Elisa Cazzato

This article explores the role, the vision, and the artistic expectations of the Italian stage designer Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824). With a few career interruptions, Degotti was the principal stage designer of the Théâtre de l’Opéra from 1795 to 1822. He approached his art as a fine and skilled connoisseur of architecture, perspective, decoration, and botany. Convinced that much of the effect of the opera resided in the visual, Degotti gave himself a special status of an artistic interlocutor among other opera creators. His persona, however, rarely fit the controlling requirements of theatre administration. Frustrating requests urged him to produce grandeur on stage, but under controlled timelines and budgets. Meanwhile, outside the Opéra, Degotti worked with Jacques-Louis David, organising the scenography of the Coronation’s painting; his portrait stands right next to that of Napoleon’s First Painter. It is when Degotti eluded the daily fights and controls of the Opéra and meshed his talents with art-academy relationships that he settled comfortably into his artistic role. Through unpublished archival material, this paper brings to the foreground the figure of Degotti, promoting his practice as an account very much integrated into the visual and cultural histories of his time.

This study addresses the collaboration of the stage designer Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824) with the choreographer Pierre Gardel (1758-1840) in a series of works presented at the Théâtre de l'Opéra in Paris during the Napoleonic administration (1804-1815). Backstage episodes in three key performances demonstrate that although the Opéra was politically crucial to Napoleon, there were practical problems in theatre management on his watch. This study argues that the inadequacy of spaces for artistic creation and a lack of coordination among the creative team were the most pressing issues in this respect.

Through the course of the Eighteenth century some Italian artists contributed, with their artistry and proficiency, to the making of some highly successful stage settings in French theatres.
By tracing a network of human relationships and working partnerships, it is possible to establish that the stage designer Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824), the firework makers Ruggieri family, and the circus performer Antonio Franconi (1738-1836), provided some key contributions to French spectacle broadly conceived.
Degotti was the painter in chief at the Théâtre Feydeau (1791-1797) and the Théâtre de l’Opéra (1795-1822). From 1791 to 1809 he worked at least twice with the Ruggieri and three times with Franconi. Among the titles discussed in this paper are two works staged at the Feydeau with music by Luigi Cherubini, Lodoïska (1791) and Eliza ou le voyage au Mont Saint Bernard (1794), and another, Fernand Cortez (1809), premiered at the Opéra with music by Gaspare Spontini.
An analysis of a selection of chronicles and press reviews tell us more about the outcome of these shows. Some articles provide vital information about surprising special effects and astonishing stage setting details; others give different insights through an anecdotal recounting of the misadventures of props and effects.
Stage designers and effects creators have not enjoyed the critical attention afforded to musicians or dramatists, and the role of these artists has often been a marginalised aspect of theatrical performance. My argument will be that the art of Ignazio Degotti, of the Ruggieri family, and of Antonio Franconi was both vital to the success of certain performances and in high demand. My paper seeks to attend to, and credit a group of artists described  by the theatre historian Claudio Meldolesi  as “migrants of the entertainment business”, who contributed to the vitality of the Parisian stage at the end of the Eighteenth century.

Antonio Franconi emigrò in Francia a metà del XVIII secolo e lì si distinse per maestria, caparbietà e imprenditorialità. Esordì come ammaestratore di animali, riuscendo a trasformare uccelli, cavalli e muletti in attrazione popolare di successo. Verso la fine del secolo, le sue qualità vennero notate dai migliori teatri di Parigi, come il Théâtre Feydeau e il Théâtre de l’Opéra che più volte adottarono in scena alcuni dei suoi animali addestrati. Grazie alla conoscenza del londinese Philip Astley, Franconi ripensò l’organizzazione dei suoi spettacoli, trasformandoli in esibizioni più complesse e contribuendo a far nascere la moderna accezione di “circo”. Argomento ancora poco dibattuto restano le tournée itineranti della famiglia Franconi. Si trattava di esibizioni equestri e giochi acrobatici anche conosciuti come “spectacles de curiosités” e che servirono da modello alle successive imprese circensi. Il contributo proposto tratta le vicende della famiglia Franconi, proponendole come uno dei primi esempi di circo moderno, gestito da un italiano all’estero.

