performance rather ←21 | 22→than a real one, but it still sheds light on the luxurious environment of opera and the habits of the Venetian audience at the same time.32 Considering expenditure, running opera houses was understandably unprofitable most of the time:33
Three Livres of Venetian money gains admittance into the hall of the opera, thirty Sols a seat in the pit, and the boxes are in proportion. If we compare these poor receivings with the expenses that are necessary for supporting the magnificence of these shows, we may easily account for the losses which the undertakers of the opera sustain; it being impossible that for the four months, during which these entertainments last, the receiving should equal the outgiving; for the Venetian opera begins at soonest in the middle of November, and continues only to the last day of the Carnival.34
Despite such lavishness, or even because of it, the attitude of the Venetians frequently caused indignation. The bad morals of the audience ‒ including fights breaking out in the pit from time to time, due to the custom of impresarios allowing the vacant places to be filled by gondolieri ‒ particularly shocked foreigners, who were accustomed to the elite conditions of court performances. Riccoboni considered the spectators as impetuous people:
The spectators in almost all the cities of Italy are restless and noisy, even before the play begins. In their applauses they are violent; and when they would distinguish a favourite poet or actor, they cry as loud as they can Viva-Viva. But if they have a mind to damn the one, or hiss the other, they bawl out Va dentro, and very often they make the poor actor feel a further proof of their indignation by pelting him with apples, and loading him with a great deal of abuse.35
Their office on this occasion is to applaud the actors by clapping their hands and shouting like madmen. I won’t express […] what terms they use, when they congratulate the women.36
Benedetto Marcello, the author of the famous satirical pamphlet Il teatro alla moda (1720), and the greatest connoisseur of Venetian operatic life, portrayed the audience’s habits similarly:
←22 | 23→
Every night the impresario will hand out free tickets to his doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, barber, carpenter, and their business partners; also to his friends with their families. Thus the theater will never look empty. For the same reason he will ask all singers, the conductor, the instrumentalists, the bear, and the extras likewise to bring along each night five or six friends who will be admitted without tickets.37
They [Members of Society] will buy their tickets “on approval” and they will leave every night after fifteen minutes [and redeem their tickets]. Thus they can see the entire opera within twelve evenings. They will go to the comedy because it costs less than the opera; and if they should go to the latter they will pay no attention, not even during a first night, except perhaps during a few bars of the prima donna’s aria, or during the scene with the lightning or thunderstorm. They will court Virtuosi of either sex because thus they hope to obtain some free tickets.38
The disinterest of the public concerning recitatives was also recorded by De Brosses and De Villeneuve. Within the framework of formal vocal instruction, the declamatory style of recitative played an important role, as Giambattista Mancini reports. Like every good work, it required time, and the short notice of the Venetian productions greatly limited the possibilities for learning and interpreting recitatives appropriately:
“Is it surprising” Tartini said to me one day, “that most of the time our recitatives are worthless, since the composer works only in a hurry on the declamation?” As for me, I forgive them, now that the audience is so much in the habit of not listening to recitative.39
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As for the recitatives, they [the singers] do not take the trouble to study them, a fleeting glance suffices; they are content to repeat only what the prompter reads loudly to them, and the harpsichord keeps them in the key. They hold five or six rehearsals and in less than a month the opera appears on stage.40
Venetian opera houses of the early eighteenth century, with a general audience capacity of 1,400 persons, were differentiated by rank depending on which noble family owned them.41 This was a question of prestige and wealth rather than performance quality. Top ranking houses such as San Giovanni Grisostomo, where star singers made their appearance, and San Samuele, together with SS. Giovanni e Paolo belonged to the Grimani clan, the most influential family of the city.42 The second row of the pyramid consisted of the Teatro San Cassiano, owned by the Tron family, Teatro di San Moisè, of the Giustinianis, and Teatro Sant’Angelo, owned by the Marcello and Cappello families.43 Composers such as Vivaldi, Francesco Gasparini, and Tomaso Albinoni were congenial with the latter two theatres.44 As far as the number of works per season was concerned, S. Moisè gave the most, followed closely by Sant’Angelo and S. G. Grisostomo.45
Although it lacked sumptuous stage machines, costumes, and scenery, and whilst the more expensive and complex stage sets were reused in several productions,46 ‘people like to go to Sant’Angelo because it is cheap’, asserted ←24 | 25→Giovan Battista Casotti after visiting in 1713.47 Indeed, the tickets cost a third of the price of that of S. G. Grisostomo. Even the costumes and scenery were of modest financial conditions, but they were chosen in good taste and sometimes received appreciation from the audience.48 Michael Talbot states that Sant’Angelo actually presented a high artistic quality, which made it competitive with the most famous Venetian houses.49 Not only that: as he further observes, ‘Sant’Angelo specialised in discovering, nurturing and retaining (for as long as its resources permitted) new talent and inaugurating new trends’.50 In this regard, it was a perfect match for Vivaldi, who was very much interested in scouting for unknown voices and helping to start the careers of young singers, of which Strada is one of the best examples (apart from Merighi, Margherita Giacomazzi, and, of course, Anna Girò and others), and was himself looking for new and innovative ways of composing.51
Also, the variety of plot subjects sparked debate among the theatres: there was a rivalry between S. G. Grisostomo, with its classical themes, and Sant’Angelo and S. Moisè, which offered more ironical and fantastical ones. In a sense, the changing singing styles provoked another war, that between the taste of the ‘Ancients’ and ‘Moderns’.52
The new singing style
A major shift in singing style at the turn of