Simonetta Chiappini insieme all’attività di insegnamento di Storia e Filosofia nei licei ha svolto attività musicale come cantante.Ha ideato e condotto spettacoli in collaborazione col Museo Archeologico di Firenze e la Fondazione Toscana Spettacolo ed è membro della Società delle Storiche Italiane. Si interessa in particolare di voce, vocalità e melodramma in una prospettiva antropologica e di genere. Ha collaborato con istituzioni internazionali come il Rossini Opera Festival, il Macerata Opera Festival e la Columbia University. Tra le sue pubblicazioni figurano Folli, sonnambule, sartine. La voce femminile nell’Ottocento italiano (Le Lettere 2006), il contributo sul melodramma negli Annali della Storia d’Italia (Risorgimento): La voce della martire. Dagli evirati cantori all’eroina romantica (Einaudi 2007), inoltre “O Patria mia”. Passione e identità nazionale nel melodramma italiano dell’Ottocento (Le Lettere 2011) e From the People to the Masses: Political Developments in Italian Opera from Rossini to Mascagni in The Risorgimento Revisited a cura di L. Riall e S. Patriarca (Palgrave Mcmillan 2012). Tra gli ultimi studi: Dal castrato alla rock-star (2014), Voce, genere, identità sessuale dall’opera al rock (2015) e Le astuzie amorose. Eros, intelligenza, trasgressione nell’opera veneziana del Settecento Phone: 393290159741
A vision of utopia lights up Faust’s imagination: a state founded on cooperation between free, ac... more A vision of utopia lights up Faust’s imagination: a state founded on cooperation between free, active men: ‘I shall open up a space for many millions of men to live in, not secure certainly, but at least free to work’.1 The old philosopher’s restless searching is thus finally becalmed, and he sees a glimpse of heaven on earth, where men come together to build the future and struggle against natural adversity. Schuman’s music adds hope to this happy vision in his Szenen aus Goethes Faust, one of the most accomplished examples of German musical Romanticism, which he began to compose in 1844. This ideal of freedom permeated the musical universe in the nineteenth century, from Beethoven’s titanic creations to the statuesque composure of Jacobin opera, or the historical frescos of German and French Romantic opera. But, in Italy, the philosophical and visionary dimension of politics was absent. In a country where the gap between intellectuals and society had traditionally been a wide one, opera enjoyed broad popularity2 largely because it was sensitive to both widely held emotions and the actual demands of the theatre business. In opera, politics took the form of patriotic exaltation, for in this period opera was one medium in which the unrest brought about by the social changes in progress at the time could be combined, interpreted and represented onstage in suitably epic form.
Figure femminili scaltre e audaci, progetti amorosi mossi da astuzia e volitività, imprenditorial... more Figure femminili scaltre e audaci, progetti amorosi mossi da astuzia e volitività, imprenditorialità esistenziale ed economica sono i temi ricorrenti della ricchissima produzione di “drammi giocosi” nella Venezia della seconda metà del Settecento, di cui Giovanni Bertati fu uno degli autori più significativi. I suoi libretti, caratterizzati da figure femminili dotate di insolita dimensione erotica e spessore caratteriale, restituiscono con vivezza gli umori del secolo, le trasformazioni del modo di sentire affetti, famiglia, sessualità, fino alle strettoie del passaggio tra Illuminismo ed era napoleonica.
Born in Paris to a family of Spanish singers, Maria Malibran Garcia (1808-1836) became an icon in... more Born in Paris to a family of Spanish singers, Maria Malibran Garcia (1808-1836) became an icon in the European nineteenth century opera scene. She spent most of her short and dazzling life among opera houses across various Italian states. Malibran suffered an unhappy childhood during which she rigorously trained under the merciless guidance of her father. With an extraordinary voice, an “electric” body, an engaging and innovative acting and a turbulent romantic life, she was capable of inducing frenzied enthusiasm among the public. These characteristics made her the very essence and epitome of the diva, one hundred years before the modern celebrity and stars of show business in the arts. At the age of 28, after a brilliant and erratic life, she died tragically after falling from a horse. More than other notorious singers of the 1830s, Malibran represented a new romantic icon—a talented female artist whose life was generous, gifted and unlucky. The entanglement of her personal life and artistic career resulted in a strong passionate attitude and in states of desperation and unhappiness. Through the analysis of several documents of the period, this work retraces the origin of the figure of the modern diva. Both attractive and dangerous, Malibran embodied this character and was thus loved for her ability interact with the audience on an emotional level. Her rise in fame and stardom occurred precisely in the 1830s, the period in which musical theatre was intimately tied to a European and distinctly Italian bourgeois social culture.