This paper will explore the social milieu and mutual connections that linked the stage designer Ignazio Degotti (Turin, 1758 – Paris, 1824) to the violinist and composer Gian Battista Viotti (Fontanetto Po, 1755 – London, 1824). To better introduce the character of Degotti, I will add details on his biography as well as bring to scholarly attention the analysis of his first documented artistic job: an Allegory of the Arts published in a book of poems in 1776. A defining moment in the life of Ignazio Degotti was his choice to move to Paris in 1790, where he established the greatest and most successful part of his career as a decorator and a stage-designer. Through the analysis of unpublished material on Degotti, I will add to current knowledge which comprises nationality, education, and some career choices Degotti shared with Viotti. This undertaking is done so as to chronicle the relationship between two key protagonists of theatrical life in Paris at the turn of the 19th century. It will become apparent through this paper, whose focus is the draft of an unpublished letter, that even though there were many reasons for Degotti’s move to Paris, it was Viotti who played a significant part.

My article investigates the never-explored relationship between Luigi Cherubini and the stage designer Ignazio Degotti. This partnership took place at the end of the 1790s in Paris when both artists were active at the Théâtre de Monsieur (re-named Feydeau after 1792).
In my study, the connection between Cherubini and Degotti is explored on two levels. On one, I reconstruct how this relationship grew within a network of old and new Franco-Italian artistic friendships. Details on these connections are important for new biographical insights into both artists’ biographies, and they also give us a sense of a specific location in Paris (the Poissonière neighbourhood) where a community of theatrical people lived, met, and worked.
On another level, I provide an analysis of the three main operas that Degotti staged for Cherubini at the Monsieur-Feydeau: Lodoïska (18th of July 1791), Eliza ou le voyage au glaciers du Mont Saint-Bernard (13th of December 1794), and Médée (13th of March 1797).  In these productions, Degotti revealed new kinds of delightful décor and gothic spaces which allowed him to express the potential of a powerful, detailed, and dynamic setting in creating a novel visual experience.
Degotti emerges as a great designer for Cherubini’s operas at the Feydeau, and as a key contributor to the operatic productions at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Prenant en examen un manuscrit que le peintre de décors italien Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824) a rédigé en 1799, ma contribution explorera la façon dont le rôle du peintre de décors a évolué en France au cours du XIIIe siècle, tout en se concentrant sur la façon dont le savoir-faire italien dans les domaines de la perspective et de la technique de la mise en scène s’est entrecroisé avec la compréhension française de la « scénographie » et de la « mise en scène ». Dans mon étude, j’éclairerai le passage du décor typique du baroque, marqué par le « magique » et le « merveilleux », à la reformulation de la scène présente dans l’idée de « tableau », et j’analyserai la façon dont cela se reflète dans la pratique novatrice et ambitieuse de Degotti.
Après avoir commencé sa carrière en Italie, Degotti s’installe à Paris en 1790. Là, il travaille initialement comme décorateur au Théâtre de Monsieur. Dans la même période il travaille aussi avec l’acteur Talma et le dramaturge Jean-François Ducis pour la mise en scène d’Abufar ou La famille arabe au Théâtre de la République en 1795. Dès 1795 et jusqu’à la fin de sa carrière il est chef décorateur au Théâtre de l’Opéra. Degotti abordait son art en fin et habile connaisseur d’architecture, de perspective, de décoration et de botanique. Convaincu qu’une création d’opéra est soutenue par la composante visuelle et que le rôle du décorateur était moins celui de simple pourvoyeur de solutions scénotechniques que celui d’interlocuteur artistique, il se croyait censé offrir un niveau excellent de spectacle visuel. Ce manuscrit, qui est une lettre adressée à l’administration de l’Opéra, est une puissante affirmation de ce que, selon Degotti, un peintre de décors était ou pouvait être, et de ce dont un décorateur qualifié devait être capable. À son avis, son rôle était celui d’un intellectuel, d’un producteur d’idées, et d’un créateur qui absorbe et recrée différentes narrations moyennant le savoir scientifique, la recherche du sujet, et l’expérience personnelle.
Au travers de la vie et de la carrière de Degotti, je démontrerai la façon dont il a joué son rôle en tant que créateur de dramaturgies visuelles, situant sa pratique dans le cadre des pratiques visuelles et culturelles de la fin du XIIIe siècle. Je soutiendrai que malgré le caractère fragile et éphémère de son support, la scénographie a été pour l’opéra une composante aussi décisive que la musique, la danse et le texte.

