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References

^[*] Valeria Conti is responsible for Parts 1 and 4 and Appendix 1, Nicola Usula for Parts 2 and 3 and Appendix 3. They worked together on the Introduction, Conclusions, and Appendix 2.

Valeria Conti (valeriaconti91@gmail.com) is a PhD candidate at the University of Fribourg, where she works with Nicola Usula and Andrea Garavaglia on the Swiss National Science Foundation project L’opera italiana oltre le Alpi: la collezione di partiture e libretti di Leopoldo I a Vienna (1640–1705). Her research focuses on dramaturgy and philology of seventeenth-century opera. She completed her first PhD at the University of Bologna with a thesis on La Semirami by Giovanni Andrea Moniglia and Antonio Cesti, and is currently working on the critical editions of Giasone and Veremonda for the collected edition Francesco Cavalli – Opere (Kassel: Bärenreiter).

Nicola Usula (nicolausula@gmail.com) is a post-doctoral researcher in the field of Italian opera and oratorio in both Italy and Vienna in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His current project is hosted by the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Among his principal contributions on musical dramaturgy, philology, codicology, and iconography are “Il carceriere di sé medesimo” di Lodovico Adimari e Alessandro Melani (Pisa: Pacini, 2019); La finta pazza by Francesco Sacrati (facs. ed., Milan: Ricordi, 2018); L’Orione by Francesco Cavalli (critical ed., Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2015, with Davide Daolmi); Il novello Giasone by Francesco Cavalli and Alessandro Stradella (facs. ed., Milan: Ricordi, 2013); and the multi-authored catalog I ritratti del Museo della Musica di Bologna, by Lorenzo Bianconi et al. (Florence: Olschki, 2018), which received the Claire Brook Award in 2019. In 2020 Nicola Usula was awarded the “Antonio Feltrinelli Giovani” prize in the category “Storia e Cultura della Musica,” by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome.

^[1] For the history of early opera in Naples, see Benedetto Croce, I teatri di Napoli del secolo XV–XVIII (Naples: Pierro, 1891; reprint, ed. G. Galasso, Milan: Adelphi, 1992); Ulisse Prota-Giurleo, Il teatro di corte del Palazzo Reale di Napoli (Naples: n.p., 1952); Prota-Giurleo, Francesco Cirillo e l’introduzione del melodramma a Napoli (Grumo Nevano: n.p., 1952); Lorenzo Bianconi and Thomas Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda: storie di Febiarmonici,” Rivista italiana di musicologia 10 (1975): 379–454; Lorenzo Bianconi, “Funktionen des Operntheaters in Neapel vor 1700 und die Rolle Alessandro Scarlattis,” in Colloquium Alessandro Scarlatti, Würzburg 1975, ed. Wolfgang Osthoff and Jutta Ruile-Dronke (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1979), 13–111, 220–27 (with a chronology of the operas in the appendix); Domenico Antonio D’Alessandro, “La musica a Napoli nel secolo XVII attraverso gli avvisi e i giornali,” in Musica e cultura a Napoli dal XV al XIX secolo, ed. Lorenzo Bianconi and Renato Bossa (Florence: Olschki, 1983), 145–64; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli dal 1650 al 1670,” in Seicento napoletano: Arte, costume, ambiente, ed. Roberto Pane (Milan: Edizioni di Comunità, 1984), 409–30, 543–49; Dinko Fabris, Music in Seventeenth-Century Naples: Francesco Provenzale (1624–1704) (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007); Louise K. Stein, “ ‘Para restaurar el nombre que han perdido estas Comedias’: The Marquis del Carpio, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Opera Revision in Naples,” in Fiesta y ceremonia en la corte virreinal de Nápoles (siglos XVI y XVII), ed. Giuseppe Galasso, José Vicente Quirante, and José-Luis Colomer (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2013), 415–46; Nicola Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza”: Un dramma veneziano in viaggio nell’Europa del Seicento (Florence: Olschki, forthcoming).

^[2] Giuseppe Galasso, Storia del Regno di Napoli, vol. 3: Il Mezzogiorno spagnolo e Austriaco (1622–1734), Storia d’Italia 15/3 (Turin: UTET, 2006), 483–88, 512–52; Galasso, Napoli spagnola dopo Masaniello (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2005), 3–26; Ana Minguito Palomares, “Linaje, poder y cultura: el gobierno de Íñigo Vélez de Guevara, VIII Conde Oñate, en Nápoles (1648–1653)” (PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2002); Minguito Palomares, Nápoles y el virrey Conde de Oñate: La estrategia del poder y el resurgir del reino (1648–1653) (Madrid: Sílex, 2011).

^[3] Carlo Celano, Delle notizie del bello, dell’antico e del curioso della città di Napoli (Naples: Giacomo Raillard, 1692), vol. [5]: Giornata Quinta, 25; Domenico Antonio Parrino, Teatro eroico e politico de’ governi del Regno di Napoli (Naples: Parrino-Mutii, 1692), 2:460, quoted in Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 388.

^[4] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 397–405. On Curzio Manara and his activity see Sergio Monaldini, s. v. “Manara, Curzio,” in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 68:410–12 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2006); and Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.” The Discordati had actually performed some other works in Naples before Didone, but this was recorded in only one document, dated 27 September 1650: “after performing various operas in this royal palace they are preparing one more titled Troia distrutta [i.e., Didone]” (“dopo aver recitato diverse commedie in musica in questo real palazzo ne preparano un’altra intitolata Troia distrutta”). See D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 412.

^[5] The archival sources report different titles for the opera: Troia distrutta, Didone et incendio di Troia, Didone. See Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 379–80; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 412. The list of the extant sources for Didone is given in Appendix 1.I. For the main studies of this opera see Dinko Fabris, “Didone by Cavalli and Busenello: From the Sources to Modern Productions,” De Musica Disserenda 3 (2007): 137–57; Fabris, “After the Premiere: The Use of Alternative Sources in Revivals of Cavalli’s Operas,” in Readying Cavalli’s Operas for the Stage: Manuscript, Edition, Production, ed. Ellen Rosand (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 33–54; and Gian Francesco Busenello and Francesco Cavalli, Didone, ed. Dinko Fabris and Sara Elisa Stangalino, in Francesco Cavalli – Opere (Kassel: Bärenreiter, forthcoming). We owe a debt of gratitude to Fabris and Stangalino for sharing with us some of the materials they are using for their critical edition. Scene numbers cited in the present work refer to the libretto published by Busenello in his collected edition, Delle ore ociose, parte prima (Venice: Giuliani, 1656).

^[6] [G. F. Busenello], La Didone ([Naples]: n.p., [1650]). For a list of extant copies of this libretto, see Appendix 1.I. The title page and dedication letter are given in Appendix 2.I.

^[7] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 379–80; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 412.

^[8] D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 543, n. 3. On the dual nature of early Neapolitan operas (based on both the court system and commercial management), see Bianconi, “Funktionen des Operntheaters in Neapel,” 18–23. For the production systems of Italian opera in the seventeenth century, see also Lorenzo Bianconi and Thomas Walker, “Production, Consumption and Political Function of Seventeenth-Century Opera, Early Music History 4 (1984): 209–96; Beth L. Glixon and Jonathan E. Glixon, Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth-Century Venice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

^[9] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 380–81; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 412–13, 544 (in particular, nn. 30, 31, and 39).

^[10] Prints indicating two places of publication were somewhat common for Egidio Longo—for instance, Milan-Naples, Rome-Naples, Venice-Naples, and so on (see the online catalog of Italians libraries, https://opac.sbn.it).

^[11] [G. Faustini], L’Egisto (Venice and Naples: Egidio Longo, 1651). A list of extant sources for Egisto is given in Appendix 1.II, while the transcription of the title page of the Neapolitan libretto is given in Appendix 2.II. In the present work, scene and line numbers refer to the edition of the Venetian libretto in Nicola Badolato, I drammi musicali di Giovanni Faustini per Francesco Cavalli (Florence: Olschki, 2012), 48–49, 116–62. The dedication of this libretto, although absent on the title page, could have been printed at signature A2, a now-lost folio that likely comprised the missing pages 3 and 4 (Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” n. 7).

