taparelli, count Lagnasco, Berichte von Lefort an Lagnasc, 1730–1732, preserved at the SHSA and reproduced in Mooser, Annales de la musique, 365–379; Ferrazzi, Commedie e comici dell’arte, 40, 113–124. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-009

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Appendix 2 Repertoire of the Three Italian Companies

(continued) Date

Title

 May 

Arlequin marchand d’esclaves ou l’Etourdy (Arlecchino the Slave Trader, or the Fool)

 May 

Le festin de pierre (The Stone Dinner Guest)

 May 

Scaramouche armes et bagages (Scaramouche’s Weapons and Travelling Devices) accompanied by the interlude La preziosa ridicola (The Affected Young Lady, libretto by Giovanni Battista Trotti)

 May 

Pantalon apothicaire (Pantalone the Apothecary)

 May 

Scaramouche magician (ou sorcier) par plaisir (Scaramouche the Sorcerer for Pleasure) accompanied by the interlude La Pelerina

 May 

Les disgrâces d’Arlequin circoncis (The Misadventures of the Circumcised Arlecchino)

 May 

Scaramouche jardinier (Scaramouche the Gardener)

 June 

L’Amant lunatique (The Lunatic Lover)

 June 

Franca Trippa

 June 

Scaramouche musician sophistiqué et maître à danser (Scaramouche the Sophisticated Musician and Dance Master)

 June 

comic scenes

 July 

Merlin dragon (Merlin the Dragon)

 August 

Arlequin statue (Arlecchino the Statue) and the interlude L’astrologo (The Astrologist, libretto Pietro Pariati, music by Francesco Gasparini)

 October 

Les tapisseries de France (The French Tapestries)

 December 

Calandro, commedia in musica (libretto by Stefano Palavicini, music by Giovanni Alberto Ristori)

Repertoire of the Second and Third Italian Companies Active at the Russian Court

135

Repertoire of the Second and Third Italian Companies Active at the Russian Court in 1735–1738 Comic Interludes

Date

Interlude’s Title in Russian

Interlude’s Title in German



Podriadchik opery v ostrovy Kanariiskie (The Opera Impresario in the Canary Islands)

Der Opern-Meister auf den Canarischen Inseln



Starik skupoi (The Old Miser)

Der alte Geitzhalß



Igrok v karty (The Gambler at Cards)

Der Spieler



Muzh revnivyi (The Jealous Husband)

Der Eifersüchtige Mann



Pritvornaia nemka (The Feigned German Woman)

Die verstellte Teutsche



Bol’nym byt’ dymaiushchii (The Imaginary Invalid)

Der Krancke in der Einbildung



Posadskoi dvorianin (The Bourgeois Gentleman)

Der Bürgerliche Edelmann



Vliubivshiisia v samogo sebia Nartsiz (Narcissus in Love with Himself)

Der in sich selbst verliebte Narcissus



Die verschmitzte Junge-Madg (The Clever Maid)

(undated) Porsun’iak i Grilletta (Porsugnacco and Grilletta)

Improvvised Comedies

Date

Play’s Title in Russian

Play’s Title in German



Chestnaia kurtizanna (The Honest Courtesan)

Die ehrliche Courtisanin

 

V nenavist’ prisheshaia Smeraldina (The Spiteful Smeraldina)

Die verhasste Smeraldina

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Appendix 2 Repertoire of the Three Italian Companies

(continued) Date

Play’s Title in Russian

Play’s Title in German



Smeraldina kikimora (Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost)

Smeraldina als ein umherschweiffender Geist (Smeraldina the Vagabond Spirit)

Razgovor mezhdu Smeraldinoiu Kikimoroiu i Pantalonom (The Conversation between Smeraldina the Vengeful Ghost and Pantalone)

Gespräche zwischen Smeraldina, als einem umherschweifenden Geist, und den Pantalon



Perelazy cherez zabor (Climbing over the Fence)

Die Bestürmung (The Assault)



Gazeta ili Vedomosti (The Gazzette, or Vedomosti)

Die Zeitung (The Gazzette)



Arlekin i Smeraldina liubovniki razgnevavshiesia (Arlecchino and Smeraldina, Mischievous Lovers)

Arlequin und Smeraldina, die erzürnten Liebenden

 

Rozhdenie Arlekinovo (The Birth of Arlecchino)

Die Geburth des Arlequins



Pereodevki Arlekinovy (Arlecchino’s Disguises)

Die Verwandelung des Arlequins oder der Misch-Masch



Chetyre Arlekina (Four Arlecchinos)

Die vier Arlequins (The Transformations of Arlecchino, or the Mish-mash)



Arlekin statuia (Arlecchino the Statue)

Arlequin als eine Statua



Velikii Vasilisk iz Bernagassa (The Great Basilisco of Bernagasso)

Der große Basilisco von Bernagasso



Brigel oruzhie i butor (Brighella’s Weapons and Travelling Devices)

Des Brighella Waffen-und WanderGeräthe

 

Frantsuz v Venetsii (The Frenchman in Venice)

Der Frantzose in Venedig



Metamorfozy, ili Preobrazheniia Arlekinovy (The Metamorphoses, or the Transformations of Arlecchino)

Die Verwandelung des Arlquins (The Transformations of Arlecchino)





Der Streit der Betrugereyen zwischen Brighella und Arlequin (The Contest of Trickery between Brighella and Arlecchino) Skorokhod ni k chemu godnoi (The Good-For-Nothing Messenger)

Repertoire of the Second and Third Italian Companies Active at the Russian Court

137

(continued) Date

Play’s Title in Russian

Play’s Title in German



Obman blagopoluсhnyi (The Happy Deception)

Der glückliche Betrug



Portomoia dvorianka (The Noble Washerwoman)

Die adliche Wäscherin



Napasti shchastlivyia Arlekinu (The Happy Misadventures of Arlecchino)

Die glückliche Wiederwärtigkeit des Arlequins



Zabavy na vode i na pole (Pleasures on the Water and in the Field)

Die Ergötzung zu Wasser und auf dem Lande



Kliatvoprestuplenie (The Perjurer)

Die Untreue



Marki Gaskonets velichavyi (The Magnificent Marquis of Gascony)

Der lächerliche und affectirte Marquis (The Ridiculous and Affected Marquis)



Charodeistva Petra Dabana, i Smeraldiny, tsaritsy dukhov (The Spell of Pietro D’Abano and Smeraldina, Queen of the Ghosts)

Die Bezauberung des Peters von Abano und der Smeraldina Königin der Geister



Napasti Pantalonovy i Arlekin pritvonyi kurier, po tom tak zhe i barbier po mode (The Misadventures of Pantalone and Arlecchino, the False Courier and Stylish Barber)

Der Wiederwillen des Pantalons gegen den Arlequin, als verstellten Curier und Barbier nach der Mode



Doktor v dvukh litsakh (The Doctor with Two Faces)

Der Artzt in zweyerley Gestalt



Otvet Apollonov sbyvshiisia ili bezvinnaia prodana i vykuplena (The Fulfilment of Apollo’s Oracle, or an Innocent Girl Sold and Redeemed)

Die Erfüllung des Oraculs oder Die verkauffte und wieder gekauffte Unschuldige



Liubovniki drug drugu protiviashiesia s Arlekinom pritvornym pasheiu (The Lovers Contest, or Arlecchino the False Pasha)

Die Nebenbuhlerey der Liebhaber oder Arlequin der verstellte Bassa



Spor o shliakhetstve mezhdu Eularieiu vdovoiu sumozbrodnoiu i Pantalonom kuptsom sporlivym, ili Marki d’Alta Polvere (A Quarrel about Nobility between Eularia, the Extravagant Widow, and Pantalone, the Quarrelsome Merchant, or the Marquis d’Alta Polvere)

Die Händel des vermeynten Adels zwischen Eularis einer einbildischen Wittwe und Pantalon einem grillenkopfigen Kauffmann oder Der Marquis von Alta-polvere

138

Appendix 2 Repertoire of the Three Italian Companies

(continued) Date

Play’s Title in Russian



Chestnoe ubozhestvo Renoda drevniago kavalera Gallskago vo vremia Karla Velikago (The Honest Poverty of Rinaldo, Knight of Ancient Gaul in Charlemagne’s Court)



Tainoe mesto (The Hiding Place)



Sampson



Naiviashshaia slava gosudariu shtob pobezhdat’ samogo sebia (The Greatest Glory of a Prince is to Conquer Himself)



Kolombina volshebnitsa (Colombina the Magician)



Play’s Title in German

Das bezauberte Arkadien (The Enchanted Arcadia)

Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749 Date

Venue

 January 

Dresden Il francese in Venezia

 January 

Dresden La muta loquace

 January 

Dresden Taberino

 February 

Dresden Gli due gemelli

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 February 

Dresden Le ceremonie

? Scipione Maffei

 February 

Work

Author Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

La moda

 February 

Dresden La miseria d’Arlechino

 August 

Warsaw Gli torti imaginari

 August 

Warsaw Pantalone mercante fallito

[Tomaso Mondini, Il mercante fallito]

 September 

Warsaw Li due gemelli / Die zwey Zwillinge

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 September  Warsaw Momolo disinvolto

Carlo Goldoni

 September  Warsaw Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote / Le Francois à Venice, Trompé de Brighell dans l’amour de Columbine, feinte Dame de Rome, avec Arlequin Valet feint de son Epose pour s’acquerir le dot

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 Sources: SLUB, Komödienzettel 1749–1756 (the collection of performance programmes), Dramat.3.u 1749–1756, vols. 1–9; SHSA, 10006 Oberhofmarschallamt, G. Nr. 57b, Italienische Komödien in Warschau, 1748–1749. Online at: https://archiv.sachsen.de/archiv/bestand.jsp?oid=01.03&bestandid=10006&syg_id= 332822. Accessed 2 June 2023. Cf. SHSA, 10006 Oberhofmarschallamt, Nr. O 01, Nr. 016, Dresdner Hoftagebücher (Serie A), 1748; Mieczyslaw Klimowicz, “Teatr Augusta III w Warszawie”, Pamiętnik Teatralny, t. 14, 1 (1965): 22–43 (esp. 36); Alina Zórawska-Witkowska, “The comici italiani Ensamble at the Warsaw Court of Augustus III”, Musicology Today, 2 (2005): 72–105 (84). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-010

140

Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749

(continued) Date

Venue

Work

Author

 September  Warsaw La donna di garbo / La Dame de bon sens

Carlo Goldoni

 October 

Warsaw Taberino smemorato, o sia il marito di tre moglie / Le Taberin distrait, où le mari de trois épouses sans les posseder / Der zerstreute Tabarin, Oder der dreymahl beweibte, und doch zugleich unbeweibte Ehmann

commedie de Mr. Regnard

 October 

Warsaw Pantalon amant de sa propre Brû

 October 

Warsaw L’impostura vendicata / La fourberie vengée / Der Giovanni Camillo gerochene Betrug, with a ballet Centrum virtutum Canzachi–Antoine Pitrot in templo gloriae

 October 

Warsaw La donna creduta maschio / La fille en habit d’homme / Das Frauenzimmer in Manskleidern

 October 

Warsaw Taberino mezzano per necessità della propria moglie / Taberin oblige par misere de procurer des amourettes à sa propre Femme / Taberin, der aus Noth bey seiner eigenen Frau einen Liebsunterhander abgeben muss

 October 

Warsaw Il prodigo / Le Prodigue / Der Verschwender

[Momolo prodigo sulla Brenta, Goldoni]

 October 

Warsaw L’ubriaco / L’Yvrogne / Der Trunkenbold

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 October 

Warsaw Le trentatré disgrazie ridicole d’Arlechino / Les trente trois disgraces riducules d’Arlequin / Harleckins drey und dreyssig lächerliche Unglücksfälle

[Carlo Goldoni, Trenta due disgrazie d’Arlecchino]

 October 

Warsaw Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore / Le petit-maitre / Der Stutzer

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 November 

 November 

Le contese di Mestre e Malghera per il trono

Warsaw Monsieur de l’Appetit, nobile per opinione, o Il povero francese / Monsieur de l’Appeti, Gentilhomme pretendu, où le pauvre Francois / Monsieur de l’Appetti, ein verstellter Edelmann, oder der arme Franzose

 November  Warsaw Quanto sia difficile il custodire una donna / Combien il est difficile de garder une femme / Es ist schwer ein Frauenzimmer zu hüten

Salvatore Apolloni– Antonio Gori and Giovanna Casanova Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

comedie d’un auteur espagnol

Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749

(continued) Date

Venue

Work

 November  Warsaw Il diavolo maritato / Le diable marie aver la femme la plus mechante / Der mit der schlimsten unter allen Weibern verhayrathete Teufel

Author Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 November  Warsaw Momolo bullo / Momolo Bretteur / Der verwogene Giovanni Bonicelli Momulus  November  Warsaw Taberino bacchettone / Taberin Tartuffe / Der scheinheilige Taberin

Flaminio Scala

 November  Warsaw Prima di tutto la mia donna, o sia Gli’equivoci del nastro / La maitresse incoparable, où le Ruban equivoque / Vor Allen Dingen mein Mädchen, oder die Zweydeutigkeit des Bandes

comedie traduite de l’Espagnol

 November  Warsaw Aurelia maga / Aurelie magicienne / Die Zauberinn Aurelie  January 

Warsaw Colombina maga / Columbine magicienne / Die Zauberinn Columbine

 January 

Warsaw Le allegrezze in casa d’Arlechino per la nascita del [Carlo Goldoni] suo primogenito / Les réjouissances dans la maison d’Arlequin sur la naissance de son premier fils / Die Freude in dem Hause Harlekins über seinen erstgebohrenen Sohn

 January 

Warsaw Gl’eventi fortunati prodotto d’un amore infelice / Les evenemens heureux effets d’un amour malheureux / Die aus einer unglücklichen Liebe glücklich erfolgten Begebenheiten

 January 

Warsaw Pantalone speziale / Pantalon Apothicaire / Pantalon ein Apothecker

 January 

Warsaw L’innocente rivale con Arlechino finto Bacco / Niewinny riwal z Arlewinem pod figura Bachusa

 January 

Warsaw Arlechino sicario ed assasino per onore e creduto principe per arte magica / Arlequin Meurtier & Assasin par honneur & Prince pretendu par la Magie / Harlequin der einen Meuchelmörder und Straßenräuber aus Ehrbegierde abgiebt und vermöge der Zauberkunst für einen Prinz gehalten wird

 January 

Warsaw Aurelia gelosa di se stessa / Aurelie jalouse de soimême / Die über sich selbst eifersüchtige Aurelie

Giovanni Bonicelli

141

142

Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749

(continued) Date

Venue

Work

Author

 January 

Warsaw Il disertore francese / Le Déserteur François / Der französische Deserteur

 January 

Warsaw Pantalone marito geloso / Pantalon le Mari jaloux / Der eifersüchtige Pantalon

 January 

Warsaw Colombina ortolana creduta contessa / Colombine la Jardiniere / Die Gartnerinn Columbine

 January 

Warsaw Il ponte di Mantible / Le pont de Mantible / Die Brucke von Mantible

? January 

Warsaw Amor non ha riguardi / Die Liebe nimmt seine Vorstellung an

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 July 

Dresden Le trentatré disgrazie ridicole d’Arlechino

[Carlo Goldoni]

 July 

Dresden Tabarino ortolano / Tabarin ein Gärtner

 July 

Dresden Amor non ha riguardi / Die Liebe nimmt seine Vorstellung an

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 July 

Dresden Il francese sposo del proprio amico / Der Franzose, ein Bräutigam seines eigenen guten Freundes

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 July 

Aurelia maga / Aurelie, eine Zauberin

 July 

Dresden Arlecchino servo infedele per interesse / Harlequin, ein aus Eigennuß ungetreuer Bediente

 July 

Dresden Pantalone mancatore innocente di sua parola / Pantalon, welcher unschuldiger Weise sein Wort nicht halten kann

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 August 

Dresden Il diavolo maritato / Der verehlichete Teufel

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

 August 

Dresden Li quattro Arlecchini

 August 

Dresden Aurelia gelosa di se stessa

 August 

Dresden Le affettate manière del forastiere nella sua patria

 August 

Dresden Le sfide e furberie di Brighella, ed Arlechino / Die Räncke des Brighells, und Harlekins

 August 

Dresden Momolo prodigo su’ la Brenta / Momolo, der Verschwender

 August 

Dresden Lo spirito folletto / Der Polter-Geist

 October 

Dresden Momolo disinvolto / Momolo, der Weltmann

Carlo Goldoni

Carlo Goldoni

Appendix 3 Repertoire of the comici italiani in Dresden and Warsaw, Season 1748/1749

(continued) Date

Venue

Work

Author

?. 

Dresden Le quattro spose in una sola sposa / Die vier Bräute in einer Braut

?. 

Dresden L’impostura vendicata / Die des Betrugs wegen ausgeübte Rache

Giovanni Camillo Canzachi

?. 

Dresden Le allegrezze in casa d’Arlecchino per la nascita del suo primogenito / Die Freude in dem Hause Harlekins über seinen erstgebohrnen Sohn

[Carlo Goldoni]

143

Appendix 4 Antonio Sacco’s Family Tree

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-011

Appendix 5 Giuseppe Sacco’s Family Tree Giuseppe Sacco (d. before 1761)

Giovanni Antonio Sacco (c. 1731–1796)

Johanna Sacco (1754–1802)

Adriana Ottavia Sacco (c. 1730, Brescia–?)

