Tortuous Roads. Tracing Back the Reception Paths of Apostolo Zeno’s Libretto Venceslao (1703–1754)*

Abstract

During the fifty years that mark the historical reception of Apostolo Zeno’s libretto Venceslao (1703–1754), no less than forty-two opera productions based on this text were staged throughout Europe. In most cases, these performances are documented in the form of printed libretti. As far as I was able to establish, the text of Venceslao was reproduced verbatim only once: the Kraków print of 1725 is identical with the Venetian one of 1722. Otherwise, Zeno’s Venceslao was subjected to constant changes; new elements were appearing in the successive versions along with older ones, which led to the emergence of sui generis literary pasticci.

Keywords

• venceslao
• apostolo zeno
• libretto reception
• editions
• literary pasticci