^[12] [G. F. Busenello], Il Nerone overo L’incoronatione di Poppea (Naples: Roberto Mollo, 1651). For an overview of the sources for Poppea, see Chapter 9 below, and for a complete list see Appendix 1.III. Title page and dedication letter in the Neapolitan libretto are given in Appendix 2.III. In this work, every reference to lines or scene numbers for Poppea is taken from the Venetian libretto published by Busenello in his 1656 collection, which is one of the longest surviving versions and is available in a critical edition by Lorenzo Bianconi, in Gian Francesco Busenello and Claudio Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea: facsimile della partitura di Napoli, Drammaturgia Musicale Veneta 2 (Milan: Ricordi, 2011), lxxv–xcvi. A critical edition considering all the poetic sources for Poppea and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria is in preparation by the authors.

^[13] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 381; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 414. Some of the most important extant sources for Giasone are given in Appendix 1.IV. For a complete list of the sources for this opera, see Giacinto Andrea Cicognini and Francesco Cavalli, Il Giasone, ed. Nicola Badolato, Lorenzo Bianconi, Valeria Conti, and Nicola Usula, in Francesco Cavalli – Opere (Kassel: Bärenreiter, in preparation). Scene and line numbers cited in the present work refer to Fabbri’s edition of the second edition of the libretto printed in Venice in 1649: Libretti d’opera italiani dal Seicento al Novecento, ed. Paolo Fabbri and Giovanna Gronda (Milan: Mondadori, 1997), 107–207, 1816–17.

^[14] Monaldini (“Manara, Curzio,” 412) believes Manara to have died before 1652.

^[15] [G. A. Cicognini], Il Giasone (Venice [recte Naples]: Roberto Mollo, 1651). The title page and dedication letter of this libretto are given in Appendix 2.X. It is worth noting that in seventeenth-century Naples, dedications to women were often meant for their male relatives. On this topic see Enrica Bojan and Anna Vencato, “La committenza spagnola in Italia durante la dominazione,” in Il teatro dei due mondi: L’opera italiana nei paesi di lingua iberica, ed. Anna Laura Bellina (Treviso: Ass. Mus. “Ensemble ’900,” 2000), 47–99.

^[16] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 381–82; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 415, 544, n. 63; Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.” Scene and line numbers are taken from the edition of the first Feboarmonico libretto (Piacenza, 1644): Giulio Strozzi and Francesco Sacrati, La finta pazza: partitura in facsimile ed edizione del libretto, ed. Nicola Usula, Drammaturgia musicale veneta 1 (Milan: Ricordi, 2018), lix–lxxx. A list of extant sources for Finta pazza is given in Appendix 1.V.

^[17] Giulio Strozzi, La finta pazza (Naples: Roberto Mollo, 1652). The title page and dedication letter of this libretto are given in Appendix 2.XIII. Bonelli in particular is associated with Finta pazza since he sang the same opera in Genoa in 1647. See Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 403; Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.”

^[19] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 382–83; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 415. See the description of scenography and balli by the court chronicler, Innocenzo Fuidoro (i.e., Vincenzo D’Onofrio), in Alfredo Parente, ed., Successi del governo del Conte d’Oñatte mdcxlviii–mdcliii (Naples: Lubrano, 1932), 189.

^[20] Luigi Zorzisto [i.e., Giulio Strozzi], Veremonda, l’amazzone d’Aragona (Naples: Roberto Mollo, 1652), 3–6. The title page and dedication letter of this libretto are given in Appendix 2.XV, while a list of the extant sources for Veremonda is given in Appendix 1.VI.

^[21] We owe a debt of gratitude to Lorenzo Bianconi for this information and many other suggestions about Veremonda, its genesis, and hypothetical performances.

^[22] Luigi Zorzisto [i.e., Giulio Strozzi], Veremonda, l’amazzone di Aragona (Venice: Giuliani, 1652), contains a dedication by Balbi to Jacques Bretel de Grémonville, signed on 28 January 1652, on pp. 5–7. We currently have evidence for only the Neapolitan performance of Veremonda. However, a hypothetical Venetian production may be inferred from clues in the libretto printed by Giuliani. On the one hand, although Balbi in the Venetian dedication letter (p. 6) writes explicitly that he had decided not to print an Argomento, after the list of characters and scenes (p. 9) there is a reference to a “distinta relazione nel fin dell’opera” (a detailed account at the end of the libretto). This Argomento dell’opera is indeed printed at the end of the libretto and is addressed to “coloro che nell’udirla o leggerla non l’avessero ben intesa” (to those who did not understand the opera either in hearing or in reading it). Moreover, at the beginning of Act 3, scene 5 we find the caption “Per levar il tedio si sono levati da questa scena molti versi nella musica” (To avoid boredom, many lines in this scene have been left unset to music). Like other passages in Act 3, scenes 6 and 7, these lines are marked with a dot and are mostly absent from the score and the Neapolitan libretto. Finally, one further clue is given by the pieces (a duet and a passage a solo) printed at the end of the Venetian libretto, which were to be added to Act 1, scene 6 and Act 2, scene 8; these pieces apparently document a performative process that could have been related to a hypothetical production in Venice. Despite these clues, however, we have no proof of any Venetian production of Veremonda in 1652 or 1653 (i.e., 1652 more Veneto [according to the Venetian calendar]); nor do we know which theater might have housed it. Nonetheless, the comparison between the texts printed in Venice and Naples suggests that the Venetian one originated in Venice and antedates the Neapolitan text; see Maddalena Vartolo, “La Veremonda di Giulio Strozzi: dall’Arno al Sebeto,” Quaderni di musicologia dell’Università degli Studi di Verona, ed. Francesco Bissoli and Elisa Grossato (Verona: Cierre edizioni, 2008), 51–92. Since we are focused on the textual status of the sources, this circumstance is the fundamental premise of our analysis of the variants evident in Naples, and it defines a relationship of textual succession from Venice to Naples unrelated to the existence of any productions. See the principal studies of Veremonda: Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 387–92, 445–54; Wendy Heller, “Amazons, Astrology and the House of Aragon: Veremonda tra Venezia e Napoli,” in Francesco Cavalli: La circolazione dell’opera veneziana nel Seicento, ed. Dinko Fabris (Naples: Turchini Edizioni, 2005), 147–64; Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.” Scene and line numbers cited here refer to the critical edition of the opera: Giulio Strozzi and Francesco Cavalli, Veremonda, l’amazzone di Aragona, ed. Wendy Heller, Maddalena Vartolo, and Valeria Conti, in Francesco Cavalli – Opere (Kassel: Bärenreiter, in preparation).

^[24] Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 384; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 416. A list of the extant sources for Rosinda is given in Appendix 1.VII^a.

^[25] [G. Faustini and G. C. Sorrentino], Le magie amorose (Naples: Roberto Mollo, 1653). A list of extant sources for this Neapolitan remake is given in Appendix 1.VII^b, while the title page and dedication letter are given in Appendix 2.XXII. On the scenography and balli for Magie amorose, see Andrew Eggert, “Staging the Operas of Francesco Cavalli: Dramaturgy in Performance, 1651–1652” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2014), 117–25; and Nicola Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.” References to scenes and lines in Magie amorose are from the edition of Rosinda (Venice, 1651) in Badolato, I drammi musicali di Giovanni Faustini, 51, 392–429.

^[26] See Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 383–84; Bianconi, “Funktionen des Operntheaters in Neapel,” 48–49; D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 416–17, 545 (nn. 84–87); Fabris, Seventeenth-Century Music in Naples, 155–61; Dinko Fabris, s.v. “Provenzale, Francesco,” in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 85:519–23 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2016).

^[27] D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 417; Galasso, Il Mezzogiorno spagnolo, 549–52. The hypothesis that this last opera could be Il Ciro is found in Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.”

^[30] D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 545–46, n. 103. Leone Allacci states that the Neapolitan Orontea was probably retouched by the local composer Francesco Cerilli (i.e., Cirillo), and the original title page of the extant score held in Naples attributes the opera to him (I-Nc Rari 6.7.11). However, we do not have any information about the extent of his intervention since the score by Lucio has been lost. Leone Allacci, Drammaturgia di Leone Allacci (Rome: Mascardi, 1666), 236.

