La 'riforma' a Napoli: materiali per un capitolo di storia della ricezione

Abstract

From 1774 to 1785, Naples hosted six different productions of Gluck's 'reform' operas: two of "Orfeo ed Euridice" (both in 1774, but in two different versions and venues), two of "Alceste" (in 1779 and 1785) and two of "Paride ed Elena" (in 1777 and 1779). In the first part, the article collects and discusses all the extant documents about these performances. The second part is a detailed study of the ideas of the Neapolitan theorists about Calzabigi and Gluck. The article demostrates that, even if some authors appreciated specific features of the 'reform', the Neapolitan musical culture was dominated by a more traditional operatic taste.