La voce del contralto, considerata oggi particolarmente rara e preziosa, ha una peripezia vocale ... more La voce del contralto, considerata oggi particolarmente rara e preziosa, ha una peripezia vocale complessa, che si intreccia con la storia dell'opera e le sue evoluzioni drammaturgiche e sociali. La voce è un prodotto storico, basti pensare alla differenza, fino a qualche decennio fa, tra l'emissione pressata di un contadino, caratterizzata anche da un volume sonoro alto e la fonazione morbida ed educata che veniva richiesta agli invitati di un salotto borghese. Anche la qualità della voce parlata, la sua modulazione , il suo timbro, il suo volume sono indici rivelatori di elaborati segni individuali e collettivi, delle modalità complesse attraverso cui una cultura codifica e trasmette le sue strategie comunicative. A maggior ragione, quindi, l'uso artistico della voce risente di moltissimi fattori, musicali e no: antropologici, storici, sociali. Il palcoscenico è poi, da sempre, il luogo in cui si può nominare l'innominabile, dove ciò che viene nascosto può essere codificato e quindi esibito, pensiamo all'ostensione del corpo della ballerina che viene fatta nel pudibondo Ottocento dagli arabesque ,dall' attitude, dal pur sublime balletto classico. Poiché la voce e la gola sono organi sessuali secondari la produzione vocale ha indubbiamente a che vedere con l'identità sessuale e con la sfera sessuale in genere. L'etnomusicologo Alan Lomax, nei suoi studi degli anni 60 sulla musica popolare, ha proposto un' interessante teoria, non si sa bene quanto effettivamente verificabile, ma che si presta a notevoli riflessioni per chi voglia affrontare il problema del rapporto tra voce e struttura sociale in un' ottica antropologica. Lo studioso americano mette in relazione certe caratteristiche dell' emissione e del canto (tessitura, modalità di emissione, postura del cantore, contenuto comunicativo del canto) con le condizioni sociali dei gruppi presi in esame, con particolare attenzione alla condizione della donna, giungendo a sorprendenti conclusioni: la prevalenza dell' uso vocale di toni bassi, della modalità corale (vedi la tradizione vocale dei bassi slavi, albanesi, baschi ecc), di un atteggiamento posturale rilassato, tenderebbe a rispecchiare una società in cui la condizione femminile era relativamente libera. Viceversa i toni acuti, la postura del cantante drammaticamente tesa, la prevalenza del solismo e di argomenti ruotanti al dramma amoroso, gelosia (flamenco) avrebbero corrisposto a società fortemente repressive. Questa affermazione era gravida di conseguenza e apriva possibilità interpretative stimolanti sull'evoluzione della tecnica e del gesto vocale nel canto d'arte. In alcuni momenti della storia del gusto musicale come per esempio il belcanto rossiniano, la pienezza giovanile veniva accompagnata alle voci testosteronicamente vigorose e vellutate; in altri, come nel romanticismo, la giovinezza veniva identificata con la purezza, l'ingenuità e lo slancio; si costruirono quindi i presupposti per la valorizzazione della vocalità tesa e luminosa del tenore e del soprano. Pare dimostrato che i suoni bassi siano quelli maggiormente percepiti e graditi dal feto e della piacevolezza fisica del timbro profondo di bassi e contralti nessuno può dubitare. La qualità della voce potente e scura del contralto sembra originalmente legata all'espressione ancestrale della vitalità, ma proprio per
Programme of the opera Carmen performed at the Giotto theater in Borgo San Lorenzo on 15 February... more Programme of the opera Carmen performed at the Giotto theater in Borgo San Lorenzo on 15 February 2019I
A vision of utopia lights up Faust’s imagination: a state founded on cooperation between free, ac... more A vision of utopia lights up Faust’s imagination: a state founded on cooperation between free, active men: ‘I shall open up a space for many millions of men to live in, not secure certainly, but at least free to work’.1 The old philosopher’s restless searching is thus finally becalmed, and he sees a glimpse of heaven on earth, where men come together to build the future and struggle against natural adversity. Schuman’s music adds hope to this happy vision in his Szenen aus Goethes Faust, one of the most accomplished examples of German musical Romanticism, which he began to compose in 1844. This ideal of freedom permeated the musical universe in the nineteenth century, from Beethoven’s titanic creations to the statuesque composure of Jacobin opera, or the historical frescos of German and French Romantic opera. But, in Italy, the philosophical and visionary dimension of politics was absent. In a country where the gap between intellectuals and society had traditionally been a wide one, opera enjoyed broad popularity2 largely because it was sensitive to both widely held emotions and the actual demands of the theatre business. In opera, politics took the form of patriotic exaltation, for in this period opera was one medium in which the unrest brought about by the social changes in progress at the time could be combined, interpreted and represented onstage in suitably epic form.
