Miti, metafore e feste per le scene di un Regno: intorno alle Nozze di Peleo e Tetide di Giovanni Paisiello

Description

Consecration of the union between the sceptres of Austria and Spain, the Serenade indicated therein under the title Le Nozze di Peleo e Tetide, in the printed booklet generically entitled “FESTA | TEATRALE | IN MUSICA per solennizare [sic!] le Felicissime Reali Nozze | DELLE LORO SACRE MAESTÀ, / FERDINANDO IV […] E MARIA CAROLINA […] Napoli 1768 […]”, on a libretto by Giovanni Battista Basso Bassi with music by Giovanni Paisiello “Maestro di Cappella Napoletano”, constituted the central axis of the sumptuous celebrations organised on the occasion of the marriage of the new Bourbon sovereigns. It was played on the double stage of the Court Theatre (25, 30 May) and the San Carlo Theatre (4, 5 June) but, even before the royal couple entered the capital, it was anticipated in the province (performance of the musical comedy L’idolo cinese, also by Paisiello, on 13 May at the Royal Palace of Caserta), and then, in the days that followed, entered into synergy with other spectacular formulas in noble halls (Academy of Music at Palazzo Stigliano with some of the prestigious voices used to follow in the aforementioned Serenade, 4 Ball Parties at the Palace and one in the Royal Theatre, two Ball Parties, on 12 and 15 June, in Palazzo Mirelli di Teora, the residence of the Austrian ambassador Ernest von Kaunitz, to a design by Luigi Vanvitelli and, on 19 June, the Serenade The Judgement of Apollo to music by Nicola Sala in the home of Charles III’s minister plenipotentiary, Alfonso Clemente de Aróstegui), in parallel with street demonstrations (5 days of Illuminations and Choirs in front of the Royal Palace, Macchine della cuccagna in front of Castel Nuovo and in Largo dello Spirito Santo) and up to the ends of the Kingdom (Abruzzo and Sicily), with further musical and theatrical inventions.