18th-century Italian opera in Inner-Austrian centres: Repertory and performers

Abstract

The 18th-century Italian operatic repertory penetrated into all Inner-Austrian centres. Analysis of the librettos of some well-documented seasons from 1736 to 1742 shows a lively exchange of repertory and operisti in this geographical region. To judge from changes to the texts of their musically most important sections – the arias – the operas that were produced consisted mainly of pasticcios, a type of production associated above all with the impresarios Pietro and Angelo Mingotti, who from 1736 were based permanently in Graz, from where they occasionally visited also Ljubljana.