Anna Conti de Sales

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-012

?

Giacomo Fiorini (1731, Bologna–?)

Libera Sacco (1738, Parma–?)

Appendix 6 Composition of Giovanni Battista Locatelli’s opera buffa troupes in St Petersburg and Moscow, 1757–c. 1762 Opera buffa troupe in St Petersburg1 Singers Giovanna Locatelli (La Stella) Maria Camati (La Farinella) (fl. 1729–1760) Giovanna Vigna Rosa Costa, soprano Caterina Brigonzi Ignazio Dol, basso buffo Gasparo Barozzi, sopralto Violante Massi, soprano Antonio Massi Matteo Buini, tenor Francesca Santarelli Buini, soprano Gabriele Messeri, basso buffo Corp de ballet Giovanni Antonio Sacco (c. 1731–1796), choreographer Anna Conti de Sales, dancer Adriana Sacco (1730–?), dancer Libera Sacco (1738–?), dancer Carlo Belluzzi, dancer Anna Belluzzi (La Bastoncina), dancer Maria Burgioni (La Mantovanina), dancer Francesco Calzevara, dancer and choreographer Alvise Tolato, dancer

 Sources: Mooser, Annales de la musique, 265–294; Nikolai Findeizen, Ocherki po istorii musyki v Rossii s drevneishikh vremen do kontsa XVIII veka [Essays on the History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to the End of the eighteenth Century], Vol. 2: S nachala do kontsa XVIII veka [From the Beginning to the End of the Eighteenth Century] (Moscow-Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo Muzsektor, 1928), 114. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-013

150

Appendix 6 Composition of Giovanni Battista Locatelli’s opera buffa troupes

Musicians Francesco Zoppis (1715–1781), composer Giovanni Marco Placido Rutini (1730–1797), composer and the second maestro di capella Technical staff Angiolo Carboni, decorator Giuseppe Brigonzi (fl. 1760–1788), scenery carpenter Opera buffa troupe in Moscow Singers Leonilda Burgioni (la Mantovanina) (1744–1761), soprano Andreas Elias Erhardt, basso singer Giuseppe Manfredini, castrato Antonio Amati, tenor (first name unknown) Clementi Angiolo Ferazzi Antonia Ferrazzi de Gennaro (first name unknown) Finetti Giacomo Fiorini, buffo singer (first name unknown) Spalanzi Rosa Costa Musicians Vincenzo Manfredini (1737–1799), composer and orchestra director Corp de ballet Gasparo Santini, choreographer (first name unknown) Priori, couple of dancers

Appendix 7 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets in St Petersburg in 1757–1761 Title

Premiere / Performed in

Ballet de Divinité Marines (Ballet of See Gods)

 December  Il retiro degli dei (The Retreat of the Gods, Locatelli–Zoppis)

La magia di Armida / Volshebstvo Armidy (The Magic of Armida)

 February  La ritornata di Londra (Goldoni–Fischietti)

Giovanni Antonio Sacco played the role of Pantalone

 August  Le père rival de son fils, ou La tabatière enchantée (Father Rival to His Son, or The Bewitched Snuff-Box, Giuseppe Brigonzi)

Il ballo da Inglesi (The Ballet in English Style)

Carnival  Lo speziale (Goldoni–Fischietti)

Le amazzoni vittoriose (The Ballet of the Triumphant Amazons)

Summer  Il mondo della luna (Galuppi–Goldoni)

L’addio dei marinai (The Ballet of the Seamen’s Farewell)

 September  Il filosofo di campagna (Galuppi–Goldoni)

Il ballo di Psiche (Psyche’s Ballet) and Il ballo degli homini selvatici (The Ballet of the Wild Men)

Autumn  La cascina (Goldoni–Scolari)

Il balletto eroico (The Heroic Ballet) and Il ritorno dei marinai (The Return of The Seamen)

 November– December  La Didone abbandonata (Metastasio–Zoppis)

? L’amore del nemico (The Love of the Enemy) and Mascherata (The Masquerade)

 January  L’Arcadia in Brenta (Goldoni–Galuppi)

untitled ballets

?  Il pazzo glorioso (Goldoni–Cocchi)

 Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Teatr v Rossii pri imperatrice Elizavete Petrovne, 120–121; 127; Gozenpud, Muzykal’nyi teatr v Rossii, 211; Mooser, Annales de la musique, 296–303. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-014

152

Appendix 7 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets

(continued) Title

Premiere / Performed in

? Balletto all’inglese con nuovi fuochi artificiali (The Ballet in English Style with New Fireworks)

 February  concurrently with Aleksandr Sumarokov’s tragedy Sinav and Truvor and the comedy Prinuzhdennaia zhenit’ba (The Forced Marriage)

Amore e Psiche (Cupid and Psyche)

unknown

Le feste di Cleopatra (Cleopatra’s Festivities), with Carlo Belluzzi

unknown

Le dame del serraglio / Gospozhi v serale (The Ladies of Seraglio)

unknown

Didone ed Enea (Dido and Aeneas)

unknown

Apollo e Dafne (Apollo and Dafne)

unknown

Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice)

unknown

Le Pandore (Pandoras)

unknown

La fiera di Londra o il giardino dei divertimenti (The London Fair, or Vauxhall)

unknown

Appendix 8 Transcription and Translation of Giuseppe Sarti’s Letter to Theatre Management in Copenhagen and the Draft of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Contract In nomine Domini amen Copenhague ce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Avec ce present contract qui doit valoir autant que quelconque Instrument de cette (Vide capitale) l’on declare; que le S.r Antoine Sacco Danseur et maitre de Danse Italien reste engagé par La Direction Des Spectacles Royeaux, l’Opera et la Comedie, Pour y Danser et y composer les ballets, en commencant dépuis aujourdui jusque à tout le mois de May 1764 avec les conditions suivantes. P°: que le dit M.r Sacco soit obligé de fournir une Danseuse qui doit etre sa Compagne dans la Danse. 2°: que le meme doit composer autant de ballets qui lui sera ordonné par la dite Direction, pour l’Opera et pour la comedie, comme d’y danser et y faire danser sa Compagne des pasdedeux, pasdetrois etc: selon qu’il sera neccessaire, comme aussi dans les concerts, introductions, et finales des dits ballets, et d’assister, et se trouver dans les repetitions neccessaires. En recompense de son talent (ou travail) et de celui de sa compagne uniment, la Direction susdite s’oblige de lui payer deux mille Rixd. courants distribués en quattre portions, savoir 500 le . . . 500 le . . . 500 le . . . Et les derniers 500 aussi tot que la comedie d’après Pacques sera cenée; sans que la Directions susdite soit obligé à d’autres frais de petites chaussures, logements, carorosses, etc. Le tout reste etabli sans aucune autre exception, excepté cependant les cas ordinaires de défense publique, on d’incendie de Theatre que Dieu nous garde. En observation des dits articles nous nous signons _ _ _ _ Ayant en une longue conversation avec Monsieur Sacco, en ayant tiré de lui ses intentions en question, je l’ai prié de le coucher sur papier pour pouvoir les montrer, ce qu il a fait et que j’ai l’honneur de vous envoyer et d’ajouter ici mes refflexions. Je l’ai trouvé à ce qu il me semble fort raisonable, prêt à tout faire, sans ambitions affectée, sçachant vivre, et connoissant le monde. A l’egard de la quantité de balets il ne la fixe pas, ni non plus combien par soirée ni combien de fois par semaine, ainsi la Direction est tout à fait libre là dessus, et n’aura qu’à lui ordonner. Je ne crois pas non plus qu il soit neccesaire de fixer cette quantité dans le contrat, par la dite raison: et il n y a pas à craindre qu il voeille en faire ni plus ni moins de ce que la Direction voudra puisque en peu de mot il explique que le https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-015