^[31] For information and bibliography regarding this score, see Appendix 1.III.

^[32] This layout was not a Neapolitan feature since it was quite common in other contemporary Italian manuscripts (the second act in the Venetian score of L’incoronazione di Poppea is also written this way).

^[34] See Mauro Amato, “Le antologie di arie e di arie e cantate tardo-seicentesche alla Biblioteca del Conservatorio ‘S. Pietro a Majella’ di Napoli” (PhD diss., Scuola di Paleografia e Filologia musicale di Cremona-Università di Pavia, 1996–97), 7–9, 76. The correspondence of the watermark was previously reported in D’Alessandro, “L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 544, n. 36. The same watermark is visible in some other manuscripts held in Naples and with Neapolitan origins (as for example I-Nc 33.4.12 I and 33.4.13 I). See the study of Roman watermarks in Alessio Ruffatti, “ ‘Curiosi e bramosi l’oltremontani cercano con grande diligenza in tutti i luoghi’: La cantata romana del Seicento in Europa,” Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music 13, no. 1 (2007), https://sscm-jscm.org/v13/no1/ruffatti.html.

^[35] They share similar C and F clefs, stems and flags of eighth notes and sixteenth notes, and music custodes. D’Alessandro (“L’opera in musica a Napoli,” 544, n. 36) suggests that the two volumes present the same handwriting, but in our opinion they show two different hands.

^[36] Alessandra Chiarelli, “L’incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone: Problemi di filologia testuale,” Rivista italiana di musicologia 9 (1974): 117–51, here 135–37; Ellen Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi: Trilogia veneziana, ed. and trans. Federico Lazzaro (Milan: Ricordi, 2012), 95–104, first published as Monteverdi’s Last Operas: A Venetian Trilogy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 90–99. Wolfgang Osthoff was the first to note the closeness of the text in the two sources, in “Die venezianische und neapolitanische Fassung von Monteverdis Incoronazione di Poppea,” Acta musicologica 26 (1954): 88–113.

^[37] Among the shared variants unique to the Neapolitan sources are replacements and line repetitions such as the following: after Nerone’s line 525, “Quel decrepito pazzo ha tanto ardire?,” Poppea repeats “Ha tanto ardire!”; after Liberto’s line 775, “che non s’ammette in Ciel nume fellone,” the same character repeats line 762, “Mori, mori felice”; and lines 200–1 are shifted, now following line 207. In both sources Act 1, scene 12 starts with Arnalta’s passage at line 600, instead of 608; and lines 927–34 for Petronio and Tigellino, cut in the sources related to the 1643 performance, are reassigned to Lucano and Nerone. They also present some unique word replacements: “beato april di tue palpebre” instead of “beato aprir di tue palpebre” (line 68), “infelice garzone” instead of “infelice ragazzo” (600), “i lumi miei” instead of “i detti miei” (926), “remoti alberghi” instead “remoti lidi” (1416), and “bel viso” instead of “bel volto/bel seno” (1553).

^[38] The scene for the two protagonists was most likely set to music and performed as early as 1643, since it appears in the manuscript libretto linked to the 1643 premiere (the complete one in Udine: see Chapter 9 below) and is quoted in the scenario printed on the same occasion.

^[39] In the Neapolitan libretto, Isifile’s scene is shifted to the beginning of the second act. In the score it is simply copied after Medea’s scene, which is headed “Scena Ultima” (last scene); there is no heading for Isifile’s scene, positioned ambiguously between the last scene of the first act (scene 15, Medea) and the first scene of the second act (Isifile, Alinda). The scene for Isifile is also given as the first of Act II in a manuscript anthology with arias from Giasone, I-Nc 33.4.21, and in later editions of the libretto: Milan (1655), Velletri (1660), Naples (1661, 1667, 1672), and Venice (1661, [1662]). See Amato, “Le antologie di arie,” 91, and Thomas Lin, “Giasone’s Travels: Opera and Its Performance in the Seventeenth Century” (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2015), 96–97.

^[40] For the Parisian performance of Poppea see Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 131–32 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas,126–27); Alessandra Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone: Appunti in margine,” in Busenello and Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea: facsimile della partitura di Napoli, xxv–li, here xxxix–xl; Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.”

^[41] [Cicognini], Il Giasone (Naples, 1651), 8–9; [Strozzi], Veremonda (Naples, 1652), 15–18; [Faustini and Sorrentino], Le magie amorose, 8. The three Neapolitan additions are given in Appendix 2.XI, Appendix 2.XVII, Appendix 2.XXIII.

^[43] In the dedication of Giasone’s libretto (p. 4), the publisher refers to the “armoniosi Accademici” (harmonious academics) who worked on the revival. Manara refers to Didone as staged “sopra armoniche scene” (in harmonious scenes, p. [iv]). In the paratext of La finta pazza, Bonelli calls the opera “fiore poetico armonioso” (harmonious poetic flower, p. [4]); and in Magie amorose’s libretto Balbi mentions the performers, calling them “celebrati Accademici” (celebrated academics, p. [88]). See Appendix 2.X, Appendix 2.I, Appendix 2.XIII, Appendix 2.XXIV.

^[44] [Busenello], La Didone ([Naples], [1650]), [iv]. Dedication letter is given in Appendix 2.I.

^[45] [Strozzi], Veremonda (Naples, 1652), 18; [Faustini and Sorrentino], Le magie amorose, 8. Prologues are given in Appendix 2.XVII, Appendix 2.XXIII. On the use of prosopopoeia in seventeenth-century prologues, see Andrea Garavaglia, “Der ‘Paragone’ der Opernkünste in italienischen Prologen des 17. Jahrhunderts: Sorgen um die Oper als ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’?,” Musica e Storia 17, no. 2 (2009): 253–91.

^[46] In this report Balbi writes that Magie amorose preserves only ten scenes from Rosinda (Act 1, scenes 1–2, 6, 8; Act 2, scenes 2, 9, 10, 12; Act 3, scenes 2–3) while in fact, as noted in Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 384, n. 25, Balbi intentionally underestimated the amount of borrowing from Faustini and Cavalli’s opera. Indeed, many other entire scenes from the original libretto survive in the Neapolitan text (Act 1, scenes 7, 9–10; Act 2, scenes 1, 3, 13–14; Act 3, scene 4), as do some extracts (as for example in 1,3; 2,4; 3,7). Balbi’s letter is given in Appendix 2.XXIV.

^[47] Among the most evident manipulations related to the performances are the cuts to Poppea indicated in the Neapolitan libretto with virgolette (single quotation marks), at lines 156, 197 and 207 (most likely indicating that lines 197–207 were cut), 227, and the line added after 239 (most likely indicating that lines 228–39, or 227 and the 19 added lines after 239, were all cut). On the general manipulative process in seventeenth-century Italian opera see Harold S. Powers, “Il Serse trasformato,” The Musical Quarterly 47 (1961): 481–92; Powers, “L’Erismena travestita,” in Studies in Music History: Essays for Oliver Strunk, ed. Harold Powers (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), 259–324; Lorenzo Bianconi, “L’Ercole in Rialto,” in Venezia e il melodramma nel Seicento, ed. Maria Teresa Muraro (Florence: Olschki, 1976), 259–72; Ellen Rosand, Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991); Jennifer Williams Brown, “Con nuove arie aggiunte”: Aria Borrowing in the Venetian Opera Repertory, 1672–1685 (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1992); 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.

^[48] “I leave quickly …. You, stay here, listen, and await his eventual new orders.” This passage, added after line 142, is given in Appendix 2.IV.