Figure femminili scaltre e audaci, progetti amorosi mossi da astuzia e volitività, imprenditorial... more Figure femminili scaltre e audaci, progetti amorosi mossi da astuzia e volitività, imprenditorialità esistenziale ed economica sono i temi ricorrenti della ricchissima produzione di “drammi giocosi” nella Venezia della seconda metà del Settecento, di cui Giovanni Bertati fu uno degli autori più significativi. I suoi libretti, caratterizzati da figure femminili dotate di insolita dimensione erotica e spessore caratteriale, restituiscono con vivezza gli umori del secolo, le trasformazioni del modo di sentire affetti, famiglia, sessualità, fino alle strettoie del passaggio tra Illuminismo ed era napoleonica.
Born in Paris to a family of Spanish singers, Maria Malibran Garcia (1808-1836) became an icon in... more Born in Paris to a family of Spanish singers, Maria Malibran Garcia (1808-1836) became an icon in the European nineteenth century opera scene. She spent most of her short and dazzling life among opera houses across various Italian states. Malibran suffered an unhappy childhood during which she rigorously trained under the merciless guidance of her father. With an extraordinary voice, an “electric” body, an engaging and innovative acting and a turbulent romantic life, she was capable of inducing frenzied enthusiasm among the public. These characteristics made her the very essence and epitome of the diva, one hundred years before the modern celebrity and stars of show business in the arts. At the age of 28, after a brilliant and erratic life, she died tragically after falling from a horse. More than other notorious singers of the 1830s, Malibran represented a new romantic icon—a talented female artist whose life was generous, gifted and unlucky. The entanglement of her personal life and artistic career resulted in a strong passionate attitude and in states of desperation and unhappiness. Through the analysis of several documents of the period, this work retraces the origin of the figure of the modern diva. Both attractive and dangerous, Malibran embodied this character and was thus loved for her ability interact with the audience on an emotional level. Her rise in fame and stardom occurred precisely in the 1830s, the period in which musical theatre was intimately tied to a European and distinctly Italian bourgeois social culture.
La voce del contralto, considerata oggi particolarmente rara e preziosa, ha una peripezia vocale ... more La voce del contralto, considerata oggi particolarmente rara e preziosa, ha una peripezia vocale complessa, che si intreccia con la storia dell'opera e le sue evoluzioni drammaturgiche e sociali. La voce è un prodotto storico, basti pensare alla differenza, fino a qualche decennio fa, tra l'emissione pressata di un contadino, caratterizzata anche da un volume sonoro alto e la fonazione morbida ed educata che veniva richiesta agli invitati di un salotto borghese. Anche la qualità della voce parlata, la sua modulazione , il suo timbro, il suo volume sono indici rivelatori di elaborati segni individuali e collettivi, delle modalità complesse attraverso cui una cultura codifica e trasmette le sue strategie comunicative. A maggior ragione, quindi, l'uso artistico della voce risente di moltissimi fattori, musicali e no: antropologici, storici, sociali. Il palcoscenico è poi, da sempre, il luogo in cui si può nominare l'innominabile, dove ciò che viene nascosto può essere codificato e quindi esibito, pensiamo all'ostensione del corpo della ballerina che viene fatta nel pudibondo Ottocento dagli arabesque ,dall' attitude, dal pur sublime balletto classico. Poiché la voce e la gola sono organi sessuali secondari la produzione vocale ha indubbiamente a che vedere con l'identità sessuale e con la sfera sessuale in genere. L'etnomusicologo Alan Lomax, nei