154

Appendix 8 Transcription and Translation of Giuseppe Sarti’s Letter

tout doit absolument dependre de la Direction, ce que il faut mettre dans le contrat. Il s’en suit que l’ayant une fois accordé, la Direction pourra avoir conversation avec lui, et lui indiquer le tems qu elle souhaite que les premiers 3 ou 4 ballets soient prets; ainsi du reste etc. Voilà l’usage que l’on tien en Italie a cet egard. Il m’a assuré de bouche qu il tâchera d’epargner autant qu il pourra la depense de nouveaux abits, et qu il espere d’en trouver assez de faits dans la garderobe, selon les relations que je lui en ai donné exepté quand il faudra de certains caracteres dont on aura pas d’habits qu’allors il faudra absolument les faire, mais avec le consentement de la Direction dont elle sera toujours informée a tems comme du sujet des ballets. Il souhaiteroit fort de faire ses ballets comme il a fait ailleurs, et comme l’on fait à present à toutes les courts; c’est que dépuis le commencements jusque à la fin le ballet represente quelque chose de suivi, dont les padedeuse, pasdetrois etc: ont tous trait à l’intrigue, de façon que toutes les parties forment un enchainement neccessaire au tout; et m’a assuré que Danseurs et figurans feront beaucoup meilleure figure de ce qu’ils n’ont fait jusque à present. La demande de bouche etoit plus forte que cela, comme l’on peut immaginer d’un homme qui a joui des appointements de Russie; mais je l’ai reduit a ne demander que simplement le moins qu il pouvoit, et d’y comprendre logement, et tout pour moindre embarras pour la Direction. N.B. à l’avvertissement qu il donne d’une prompte ressolutions à l’egard de faire venir une danseuse; nous avons eu bien à parler là dessus: il aime fort sa reputation: il voudroit bien reussir dans ce qu il s’engage: il voudrait avoir avoir une bonne danseuse: mais il seroit au desespoir si elle arrivoit tard. Je comprends aussi que le tems passe et que le voyage est long. Il dit que le tems est encore favorable, mais pour peu qu il s’avvance on risque. Il m’assure que l’intention du projet qu il donne de fournir des ecolier il l’avoit déjà eu avant que j’y en en parlé. La Direction peut voir si cela lui convient. D’ailleurs pour instruire les figurans il ne demande pas mieux, et dit qu il le fera d’une maniere fort douce et tachera de les ammener peu à peu et de gagner leur confiance, pourvu qu la Direction veuille aussi de son coté l’appuyer en peu. [Giuseppe Sarti] By this contract, which must be worth as much as any other instrument of this (vide capital), it is declared that Sir Antoine Sacco, dancer and Italian dancing master of the Management of the Royal Entertainments, Opera and Comedy, shall remain obliged from this day through the whole month of May 1764, to dance and compose the ballets there, under the following conditions. Primo: that the said Mr. Sacco is obliged to provide a female dancer to accompany him in the dances.

Appendix 8 Transcription and Translation of Giuseppe Sarti’s Letter

155

Secondo: that the same must compose as many ballets as are assigned to him by the said Management for the opera and comedy, as well as dance and have his companion dance pasdedeux, pasdetrois, etc. as necessary, as well as to dance at the concerts, prologues and epilogues of the said ballets and be present at the necessary rehearsals. As a reward for his talent (or work) and that of his female companion, the said Management undertakes to pay him two thousand rigsdaler currents, to be divided into four parts, namely 500 the . . . 500 the . . . 500 the . . . . And the last 500 as soon as the comedy is performed after Easter; without the said Management being bound to pay any other expenses for ballet shoes, lodgings, carriages, etc. The whole without any other exception, except, however, the ordinary cases of public defence or fire of the theatre, that God preserve us from. In compliance with the aforesaid articles we ourselves sign _ _ _ _ Having had a long conversation with Mr. Sacco, and elicited from him his intentions in this respect, I asked him to put them on paper, that I might reproduce them forthwith, which he did, and which I have the honour to communicate to you, adding here my thoughts. I found him very reasonable, accommodating, without any affected ambitions, fully versed in the ways of life and the ways of the world. As for the number of ballets, he does not specify, neither how many per evening nor how often per week, so that the Management is entirely free in this respect and has only to instruct him. Nor do I think it is necessary to fix this quantity in the contract, for the said reason. Nor is there any fear that he will want to do more or less than what the Management wants, because he explains with just a few words that everything must absolutely depend on the Management, which must be put in the contract. Once the Management has approved the contract, they can talk to him and tell him when the first 3 or 4 ballets should be ready, and so on. That is the custom in Italy in that respect. He has assured me verbally that he will try to save as much as possible on the cost of new costumes, and that from the reports I have given him he hopes to find sufficient already-made costumes in the wardrobe, except for certain characters for whom there are no costumes available, so that it will be necessary to make them by any means possible, but with the approval of the Management, whom he will always inform in good time of the subject of the ballets. He emphasised that he would like to compose his ballets as he has done elsewhere, and as is done at present at all courts, that is to say, that the ballet should represent from the beginning to the end something consistent with the rest, and that the padedeuse, pasdetrois, etc., should all be in line with the main action, so that all the parts are a necessary consequence of the whole; and he assured me that the dancers and figurants will do this much better than they have done hitherto. His verbal request was higher than this, as can be imagined from a man who has received engagements in Russia; but I persuaded him to ask for as little as he could,

156

Appendix 8 Transcription and Translation of Giuseppe Sarti’s Letter

including lodging and all other expenses, in order to embarrass the Management as little as possible. N.B. on his warning against a quick decision to hire a dancer; we spoke a lot about this: he loves his reputation very much: he really wants to be successful with what he undertakes: he would like to have a good dancer: but he would be saddened if she came too late. I also understand that time is passing and that the journey is long. He says the weather is still favourable, but as soon as it worsens, there is risk. He assures me that it was his intention bring along his pupils before I mentioned. The Management can determine whether this suits them. He also wants nothing more than to teach the figurants and says he will do it in a very gentle way, trying to educate them gradually and gain their trust, provided the Management will also support him. [Giuseppe Sarti]

Appendix 9 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets at the Danish Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in Copenhagen, 1763–1767 and 1785–1786 Premiere

Titles

 September 

De ved en Skovhex hjulpne Elskende (The Lovers Helped by a Wood Sorceress)

 October 

Det nederlandske Skilderie (The Flemish Painting)

 October 

Proserpinæ Bortførelse (The Rape of Proserpine)

 November 

Wauxhall (Vauxhall)

 November 

Det chinesiske Bryllup (The Chinese Wedding)

 November 

Ægypteren (The Egyptians)

 November 

Penge gjør ikke altid fornøiet (Money Does Not Always Make You Happy)

 November 

Hververne (The Recruiters)

 December 

Den jaloux Kosak (The Jealous Cossack)

 January 

De Vildes lykkelige Skjæbne eller Danmarks Vaabenstøtter (The Happy Fate of the Savages, or the Defender of Denmark)

 January 

Den tro Tyrk (The Faithful Turk)

 January 

De forløbne Janiskarer (The Adventurous Janissaries)

 February 

Don Juan

 March 

Procris og Cephale (Procris and Cephal)

 March 

De reisende Bønder (The Travelling Peasant)

 September 

Kjærlighed stærkere end Døden (Love Stronger than Death)

 September 

Postrytterens Bryllup (The Wedding of the Stableman)

 Sources: Thomas Overskou, Den danske Skueplads, 2 (1856), 291–320, 323–333, 335–358, 361–388; 3 (1860), 312–330; Niels Jensen, Dansk Forfatterleksikon. Det kongelige Teaters repertoire 1748–1975, online at: http:// danskforfatterleksikon.dk/1850t/t1850kgl16.htm for the season 16 (1763/1764); https://danskforfatterleksikon. dk/1850t/t1850kgl17.htm, season 17 (1764/1765); https://danskforfatterleksikon.dk/1850t/t1850kgl18.htm, season 18 (1765); https://danskforfatterleksikon.dk/1850t/t1850kgl19.htm, season 19 (1766/1767) http://danskforfat terleksikon.dk/1850t/t1850kgl38.htm, season 38 (1785/1786). Accessed 10 February 2023. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-016

158

Appendix 9 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets

(continued) Premiere

Titles

 October 

Den hollandske Apotheker (The Dutch Apothecary)

 November 

Den Mistænkelige uden Aarsag (Suspicion for no Reason)

 December 

Psyches og Cupidos Kjærlighed (The Love of Psyche and Cupid)

 January 

Laurbærgrenen (The Laurel Branch)

 January 

Maskeraden (The Masquerade)

 April 

Mændene, som bedrages af deres Koner (Men Deceived by their Wives)

 September 

Den uformodenlige Undsætning (The Unexpected Rescue)

 October 

Enken, som søger en Mand blandt fire Nationer (The Widow Searching Four Nations for a Husband)

 November 

Den bedragne Gnier eller Trivelins Skalkestykker (The Miser, or Trivelino’s Impostors)

 October 

Kjærlighed paa Prøve (Love on Trial)

 November 

Paridis Dom (The Judgement of Paris)

 November 

Den bedragne Gartner (The Deceived Gardener)

 January 

Den Chinesiske Handel (The Chinese Shop)

 December 

Den straffede i sit Fald (The Convict and His Downfall)

 December 

Den drillede Moder (The Mother Mocked)

 April 

Generalen til de tre Stjerner (The Three-Star General)

Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets and their Revivals in Warsaw, 1774–1776 and 1779–1780 Titles

Premiere

Date of Revival / Performed in

Die Desertörin (The Female Deserter)