This paper explores the display of nature as a form of spectacle, and it highlights artistic correspondences between garden design and theater sets in the second half of 18th century Paris. Projects of gardens as theatrical spaces had developed in Italy during the Renaissance and they were subsequently implemented in 17th century Baroque France. At Versailles, through the activity of well-known Italian decorators like Giacomo Torelli, garden design often overlapped with stage design, both conceived through a complex use of perspective. During the 18th century, the representation of nature reacted to a change in taste. Stage décor and gardens, like porcelain and the decorative arts, contributed to the dissemination of a picturesque aesthetic, with attention to exotic elements, chinoiseries, and ruins. This type of narration lent itself to the desire of navigating different cultures, through the incorporation of exotic plants and different architectural elements. Louis de Carmontelle, exemplified this through “Les Folies de Monceau”, a Parisian park he designed for the Duke of Chartres in the 1770s. In Monceau, Carmontelle conceived the garden as a “theater of the world”, in which fantasy coexisted with architectural authenticity and scientific veracity in fauna. At the same time, the Italian artists of the Galliari family and their pupil Ignazio Degotti welcomed nature to the stage. With extensive knowledge in botany, their sets were appreciated for the precision with which they materialized natural elements on stage, often covered with real and carefully researched vegetation.

In 1784, the Piedmontese stage designer Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824) moved to Rome, engaged to work at the Teatro Argentina. In that same year, the French painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) embarked on his second Roman sojourn, with the specific purpose of painting The Oath of the Horatii. In 1790, Degotti moved to Paris. Here, among prestigious theatre engagements, he also worked for David on several occasions and, as a sign of recognition, Degotti’s portrait was included in the iconic painting Le Sacre de Napoleon (1805 – 1807), right next to David’s self-portrait. By reconstructing a puzzle of contingencies not yet archivally documented, this paper interrogates the possibility that before their documented working relationship in Paris, the two artists had first met in Rome, through a common social environment. With sociability in consideration, we visit the Académie de France that in 1784 was located at Palazzo Mancini, not far from The Teatro Argentina. Both places were devoted to social gatherings and congregations, allowing a community of French and Italian artists to meet and discuss subjects pertaining to antiquity.
This paper investigates the role that the daily social life and the geographical proximity of the two cultural institutions played in consolidating artistic networks among visual and theatrical artists in Rome. It explores how the thematic choices of visual painters, overlapped, to some extent, with the stage commissions of the theatre decorators. It also highlights how these choices could be potentially influenced by the informal meetings afforded by a particular artistic location.

This session promotes a discussion of Italian women in theatre business, with a special focus both on family networks and women’s contribution to 18th-century spectacle-making. Artistic trades were often family-based and allowed multiple members to play different and important roles. Women’s theatrical expertise as writers and performers has been investigated, but were these the only roles they assumed? Did they also take an active part in the financial/commercial, managerial and creative processes of stage production? The session further considers the extent to which women were involved backstage, exploring the paradox of Italy’s acknowledged tradition in theatre decoration, borne out by renowned families like the Bibiena and the Galliari, and the apparent absence of women linked to relevant activities such as stage-design, choreography, fireworks, and costume design. Papers highlighting Italian women’s involvement/interventions in the famously active show business enterprises of Venice, Naples, Turin, Florence and other Italian states will also engage recent work on women in the British and French theater. Given that Italian theater talent was extensively exported, the women integral to local Italian family operations exerted influence on spectacles outside the peninsula as well.
Keywords: Europe, Gender/Sexuality Studies, History, Performing Arts, Italy

