Il Venceslao di Zeno e Caldara (1725): invenzione del dramma, tradizione del testo, libretto e partitura

This dissertation examines the genesis and the evolution of Venceslao by Apostolo Zeno. In Venice's Library, there is an autograph of Venceslao. This manuscript gave the origin of this research project. I have examined this text together with the libretto of the princeps (Venice, 1703, music by Pollarolo) and the libretto of the successive performance held to the Hapsburg Court (Vienna, 1725, music by Caldara). My aim in this dissertation intended, from one side, to identify the author's different versions and confirm the initial hypothesis which assumed a direct relationship between the autograph and Viennese edition, and furthermore to single out and explain the meaningful changes contained into the libretto prepared for the representation to the Emperor Court. The study has given the chance to identify and pointing out the sources the Venetian poet used. In addition to those indicated directly by Zeno in the libretto 's foreword, we can assert that at the origin of Venceslao there is not only a French tragicomà©die (Venceslas by Rotrou), but a Spanish comedia (No hay ser padre siendo rey by Rojas Zorrilla) and, even if not certain, a Neapolitan remake (Non ਠpadre essendo re by Celano). In addition to the text study, I have analyzed the autograph by Antonio Caldara, kept in Vienna. The transcription has focused links among notes, lines and scenic setting in the cooperation between Zeno e Caldara. Through the analysis of the musical material, I have established the connection between the text and the score and, although Caldara's musical scores are usually uniform in style, in this case he gives a good interpretation of the poetic text. The «chiaroscuro» requirements, demanded by the musical drama's theoreticians and well used by Zeno through the varietas of his arias, resonate in the heterogeneous musical solutions conceived by the composer.