 October 

 January , Olivie, oder die gerettete Tugend  March  Marnotrawca / Der Verschwender  March  La pescatrice  March  Der Deserteur aus Kindesliebe  April  Der Misstraurische gegen sich selbst  April  Der Duel and Die Ankunft des Herrn  June  L’isola d’Alcina  July  Marnotrawca  July  L’isola d’Alcina  July  Małżeństwo niezgodne / Die uneinige Ehe  July  Junak / Der Raufer  July  Der Desertör  October  Marnotrawca  October  Theresse, oder der Sieg der Tugend  October  Małżeństwo niezgodne  November  Tryumf łaskawości / Der Sieg der Sanfmuth  November  L’isola di Alcina  November  L’impresa d’opera  February  Bliźnięta  February  Gracz  February  Der Bettler  March  Bliźnięta

 Source: Ludwik Bernacki, Theatr, dramat i muzyka za Stanisława Augusta [Theatre, Drama, and Music during the Reign of Stanisław August], 2 vols. (Lviv: Wydawnictwo Zakładu Narodowego Imienia Ossolińskich, 1925), 1: 62–65, 71, 74–76, 89–90, 97, 101, 114, 116, 120. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-017

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Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets

(continued) Titles

Premiere

Date of Revival / Performed in  March  Przeszkoda nieprzewidziana / Die nicht vorhergesehene Hindernis

Tyrsis und Chloris (Tyrsis and Chloris)

 January   January  La pescatrice (Goldoni–  January  Staruszkiewicz Piccini)  February  Die abgedankten Officiers  February  Dumny  February  L’amore artigiano  February  La pescatrice  February  Pieniacz / Der ungestümme Forderer

Silvain, oder der Waldmann (Silvain, or the Woodcutter)

 January  Der Democrit

 January  La pescatrice  February  Le serve rivali  February  Il finto pazzo per amore  February  Der Furchtsame  March  Il finto pazzo per amore  March  Staruszka młoda / Die verjüngte Alte  March  Die Kriegsgefangenen  March  Pieniacz  March  Minna vom Barnhelm  April  Il cavaliere per amore  April  Il finto pazzo per amore  December  Der Bettler  December  Pieniacz  December  L’isola d’Alcina  January  La finta giardiniera  January  L’amante di tutte  January  L’isola d’Alcina  February  L’isola d’Alcina  February  Die Einquartierung der Franzosen, oder der Desertör  February  L’amante di tutte  February  Bliźnięta  March  Przeszkoda nieprzewidziana

Don Alvar, oder die traurigen Folgen der Eifersucht (Don Alvar, or the Sad Consequences of Jealosy)

 January  L’amore artigiano

 January  L’amore artigiano  February  Die neueste Frauenschule  February  Le serve rivali  February  Pieniacz  February  L’amore artigiano  February  La fiera di Venezia

Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets

161

(continued) Titles

Premiere

Date of Revival / Performed in

Das Urtheil des Paris (The Judgement of Paris)

 March  Pieniacz

,  March  Il finto pazzo per amore  March  La pescatrice  December  Il finto pazzo per amore

Constantia, oder die strafbar beurtheilte, und endlich für unschuldig erkannte Braut (Constantia, or the Bride Condemned to Punishment and Finally Found Innocent)

 May  Der Postzug, oder die noblen Passionen

 May  Pieniacz  May  Gracz  May  Il viaggiatore ridicolo  May  Il finto pazzo per amore  June  Il viaggiatore ridicolo  June  Il finto pazzo per amore  June  Filozofi rozkonchani / Die verliebten Weltweisen  June  Pieniacz  June  Die Fräulein zum verheirathen  June  Der dankbare Sohn  July  Der Duel and Die Juden  July  Il barone di rocca antica  July  Il finto pazzo per amore  July  Die verliebten Weltweisen

Der verliebte Schutzgeist (The Protective Spirit in Love)

 June  La pescatrice

 July  Die uneinige Ehe  July  La fiera di Venezia  July  L’isola d’Alcina  August  Teresa, albo tryumf choty / Die Teresse, oder der Sieg der Tugend

Die Stärke der Liebe einer Wilden, oder die Undankbarkeit (The Power of a Savage’s Love, or Ingratitude) (in  parts)

 August 

 August.  Die uneinige Ehe,  part  August  Der Sieg der guten Frauen,  part  August.  Das Vormundskind,  part  August.  Der ungestümme Forderer,  part  September  Der Desertör,  part  September  Der Advocat Patelin,  part  September  Der Americaner,  part  September  Der Americaner,  part  September  Der geadelte Kaufmann,  part  September  Der Desertör,  part  September  Der Advocat Patelin,  part  September  Der indianische Witwe,  October  Der geadelte Kaufmann,  part  October  Der dankbare Sohn and Grossmuth für Grossmuth,  part

162

Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets

(continued) Titles

Premiere

Date of Revival / Performed in  October  La schiava (Piccini),  part  October  Pieniacz,  part  October  Filozofi rozkonchani,  part  October  La schiava,  part  November  La Metilde ritrovata,  part  November  Der poetische Dorfjunker,  part ,  November  Il finto pazzo per amore,  part  November  La Metilde ritrovata,  part  November  Pieniacz,  part  November.  L’impresa d’opera,  part  December  Die Fatime, oder das Tributmädchen,  part  December  Der Bettler,  part  January  Soliman der zweiter, oder di dreie Sultaninnen,  part  January  Die Zwillinge

Der Schmidt (The Blacksmith)

 October  Der geadelte Kaufmann

 October  Die indianische Wittwe  October  Die verstellte Kranke  October  Dumny ,  November  L’amore artigiano  November  Der Desertör  December  Die neue Agnese  December  Gracz

Pan und Syrinx (Pan and Syrinx)

 November  Gracz / Der Spieler

 November  Junak  December  La Metilde ritrovata  December  Der Zerstreute  December  Pieniacz  December  La finta giardiniera  December  Tryumf łaskawości / Der Sieg der Sanfmuth  January  Bliźnięta  January  Teresa, albo tryumf cnoty  January  Gracz  February  Il finto pazzo per amore  February  Minna von Barnhelm  March  Der Spleen, oder der eine hat zu viel, der andere zu wenig  March  L’amante di tutti  March  Die neue Agnese and Die junge Indianerin  March  Przeszkoda nieprzewidziana

Appendix 10 Chronological List of Giovanni Antonio Sacco’s Ballets

163

(continued) Titles

Premiere

Date of Revival / Performed in

Der betrogene Geitzige (The Cheated Miser)

 December  La Metilde ritrovata

 December  Der ungegründete Verdacht  January  Der seltsame Spiegel ,  January  Der Bettler  January  Bliźnięta  February  Miłość stateczna / Die beständige Liebe  February  L’amore artigiano  February  L’isola di Alcina  February  Bliźnięta  February  La finta giardiniera  March  Der Spleen, oder der eine hat zu viel, der andere zu wenig  March  Der ungegründete Verdacht  March  La Metilde ritrovata

Die Liebe des Glaucus und der Scylla, oder die Wirkung der Eifersucht der Circe (The Love of Glaucus and Scylla, or the Effect of Circe’s Jealous)

 January  Małżeństwo niezgodne

 January  Der Werber (German comedy)  March  Gracz  March  Il finto pazzo  March  Das grosse Loos

Cephal und Procris (Cephal and Procris) and Der eifersüchtige Böhme (The Jealous Bohemian)

 February  Didone abbandonata

, , , , , ,  March 

Le Mariage Groenlandais (The Greenlandic Wedding)



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Index Adriani, Placido – Selva overo Zibaldone di concetti comici 37 Albizzi, Luca Casimiro, degli 13 Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsar of Russia 7 Amati, Antonio 150 Amurat, Agnese 80 Andreini, Isabella 61 Anelli, Giuseppe 121 Angiolini, Gasparo 118 Anna Ioannovna, Empress of Russia 2–3, 5, 7–8, 10–11, 18, 29, 37–38, 58, 80, 128 Apolloni, Salvatore – Le contese di Mestre e Malghera per il trono. Vedi Gori, Antonio; Farussi Casanova, Giovanna 91 Araja, Francesco 31, 131 Arconati Visconti, Giuseppe Antonio 94 aria 17–18, 20, 22–24, 27–30, 40, 124, 128 Armano, Antonio 9, 131 Articchio, Nicoletto 77 Astrakhan 41 Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland 8 Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland 30, 75, 79, 91, 94 Aumont, Arthur 118 Avolio, Giuseppe 9–11, 15, 34, 98–99, 124, 129–130 Baccherini, Anna 60, 65, 68 Balatri, Filippo 7 ballet 8, 22, 78, 91, 97, 104, 106, 109, 112–115, 117–125, 127–128, 140, 149–151, 153–155, 157, 159 ballet d’action 118, 121–123 Barozzi, Gasparo 149 Bartoli, Francesco 57–58, 76–77, 79, 99, 124 Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de 1, 122 – Eugenie 122 Bellotti, Natale 129 Belluzzi, Anna 149 Belluzzi, Carlo 112, 149, 152 Berlin 9, 21 Bertinazzi, Carlo Antonio 67, 131 Bertoldi, Andrea 77, 95, 129 Bertoldi, Marianna 129 Bessesti, Michał 122 Biancolelli, Caterina 61 Biancolelli, Domenico 41 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751062-019

