Galuppi´s comic operas: Sources, performance, dissemination

This research project aims at delivering new results about the sources, the performances and the dissemination of Baldassare Galuppi`s comic operas. Galuppi`s comic operas are without doubt the most influential and widely disseminated works of the newly established genre of opera buffa in the 1750s and early 1760s. Mostly premiering in Venice, his operas were soon performed in a large number of Italian cities and spread to other countries. Our knowledge about the musical (and other relevant) sources, the early performances, practices of adapting his operas for different cities and venues and the dissemination of Galuppi`s operas throughout Europe is deficient so far. The research project aims at filling this gap in opera buffa research and answering important research questions: a) do musical manuscripts refer to a particular performance and/or a particular surviving libretto, b) how were manuscripts disseminated throughout Europe, who was interested in Galuppi operas and why, c) what was the contribution of opera troupes, impresarios, musicians, or composers in the dissemination of Galuppi`s operas, d) what kind of adaptations were made for specific performances, e) what were the reasons for these adaptations, f) what do manuscripts tell us about issues of performance practice and genre conventions of early opera buffa, g) how does adaptation give evidence of the particular dramatic model (developed by Galuppi in collaboration with his librettist Carlo Goldoni) and its modification in early opera buffa history? The project consists of two parts. The first part aims at generating an annotated catalogue of Galuppi`s opere buffe that links surviving librettos to surviving scores and delivers useful information for further Galuppi research. The second part will situate his operas in various contexts of operatic performance that have been influential in opera research in the past years but have hardly been discussed for Galuppi and early opera buffa (e.g. the institutional prerequisites of operatic performance, the role of the singer and of opera troupes, adaptations and transformations of operas, processes of cultural transfer in Europe, etc). Galuppi`s operas deliver a model of Venetian opera that is viewed as being the one model that caused the dissemination of opera buffa in Europe. An analysis of the particular adaptation practices will modify and differentiate such a view and deliver important results about the genre conception and performance of early opera buffa.