La fine della fascinazione. Il teatro di San Bartolomeo durante il viceregno austriaco

Abstract

Based on archival documents kept in Naples and in Vienna, the text focuses on the last years (1724-1734) on the Neapolitan Teatro di San Bartolomeo, the main opera hous in southern Italy at that time. In spite of the outstanding success fo celebrated musicians and librettists (such as Pergolesi and Metastasio), its life and staging activities seem to have deeply influenced by the institutional contrast which broke out between the Casa Santa degli Incurabili, the hospital in charge of the ius repraesentandi, and the Uditore dell'Esercito, the major spokesman of the government's attempts to control the public stage life and economy. His comptent interest int eh sophisticated structure of the administration system reveals the new contemporary consciousness of the cultural value of theatre, the fundamental discovery of the early eighteenth century Naples after decades of moral condemnation and prejudices against singers, actors and actresses.