Bini, Clarice 125 Bologna 64, 66, 147 Bon, Girolamo 132 Bonicelli, Giovanni 89, 91–92 – Pantalon spezier, con le metamorfosi d’Arlechino per amore 89 – Pantalone bullo 89 Bratton, Jacky 38 Brescia 77, 108, 147 Breslau 14, 123 Brigonzi, Caterina 149 Brigonzi, Giuseppe 124, 150–151 – Отецъ солюбовникъ сыну своему или Завороженная табакерка 124, 151 Brogi, Caterina 20 Brunoro, Giuseppe 132 Bufelli, Stefano 9, 131 Buini, Matteo 149 Burgioni, Leonilda 150 Burgioni, Maria 149 Caffani, Luca 129 Calderón de la Barca, Pedro 67, 115 – La dama duende 67 – La vita es sueño 115 Calzevara, Francesco 149 Camati, Maria 112, 149 canevas 37, 64, 66–67 canovaccio. See canevas 37, 41, 64 Canuti, Giovanni Antonio 12 Canzachi, Giovanni Camillo 6, 9, 13–14, 30, 40, 55, 75–79, 86–88, 90–95, 127, 130, 139–143 – Amor non ha riguardi 78, 142 – I matrimoni conclusi nella reggia di Nettuno 78 – Il diavolo maritato 78, 141–142 – Il disertore francese 78–79, 142 – Il francese in Venezia, ingannato da Brighella negl’amori di Colombina finta Dama Romana, con Arlichino, finto servo della Moglie per acquistarsi la Dote 78, 86, 93, 139 – Il francese rapitore deluso di Momola putta veneziana 78–79 – Il francese sposo del proprio amico 78–79, 142 – Il francese studente a Venezia, con Aurelia sua competitrice 78–79 – Il paronzino veneziano fatto comico per amore 78–79, 93–94, 140

178

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– L’avarizia di Pantalone corretta dalla generosità del francese 78 – L’impostura vendicata 78, 140, 143 – La casa invasata da’ spiriti 78 – L’Adulatore 77 – Li due gemelli 78, 93, 139 – L’ubriaco 78, 93, 140 – Monsieur de l’Appetit, nobile per opinione, o povero francese 78–79, 140 – Pantalone mancatore innocente di sua parola 78, 142 Capozza, Nicoletta 47 Carboni, Angiolo 150 Carcani, Giuseppe 113 – Alcibiade 113 Carlson, Marvin 54 Casale di Monferrato 115 Casanova, Giacomo 51, 97, 140 Caselli, Francesco 122 castrato 7, 9, 11, 19, 112, 129–131, 150 Catherine II (the Great), Empress of Russia 2 character comedy 57, 61 Charles VI of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor 14, 76 Chiari, Pietro 87 – La scuola delle vedove 87 Chinzer, Giovanni 12 – La commedia in commedia 12 – La serva favorita 12 – La vanità delusa 12 Cicali, Gianni 12 Cocchi, Gioacchino – Il pazzo glorioso. See Goldoni, Carlo 151 Colavecchia, Lorenzo 26, 90 Colombo, Ferdinando 9, 130 comedy 9, 15, 17–18, 22, 26, 34, 36, 43–44, 49, 54, 59, 61, 64–65, 67, 69, 77, 80, 83, 86–88, 90–93, 97–99, 123–125, 152, 155, 163 comic opera. See opera buffa 12, 112 commedia bullesca 91 commedia a soggetto 59 commedia dell’arte 5–6, 8–10, 12, 15, 18, 33, 38, 45–47, 49, 54, 58, 61, 64, 66–67, 74, 76–77, 87–89, 91, 123–124, 127 commedia di fatica 35 commedia improvvisa. See commedia dell’arte 33 commedia in musica 134 Conti de Sales, Anna 113–114, 147, 149 Copenhagen 1, 7, 21, 97, 116–117, 119–120, 122, 157 Corrado, Gioacchino 12, 19, 22

Cortona 20 Costa, Rosa 80, 111–112, 149–150 Costantini, Antonia 132 Costantini, Antonio 131 Crema 109 Cricchi, Domenico 20–21, 31, 131 Croumann Avolio, Christina-Maria 9, 11, 23, 30, 129–130 Croumann, Elisabetta 129–130 D’Arbes, Cesare 79, 95 Dall’Oglio, Domenico 131 Dall’Oglio, Giuseppe 131 Diderot, Denis 41 – Le père de famille 41 Dima, Francesca 129 Dol, Ignazio 149 dramma giocoso 94 dramma per musica 91, 109, 113 Dresden 1, 8, 20, 30, 37–38, 75–79, 91, 94–95, 111, 139, 142–143 Dreyer, Domenico Maria 9, 11, 129, 131 Dreyer, family 13 Dreyer, Giovanni Filippo Maria 9, 11–12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 23, 129–130 Drusi, Riccardo 74 Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress of Russia 2–3, 111, 114, 128 Erhardt, Andreas Elias 150 Ermano (Ermani), Francesco 14, 30, 129–130, 132 Ermini, Cosimo 129 Ermini, Margherita 129 Fagiuoli, Giovanni Battista 86 Fantasia del (dal), Filippo 129 Fantasia del (dal), Rosalia 129 Farussi Casanova, Giovanna (Zanetta) 79, 91, 95, 131 Ferazzi, Angiolo 150 Ferdinand IV, King of Naples 114 Ferrari, Geronimo (Girolamo) 9, 130, 132 Ferrazzi de Gennaro, Antonia 150 Ferrazzi, Marialuisa 3, 10, 42, 76, 116 Fioretti, Antonio 9, 130 Fiorini, Giacomo 108, 114, 147, 150 Fischietti, Domenico 112, 151 – La ritornata di Londra. See Goldoni, Carlo 151 – Lo speziale. See Goldoni, Carlo 112, 151 Florence 12–13, 16, 18, 22, 31, 46, 58, 94, 124

Index

Focher, Antonio 77 Focher, Marta 68, 77, 95 Folena, Franco 83 Franchi Sacco, Antonia 9, 12, 98–99, 106, 108, 113, 115, 130, 145 Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia 31 Frederick V, King of Denmark and Norway 116 Freeman, Daniel 106 Friedrich Christian, Elector of Saxony 93 Galeotti, Vincenzo 118 Galuppi, Baldassare 112, 115, 151 – Il filosofo di campagna. See Goldoni, Carlo 112 – Il mondo della luna. See Goldoni, Carlo 112, 151 – L’Arcadia in Brenta. See Goldoni, Carlo 151 Garrick, David 97 Gasparini, Francesco 15–17, 134 – Il vecchio avaro. See Salvi, Antonio 15 – L’ammalato immaginario. See Salvi, Antonio 16 – L’astrologo. See Pariati, Pietro 134 Genoa 58, 68, 97, 114 Gentile, Attilio 60 Gherardi, Evaristo 41, 67, 70 – Le théâtre italien 41, 67 Gibelli, Carlo 9, 15, 131–132 Giorgi, Caterina 131 Giorgi, Filippo 131 Goldoni, Carlo 1, 6, 9, 30, 57–61, 64–66, 68, 72–75, 77, 79–80, 83–84, 86–95, 97, 109–110, 112–113, 115, 128, 139–143 – Cento e quattro accidenti in una notte 59 – I due gemelli Truffaldini 59 – I portentosi effetti della madre natura 110, 115 – Il figlio di Truffaldino perduto e ritrovato 93 – Il filosofo di campagna. See Galuppi, Baldassare 112 – Il mondo della luna. See Galuppi, Baldassare 112, 151 – Il Monsieur Petiton 80, 90 – Il pazzo glorioso. See Cocchi, Giacchino 151 – Il prodigo 93, 140 – Il servitore di due padroni 59 – Il Truffaldino ubbriaco e Re dormendo 59 – L’Arcadia in Brenta. See Galuppi, Baldassare 151 – La cascina. See Scolari, Giuseppe 113 – La congiura de’ Carbonari 59 – La donna di garbo 60, 64–66, 68, 73–74, 93, 95, 140 – La ritornata di Londra. See Fischietti, Domenico 151

