Un Atto d'ingegno [electronic resource] : a castrato in the seventeenth century.

9780591843095

1998

1 online resource (701 p.)

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A biography of the castrato Atto Melani (1626-1714) offers special insight into the lifestyle and socio-political position of a Seicento singer, particularly a castrato. Specifically, the course of Atto's life suggests that, at least in the seventeenth century, castrati were not as stigmatized as the familiar anecdotes of the eighteenth century might suggest. While Atto's hundreds of letters tell of his early successes as a performer, thereby yielding new glimpses of musical life in a number of European centers, they also show that over time, his activities as diplomatic go-between, court intriguer, and outright spy for many of the important courts of Europe came to dominate his life. Music seems to have served Atto simply as a means of access to society's highest levels; once established in that milieu, he was able to spend the entire latter half of his long life in diplomatic, non-musical pursuits. A consideration of the singer's sexuality further suggests that even in that realm castrati were viewed simply as an exaggeration--although a highly compelling one--of a familiar social type, the effeminate man, a perspective with interesting implications for the interpretation of castrato characters in opera. Finally, an investigation of Atto's extant compositions, all chamber cantatas, produces not only an account of his contribution to this genre, but, in light of his career, reflections on the social functions of these works. Overall, this study confirms the importance of investigating the music and musicians of the seventeenth century in light of their larger social and political environment, of considering the fields of music history, social history, and political history as inescapably intertwined.

Books / Online / Dissertations & Theses

English

July 12, 2011

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 1998.

Yale University.