^[49] “Since I am the beloved nurse of both Ottavia and Poppea, and since Poppea is going to become empress, to her I hold firm.” The new passage is given in Appendix 2.V. In the Udine complete manuscript libretto related to the 1643 production, after line 306 in Act 1, scene 5, the name of the character “Nutrice” is replaced by “Arnalta.” This switch seems to suggest that Arnalta’s and Nutrice’s parts were already sung by the same singer in Venice on the occasion of the premiere; however, this could be a simple mistake in the Udine libretto rather than a revelatory clue. Considering the theatrical habit of doubling of roles by individual singers, Magnus Tessing Schneider takes the former position. See Magnus Tessing Schneider, “Seeing the Empress Again: On Doubling in L’incoronazione di Poppea,” Cambridge Opera Journal 24 (2012): 249–91, here 265–66.

^[50] Arnalta: Act 1, scenes 4, 11; Act 2, scenes 12, 14; Act 3, scenes 2, 3, 7. Nutrice: Act 1, scene 5; Act 2, scene 10.

^[51] This hypothesis has already been presented in Alan Curtis, preface to Claudio Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea, ed. Alan Curtis (London: Novello, 1989), v–xx, here xiii. Nevertheless, the Neapolitan score does not unify the vocal ambitus of the three singers: Soldato I sings as a tenor, while the nurses are both written in alto clef. These passages in the Neapolitan libretto suggesting a cast rearrangement are also discussed in Chiarelli, “L’incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” 143, and Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi,102 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 97). Rosand suggests that in Naples Soldato could have sung the part of Mercurio (transposed from bass to tenor in the Venetian score) or Lucano. Moreover, she highlights the transposition from alto to soprano clef of the parts for both Arnalta and Nutrice in the Venetian score, which, according to her, could have been the basis for the merged part for only one nurse in the Neapolitan libretto.

^[52] This line, following line 946, is different in the Neapolitan libretto, where we read a more abstract “Onde lieto men vivo hor tra gli amanti” (I now live, pleased, among the lovers).

^[53] This is a repetition of line 931. See Chapter 9 below for further information on the early version in the 1656 print.

^[55] [Faustini and Sorrentino], Le magie amorose, p. [88]. Contrary to Balbi’s claim in the Letter to the Reader, the character Cillena (“sorella di Nerea,” Nerea’s sister) is not a new addition, since she is also present in the Venetian libretto as Nerea’s lady-in-waiting (“dama confidente di Nerea”). The Letter to the Reader from Magie amorose is given in Appendix 2.XXIV.

^[56] The scores seem to be more conservative and less responsive to the censoring process than the printed librettos: very likely, the sensitive words were sung, even though they could not be read in print.

^[57] Some of the interventions linked to censorship have already been highlighted in Osthoff, “Die venezianische und neapolitanische Fassung,” 97–98; Chiarelli, “L’incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” 143–44; Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 102 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 97–99). The censored passages in the Neapolitan libretto concerning religion and politics (both those introduced in Naples and those inherited from previous sources) are listed in Lorenzo Bianconi’s edition of Busenello’s 1656 printed text, in Busenello and Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea: facsimile della partitura di Napoli, xciv–xcv. On the censoring process in seventeenth-century opera, see Mauro Calcagno, “Censoring Eliogabalo in Seventeenth-Century Venice,” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36, no. 3 (2006): 355–77.

^[58] Line 436: “[you’d better] be mine night and day” replaced with “[you’d better] not tire your feet night and day.”

^[59] Line 628: “What an excuse to touch my cheek!” replaced with “What an excuse to pass over it in silence!”

^[60] Lines 600–1: “I will be your good little wife with all my being” replaced with “you will be rewarded for waiting faithfully in purity.”

^[61] Lines 227, 667, 927, 929 for the first group; 1018, 1276, 1391, 1564 for the second. Replacements and deletions of these “sensitive” words are inconsistent in the Neapolitan libretto for Poppea. For example, the word “beato” is at times omitted (927–29), at others maintained (68).

^[62] Lines 484–86: “e mirando ricupero con gl’occhi | quello spirto infiammato | che nel baciarti, o cara, in te diffusi” (and in seeing [your lips] I regain with my eyes the inflamed spirit that, my dear, I gave you in kissing you) is replaced with “e mirando recupero quegli occhi | che nel baciarti, o cara, in te diffusi” (and in seeing [your lips] I regain my eyes, that, my dear, I gave you in kissing you).

^[63] Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 102 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 97).

^[64] Among the cuts related to the afterlife and spirits in Didone are the last line of Act 1, scene 6 (Creusa’s statement that she is dying); 1,7 with Ecuba and Cassandra; 1,9 including the dialogue between Enea and the spirit of Creusa, his dead wife; 3,8 with the spirit of Sicheo, Didone’s dead husband. Only in one instance is the word “Paradiso” omitted, in 2,12 (highlighted also in Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 104 n. 65; Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 99 n. 65), perhaps because it refers to Didone’s beauty; however, it is untouched in 3,1, where it refers to the real Christian heaven.

^[65] Act 1, scene 5, lines 303–6. Second strophe in the Venetian libretto: “Re: Di colui ch’il mondo fece | s’all’orecchie io fossi stato… | Roldano: Che gl’avresti ricordato? | Re: A dirtel mi riserbo un’altra vece.” (King: If I had been close to the ears of him who created the world… Roldano: What would you have reminded him? King: I will tell you another time.) Replacement in the Neapolitan libretto: “Re: I pensieri ho sì profondi | ch’io vorrei per riformato… | Roldano: Riformar qualche soldato? | Re: …ogni stil, non d’un mondo, ma più mondi.” (King: My thoughts are so deep, that I would like to reform… Roldano: Would you reform [i.e., discharge] some soldier? King: …every style, not of only one world but of many worlds.)

^[66] For this topic see Angelantonio Spagnoletti, Prìncipi italiani e Spagna nell’età barocca (Milan: Mondadori, 1996). Such ellipses are found in lines 216 (“regi”), 222 (“grande”), 619 (“grandi”). Also, the opera’s Neapolitan title, Il Nerone, with its emphasis on the protagonist’s imperial status, has been interpreted as a sign of particular attention to the political environment in Naples (Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 127; Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 122). However, since Il Nerone already appears before the Neapolitan revival—a letter from Paris by the singer Stefano Costa documents it in 1647—in our opinion it might have no particular relationship to the Neapolitan manipulation of the opera.

^[67] Wolfgang Osthoff, “Neue Beobachtungen zu Quellen und Geschichte von Monteverdis Incoronazione di Poppea,” Die Musikforschung 11 (1958): 129–38, here 135–37; Tim Carter, Monteverdi’s Musical Theatre (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 286–96; Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 95–97 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 91–92); Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xlii. See also Tessing Schneider, “Seeing the Empress Again,” 278, where the author hypothesizes that Ottavia’s part was probably expanded in Naples because it was too small for the leading soprano when she no longer sang Drusilla (as in Venice at the 1643 premiere).

^[70] See the cut of line 269, “d’ingiustizia t’incolpo” (I blame you for injustice), in par. 7.4 above.

^[71] Lines 272^3–4: “wallowing in outrage is unseemly for a royal heart.”

^[72] The remark by Deidamia is in her solo scene, Act 2, scene 6, line 860 (repeated at 866). For this parallelism, see also Alan Curtis, “La Poppea impasticciata, or, Who Wrote the Music to L’incoronazione (1643)?,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 42 (1989): 23–54, here 32.

^[73] Lines 946^28–30: “I will make the sword cut the warp of your obscene love, of your foul heart.”

^[75] Tim Carter has highlighted this switch in Ottavia’s character, describing it as “curiously regressive.” See Carter, Monteverdi’s Musical Theatre, 294. On the change in Ottavia’s character in Naples see also Wendy Heller, Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 330–31, n. 7.

^[77] For example, lines 520–23 in the Venetian libretto, “Che gentil damerino! | O com’egli si abbella. | Apri gli occhi, zerbino: | credi, credi per te fatta ogni stella?” (What a fine dandy! See how he admires his own beauty. Open your eyes, fop: do you think that every star is made for you?), were modified in Naples as follows: “Vagheggiatore errante, | o com’egli si abbella. | Apri gli occhi, incostante: | credi amica per te splenda ogni stella?” (What a wandering dreamer, see how he admires his own beauty. Open your eyes, you fickle man: do you think that every star is friendly and shines for you?). “Zerbino” here indicates a fashionable and vain man. See Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, 3rd ed., 3 vols. (Florence, 1691), s.v. “Zerbino,” 3:1827, and s.v. “Attillatura,” 2:166; Lessicografia della Crusca in Rete, http://www.lessicografia.it/index.jsp.