179

– La vedova scaltra 87 – Le allegrezze in casa d’Arlechino per la nascita del suo primogenito 93–94, 143 – Le trentadue disgrazie d’Arlecchino 59 – Le trentatré disgrazie ridicole d’Arlechino 93–94, 140, 142 – Les fils d’Arlequin perdu et retrove 93 – Lo speziale. See Fischietti, Domenico 112, 151 – L’uomo di mondo 91 – Mémoires 57 – Memorie italiane 59, 66 – Momolo cortesan 69, 88–91 – Momolo disinvolto 91–93, 139, 142 – Momolo mercante fallito 90 – Momolo sulla Brenta 90, 93, 140 – Osmano re di Tunisi 115 – Prologo apologetico alla commedia intitolata “La vedova scaltra” 87 – Truffaldino confuso tra il bene e il male 59 Golinetti, Francesco 77, 79, 88–90, 95 Gori, Antonio – Le contese di Mestre e Malghera per il trono. See Apolloni, Salvatore; Farussi Casanova, Giovanna 91, 140 Gorini Corio, Giuseppe 86 Göttingen 10, 33 Gozenpud, Abram 2, 110 Gozzi, Carlo 31, 58–59, 70–71, 73, 128 – Fiabe teatrali 58, 60 – L’Amore delle tre melarance 70 – L’Augelin bel verde 71 – La donna serpente 71 – Zeim, re de’ geni 71 Guerra, Giovanni Antonio 9, 14–15, 129–130 Hamburg 9, 21, 120 Handel, Georg Friedrich 30 Hasse, Johann Adolf 16–17, 20–22 – Attalo re di Bitinia 21 – L’artigiano gentiluomo. See Salvi, Antonio 16 – La contadina. See Saddumene, Bernardo 17 – La finta tedesca. See Saddumene, Bernardo 16 Hessen-Kassel 120 Hilverding, Franz Anton Christoph 112 Hübner, Johann 8–9, 11, 129–130 Iffland, August Wilhelm 1 Imer, Giuseppe 58, 80 Imer, troupe 58, 88

180

Index

impromptu comedy. See commedia dell’arte 61, 66, 74, 123 improvised comedy. See commedia dell’arte 9, 17, 26, 38, 41, 55, 59, 123 interlude. See intermezzo 5, 9–10, 16–23, 25–26, 29, 34, 54, 63, 98, 108, 112, 127, 133–135 intermezzo 5, 7, 9–10, 11, 12, 15–23, 26, 29, 33, 40–42, 75, 77, 80, 83, 86, 90, 95, 108, 125, 129–130 Janeschi, Gasparo 129, 131 Jeanneret, Christine 117 Kayser, Johann 9, 11, 130 Kayser, Sophie 9, 130 Kinsky, Philip Joseph 9 Kirkendale, Warren 16 Kotzebue, August von 1 Lapi, troupe 14 lazzo 33, 35, 40, 43–44, 46–50, 52, 54, 59, 63, 81, 83, 124 Leipzig 111 Leo, Leonardo – Catone in Utica. See Metastasio, Pietro 113 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim 79 libretto 12, 17–22, 26–27, 29, 37, 83, 91, 105, 109, 113, 115, 134 Limbergher, Gioacchino 77 Lisbon 58, 109 Livorno 13, 22, 68 Locatelli, Basilio – Della scena dei soggetti comici 37 Locatelli, Giovanna 149 Locatelli, Giovanni Battista 110–112, 114, 116, 149 – Il retiro degli dei 112, 151 Locatelli, troupe 112–114, 116 Lombardi, Rodrigo 59, 80, 145 London 1, 7, 20, 30 Lope de Vega (Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio) 36 Lucca 11, 19, 74, 113 Madonis, Antonio 9, 13, 131 Madonis, Luigi 9, 13–14, 131 Madrid 1, 7, 21, 107 Maffei, Scipione 41, 139 – La fida ninfa 41 Malta 107 Malucelli, Carlo 129

Manfredini, Giuseppe 111–112, 150 Manfredini, Vincenzo 150 Marchesini, Santa 19 Marseille 97 Martin, Jean-Baptiste 120 Massi, Antonio 149 Massi, Violante 149 Mazani (Mazary, Manzani, Masani, Massani), Caterina 131 Medebach, Girolamo 74 Medici, family 17 Medvedev, Petr 42 Messeri, Gabriele 149 Metastasio, Pietro 1, 16, 19, 41, 77, 113, 115, 151 – Catone in Utica. See Leo, Leonardo 113 – L’Artaserse 41 – L’impresario delle Canarie. See Sarro, Domenico 16 – La clemenza di Tito 41 – La Didone abbandonata. See Zoppis, Francesco 113, 151 – La Semiramide riconosciuta 41 – Semiramide 113 – Siroe 115 – Viriate. See Ranieri Redi, Giovanni Nicola 21 Milan 16, 22, 58, 114, 122 Mingotti, Pietro 21, 111 Mingotti, troupe 14 Mira, Pietro 14, 20, 30–31, 130–131 Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin 17, 22 Mondini, Tomaso 89, 91–92 – Pantalone mercante fallito 89, 139 Mooser, Robert-Aloys 10, 22, 112–113, 116 Moretti, Pietro 77 Morigi, Pietro 131 Moscow 2, 5, 7–8, 15, 33, 97, 114, 149 Mylius, Christoph 79 Naples 7, 16–17, 21–22 Neiiendam, Robert 118 Nelli, Iacopo Angelo 86 Nioli, Paolo 132 Noverre, Jean-George 118, 121–122 opera buffa 2, 112–113, 117, 121–122, 149–150 opera giocosa 110 opera seria 2, 14, 24, 26, 28–29, 91, 108, 112, 117 Oranienbaum 114 Orlandini, Giuseppe Maria 12, 15–16, 20 – Il marito geloso 16

Index

– Il marito giocatore e la moglie bacchettona 15 – L’ammalato immaginario 16 – L’artigiano gentiluomo. See Salvi, Antonio 16 – Monsieur de Porsugnacco 16 Ortolani, Giuseppe 110 Overskou, Thomas 118 Padua 58, 115 Paganelli, Giuseppe Antonio – La pastorella regnante 105–106 Palavicini, Stefano 134 – Calandro. See Ristori, Giovanni Alberto 134 pantomime 45–46, 124 Pariati, Pietro 134 – L’astrologo. Gasparini, Francesco 134 Paris 14, 42, 58, 67, 113, 121 Parkitna, Anna 121 Parma 30, 108–109, 114 Pasquini, Ludovico 132 Passalacqua (D’Affisio Moreri), Elisabetta 58, 60 pasticcio 22–23 Paul I, Emperor of Russia 31 Pavia 58, 64, 68–69 Pekarskii, Petr 41 Peresinotti, Antonio 132 Perets, Vladimir 10, 33 performance programme 5, 10, 15, 26, 29, 33–34, 36–38, 42, 44–45, 48, 61, 63, 66–68, 72–74, 115, 127 Peri (Pieri), Pietro 131 Perrucci, Andrea 49 – Dell’arte rappresentativa, premeditata e all’improvviso 49 Pertici, Pietro 9, 11–12, 17, 19–20, 22–23, 30–31, 41, 130–131 Peter I (the Great), Emperor of Russia 2, 7 Peter III, Emperor of Russia 114, 116 Piantanida, Giovanni 9, 13, 130–131 Pieroni, Alice 3, 22, 76 Pisa 7 Pistoia 12 Pitrot, Antoine – Centrum virtutum in templo Gloriae 78, 140 Piva, Antonio Maria 132 Poniatowski, Stanisław August, King of Poland 120 Pontremoli, Rosa 60, 132 Porazzisi, Giovanni 14, 130 Portesi Rinaldi, Giulia 132 Portesi, Elia 132

181

Potsdam 20–21 Prague 14, 58, 90, 97, 105–109, 111, 114, 120 Préville, Pierre-Louis 97 Pusterli Piantanida, Costanza 9, 13, 30, 130–131 Raffi Medebach, Teodora 68 Ranieri Redi, Giovanni Nicola 16, 21 – Viriate. See Metastasio, Pietro 21 Rastrelli, Francesco Bartolomeo 15 Resse, Celeste 12, 22 Riccò, Laura 61 Richard Sacco, Johanna 120–122, 147 Rinaldi, Antonio 112, 132 Ristori, Caterina 129 Ristori, Giovanni Alberto 8, 129, 134 – Calandro. See Palavicini, Stefano 134 Ristori, Tommaso 8, 11, 15, 67, 129 Ristori, troupe 8 Ristorini, Antonio 12, 22 Rome 11, 18–19, 41, 115 Rutini, Giovanni Marco Placido 150 Ruvinetti Bon, Rosa 20–21, 30–31, 131 Ruvinetti, Stefano 131 Ryx, François 120 Sacco, Adriana (Gaetano Sacco’s daughter) 6, 9, 12, 18, 46, 55, 57, 98–101, 104–106, 110, 115, 123, 127, 145 Sacco, Adriana (Giuseppe Sacco’s daughter) 108–115, 123, 147, 149 Sacco, Anna Caterina 12, 98, 106, 115, 130, 145 Sacco, Antonio 6, 9, 12, 18, 31, 46, 51, 55, 57–59, 79, 90–91, 93, 97–100, 104–110, 113–115, 123–124, 127, 145 Sacco, family 6, 12–13, 58–59, 76, 98–99, 102, 104–105, 123, 125, 145 Sacco, Francesca 115 Sacco, Gaetano 9, 12, 58, 98–99, 107, 123, 130, 145 Sacco, Gennaro 107 Sacco, Giovanni Antonio 6, 30, 55, 107–108, 110, 112–113, 115–125, 127, 130–131, 147, 149, 151, 153, 157, 159 – Amore e Psiche 113, 152 – Apollo e Dafne 113, 152 – Ballet de Divinité Marines 151 – Cephal und Procris 121, 163 – Constantia, oder die strafbar beurtheilte, und endlich für unschuldig erkannte Braut 121 – Das chinesische Ballett 121