suoi studi degli anni 60 sulla musica popolare, ha proposto un' interessante teoria, non si sa bene quanto effettivamente verificabile, ma che si presta a notevoli riflessioni per chi voglia affrontare il problema del rapporto tra voce e struttura sociale in un' ottica antropologica. Lo studioso americano mette in relazione certe caratteristiche dell' emissione e del canto (tessitura, modalità di emissione, postura del cantore, contenuto comunicativo del canto) con le condizioni sociali dei gruppi presi in esame, con particolare attenzione alla condizione della donna, giungendo a sorprendenti conclusioni: la prevalenza dell' uso vocale di toni bassi, della modalità corale (vedi la tradizione vocale dei bassi slavi, albanesi, baschi ecc), di un atteggiamento posturale rilassato, tenderebbe a rispecchiare una società in cui la condizione femminile era relativamente libera. Viceversa i toni acuti, la postura del cantante drammaticamente tesa, la prevalenza del solismo e di argomenti ruotanti al dramma amoroso, gelosia (flamenco) avrebbero corrisposto a società fortemente repressive. Questa affermazione era gravida di conseguenza e apriva possibilità interpretative stimolanti sull'evoluzione della tecnica e del gesto vocale nel canto d'arte. In alcuni momenti della storia del gusto musicale come per esempio il belcanto rossiniano, la pienezza giovanile veniva accompagnata alle voci testosteronicamente vigorose e vellutate; in altri, come nel romanticismo, la giovinezza veniva identificata con la purezza, l'ingenuità e lo slancio; si costruirono quindi i presupposti per la valorizzazione della vocalità tesa e luminosa del tenore e del soprano. Pare dimostrato che i suoni bassi siano quelli maggiormente percepiti e graditi dal feto e della piacevolezza fisica del timbro profondo di bassi e contralti nessuno può dubitare. La qualità della voce potente e scura del contralto sembra originalmente legata all'espressione ancestrale della vitalità, ma proprio per
Programme of the opera Carmen performed at the Giotto theater in Borgo San Lorenzo on 15 February... more Programme of the opera Carmen performed at the Giotto theater in Borgo San Lorenzo on 15 February 2019I
Born in Paris to a family of Spanish singers, Maria Malibran Garcia (1808-1836) became an icon in... more Born in Paris to a family of Spanish singers, Maria Malibran Garcia (1808-1836) became an icon in the European nineteenth century opera scene. She spent most of her short and dazzling life among opera houses across various Italian states. Malibran suffered an unhappy childhood during which she rigorously trained under the merciless guidance of her father. With an extraordinary voice, an “electric” body, an engaging and innovative acting and a turbulent romantic life, she was capable of inducing frenzied enthusiasm among the public. These characteristics made her the very essence and epitome of the diva, one hundred years before the modern celebrity and stars of show business in the arts. At the age of 28, after a brilliant and erratic life, she died tragically after falling from a horse. More than other notorious singers of the 1830s, Malibran represented a new romantic icon—a talented female artist whose life was generous, gifted and unlucky. The entanglement of her personal life and artistic career resulted in a strong passionate attitude and in states of desperation and unhappiness. Through the analysis of several documents of the period, this work retraces the origin of the figure of the modern diva. Both attractive and dangerous, Malibran embodied this character and was thus loved for her ability interact with the audience on an emotional level. Her rise in fame and stardom occurred precisely in the 1830s, the period in which musical theatre was intimately tied to a European and distinctly Italian bourgeois social culture.