^[79] Lines 1230^20–21: “Son gelosie poco in un re dovute, | e alle corone intentano cadute” (Jealousy is not proper in a king, and can bring down a crown). The aria is given in Appendix 2.XX.

^[80] The revision made in Naples seems to re-establish the moral features that Cicognini gave the two characters in his Celio, where ironic language is limited to secondary roles. Moreover, in the Neapolitan libretto to Veremonda, the number of comic passages for the latter were even increased, as for example with the added strophe for Zeriffo’s aria “Già Delio mi affretta” in Act 2, scene 6, here transcribed in Appendix 2.XIX.

^[81] Among the many examples, some are related to wrong replacements, like the line “di flagello e spelunca il tuo delitto” (and your crime [shall serve you] as torture and as prison, 1419), in which the copyist replaced “delitto” (crime) with “diletto” (pleasure). However, some misunderstandings are more serious, as in the lines “siansi giuste od ingiuste le mie voglie | oggi, oggi Poppea sarà mia moglie” (be my wishes just or unjust, today Poppea will be my wife, 442–43) that becomes nonsensical: “sian di giuste o d’ingiuste la mia voglie [sic!]” (be my one wishes [sic!] of just or unjust women, today Poppea will be my wife).

^[82] For example, in Ottone’s line “Le tempeste del cor tutte tranquilla” (pacify all the storms of your heart, 670), the verb “tranquilla” which is an imperative form directed to Drusilla, becomes an adjective for “tempeste” in the plural feminine form “tranquille” (meaning “all the pacified storms of your heart”).

^[83] This is the case in the line “mentre nel mio giardin dormo soletta” (while I am sleeping alone in my garden, 1289), in which “giardin” is prolonged into “giardino,” even though there is no additional note for the added vowel o.

^[84] For example, in the line “sarà ricchezza e gloria a’ giorni miei” ([Drusilla’s virtue] will be fortune and glory to my days, 1433), the copyist omitted the words “a’ giorni miei”; and in the line “amami almen sepolta” (love me at least when I am buried, 1384) he ended the word “almen” after the first syllable al-.

^[85] This is the case in the line “il passo e ’l core ad inchinarti viene” (my footsteps and my heart come to kneel before you, 62), which in the Neapolitan score loses the subjects and becomes: “ad inchinarti, ad inchinarti viene” (it comes, it comes to kneel before you).

^[86] An example of this process is found in the line “La vaghezza del volto, i lineamenti” (The beauty of the face, and the facial features, 341), in which the score has “del tuo volto” (of your face). Moreover, in the score, the line “regina io son col semplice pensiero” (I am queen only in my thoughts, 207) presents the verb “sono” without the last syllable’s elision; and the line “che di solo silenzio e di stupore” (but [tribute] of only silence and wonderment, 514) omits “solo” (only).

^[87] For this hypothesis see Fabris, “Didone by Cavalli and Busenello,” 145.

^[88] Some of its mistakes are simply typos, but it does also contain some more serious ones like the replacement of the word “labbri” (lips) with “ladri” (thieves) in the line “ma sta de’ labbri tuoi nel bel rubino” (but [my destiny] lies in the beautiful ruby of your lips, 488), and the loss of some entire lines. For example, the line “se Amor, genio del mondo, non provede” (if Love, the genius of the world, would not take care, 1231) ends up being skipped, very likely because of a saut du même au même from the end of line 1230 “prede” (prey) to the beginning of line 1232.

^[89] Some of the interventions in the libretto for Poppea took place in order to clarify or to enrich the meaning of the passages. For example, the subject of the line “e solo il pianto a me bagna la bocca” (and only tears wet my mouth, 570) was replaced by “e ’l salso pianto” (and the salty tears wet my mouth). Similarly, the verb of the line “E qual peccato mi conduce a morte?” (And what sin leads me to death?, 1325) became “condanna” (And what sin condemns me to death?). The end of the line “e dalla lingua è consignato a’ venti” (and from the tongue it is consigned to the winds, 630), is replaced in the Neapolitan libretto by “a’ sensi” (to the senses); and the word “muliebre” (womanly) is replaced with “femminile” (feminine) in the line “abito muliebre ti ricopra” (a feminine dress shall hide you, 1054).

^[90] The main studies of the sources for Poppea are Chiarelli, “L’incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone”; Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi (Monteverdi’s Last Operas); Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone”; Paolo Fabbri, “New Sources for Poppea,” Music & Letters 74 (1993): 16–23; and Lorenzo Bianconi, “Indagini sull’Incoronazione,” in Finché non splende in ciel notturna face: Studi in memoria di Francesco Degrada, ed. Cesare Fertonani, Emilio Sala, and Claudio Toscani (Milan: LED, 2009), 53–72. A synthesis of these works with additions and updates can be found in Nicola Usula, “ ‘Qual linea al centro’: New Sources and Considerations on L’incoronazione di Poppea,” Saggiatore musicale 26, no. 1 (2019): 23–59. See Appendix 1.III for a list of all the sources for Poppea plus the essential bibliography. For names of libraries indicated here by RISM sigla, see https://sscm-jscm.org/submissions/abbreviations-of-libraries-used-in-jscm/.

^[92] The first report of the libretto for sale in Mediolanum Libreria Antiquaria, and the theory regarding the vulgata lectiones I and II for Poppea (which correspond to groups β1 and β2 in Chiarelli, “L’incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone”), are found in Usula, “Qual linea al centro.”

^[93] I-RVI Silvestriana 239; PL-Wn BOZ 1043; I-Vmc Ms. Cicogna 585; I-UDc 55 (fragment of a libretto with a lacuna from the middle of Act 1, scene 4 onwards); I-Fr Ricc. 2817/1. The last has recently been studied in Usula, “Qual linea al centro.”

^[95] Scenario dell’opera reggia intitolata La Coronatione di Poppea, che si rappresenta in musica nel Theatro dell’Illustr. Sig. Giovanni Grimani (Venice: Pinelli, 1643) (copies: I-Vnm Dramm. 3450.11 and Dramm. 910.8), ed. Bianconi, in Busenello and Monteverdi, L’incoronazione di Poppea: facsimile della partitura di Napoli, lxxii–lxxiv; and ed. Rosand, in Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 393–96 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 394–97). The Udine libretto, I-UDc Fondo Joppi 496, was discussed in Fabbri, “New Sources for Poppea,” and edited in Libretti d’opera italiani dal Seicento al Novecento, ed. Fabbri and Gronda, 49–105, 1814–16.

^[96] For example, the presence of Nerone and Poppea in Act 1, scene 4, the absence of Act 2, scene 4 (for Seneca and Virtù), and the absence of the characters Petronio and Tigellino.

^[97] I-Vnm It. Cl. IV, 439 (=9963). See Appendix 1.III for the main bibliography regarding this source.

^[98] Some passages present in the 1656 print and set to music in both scores are absent in the Udine libretto (such as lines 1058–59, 348–60). This means that the manuscript libretto may be missing some of the text sung in 1643, or that in the construction of the two scores’ common antigraph, some lines were restored from an earlier Busenellian text.

^[99] Rosand hypothesizes that the manipulations in the Venetian score in Cavalli’s hand could have affected the Neapolitan performances. See Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 92–99, 106–29 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 88–94, 101–24).

^[100] D-HVl Bibliotheca Regia Hannoverana IV.588a. This libretto was discussed for the first time by Alan Curtis, “Il ritorno di Poppea: A New German Source Provokes Some New Thoughts and Old Arguments,” in Word, Image, and Song, ed. Rebecca Cypess, Beth Glixon, and Nathan Link (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2013), 1:26–32. The date 1655 appears on the title page of the manuscript catalog of the then Hanover Royal Library, where this libretto is listed as “Il Nerone Opera” (“Catalogus omnium librorum,” D-HVI Noviss. 72, fol. 34v).

