The State of Research in Italian Baroque Opera

Abstract

T he accumulation of information on Italian Baroque opera, if one may measure it by comparisons between the encyclopedias of the 1950s, Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart and Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo, and of the late seventies, Riemann and The New Grove, has been progressing unevenly but on the whole satisfactorily. Some progress is being made simultaneously along several fronts. First, new scores have been identified: Helmuth C. Wolff's discovery of Antonio Bononcini's score for Griselda,l Pasquini's score for II Trespolo tutore,2 Alessandro Melani's for II trionfo della continenza considerato in Scipione Africano,3 and others. Checking the above encyclopedias suggests that, slowly, new attributions and titles are being accumulated. For example, Sven Hansell's article, Chelleri, in The New Grove adds some three identifications of collections of arias as particular operas or dramatic genres.4 And the list of scores prepared by Malcolm Boyd in the Alessandro Scarlatti article shows great improvement over MGG's list.5 Second, studies of known scores have brought out those hitherto unappreciated or whose importance was unrecognized. Examples that come to mind are William Holmes' article on Cesti's Orontea and his edition of the score,6 John Hill's study of Vivaldi's Griselda,7 and