This paper is a presentation of the research project SPECTACLE, awarded by the European Commission with a Marie Curie Global Fellowship. This project is a multidisciplinary investigation of the role of ephemeral spectacle in Europe during the long eighteenth century, with a specific focus on France and Paris. As ephemeral spectacle, I mean artistic and performative practices created through a fragile and temporal medium like stage settings, fireworks, and circus performances. With this research, I explore key contributions of Italian artists of different expertise who migrated to France in the second half of the century and worked in public and private contexts (like theatres, private gatherings, or propaganda events such as Revolutionary Festivals in the 1790s). Of specific interest for my research are the artists Ignazio Degotti, the Ruggieri family, and Antonio Franconi and his family – stage designer, firework technicians, and circus performers respectively. The ephemeral, contingent and transient nature of the medium these artists worked in has meant that stage designers and spectacular effects creators have not enjoyed the same critical attention afforded to musicians, dramatists, or visual artists, and their role has often been marginalised. One of my research objectives involves charting specific examples of the collaborative networks behind the creation of new forms of spectacle and exploring the extent to which these can be defined in terms of translational networks or communities. In sum, my project links to a growing body of scholarship that is now addressing questions about the material aspects of theatrical production. By assembling visual and historical archival sources such as sketches, letters, and administrative documents, this project foregrounds material aspects of the spectacle-creating process and integrates the aesthetic achievements of décor makers using a holistic approach that takes into consideration studies in art history and cultural history.

Cette communication entend tracer un parallélisme entre jardins et décors de théâtre pendant la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle, se focalisant sur Paris et sur les relations artistiques Franco-Italiennes. Cet itinéraire nous permet de réfléchir à l'idée de la nature en tant que spectacle, réel et artificiel à la fois. L’on trouve, d'un côté, le jardin comme espace scénique ; de l'autre, la scénographie qui matérialise la nature dans le lieu théâtral. Dans le premier cas, on s’attardera sur l’analyse des théâtres et des coulisses vertes, éléments de «scénographie naturelle» en vogue au début du siècle. Dans le second, on illustrera l’évolution du décor de théâtre lorsqu'il est utilisé pour représenter des espaces verts, comme dans le cas des dessins des deliziose, selve et boscherecce. Vers le milieu du siècle, à la représentation et à l’organisation des espaces naturels s’accompagne un changement de goût. Le décor théâtral et les jardins, tout comme la porcelaine et les arts décoratifs, contribuent largement à la diffusion d'une esthétique qui regarde à l'Orient, la chinoiserie et l'exotisme. Les dessins conservés à la Morgan Library de New York et, plus précisément, ceux inédits réalisées par la famille Galliari offrent des exemples particulièrement significatifs de représentation de la nature sur scène. Les Galliari n'étaient pas seulement décorateurs de théâtre, mais aussi peintres, décorateurs, experts en botanique et propriétaires d'un jardin rempli de plantes exotiques. Figures dominantes du panorama scénographique pendant tout le cours du XVIIIe siècle, les Galliari ont longtemps occupé la scène théâtrale européenne. Vers la fin du siècle, leur élève Ignazio Degotti est nommé peintre en chef au Théâtre de l'Opéra, fonction qu'il occupera pendant une vingtaine d'années. Degotti était particulièrement apprécié pour la finesse et la précision avec lesquelles il construisait les éléments naturels sur la scène, souvent recouverte de végétation réelle, soigneusement recherchée. Il suffirait ici de mentionner la superbe scénographie d’ Abu Far ou la famille arabe de Jacques-François Ducis, joué au Théâtre de la République en 1795, où un décor évoquant des aridités désertiques s’entremêle aux oasis verdoyantes

Story shared during the MSCA 2021 conference "MSCA Fostering Balanced Mobility Flows in Europe". Online conference hosted in Solvenia, Ljubljana - 15 and 16 November 2021.

TOPIC:
The unbalanced mobility flows and the reintegration of researchers still represents a major challenge for the EU and its Member states, and contributes to the research and innovation divide within the EU. The geographical, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility of researchers and other R&D personnel is namely a core dimension of the New European Research Area.

The 2021 MSCA Presidency Conference will highlight the unbalanced brain circulation and aim to contribute to the achievement of the flagship of the New ERA, namely to build a common scientific and technological area for the EU and to create a single market for research and innovation.

The conference will address the issue of return migration and reintegration processes of MSCA researchers after the completion of their scholarships to countries of origin as a challenge to multidimensional intra-European mobility flows of researchers. It will seek to seek to demonstrate the extent to which MSCA researchers can reduce research and innovation divide within the EU and, consequently, balance the mobility of highly educated talents within the EU.