^[103] Among the most interesting common variants in the two scores, we read “ingannata” instead of “oltraggiata” (“deceived” instead of “outraged,” 302); “gl’andati amori” instead of “gl’andati dispiacer” (“the past loves” instead of “the past regrets,” 653); “estremo” instead of “orrendo” (“extreme/last” instead of “hideous,” 1041); and “moverà” instead of “nocerà” (“it will move” instead of “it will harm,” 1238). The common mistakes are fewer and in general concern simple misinterpretations like “tornerai” instead of “tornerò” (“you will come back” instead of “I will come back,” 188^II), or clearly wrong lines like “or che Seneca è morta” (now that Seneca is dead, 896), with the adjective in the feminine form. Finally, there are some cases related to the aforementioned tendency to unify the suffixes of words that do not concord in the scores, as for example “colpi illustri” instead of the correct “colpe illustri” (illustrious faults, 445).

^[104] We refer to some line additions (two lines after 1128^I, one line after 1241), cuts (1525; and 15–17, enclosed in big brackets in the Hanover libretto), line repetitions (1293 after 1295), and common variants, such as “Per il trono di Giove” instead of “Per il nome di Giove” (“By Jove’s throne” instead of “By Jove’s name,” 1466).

^[105] For example, they both present “Ben tosto? Mel prometti?” (Very soon? do you promise that to me?) instead of the simple “Mel prometti?” (189^I), and the exclamation “ohimé!” instead of a simple “e” (“alas” instead of “and,” 1252). Among the common elements there are some displacements, such as the anticipation of line 793 before line 789, but also common repetitions such as lines 190–91 repeated (with different music) after line 191; and inversions in the same line, as in “mio bene” instead of “ben mio” (my beloved, 995).

^[106] This element was previously highlighted in Osthoff, “Die venezianische und neapolitanische Fassung,” 93–94. In the middle of the century, librettos copied from scores were not rare, and within Poppea’s traditio, we find the same process in the aforementioned manuscript librettos preserved in Udine and Hanover, which, as we will see later, form a textually coherent group with the two Neapolitan sources and the Venetian score.

^[107] Among the most famous variants that the Neapolitan libretto shares with the scores are the words “barba” instead of “toga” (“beard” instead of “robe,” 386); “perturbar” instead of “persuader” (“to perturb” instead of “to persuade,” 523); “riveder l’imperatrice” instead of “visitar/riverir” (“to see the empress again” instead of “to visit/to revere [the empress],” 669); “mi rechi” instead of “mi porti” (both “you bring me,” 735); “sì grande” instead of “sì enorme” (“so big” instead of “so huge,” 1144); and “cor” instead of “sen” (“heart” instead of “bosom”, 1475); “Ma vuo’ saper da te” instead of “Ma vuo’ da te saper” (both “But I wish to know from you,” 1165).

^[108] The scores and the Neapolitan libretto share only two unique cases of repetitions and replacements: lines 172–75 (repetitions of lines 153–56) are postponed to after line 179; lines 277–78 are placed before line 275.

^[109] In this passage, the Udine libretto’s text seems to show an intermediate status between the poetic reading in Busenello’s 1656 print and the musical one, since it presents the original poetic shape updated with some musical elements.

^[110] Nevertheless, in this libretto, albeit in only a few passages, we also find some metric problems related to the number of syllables (both ipometria, too few syllables, and ipermetria. too many syllables). For example, the line “Fulminarti doverei” (I should crush you with a thunderbolt, 1282), in a context of only ottonari verses, becomes in Naples a settenario, “fulminar ti dovrei”; similarly, in a context of versi sciolti the line “Mi par che per adesso” (It seems to me that for now, 875) switches from settenario to ottonario: “mi par ben che per adesso.”

^[111] Among the significant cases of unique conjunctive variants in the Neapolitan libretto and the Venetian score are some word replacements and an interesting common cut. Only these two sources present “vita” instead of “forza” (“life” instead of “strength,” 517); “ch’in questa sera” instead of “che in questo giorno” (“[command him] that this evening he shall die” instead of “that today he shall die,” 528); “minaccianti” instead of “minacciosi” (both “threatening,” 741). Moreover, in Act 1, scene 4 the Venetian score does not present lines 197 and 202–7, and the Neapolitan libretto marks the lines from 197 to 207 with virgolette (single quotation marks), suggesting a cut in that passage, although it was clearly reintegrated from another source.

^[112] The common elements of these four sources are very numerous and significant: as for example the switch between Act 3, scenes 6 and 7, and the presence of line 1325 both in its place and immediately after line 1323. Finally, they share the addition of two lines for Ottavia after line 1496 in her lament in Act 3, scene 6: “Remigate, oggimai, perverse genti, | allontanarmi dagli amati lidi” (“Row, perverse people, take me away from the beloved shores”; this is the reading in Hanover, with slight differences in the Neapolitan sources, 1496^1–2).

^[113] The Neapolitan and Udine librettos share some unique common elements, such as “tremo” instead of “temo” (“I shake” instead of “I fear,” 213), and “delitto” instead of “peccato” (“crime” instead of “sin,” 448). Furthermore, they and the Neapolitan score share some significant variants. For example, they place lines 369–76 after line 347; and they present lines 595–99 for Ottone as in the printed 1656 libretto, though with the omission of line 596, “predestina sé stesso a reo tormento” (“he condemns himself to a painful ordeal”), very likely deleted earlier during the composition of the music.

^[114] The libretto held in Hanover, although closely linked to the Venetian score, often presents variants absent from this score, since it extracted them from a libretto close to vulgata I and to the libretto printed in Venice in 1656. See Curtis, “Il ritorno di Poppea”; and Usula, “Qual linea al centro.”

^[115] For example, only in the scores and in the Naples and Udine librettos do we find “su l’ali vostre/nostre in dolce fantasia” instead of “fate sentir in dolce fantasia” (“on your wings, in sweet fantasy” instead of “make [my beloved] feel in sweet fantasy,” 70); and “acquistare/acquistarsi” instead of “guadagnare” (both “to gain,” 447). These sources also share “Posatevi, occhi ladri” instead of “Occhi ladri, occhi belli” (“rest, oh thieving eyes” instead of “thieving eyes, beautiful eyes,” 1211).

^[116] Similar poetic fragmentation due to the musical treatment is found in lines 104–10, in the dialogue between Valletto and Nutrice in lines 1113–17, and in the passage for Ottone and Drusilla in lines 1139–41.

^[117] The repeated, anticipated, and postponed lines shared by the four sources include line 56 repeated after 59, 194 after 195, 172–75 postponed to follow 179, 850–51 anticipated and repeated after 845, 1040–42 repeated after 1070, and 1170–72 repeated after 1189 (also in the Hanover libretto).

^[118] Similarly, Drusilla stubbornly repeats her lines 1076–77, “Felice cor mio, | festeggiami in seno” (My happy heart, rejoice in my breast) after lines 1139 and 1162 (and, except in the Neapolitan libretto, also after 1080). Moreover, Poppea repeats (although in different combinations) lines 200–1, “No no, non temo no di noia alcuna | per me guereggia Amore e la Fortuna” (No, no, I do not fear any harm: Love and Fortune fight on my side) after lines 210, 215, 221, 230, and 235.

^[119] Compared to the two scores and the Udine manuscript, the Naples libretto restores lines and variants from only the Busenellian family (1656 edition and vulgata I), as for example lines 373 and 1296 (absent only in the scores), and the word “forzate” instead of “costrette” (“[we women are] pushed” instead of “obliged,” 251). In comparison to the group comprising the scores, the Udine manuscript, and the vulgata II librettos, the Neapolitan libretto restores other Busenellian variants. It presents lines 468–81 of Act 1, scene 10 (absent in the other sources), and has “veggio” instead of “miro” (“I see” instead of “I look,” 396), “luce” instead of “vita” (“light” instead of “life,” 865), “d’offendere” instead of “d’uccidere” (“to offend” instead of “to harm,” 1007), “de’ lumi” instead of “degl’occhi” (“of the lights” instead of “of the eyes,” 1012).

