Forcused Research on 18th Century Notarial Docments for the Construction of the Music and Theatre History of Naples

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18H00625
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01050:Aesthetics and art studies-related
• Research Institution: Kumamoto University
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Takashi 熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(文), 准教授 (10580665)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: italian theater / opera history / notary documents / comic opera / impresario / public theater / Cimarosa / theatrical contracts

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aimed to reconstruct the Neapolitan private theatre of the late 18th
century by focusing on notarial documents held in the National Archives of Naples. Specifically, the project was to discover the records of the notaries who were in charge of contracts between theatre owners and impresarios, and in particular to decipher the documents of Nunziante Abbate and Gaetano Manduca, two notaries active between the 1760s and 1790s, in chronological order, in order to reveal the records relating to theatre and music in their entirety.
Despite the interruption caused by the Corona disaster, the project led to the discovery of a large number of imprenditorial contracts, audience lists and annual accounts relating to the theatre's operations, as well as the first-discover internal plans of the Teatro de' Fiorentini.

Free Research Field

Musicology, history of opera and theater

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

マスメディアとしての18世紀オペラを考える際、その作品の真意はパトロンや観客と興行師の関係の中で読み解く必要があり、台本と楽譜からの検討では不十分である。
本研究は、私文書でありながらも公的にその真正性が保証されている「公証人史料」に現地研究者に先駆け着目することで、アーティストや劇場契約のプロセスから年度収支簿、観客の氏名、興行師に出資していた商人の活動などまでをはじめて解き明かすことができた。これらの成果は、これまでのオペラ史、劇場史を新たに塗り替えるほか、三次元的な舞台再構築のための基礎史料として国際的にみて重要な意義をもっている。