182

Index

– Das Urtheil des Paris 121, 161 – De ved en Skovhex hjulpne Elskende 119, 157 – Der betrogene Geitzige 121, 163 – Der eifersüchtige Böhm 121 – Der Schmidt 121, 162 – Der verliebte Schutzgeist 121, 161 – Didone ed Enea 152 – Die Desertörin 120, 122, 159 – Die Grönländische Vermählung 122, 125 – Die Liebe des Glaucus und der Scylla, oder die Wirkung der Eifersucht der Circe 121, 163 – Die Stärke der Liebe einer Wilden, oder die Undankbarkeit 121, 161 – Die weibliche Deserteur 122 – Don Alvar, oder die traurigen Folgen der Eifersucht 121, 160 – Il balletto eroico 113, 151 – Il ballo da Inglesi 112, 151 – Il ballo degli homini selvatici 113, 151 – Il ballo dell’addio delle matelotti 112 – Il ballo di Psiche 113 – Il ritorno dei marinai 113, 151 – Kjærlighed stærkere end Døden 119, 157 – L’addio dei marinai 151 – La fiera di Londra o il giardino dei divertimenti 113, 152 – La magia di Armida 151 – Le amazzoni vittoriose 151 – Le dame del serraglio 113, 152 – Le feste di Cleopatra 113, 152 – Le Pandore 113, 152 – Orfeo ed Euridice 152 – Pan und Syrinx 121, 162 – Silvain, oder der Waldmann 121, 160 – Tyrsis und Chloris 121 Sacco, Giuseppe 9, 13, 103, 105–109, 123, 130, 131, 147 Sacco, Libera (Gaetano Sacco’s wife) 9, 12, 98, 108, 130, 145 Sacco, Libera (Giuseppe Sacco’s daughter) 108, 110–115, 123–124, 147, 149 Sacco, Maddalena 107 Sacco, troupe 58–59, 64–65, 76, 105, 110 Saddumene, Bernardo 16–17, 21–22 – La contadina. See Hasse, Johann Adolf 17 – La finta tedesca. See Hasse, Adolf Johann 16 Salvi, Antonio 12, 15–20

– Il marito geloso. See Orlandini, Giuseppe Maria 16 – Il marito giocatore e la moglie bacchettona. See Orlandini, Giuseppe Maria 15 – Il vecchio avaro. See Gasparini, Francesco 15 – L’ammalato immaginario. See Gasparini, Francesco 16 – L’artigiano gentiluomo. See Orlandini, Giuseppe Maria 16 Santarelli Buini, Francesca 149 Santini, Gasparo 150 Sarro, Domenico 16, 19 Sarti, Giuseppe 116–117, 119, 153–154, 156 – Cesare in Egitto 119 – Il gran Tamerlano 119 – Il naufragio di Cipro 119 Sartori, Claudio 108, 120 Scala, Flaminio 18, 37, 92, 141 – Il teatro delle favole rappresentative 37 Scarlatti, Giuseppe 115 scenario 26, 33, 35, 38, 41, 47, 59, 61, 66, 72, 76, 86, 90–93, 124–125, 130 Scolari, Giuseppe 113 – La cascina. See Goldoni, Carlo 113 Serman, Il’ia 42 Sersale, Annibale, Count of Casamarciano – Zibaldone di soggetti 67 Seyfried, Ludovica 129 Shakespeare, William – Romeo and Juliette 119 Sipovskii, Vladimir 10, 39 Sopikov, Vasilii 42 Sporck, Franz Anton, von 105 St Petersburg 1–2, 5–11, 14–15, 17–22, 26, 30–31, 33, 35–36, 38–42, 45–48, 51–52, 54–55, 57–58, 61–63, 66–67, 69, 73–76, 78–80, 83, 86, 88, 90, 95, 97–99, 102, 105–106, 110–114, 116, 123–124, 127, 149 Stabili, Alessandra 9, 12, 17–18, 130 Stabilli, Apollonia 130 Stählin, Jacob von 39, 41–42, 44, 113 Starikova, Liudmila 3, 102, 111, 114 Stockholm 1, 116 Strohm, Reinhard 23 Sumarokov, Aleksandr – Sinav and Truvor 152 sylloge. See performance programme 35–39, 41–43, 45, 47–48

Index

Tarsia, Bartolomeo 132 Tesi, Cosimo Damiano (Cosmo Gasparo) 132 theatre programme 37–38, 75, 78, 86, 91 theatres – Ancien Théâtre Italien 41 – Ballroom of the Franciscans 76 – Burgtheater 122 – Comédie-Italienne 67 – Danish Royal Theatre 119, 157 – Hôtel de Bourgone 41 – Kärntnertortheater 14, 76 – Königliche Schloß-Schaubühne 21 – Malá Strana Theatre 106 – Nuovo Teatro delle Grazie 109 – Royal Danish Theatre 107, 116 – Sporck Theatre 14 – Teatro Capranica 18 – Teatro de’ sigg. Accademici 20 – Teatro degli Accademici Risvegliati 12 – Teatro del Cocomero 12, 16, 21–22 – Teatro dell’Accademia Filarmonica 109 – Teatro della Pace 19 – Teatro della Pergola 12–13, 16, 46, 58, 124 – Teatro di Lucca 12 – Teatro di Torre Argentina 19, 115 – Teatro Falcone 68 – Teatro Nazionale della Toscana 31 – Teatro Reggio 115 – Teatro San Bartolomeo 16–17, 19, 21–22 – Teatro San Benedetto 120 – Teatro San Cassiano 11, 16, 19, 113 – Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo 58, 109–110 – Teatro San Luca 58, 77 – Teatro San Samuele 16, 22, 58–59, 64, 66, 69, 75, 77, 80, 89–90, 94, 109–110, 115 – Teatro Sant’Angelo 15, 17, 20, 58, 94, 109 – Teatro Solerio d’Alessandria 109 Tolato, Alvise 149 Toscani, Claudio 21 tragedy 34, 36, 152 tragicomedy 10, 33–34, 115 Trediakovskii, Vasilii Kirillovich 27, 29, 39–42, 44–45 Trotti, Giovanni Battista 16, 134

183

– La preziosa ridicola 134 – Monsieur de Porsugnacco. See Orlandini, Giuseppe Maria 16 Turchi, Vincenzo 113 – Semiramide. See Metastasio, Pietro 113 Turin 113–115, 120 Ungarelli, Rosa 12, 22 urban comedy 89, 91–92 Vanneschi, Francesco 12 – La commedia in commedia. See Chinzer, Giovanni 12 – La vanità delusa. See Chinzer, Giovanni 12 Vendramin, family 58, 77 Venice 11, 13, 15–16, 19–20, 22, 30, 58–59, 69, 75–76, 80, 89, 94–95, 97, 109, 114–116, 120 Verder, Giovanni 129 Verocai, Giovanni 129 Verona 15, 109 Veronese, Anna 67 Vescovo, Piermario 74, 95 Vicenza 109 Vienna 1, 7, 13–14, 76, 97, 120, 122, 125 Vigna, Giovanna 112, 149 Villifranchi, Giovanni Cosimo 22 – Il finto chimico 22 Vinci, Leonardo 113 Viterbo 11 Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1 Vsevolodskii-Gerngross, Vsevolod 39 Vulcani, Bernardo 132 Vulcani, Elisabetta 132 Warsaw 8, 37–38, 74–75, 77–79, 86, 91–95, 112, 120–122, 125, 139–142, 159 Wilbourne, Emily 54 Zanardi, Domenico 9, 51, 130, 132 Zanoni, Atanasio 59, 145 Zolberg, Erasmus 116 Zoppis, Francesco 112–113, 150–151 – La Didone abbandonata. See Metastasio, Pietro 113, 151