^[120] The Neapolitan libretto also shares many elements not only with the Venetian 1656 print (as for example the presence of line 1482), but also with the librettos of vulgata I. In the latter group, for example, it has “Alcun seguace tuo non speri mai” instead of “né alcun de’ tuoi seguaci speri mai” (in the 1656 print) (both meaning “none of your followers shall ever hope,” 22); there is a third reading in the scores and in the Udine, Warsaw, and vulgata II librettos: “chi professa virtù non speri mai” (“he who preaches virtue shall never hope”). This relationship is also documented in Act 1, scene 10, lines 470–75 (absent from the scores, the Udine libretto, and vulgata II). In lines 474–75, the Neapolitan libretto shares with vulgata I the reading “I passaggi de l’anima stillata |e trasformata in nettari amorosi” instead of the one in the libretto printed in 1656, which is very different: “I fervori dell’anima infiammata, | trasumanata in estasi amoroso?” (“And how did the passages of the soul, which are distilled and transformed into the nectar of love, [reach your heart?]” instead of “And how did the fervor of my inflamed soul that transcended human nature in the ecstasy of love [reach your heart?]”).

^[121] While the scores and the Udine libretto displace line 157, placing it after 147, the Neapolitan print presents it in both locations. Sometimes the libretto avoids manipulation in the dialogues (for example, in lines 435–38 and 593–94) as well as some line repetitions (it does not repeat the ending of 1292 after 1293), and it does not present the much-discussed final duet, “Pur ti miro | Pur ti godo.”

^[122] Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xliii.

^[123] For example, in line 251, the Venetian score and the Udine libretto have “siam costrette” (we are obligated), while all the other extant librettos have “siam forzate/sforzate” (we are forced). The Neapolitan score, finally, mixes the two readings into a cumulative “siam forzate, siam costrette,” taking advantage of the repetition in the music. This example is discussed in Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xliii.

^[124] This happens in lines 620, 912, and 1154, where in the whole traditio of Poppea, the Venetian score alone presents the words “all’innocente” (to the innocent one), “ridi” (you laugh), and “le veni” (the veins). In the Neapolitan score we see that the copyist wrote these words but changed the last letter, in order to reach a more correct version (as in the case of “le vene” instead of “le veni”) or simply to match the text to that of another source. In the latter case, this process could even produce mistakes, as for example in the line “se ragiona o ride” (if she speaks or laughs), where the copyist wrote “ridi” (“you laugh,” as in the Venetian score) and corrected it with “ride” (“she laughs,” as in the librettos close to Busenello). However, since he leaves the previous verb conjugated in the second person singular “ragioni” (“you speak,” only in the Venetian score), in the end the two variants are sloppily mixed together and present an erroneous version, “se ragioni o ride” (“if you speak or she/he laughs”).

^[125] Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 101 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 96); Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xxxii, xliii.

^[127] As in the case of Poppea, the results of a sort of hybridization process are also evident in the Neapolitan score of Giasone (I-Nc 20.1.6). Though this score is related to the 1651 production, its text does not correspond to the one in the libretto printed in Naples that year by Roberto Mollo. The score contains evidence of a libretto occasionally serving as an antigraph. After transcribing the notes, the scribe probably needed a different source to read parts of the text that he was not able to decipher, and in some passages this process resulted in incongruities between text and music. The line “Per Isifile bella” (for beautiful Isifile, 482) printed in Venetian librettos in 1649, became “D’Isifile la bella” (of the beautiful Isifile) in the scores and in the librettos related to the revivals (Florence 1650; Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Naples 1651; and so on). The Neapolitan score, however, presents the variant “Per Isifile bella” and shares it with the score held in I-IBborromeo and with the libretto printed in Milan in 1651. Despite the varied line, these two scores share the same notes as the others, which respect the accents of the earlier version, “D’Isifile la bella,” and do not fit the later reading.

^[128] Example discussed in Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xliii.

^[129] With respect to the Venice score and the Udine libretto, the Naples sources, together with the 1656 print and vulgata I, share many variants: for example “non van d’accordo” instead of “non va del pari” (“they do not agree” instead of “do not match,” present also in the Hanover libretto, line 1122), “fiero” (in the 1656 print and in both the vulgatae) instead of “crudo” (“fierce” instead of “cruel,” 1340).

^[130] See Appendix 2.VII, and Appendix 3.I. In the Udine libretto, Busenello’s print, and the librettos of vulgata I, Act 2, scene 7 presents Poppea and Nerone (947–87, starting with “O come, o come a tempo” [in the right moment]; absent from the Venetian score and the Hanover libretto). In the librettos of vulgata II this passage is replaced by an entirely new love scene for the same characters (starting with the line “Cerca, cerca il cor mio” [My heart searches]).

^[133] According to Chiarelli and Rosand, the restoration of preexisting music (in addition to preexisting text) is more probable than the composition of new music over existing text passages. See Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xliii; and Rosand, Le ultime opere di Monteverdi, 104–5 (Monteverdi’s Last Operas, 99–100).

^[134] Line 1594¹: “Come, [let the soul praise and the heart exalt] Venus and Cupid.” See Appendix 3.XVII.

^[135] Chiarelli, “Le fonti dell’Incoronazione di Poppea o Il Nerone,” xliv.

^[136] Lines 595–99: “Alas! Those who trust a beautiful face.” See Appendix 3.XV.

^[138] The title page and dedication letter are given in Appendix 2.XIII. A list of surviving sources for Finta pazza can be found in Appendix 1.V.

^[139] A critical analysis and edition of the text printed in 1641 can be found in Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.”

^[140] [G. Strozzi], La finta pazza, terza impressione (Venice: G. B. Surian, 1644), 5: “Venni volentieri a questa terza impressione della vera Finta pazza perché ho veduto ch’alcuni musici di fortuna l’hanno variamente fatta ristampar altrove e la vanno rapresentando come cosa loro” (I gladly decided to print for the third time the true Finta pazza [pretended madwoman] because I know that some makeshift musicians printed it elsewhere while they staged it, pretending they were its authors).

^[141] For the differences between the version by Strozzi and the one by the Febiarmonici, see Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza.” For an edition of the libretto printed in Piacenza in 1644, see Strozzi and Sacrati, La finta pazza: partitura in facsimile, lix–lxxx.

^[142] The title page and dedication letter are given in Appendix 2.XV. A list of the sources for Veremonda can be found in Appendix 1.VI.

^[143] Nino Pirrotta was the first to suggest that Celio was the archetype for Veremonda. See Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 446. He identified it thanks to an indication in the Venetian print of Strozzi’s libretto, where we read that the opera originated from a “gran naviglio fabbricato già su l’Arno da bizzarro maestro” (a great ship already built on the [Florentine river] Arno by a skillful master); see [Strozzi], Veremonda (Venice, 1652), 5.

^[144] The main alterations that occurred in Naples are the substitution of the Prologue, the addition of some lines in Act 1, scenes 8 (for Delio) and 6 (for Zelemina and Nutrice), the addition of a new aria for the king of Aragon in Act 2, scene 7, and a second strophe for Zeriffo’s aria in Act 2, scene 6, plus some cuts and line adjustments (mainly in the scenes with Callidia and Zeriffo, Act 1, scenes 7 and 10). See the transcriptions in Appendix 2.XVII–XXI.

^[145] Title page and dedication are given in Appendix 2.XXII. Balbi’s Letter to the Reader, [Faustini and Sorrentino], Le magie amorose, [88], is given in Appendix 2.XXIV. A list of the sources for Rosinda and Magie amorose can be found in Appendix 1.VII^a and VII^b.

^[146] For example, the Neapolitan libretto, the Venetian score, and Celio all share common readings such as “partisti” instead of “partimmo” as in the Venetian print (“you left” instead of “we left,” 240); “in marzial conflitto” instead of “in sanguigno conflitto” (“martial conflict” instead of “bloody conflict,” 338); and “vender [la libertà]” instead of “perder [la libertà]” (“sell [the freedom]” instead of “lose [the freedom],” 469).

