Echoes Of Opera In Modern Italian Poetry

Twentieth-century Italian poetry is haunted by countless ghosts and shadows from opera. Echoes of Opera in Modern Italian Poetry reveals their presence and sheds light on their role in shaping that great poetic tradition. This is the first work in English to analyze the influence of opera on modern Italian poetry, uncovering a fundamental but neglected relationship between the two art forms. A group of Italian poets, from Gabriele D’Annunzio to Giorgio Caproni, by way of Umberto Saba and Eugenio Montale, made opera a cornerstone of their artistic craft. More than an occasional stylistic influence, opera is rather analyzed as a fundamental facet of these poets’ intellectual quest to overcome the expressive limitations of lyrical poetry. This book reframes modern Italian poetry in a truly interdisciplinary perspective, broadening our understanding of its prominence within the humanities, in the twentieth century and beyond.

Joyce criticism is a long way from having controlled the treasure trove of manuscript materials in the 63 volume James Joyce Archive. PROBES represents a new effort of incorporating manuscript research into critical concerns demonstrating in a practical manner how genetic work contributes to a fuller and more nuanced appreciation of Joyce's work. The organization of the essays is designed to highlight our two major but interlocking concerns: the nature and theoretical underpinnings of genetic criticism of Joyce and especially of Finnegans Wake, and some of the many ways that theory can be applied to the creative situation reflected in the notes and manuscripts. The questions raised in this volume are both current and important. Like Finnegans Wake itself, the manuscript record, because it is so complete, by stimulating the reader's curiosity and ingenuity, lends itself to a variety of approaches while rewarding specialized knowledge. Here too, as we decipher and transcribe, we are well advised to follow Joyce's advice and wipe [our] glosses with what [we] know. This volume will provide much that is new and of interest for all scholars of Joyce as well as scholars interested in the issues raised by genetic criticism.

Joyce criticism is a long way from having controlled the treasure trove of manuscript materials in the 63 volume James Joyce Archive. PROBES represents a new effort of incorporating manuscript research into critical concerns demonstrating in a practical manner how genetic work contributes to a fuller and more nuanced appreciation of Joyce's work. The organization of the essays is designed to highlight our two major but interlocking concerns: the nature and theoretical underpinnings of genetic criticism of Joyce and especially of Finnegans Wake, and some of the many ways that theory can be applied to the creative situation reflected in the notes and manuscripts. The questions raised in this volume are both current and important. Like Finnegans Wake itself, the manuscript record, because it is so complete, by stimulating the reader's curiosity and ingenuity, lends itself to a variety of approaches while rewarding specialized knowledge. Here too, as we decipher and transcribe, we are well advised to follow Joyce's advice and wipe [our] glosses with what [we] know. This volume will provide much that is new and of interest for all scholars of Joyce as well as scholars interested in the issues raised by genetic criticism.

Leonora Bernardi (1559-1616), a gentlewoman of Lucca, was a highly regarded poet, dramatist and singer. She was active in the brilliant courts of Ferrara and Florence at a time when creative women enjoyed exceptional visibility in Italy. Like many such figures, she has since suffered historical neglect. Drama, Poetry and Music in Late-Renaissance Italy presents the first ever study of Bernardi’s life, and modern edition of her recently discovered literary corpus, which mostly exists in manuscript. Her writings appear in the original Italian with new English translations, scholarly notes, critical essays and contributions by Eric Nicholson, Eugenio Refini and Davide Daolmi. Based on new archival research, the substantial opening section reconstructs Bernardi’s unusually colourful life. Bernardi’s works reveal her connections with some of the most pioneering poets, dramatists and musicians of the day, including her mentor Angelo Grillo and the first opera librettist Ottavio Rinuccini. The second major section presents her pastoral tragicomedy Clorilli, one of the earliest secular dramatic works by a woman. It was apparently performed in the early 1590s at a Medici villa near Florence, before Grandduke Ferdinando I de’ Medici, and his consort Christine of Lorraine, but now exists in an enigmatic Venetian manuscript. The third section presents Bernardi’s secular and religious verse, which engaged with new trends in lyric and poetry for music, and was set by various key composers across Italy.

Through a thematic overview of court culture that connects the cultural with the political, confessional, spatial, material and performative, this volume introduces the dynamics of power and culture in the early modern European court. Exploring the period from 1500 to 1750, Early Modern Court Culture is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, providing insights into aspects of both community and continuity at courts as well as individual identity, change and difference. Culture is presented as not merely a vehicle for court propaganda in promoting the monarch and the dynasty, but as a site for a complex range of meanings that conferred status and virtue on the patron, maker, court and the wider community of elites. The essays show that the court provided an arena for virtue and virtuosity, intellectual and social play, demonstration of moral authority and performance of social, gendered, confessional and dynastic identity. Early Modern Court Culture moves from political structures and political players to architectural forms and spatial geographies; ceremonial and ritual observances; visual and material culture; entertainment and knowledge. With 35 contributions on subjects including gardens, dress, scent, dance and tapestries, this volume is a necessary resource for all students and scholars interested in the court in early modern Europe.

Throughout the early modern period, the nymph remained a powerful figure that inspired and informed the cultural imagination in many different ways. Far from being merely a symbol of the classical legacy, the nymph was invested with a surprisingly broad range of meanings. Working on the basis of these assumptions, and thus challenging Aby Warburg’s famous reflections on the nympha that both portrayed her as cultural archetype and reduced her to a marginal figure, the contributions in this volume seek to uncover the multifarious roles played by nymphs in literature, drama, music, the visual arts, garden architecture, and indeed intellectual culture tout court, and thereby explore the true significance of this well-known figure for the early modern age. Contributors: Barbara Baert, Mira Becker-Sawatzky, Agata Anna Chrzanowska, Karl Enenkel, Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Michaela Kaufmann, Andreas Keller, Eva-Bettina Krems, Damaris Leimgruber, Tobias Leuker, Christian Peters, Christoph Pieper, Bernd Roling, and Anita Traninger.

F. W. Sternfeld examines the role of poets and composers in establishing the new genre of opera in northern Italy around 1600. He discusses the problems of sung drama, particularly the required happy ending and its foil, the lament, and highlights the enduring appeal, from Poliziano through toMonteverdi, to Stravinsky, of the story of Orpheus the divine singer.