The Slovenian Presidency will use the conference to provide a platform for in-depth discussions on unbalanced mobility flows and the reintegration of researchers. The objectives of the conference will be threefold: 

- raise awareness of the importance of the return mobility and reintegration processes to foster the balanced mobility flows of MSCA researchers. 
- showcase examples of existing good practices as well as barriers, instruments, and policies to promote the return migration and reintegration processes of MSCA fellows after the end of the project, their research careers, knowledge, and skills into their country of origin. 
- make recommendations for the implementation of MSCA return migration and reintegration instruments and policies at EU, Member State, research organization and individual level.

https://msca21.eu/

This panel promotes a discussion on artistic practices behind the creation of spectacle in 18thCentury Europe. The worlds of stage design, machinery, and popular attractions are inherently transient and contingent and often leave few traces. During this period, moreover, a host of stage decorators, machinists, fireworks technicians, circus performers, and foreign entertainers circulated across Europe, spreading ideas and practices that were frequently appropriated and
standardized while their origins or creators went unacknowledged. These influential artists and performers, often lacking strong institutional affiliation, have not been given the same critical attention paid to visual artists, musicians, or dramatists.
This panel encourages a behind-the-scenes look at such artistic practices that can expand our view and understanding of 18th-century spectacle and its varied constituents. For example, how did artists involved in ephemeral or peripheral activities exert their individual personalities? In what ways did certain attractions like wax statues and dioramas, cabinets d’optique, and Wunderkammer inform and overlap with science and technology? How might we account for the
status of the marvelous within an era of so-called “Enlightenment” rationality? How can we appreciate décor and other special effects not only as artistic products, but also as autonomous cultural phenomena?
The session seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on performance creation, stage settings, and the circulation of artists and ideas. It welcomes submissions from scholars at any career stage, as well as from arts professionals in or outside academia. Contributions informed by the experience of staging (or planning to stage) an eighteenth-century work are especially encouraged.

Deadline: 17th of September, 2021.

Dopo la Rivoluzione, negli anni ‘90 del secolo, la spettacolarità parigina si caratterizzò per un maggiore interesse verso l’educazione dei cittadini, proiettata su una nuova scala di norme e valori. È per fini educativi che festival ed eventi pubblici si organizzarono con una certa regolarità, precisione ed opulenza. Tra i più celebri in Francia «La fête des Vieillards», evento che celebrava gli anziani e promuoveva un nuovo modello di famiglia basato sulla fedeltà dell’ amour conjugal.
Fanciulli e fanciulle erano esortati a rifuggire il vivere libertino e a farsi portavoce di nuovi modelli educativi, indirizzati all’esaltazione dei valori rivoluzionari.
Nel complesso sistema teatrale parigino, molte sale cambiarono il loro nome adattandolo al linguaggio rivoluzionario e ad un nuovo intento educativo. Il Théâtre de l’Opéra, fino ad allora luogo privilegiato per sfoggiare ricchezza e nobiltà, diventò prima Théâtre des Arts nel 1794 e poi Théâtre la République et des Arts nel 1797, costituendo la sede dei festeggiamenti conclusivi de’ «La fête des Vieillards»,
Il mio intervento è volto a riflettere sugli intenti educativi intrapresi da alcuni teatri parigini, focalizzando l’attenzione su «La fête des Vieillards», come momento esemplificativo dell’ambizione post-rivoluzionaria verso una più edificante normalizzazione dei valori coniugali e familiari.

In the spirit of recent studies of networks, friendships, and sociability as crucial to our broad understanding of art history in the eighteenth century, the aim of this paper is to highlight letters, papers, and archival material describing the proximity between the stage-designer Ignazio Degotti (1758- 1824) with the violinist and composer Gian Battista Viotti (1755 – 1824). Both artists were born and educated in Turin in the mid of the 18th century, where they served the Savoia Court in the1770s.  At the end of 1790, Viotti had a major influence on Ignazio Degotti’s decision to leave for Paris and work for the Théâtre de Monsieur, a theatre the violinist directed from 1789 to 1792. Under Viotti’s leadership, the Théâtre de Monsieur was a dynamic and synergetic space of collaboration between some of the greatest French and Italian musicians, actors and designers. It was indeed the activity for Théâtre de Monsieur that established both Viotti and Degotti as innovators of a different theatrical and performative tradition, which conjugated the Italian operatic practice, arranged under a French taste. Evidence that Viotti played a vital role in Degotti’s move to Paris, comes from an unpublished letter written by Ignazio himself to Viotti around 1819, which tackles a crucial moment of this never-explored relationship between the two artists and their initial agreements.

