University Press, 1996), 18 and 23‒24.
96 Sixth and seventh leaps are beyond measure. Arias in Strada’s early repertoire (as far as it is available) containing octave or greater leaps are: Vivaldi, La verità ‒ ‘Solo quella guancia bella’ (6; and 2 ninth leaps), ‘Con più diletto’ (4), ‘Tu sei sol dell’alma mia’ (11), ‘Con cento e cento baci’ (2); Vivaldi, Filippio ‒ ‘Scherza di fronda’ (7); Porpora, Semiramide, regina dell’Assiria ‒ ‘Se d’Aquilon’ (10); Vinci, Eraclea ‒ ‘Il ruscelletto amante dell’erbe’ (8), ‘La filomena che piange’ (2); Leo, Turno Aricino – ‘Non so dirlo, e un non so che’ (2; and a ninth leap), ‘La speme lusinghiera’ (9); Sarro, Tito Sempronio Gracco ‒ ‘Vorrei morire’ (5), ‘Straniera donzella’ (1st setting; 5), ‘Pria di lasciarti’ (2); Leo, Zenobia in Palmira ‒ ‘Vuoi ch’io parta’ (22), ‘Al suo amato’ (1), ‘Quando irato il Ciel s’oscura’ (8); Vinci, Astianatte ‒ ‘Al patrio lido’ (2), ‘Piangi pur’ (6), ‘Quel perfido’ (7), ‘Tortorella se rimira’ (2).
97 Portamento, not in its Romantic sense as an audible glide ‒ for which there were two other words in use during the Baroque era, scivolo and strascino, (slur and drag) ‒ but as putting forth of the voice, as it occurs in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century treatises, meaning that the two distant notes were equal in strength and quality and were joined together without a break and with expression (for a detailed discussion see Ch. 5). See Tosi, Observations, 29, 53, and 178‒79; Mancini, Pensieri, e riflessioni, 87, 91‒93; id., Practical Reflections, 108 and 111‒13.
98 The text of the aria from Filippo, re di Macedonia (III/3): Scherza di fronda in fronda / Incerto l’augelletto / Or corre su la sponda / Del chiaro ruscelletto. / Ma palpitante il core / Ha sempre per timore / Perchè fra duri lacci / Non resti il piè ristretto. The text of the cantata: Scherza di fronda in fronda / Incerto l’augelletto / Or corre su la sponda / Del chiaro ruscelletto. / Tutto l’aletta e gode / Ma teme che di frode / Non resti il piè ristretto. (The little bird hops gaily but warily / from leaf to leaf; / now it runs on the bank / of the clear-running brooklet. / But its heart always flutters / from fear / that its foot may be caught / in a cruel snare.) Translation from Michael Talbot, The Chamber Cantatas of Antonio Vivaldi (Rochester: Boydell Press, 2006), 72.
99 Ibid., 128.
100 Ibid., 128‒29.
101 Ibid., 129‒31.
102 Benedetto Pasqualigo, Antigona. Printed libretti (Venice: Marino Rossetti, 1718, 1721, and 1724), I-Mb Racc.dramm.2267, Racc.dramm.2839, and Racc.dramm.0814.
103 The score is preserved in A-Wgm.
104 ‘…e martedì sera andò ancora in Scena à qtto di S. Angelo l’intitolato Il Pastor Fido Tragicomedia Pastorale, che riesce pure di sodisfazione’. (… and Tuesday evening another one has been staged at S. Angelo entitled Il Pastor Fido, pastoral tragicomedy, likewise with satisfaction.) Avvisi di Venezia, 15 February 1720.
105 ‘Servirà l’Impresario a pochissimo prezzo, riflettendo alle molte migliaia di Scudi, che gli costano i Virtuosi dell’Opera, che però si contenterà di Paga inferiore al più infimo di quelli, purchè non gli venga fatto torto dall’Orso e dalle Comparse’. (He should lend his services to the impresario for very little and consider the thousands of scudi that have to be paid to the famous singers. For that reason he should be satisfied with less pay than the least of them); Marcello, Il teatro alla moda. A compositori di musica; id., ‘Il Teatro Alla Moda – Part I’, trans. Pauly, 384.
106 A scudo might have been 12 lire at that time; the worth of a gold ducat (zecchino) was around 22 lire in 1717. See Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 60‒61.
107 Carlo Vitali, ‘Italy – political, religious and musical contexts’, in The Cambridge Companion to Handel, ed. Donald Burrows (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 24‒44: 34; Selfridge-Field, A New Chronology of Venetian Opera, 658; John Rosselli, ‘From Princely Service to the Open Market: Singers of Italian Opera and Their Patrons, 1600‒1850’, Cambridge Opera Journal I/1 (March 1989), 1‒32: 25; Talbot, ‘A Venetian Operatic Contract of 1714’, 31‒32 and 60‒61; Michael F. Robinson, ‘A Late 18th-Century Account Book of the San Carlo Theatre, Naples’, Early Music 18/1 (February 1990): 73‒81: 75.
108 Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 316 and 318.
109 ‘Vivaldi’s operas Arsilda 16, Tito 19, Candace 20 and Verità 20 provided much of the music of Silvia 21. Seventeen Silvia arias were copied in Vivaldi’s aria repository, I-Tn, Foà 28’. ibid., 315.
110 ibid., 319.
111 Cesare Fertonani, Antonio Vivaldi: La simbologia musicale nei concerti a programma (Pordenone: Edizioni Studio Tesi, 1992), 51.
112 ‘Nel suo carcere ristretto / non d’affetto / l’usinguol cantando va. / Col soave dolce canto / piange intanto / la perduta libertà’. Enrico Bissari, La Silvia. Printed libretto (Milan: Giuseppe Richino Malatesta, 1721), 21‒22, I-Mb Racc.dramm.6050 003.
113 La Sig. Anna Maria Strada, sotto la Protezione di S. E. Colloredo Govern. di Milano. Antonio Salvi, Ginevra principessa di Scozia (Florence: Anton Maria Albizzini, 1722), I-Vgc Rol.0599.04; Domenico Lalli, L’amor vince l’odio, overo Il Timocrate. Printed libretto (Livorno: 1722), 6, I-Fn MAGL.21.8.153.1; Sebastiano Biancardi, Il Lamano. Printed libretto (Livorno: 1723), 9, I-Fn MAGL.21.8.235.
114 Michael F. Robinson, Naples and Neapolitan Opera. Oxford Monographs on Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 88‒89 and 155‒56.
115 She used to be the seconda donna to Cuzzoni in London, and embodied Irene in Tamerlano (1724) and Eduige in Rodelinda (1725). Winton Dean, ‘Dotti, Anna Vicenza’, in GMO, accessed 9 November 2014.
116 Salvi, Ginevra principessa di Scozia, I-Vgc Rol.0599.04; Strohm, The Operas of Antonio Vivaldi, 299.
117 Special thanks to Giovanni Battista Graziadio, who drew my attention to these two libretti.
118 Nadia Carnevale, ‘Guicciardi, Francesco’, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. lxi (2004),