Library of Rassegna iberistica

Series | Library of Rassegna iberistica
Edited book | Serenísima palabra
Chapter | Apostillas al libreto de Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio de Saverio Mercadante

Apostillas al libreto de Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio de Saverio Mercadante

Abstract

In the vast realm of 19th-century Italian music dealing with Cervantine themes, Saverio Mercadante’s Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio (1830), perused recently by Adela Presas, stands out. The sole purpose of my annotations pertaining to Ferrero’s libretto is to stress even more its relationship to Cervantes’ novel. From the point of view of reception aesthetics, similar works of arts help the reader verify the temporal vitality of a text and, possibly, new ways of reading. The results of this analysis present Don Quixote in a serious fashion, in contrast to 18th-century attitudes, wherein a ridiculous and extravagant tradition of this character prevailed. Likewise, this study stresses the changes that Sancho Panza undergoes as a dramatic character. In his libretto, Ferrero reveals a keen knowledge of the two parts of Cervantes’ Don Quixote since he mentions the novel’s most quoted passages and oftentimes remains faithful to the letter of the text.  


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: July 17, 2015 | Accepted: Nov. 10, 2016 | Language: it

Keywords Don QuixoteMercadanteNotesLibretto


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