Two Unknown Cases of Printed Incidental Music in the Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Italian Theatre

Abstract

Francesco Contarini published his pastoral La finta Fiammetta, staged in Padua with a set of intermedi in carnival 1610, under the patronage of Cardinal Scipione Borghese. A second edition (1611) – likewise dedicated to the cardinal – is accompanied by a separate libretto containing intermedi dedicated to Giovanni Mocenigo, Venetian ambassador at the Holy See in Rome. Against the background of the “War of the Interdiction” between Rome and Venice (1606–1607) the political role of these books is evident. The second of the four Intermedi rappresentati nella finta Fiammetta (1611), entitled La lotta di Hercole con la Morte, was set to music in 1624 by Innocentio Vivarino (Madrigali concertati a due e tre voci et a voce con violini e sinfonie) as a monodic composition for Alcestis and Apollo with an accompaniment of two violins.

Keywords

• francesco contarini
• la finta fiammetta
• pastoral drama
• incidental music
• intermedio
• alcestis
• innocentio vivarino