Il teatro musicale di primo Ottocento nelle considerazioni critiche del nobile dilettante

Abstract

Taking some documents of the noble music amateur Cesare di Castelbarco (1782-1860) as a reference, this essay intends to analyse problems, expectations and opinions of critics and public on musical theatre of the first half of nineteenth century. Starting point are some sonnets published by Castelbarco and some letters found at Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Wien. They are carefully analyzed and his opinions are related to those of leading critics such as Giuseppe Carpani and Andrea Maier, the librettists Luigi Romanelli and Jacopo Ferretti or other key opinion leaders such as Nicola Tacchinardi, Eleuterio Pantologo, Giuseppe Mazzini. This analysis provides thus a complete overview on the opinions on the musical theatre by the public of that time and gives Castelbarco's views full legitimacy for two essential reasons: firstly his remarks are common to those of most critics of that period; secondly because he appears as very competent on the matters he writes on (he was a composer, a performer (violinist) and a focal point for spreading international instrumental music trends through the 'accademie' he organized at his home). This last element appears very clearly, for example, from the letters, in which he discusses technical matters related to orchestral and vocal performances in detail. The analysis provides also a clear classicist profile of Castelbarco: in fact he mentions singers such as Crescentini and Pacchiarotti as an example to consider and express the need for a close linkage between text and music and for clarity of text.
Finally, the essay shows an interesting development on Castelbarco's opinion about Rossini's music. In the beginning (1826), he criticized him as somebody who was corrupting the Italian bel canto. Once Rossini became a reference point of Italian music twenty years later, he expressed appreciation for his genius, composing techniques and melody, as the most important element of music. His judgement was thus in line with Rossini's position at the top of Italian musical landscape at that time.