[Some Forerunners of Italian Opera by William James Henderson]@TWC D-Link book
Some Forerunners of Italian Opera

CHAPTER XI
4/17

Behind him were the Graces, in the midst of whom came "Marital Fidelity" and presented herself to the princess.

After some other minor incidents of the same kind the spectacle came to an end with a ballet in which Bacchus, Silenus, Pan and a chorus of satyrs were principal figures.

This lively and comic dance, says Chalco, "brought to an end the most splendid and astonishing spectacle that Italy had witnessed." In 1487 Nicolo de Corregio Visconti produced at Ferrara his fable "Cephale et l'Aurore." In this there were choruses of nymphs, vows to Diana, dialogues between Corydon and Thyrsis and other pastoral dainties.

At the carnival of 1506 at Urbino, Castiglione and his friend Cesare Gonzaga, of the great Mantuan family, recited the former's "Tirsi," dialogues in verse.

The two interpreters wore pastoral costumes.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books