Dreaming with Open Eyes examines visual symbolism in late seventeenth-century Italian opera, contextualizing the genre amid the broad ocularcentric debates emerging at the crossroads of the early modern period and the Enlightenment. Ayana O. Smith reevaluates significant aspects of the Arcadian reform aesthetic and establishes a historically informed method of opera criticism for modern scholars and interpreters. Unfolding in a narrative fashion, the text explores facets of the philosophical and literary background and concludes with close readings of text and music, using visual symbolism to create readings of gender and character in two operas: Alessandro Scarlatti’s
La Statira (Rome, 1690), and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo’s
La forza della virtù (Venice, 1693). Smith’s interdisciplinary approach enhances our modern perception of this rich and underexplored repertory, and will appeal to students and scholars not only of opera, but also of literature, philosophy, and visual and intellectual cultures.
Table of Content
List of Figures
List of Musical Examples
Acknowledgments
Introduction
part one. the image of truth
1. Founding Arcadia: The Aesthetics of Verisimilitude and
Buon Gusto
2. Performing
L’Endimione: A History and Reappraisal of
Guidi’s Favola
pastorale
3. Reading the Classics: Intellectual and Cultural Resonances in Gravina’s
Discorso sopra l’Endimione
part two. the truth of representation
4. Reconciling
Icon,
Mythos, and
Tupos: The Role of Images in
L’Endimione
5. Believing in Opera: Visual Modes in Alessandro Scarlatti’s
La Statira
6. Deceiving the Eye: Mirror, Statue, and Stone in Carlo Francesco
Pollarolo’s
La forza della virtù
Epilogue: Constructing Gender and Politics; Queen Christina’s Image
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Ayana O. Smith is Associate Professor of Musicology at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary critical approaches to music and text in seventeenth-century Italian opera.
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