“Virtue (almost) triumphant” revisited: Of Sylphs andSilfidi

Abstract

Swooning heroines, trembling villains bent on revenge, dramatic confrontations in which the forces of evil threaten the innocent and the virtuous-these are some of the elements common to the nineteenthcentury Italian ballets described in Selma Jeanne Cohen's 1964 article Virtue (almost) Triumphant, a survey of nearly 300 ballet libretti housed in the Music Division of The New York Public Library.' Cohen's study of these primary sources provides illuminating glimpses into a repertoire largely unfamiliar to today's balletgoing audience. Her article stresses the heavy preponderance of melodramas in a repertoire also sprinkled with tragedies, pastoral divertissements, and a few comedies. Plot summaries of works such as Sara, o sia II Bardo del Torrente and Colombo, ossia La Scoperta del Nuovo Mondo illustrate the conventions of the Italian melodrama: evening-length productions, often stretching to five acts; narratives set in exotic locations or the distant past with a multitude of costumed extras on stage to provide local color; the alternation of dancing and pantomime passages (much like aria and recitative in opera); an emphasis on elaborate staging and the popularity of spectacular scenic effects (floods, fires, even volcanic eruptions); and plots brimming with reversals of for