^[147] This is the case for the readings “pensier donnesco” in the score and in the Venetian libretto, instead of “mestier donnesco” in the Neapolitan source and Celio (“a feminine thinking” instead of “a feminine profession [i.e., activity],” 335); “amazzone vera” instead of “amazzone altera” (“true amazon” instead of “imperious amazon,” 361). The inconsistent presence in the Venetian score of some corrupt readings found in the Venetian libretto suggests that the copyist of the music might have also availed himself of a libretto as an antigraph, as had happened in Naples for Poppea and Giasone. A fuller explanation of these hypotheses regarding the textual tradition of Veremonda is in Valeria Conti, “Un dramma seicentesco ‘ridotto in nuova forma’: la Veremonda di Strozzi e Cavalli,” paper presented at the XXII Colloquio di Musicologia del “Saggiatore musicale” (23–25 November 2018, Bologna).

^[148] For example, in the score and in the Neapolitan libretto we find “amor” instead of the less common word “umor” (“love” instead of “humor,” 315).

^[150] The two sources share many correct versions, such as “inanti” instead of “inante” (both “in front of,” 253), which respects the rhyme with “agitanti” (“crawling [snakes]”), not present in the Venetian libretto; “torvi” instead of the typo “torni” (“take [a prey] from you” instead of “you come back [sic],” 339); “via” instead of the typo “ria” (“way” instead of “guilty,” 381); and “la neve” instead of “le neve” (“the snow,” 1212). Among the alternative versions, the Neapolitan libretto and the Venetian score contain major common variants such as “Quando più sentirò, | caro vin mio, quel tuo sonoro clò?” (My beloved wine, when will I listen to your sonorous gulp again?), which in the Venetian libretto ends with the repetition of the wine’s onomatopoeic sound, “caro vin mio, quel tuo clò clò clò clò?” (“… your ‘gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp’ again?,” 292–93).

^[151] From the score: “Rosinda: Auretta soave | ch’increspi quest’onde: | [l’ar]dor che nasconde | mi renda temprato | su le viscere accese. | Deh, raddoppia i tuoi soffi [il tuo soffio in the libretto], aura cortese. | [Rosinda and Clitofonte] a2: Nell’acque noi siamo, | e pure d’amore | n’abbrucia il calore [e pur d’amor n’abrugia il calore in the libretto] | Non più fiamme o fanciul, non più, non più: | gran foco è gran virtù.” (“Rosinda: Gentle breeze that ripples these waves: the ardor that you hide quenches me in my burning entrails. Go, redouble your breath, gentle breeze. [Rosinda and Clitofonte] a2: We are on the water, yet the heat of our love burns. Stop, flames, and stop, Cupid; a great fire is a great virtue.” Act 1, scene 2, fols. 7r–8r; before line 84 in the libretto.)

^[153] See Fabris, “Didone by Busenello and Cavalli,” 144–45, and Fabris, “After the premiere,” 42–43.

^[154] The Venetian manuscript libretto, I-Vnm It. Cl. IX, 465 =6386, shares with the score an aria (in Act I, scene 7), a comic scene (before 1,10), textual variants, cuts, and displacements of lines. Furthermore, it contains captions and stage directions absent in the other sources, in addition to lines that were likely added for specific performances (for example, twelve lines for Ninfe marittime after 2,5).

^[155] The Florentine manuscript libretto, I-Fn Magl. VII, 129, contains only the Prologue and a fragment of the first act. The text in this source is very close to the one in the 1656 edition, and also presents some elements in common with the text in the score and in the manuscript libretto preserved in Venice (see n. 154); both could represent an early “performative” textual branch of Didone’s tradition. The proximity of all of the sources for Didone to the Venetian production should be defined by their closeness to the 1641 scenario. However, unlike Poppea’s tradition, in Didone’s none of the extant sources presents the structure and contents of the printed scenario, which could have originated from a simple soggetto before the opera was completed by both authors. The scenario lacks scenes that occur in all of the other sources (2,13; 3,2; 3,9; and 3,10). Moreover, although the 1656 edition is its closest source, they do not share the same scene structure, since it often merges two or three scenes of the libretto into a single description (2,1–2 of the libretto are presented as 2,1; 2,7–8 as 2,6; 3,4–5–6 as 3,4). This printed source was investigated for the first time in Ellen Rosand, “The Opera Scenario 1638–1655: A Preliminary Survey,” in In Cantu et in sermone: For Nino Pirrotta on his 80th Birthday, ed. Fabrizio Della Seta and Franco Piperno (Florence: Olschki, 1989), 335–46; and Rosand, Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice, 122–23.

^[156] Among the mistakes in the 1656 edition are “disperato” instead of “dispietato” (“desperate [love]” instead of “cruel [love],” Act 1, scene 3); “rinfresca” instead of “rinfranca” (“refresh [your heart] instead of “strengthen [your heart],” 1,3). Moreover, Busenello’s late print omits the second part of the line “lontan dal greco mare, e l’allontani” (“[shall the wind bring his boat] far from the Greek sea, and shall it distance him,” 1,10), and the lines “I tuoi parti infelici” (“your unhappy births [i.e., sons],” 1,7) and “la corona depongo” (“I dismiss the crown,” 2,12).

^[157] Bianconi and Walker have identified the main differences between the Venetian editio princeps and the Neapolitan libretto for Egisto (Bianconi and Walker, “Dalla Finta pazza alla Veremonda,” 380–81, n. 7). However, among those elements there were some that had already occurred before the Neapolitan revival. The libretto printed in Naples has three entire scenes cut: Act 3, scene 4 (Amore) and 3,11–12 (Ore, Egisto, Clori: already cut in the libretto printed in 1646 in Florence), and aria strophes cut in Act 3, scene 10 (Lidio, Climene); 1,8 (Bellezza, Volupia); and 2,1 (Egisto); the cuts in these last two scenes are also found in both surviving scores, copied in Cavalli’s workshop.

^[158] See Michelassi, La doppia “Finta pazza”; and Nicola Usula, “One More Gem for ‘Isabella’: The Score of La finta pazza in the Music Collection of Vitaliano VI Borromeo,” in Strozzi and Sacrati, La finta pazza: partitura in facsimile, xxxvii–lii.

^[159] In Piacenza in 1644 two different editions were published, and two slightly different exemplars of the earlier edition survive: I-Tferrero, and E-PAbm 67-02-51. The last page of that print presented a list of mistakes to be corrected in the text. The libretto printed in Naples reproduces all but one of those errors without any correction; the publisher in Naples presumably received a copy without that list or did not notice it during the typesetting process. Nevertheless, the Neapolitan source respects the only case of interpolation suggested in the errata corrige printed in Piacenza: the addition of the two lines “Nel convito d’Amor quell’alma è saggia | che, d’un cibo satolla, un altro assaggia” after line 796 (In the banquet of Love, the soul who, although full of a dish, tastes another, is wise). See Nicola Usula, “Introduzione all’edizione del libretto feboarmonico della Finta pazza,” in Strozzi and Sacrati, La finta pazza: partitura in facsimile, lv–lvii.

^[160] Lines 822^1–6: third strophe, “Ohimè, tra pianti e pene” (Alas, among tears and sorrows). Given in Appendix 2.XIV.

^[161] Libretto printed in Florence by G. A. Bonardi and dedicated by the Accademici Ineguali to the prince Mattias de’ Medici. Sources are given in Appendix 1.IV. Although Giasone was staged in Milan in July 1649, the Florentine libretto is the first surviving source printed outside of Venice after the premiere. See Nicola Michelassi, “Le prime tournées del Giasone di Cicognini-Cavalli (1649–1654),” Studi secenteschi 52 (2011): 195–209 (English translation: “Balbi’s Febiarmonici and the first ‘Road Shows’ of Giasone (1649–1653),” in Readying Cavalli’s Operas, ed. Rosand, 307–19); Davide Daolmi, Le origini dell’opera a Milano (1598–1649) (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), 228–32.

^[164] Score preserved in I-Nc 33.6.16. The scene is included in the librettos printed in Milan (1655), Velletri (1660), Naples (1661, 1667, 1672), and Venice (1661, [1662]).

^[165] The libretto printed in Milan in 1660 also includes some of these modifications, but it appears closer to the Venetian libretto printed in 1656.