Io che quasi pastor tra questi boschi

Abstract

Io che quasi pastor tra questi boschi. A Discussion of Two favola in musica-Prologues by Ottavio Rinuccini The essay deals with the famous Florentine author and courtier Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–1621), more specifically with his librettos. Following an outline of Rinuccini’s career as a dramatist in the period 1579–1621, the prologues to his successful La rappresentazione di Dafne (1594/95) and his never performed Il Narciso (1608) are discussed. In both, Rinuccini departs from the standard procedure of having an allegorical or mythological person perform the prologue. Instead, he employs a clever coup-de-théâtre, consisting in the use of real persons, the Roman author Ovid in La rappresentazione di Dafne, and the Roman composer, singer and theoretician Giulio Caccini in Il Narciso. In the first instance, Rinuccini creates an organic connection between the prologue and the following drama since Ovid wrote the text Rinuccini dramatized. In the second play Rinuccini is even more daring, since Caccini (referred to by his well-known artistic alias Giulio Romano) would in fact have been played by himself, as far as we know a unique deployment of a trick now often used in motion pictures.

Keywords

• Ottavio Rinuccini
• Renaissance drama
• early opera
• history of the prologue
• Giulio Caccini
• Ovid