Metastasio’s Angelica serenata and the Light of Empire

Pietro Metastasio's Angelica (1720), a theatrical serenata based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso, is a crucial yet fundamentally understudied episode in the poet's oeuvre. This essay explores the brief theatrical work as an axis between Metastasio's Arcadian training and hi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:MLN 2019-01, Vol.134 (1), p.119-142
Main Author: Raizen, Karen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
Aesthetics
Archetypes (Psychology)
Ariosto, Ludovico (1474-1533)
Drama
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Holy Roman Empress (1691-1750)
Epic literature
Exegesis & hermeneutics
Fate
Folklore
Heroism & heroes
Historical characters
Ideology
Imperialism
Imperialismo
Influencias literarias
Insanity
Italian literature
Italian theatre
Literary characters
Literary devices
Literary influences
Locura
Metastasio, Pietro (1698-1782)
Narrative techniques
Nobility
Nobleza
Personajes históricos
Plot (Narrative)
Poesía
Poetry
Rhetorical figures
Siglo XVIII
Sonnets
Teatro italiano
Theater
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Summary:Pietro Metastasio's Angelica (1720), a theatrical serenata based on Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso, is a crucial yet fundamentally understudied episode in the poet's oeuvre. This essay explores the brief theatrical work as an axis between Metastasio's Arcadian training and his eventual position as court poet of the Holy Roman Empire in Vienna. The Angelica, like three of his other early theatrical works, imbues pastoral landscapes with encomia of real-world figures-namely the Empress Elizabeth Christine and her noble entourage. Yet his Furioso-based serenata is problematic in its depiction of the pastoral tradition, as inherited from the Arcadian Academy. Nothing quite works in this pastoral system: nature is either conquered by or indistinguishable from artifice, and the ending of the serenata leaves the mad Orlando unresolved in his madness. Metastasio's licenza at the end of the work corrects all wrongs, but only through the light and majesty of the Empress on her birthday. Thus Metastasio, with his Angelica, employs Arcadian tropes, language, and ideology, but ultimately uses Arcadia to strive toward more tangible, more imperial shores.
ISSN:0026-7910
1080-6598
1080-6598
DOI:10.1353/mln.2019.0006