«Sì, Lindoro mio sarà: Melodramma, Marriage, and the Right to Happiness. " In the transition from... more «Sì, Lindoro mio sarà: Melodramma, Marriage, and the Right to Happiness. " In the transition from the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, between Enlightenment optimism and the incipient shadow of the Restoration, between eroticism and tears, the narrative subject nozze acquired a significant predominance in the vast production of opera. It is enough to simply skim an incomplete list of titles of operas that contain the word " marriage " —or similar—to understand that the subject enjoyed a certain appeal by starting from the most famous Nozze di Figaro (1786) by Mozart or the Matrimonio Segreto by Cimarosa, to the dozens of titles of opere buffe now forgotten. In the latter, especially, it is evident that there are situations, atmospheres, and moods that allow us to shed light on the complex changes that affected, by various degrees, the Ancien Régime society, also from the point of view of taste and musical practice. One theme that frequently emerges is the defense of the right, even for women, to give the " voice of the heart " the most significant weight in the choice of a marital partner. The Enlightenment right to " public happiness " sanctioned also this private happiness. Rousseau had affirmed that true social order should be determined by merit and by the free choice of the heart, signaling, therefore an irreversible watershed in the cultural history of the West. The " democratic marriage, " supported by the patriots of the Jacobin Republics, recommended theater that was uncorrupt, free and public, which should favor the harmony between individual and society. Under the rule of reason and of naturalness, the new intimacy between husband and wife would have created a family united by emotional ties. In addition, diligence would have defeated the corruption, dissipation, and privileges of the aristocrats, who would have given their place to the industriousness of the new emerging classes for the well-being of society. A temporary utopia destined, however, to leave long-lasting traces. Already in the first half of the nineteenth century, impossible love—crowned in this case by death and not by marriage—became a foundational theme of Romantic melodramma, while adultery would remain the tormented linchpin of the nineteenth-century imaginary. In any case, the eighteenth-century myth of a marriage of souls characterized by the ύβρις of the conciliation between passion and reason, between public and private, between an instant and a lifetime, remains the undeniable point of departure of modernity, on which we must reflect from our disenchanted point of view.
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Malibran suffered an unhappy childhood during which she rigorously trained under the merciless guidance of her father. With an extraordinary voice, an “electric” body, an engaging and innovative acting and a turbulent romantic life, she was capable of inducing frenzied enthusiasm among the public. These characteristics made her the very essence and epitome of the diva, one hundred years before the modern celebrity and stars of show business in the arts.
At the age of 28, after a brilliant and erratic life, she died tragically after falling from a horse. More than other notorious singers of the 1830s, Malibran represented a new romantic icon—a talented female artist whose life was generous, gifted and unlucky. The entanglement of her personal life and artistic career resulted in a strong passionate attitude and in states of desperation and unhappiness.
Through the analysis of several documents of the period, this work retraces the origin of the figure of the modern diva. Both attractive and dangerous, Malibran embodied this character and was thus loved for her ability interact with the audience on an emotional level. Her rise in fame and stardom occurred precisely in the 1830s, the period in which musical theatre was intimately tied to a European and distinctly Italian bourgeois social culture.
Malibran suffered an unhappy childhood during which she rigorously trained under the merciless guidance of her father. With an extraordinary voice, an “electric” body, an engaging and innovative acting and a turbulent romantic life, she was capable of inducing frenzied enthusiasm among the public. These characteristics made her the very essence and epitome of the diva, one hundred years before the modern celebrity and stars of show business in the arts.
At the age of 28, after a brilliant and erratic life, she died tragically after falling from a horse. More than other notorious singers of the 1830s, Malibran represented a new romantic icon—a talented female artist whose life was generous, gifted and unlucky. The entanglement of her personal life and artistic career resulted in a strong passionate attitude and in states of desperation and unhappiness.
Through the analysis of several documents of the period, this work retraces the origin of the figure of the modern diva. Both attractive and dangerous, Malibran embodied this character and was thus loved for her ability interact with the audience on an emotional level. Her rise in fame and stardom occurred precisely in the 1830s, the period in which musical theatre was intimately tied to a European and distinctly Italian bourgeois social culture.
Malibran suffered an unhappy childhood during which she rigorously trained under the merciless guidance of her father. With an extraordinary voice, an “electric” body, an engaging and innovative acting and a turbulent romantic life, she was capable of inducing frenzied enthusiasm among the public. These characteristics made her the very essence and epitome of the diva, one hundred years before the modern celebrity and stars of show business in the arts.
At the age of 28, after a brilliant and erratic life, she died tragically after falling from a horse. More than other notorious singers of the 1830s, Malibran represented a new romantic icon—a talented female artist whose life was generous, gifted and unlucky. The entanglement of her personal life and artistic career resulted in a strong passionate attitude and in states of desperation and unhappiness.
Through the analysis of several documents of the period, this work retraces the origin of the figure of the modern diva. Both attractive and dangerous, Malibran embodied this character and was thus loved for her ability interact with the audience on an emotional level. Her rise in fame and stardom occurred precisely in the 1830s, the period in which musical theatre was intimately tied to a European and distinctly Italian bourgeois social culture.