L’indagine è una ricerca multidisciplinare che incrocia la storia dell’arte, del teatro e della scenografia in Italia e Francia, tra Rivoluzione, Impero e Restaurazione. Precedenti studi in questo settore sono stati condotti per la tesi di laurea magistrale dal titolo: Alessandro Sanquirico e la scenografia a Milano tra età Napoleonica e Restaurazione (2011).
Obiettivo principale della ricerca, è presentare rapporti sociali e migrazioni artistiche franco-italiane di fine Settecento, attraverso la ricostruzione delle vicende dello scenografo Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824). Nato a Torino nel 1758, tra il 1777 e il 1783 Degotti si specializza in pittura e decorazione teatrale, operando nell’ambiente francofilo dell’Accademia Reale di Pittura e Scultura, sotto la guida dei fratelli Galliari. Dal 1786 al 1790 è tra Roma e Napoli, dove stringe rapporti con influenti personalità prossime all’ambiente culturale francese. Ingaggiato dal violinista e compatriota Gian Battista Viotti (1755-1824) per il Théâtre de Monsieur, lo scenografo piemontese si stabilisce a Parigi nel 1790. Dal 1795 è pittore ufficiale al Théâtre de l’Opéra, un sodalizio professionale che prosegue in modo irregolare e controverso fino al 1822. Di fondamentale importanza per questa indagine risultano le relazioni che lo scenografo instaura con un’ampia cerchia di artisti e musicisti attivi tra Italia e Francia. L’attività di Degotti è infatti riconosciuta ed apprezzata da molti suoi contemporanei e tra i maggiori sostenitori rammentiamo il pittore Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), che inserisce il ritratto dell’italiano nella monumentale Incoronazione di Napoleone (1805-1808, Musée du Louvre, Parigi INV. 3699).Per la prima volta uno studio monografico sulla figura di Degotti mette luce sulla lacunosa biografia dell’artista e chiarisce alcuni aspetti relativi la sua vita, riflettendo in senso più ampio sul significato della scenografia come pratica artistica tra fine Settecento e primo Ottocento.

L’intervento proposto avanza la questione della rappresentazione del passato nelle scenografie teatrali di fine Settecento, ed è in parte il risultato di un periodo di ricerca svolto come borsista presso la Fondazione Giorgio Cini a Venezia.
Quali erano gli scenari maggiormente richiesti dal repertorio teatrale di fine secolo e in che modo i pittori di scene si documentavano per realizzarli?
Delineando l’operato artistico di due artisti, Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824) a Parigi e Antonio Basoli (1774-1848) a Bologna, si affronta il tema della formazione artistica del decoratore di scene e delle fonti a sua disposizione. Il recupero dell’antico era un passaggio necessario per la rappresentazione del passato che avveniva attraverso un attento studio sulle rovine, sui testi specialistici e sui repertori di antiquaria. Incisioni, bozzetti scenografici e cronache di giornale informano su come la relativa libertà del mezzo teatrale permetteva all’artista di poter giocare con l’inventiva e proporre in scena un passato spesso fantasioso e immaginato, seppur non privo di riferimenti reali.
Per gli scenografi di fine secolo, la produzione incisoria di Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778) era una fonte di studio privilegiata. Piranesi, avendo usato la scenografia come campo di sperimentazione era stato un pioniere nelle ricostruzioni del passato, senza mai allontanarsi del tutto dalla veridicità di una solida conoscenza antiquaria. Gli artisti che si ispireranno a lui, come Degotti e Basoli, porteranno sulle scene teatrali l’esuberanza di un’immaginazione fervida e febbrile che ben caratterizzerà le stagioni teatrali di fine Settecento. Nell’Ottocento dominato da Alessandro Sanquirico, questo tipo di immaginario lascerà spazio ad un nuovo momento della scenografia teatrale caratterizzato da una maggiore compostezza, rigore e pulizia delle architetture, definite forse troppo severamente “gelide” da Giulio Ferrari nel 1902.

