Loquit, ridet, et vincit : l’intégration du toscan dans la commedeja pe ‘mmuseca et sa mise en musique : une forme de résistance contre la domination étrangère
The commedeja pe ‘mmuseca, a comic operatic genre in Neapolitan, flourished in early eighteenth-century Naples. Gradually, it began integrating Tuscan-speaking characters into its plots, accompanied by a dramma per musica inspired musical style. This inclusion of the literary language of the Peninsula and of a seria musical style has been interpreted as an attempt to ennoble the genre, and has led to the theorization of a dichotomy between Tuscan serious characters and Neapolitan comic ones. This view of Tuscan is based on the mistaken premise that Neapolitan is the language of the people and Tuscan, that of the aristocracy. I argue that, caused by a misunderstanding of the political and linguistic context of eighteenth-century Naples, it not only overlooks the reality of the music and libretti, but also neglects the political and nationalistic dimensions of the genre’s multilingualism. In fact, Neapolitan was spoken by all Neapolitans, whereas Tuscan was the language of foreigners and of the Austrian ruling power. This leads me to suggest a new interpretation to the commedeja’s multilingualism: accompanied by regional characterization, it is actually a form of local resistance against foreign domination. The analysis of sixty-six libretti, dating from 1721 to 1749, and of Lo frate ‘nnamorato (1732) by Gennaro Antonio Federico and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, confirm this hypothesis.
Opera Federico Pergolesi Tuscan Neapolitan Language Dialect Naples History Resistance