On the road with the “suitcase aria”: The transmission of borrowed arias in late seventeenth‐century Italian opera revivals

Abstract

Abstract The “suitcase aria” tradition, in which singers introduce arias they have sung in one opera into another, is familiar from eighteenth‐century satires and is often considered proof of the “decadence” of Italian Baroque opera. This paper reinterprets this view, demonstrating that suitcase arias were actually rare in the late seventeenth century. Although arias were frequently borrowed, the modes of transmission were more diverse than the “suitcase” model implies. The paper identifies one singer who probably served as an “aria broker,” and presents singers as vital participants in the production and dissemination of opera in the seventeenth century.