Le ‘convenienze teatrali’: i cantanti nelle caricature di Anton Maria Zanetti
The Venetian engraver and collector Anton Maria Zanetti, quondam Girolamo the Elder, amused himself by caricaturing well known people of his time, above all operatic singers and other figures from musical theatre at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Zanetti’s graphic satire can be considered...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Firenze University Press
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Drammaturgia |
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| Online Access: | https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/drammaturgia/article/view/8159 |
| Summary: | The Venetian engraver and collector Anton Maria Zanetti, quondam Girolamo the Elder, amused himself by caricaturing well known people of his time, above all operatic singers and other figures from musical theatre at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Zanetti’s graphic satire can be considered the visual equivalent of the famous Teatro alla moda by Benedetto Marcello: there are exact similarities between the biting literary portraits of male and female singers by the aristocratic Venetian composer and the figurative caricatures of castrati and prime donne by Zanetti. The works of both, full of hilarious wit and inveterate prejudices, are part of that satirical movement which accompanied the commercial musical theatre from its beginnings. This critical essay analyses some caricatures of the most famous singers of the time by Zanetti, and appraises the importance of the satirizing of the so-called convenienze teatrali shared by Marcello’s Teatro alla moda.
L’incisore e collezionista veneziano Anton Maria Zanetti quondam Girolamo il vecchio si divertì a mettere in caricatura protagonisti del suo tempo, soprattutto cantanti d’opera e altre figure attinenti al teatro musicale del primo Settecento. La satira grafica zanettiana può considerarsi per molti aspetti l’equivalente visivo del celebre Teatro alla moda di Benedetto Marcello: puntuali le corrispondenze tra i graffianti ritratti letterari di virtuosi e canterine dell’aristocratico musicista veneziano e le icastiche caricature di castrati e primedonne di Zanetti. Gli uni e le altre, colmi di arguzie impagabili e inossidabili pregiudizi, rientrano in quel filone satirico che accompagna il teatro d’opera dei circuiti commerciali fin dai suoi esordi. Il saggio prende in considerazione alcune caricature zanettiane dei più noti cantanti dell’epoca, ponendo in valore quella satira delle cosiddette ‘convenienze teatrali’ condivisa dal libello marcelliano. |
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| ISSN: | 1122-9365 2283-5644 |