Dietro le quinte di alcuni tra i più celebri allestimenti teatrali realizzati nella Parigi di fine secolo, si cela la perizia e l’ingegno di maestranze italiane emigrate in Francia nel corso del Settecento. La ricostruzione di una rete di rapporti umani e collaborazioni lavorative, permette di stabilire che i contributi dello scenografo Ignazio Degotti (1758-1824), della famiglia di pirotecnici Ruggieri e del circense Antonio Franconi (1738-1836), furono risorsa preziosa per la spettacolarità parigina. Degotti, pittore e direttore di scene del Théâtre Feydeau (1791-1797) e del Théâtre de l’Opéra (1795-1822), tra il 1791 e il 1809 collaborò in almeno tre occasioni con Franconi e in due con i Ruggieri.  L’analisi di una selezione di cronache fornisce dettagli preziosi sull’esito di alcuni allestimenti. Alcuni articoli raccontano di scenografie eccezionali dagli effetti sublimi e affascinanti; altri, riportano invece vicende buffe e imbarazzanti causate da allestimenti tecnicamente meno riusciti. Tra i titoli che saranno oggetto di esame si segnalano i due capolavori di Luigi Cherubini per il Feydeau Lodoïska (1791) ed Eliza ou le voyage au Mont Saint Bernard (1794) e il Fernand Cortez (1809) di Gaspare Spontini allestito all’Opéra.
Le maestranze italiane attive in Francia tra Rivoluzione e primo Impero sono oggetto di studio meno frequente rispetto ai contributi drammaturgici o musicologici offerti dagli italiani emigrati oltralpe. Nonostante il ruolo di questi artisti sia stato spesso marginalizzato a quello di ‘addetti ai lavori’, l’abilità di Degotti, dei Ruggieri e di Franconi, permise loro di occupare posizioni di prestigio e di rendere la loro attività artistica indispensabile in Francia. L’intervento vuole quindi ridare il giusto credito ad un momento storico di grande vivacità e di “spettacolarità immigrata” così come è stata definita da Claudio Meldolesi.

Recensione della mostra sul fondo Silvio D'Amico, parte dell'esposizione "Le rarità della Biblioteca del Monastero degli Olivetani", organizzata dal 30 settembre al 15 dicembre 2022 negli spazi del suggestivo Monastero degli Olivetani di Lecce, oggi Dipartimento di Scienze umane e sociali dell’Università del Salento.

The proposed research is a multidisciplinary investigation on the role of spectacle during the radical transformation of European politics and culture in the decades between 1780 and 1820. Its principal aim is to define the cultural meaning of ‘spectacle’ and ‘spectacularity’ in eighteenth-century France. This will be achieved via an exploration of key contributions of Italian artists from different backgrounds and expertise (the designer Ignazio Degotti, the fireworks technicians in the Ruggieri family, and the circus performer Antonio Franconi and his family) to French and a wider European spectacle broadly conceived (e.g. theatre settings, public and private performances, propaganda events). Historians have examined cultural phenomena including theatre, visual arts, music, and popular manifestations as part of a more refined understanding of the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary process. However, the world of stage creation and popular festivals was inherently contingent, transient, and ephemeral. Due to this, artists and designers have not been given the same critical attention paid to musicians, dramatists, or visual artists. My research will cover this gap of knowledge in a growing body of scholarship which is only now beginning to address historical theatre production. Rather than reducing the purveyors of stage design to the ‘background’ of theatre and cultural history in their own ‘micro history,’ the novelty of my approach comes from integrating décor into cultural histories of seeing, experiencing, and remaking the world. By chronologically and biographically assembling visual and historical archival sources (sketches, wills, letters, contracts, private networks) scattered in diverse cultural institutions, the study will bring to the foreground material aspects of the spectacle-creative process and illuminate the interweaving lives of these artists, finally affording a deeper understanding of ‘spectacularity’ in European eighteenth-century culture.

Seminario sull'ideazione, la progettazione e la realizzazione di progetti scientifici internazionali in ambito umanistico.

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

18-20 maggio 2023

Comitato organizzatore: Giancarlo Alfano, Giulia Bonazza, Alessandro Buono, Diego Carnevale, Elisa Cazzato, Domenico Cecere, Paolo Conte, Francesco Dendena, Cinzia Recca, Felicita Tramontana