-X r'v uo (\o^e CAROLYN PARKS BALLET COLLECTION Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Phillips Academy, Andover, MA INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DANCE DANCE PERSPECTIVES FOUNDATION, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Curtis L. Carter, President Madeleine M. Nichols, Vice-President Hugh Timothy Dugan, Treasurer Patricia Egan Jonnie Greene Donald F. McDonagh Nancy Walters-Yvertes Honorary Directors Selma Jeanne Cohen Violette Verdy Past Presidents Timothy DeBaets (1980-1984) Robin Woodard (1985-1987) Former Directors Allan Alberts Reynaldo Gamboa Alejandro Mary Bueno Constance Old Barbara Palfy Audrey Ross Brian Rushton Fredrika Santos INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF /// DANCE A project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. FOUNDING EDITOR Selma Jeanne Cohen AREA EDITORS George Dorris Nancy Goldner Beate Gordon Nancy Reynolds David Vaughan Suzanne Youngerman CONSULTANTS Thomas F. Kelly Horst Koegler Richard Ralph Elizabeth Souritz VOLUME 5 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS New York 1998 Oxford FEB 2 4 1998 / J / 733 '.3 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1998 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. This work was initiated with funds granted by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International encyclopedia of dance : a project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. / founding editor, Selma Jeanne Cohen; area editors, George Dorris et al.; consultants, Thomas F. Kelly et al. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Dance—Encyclopedias. 2. Ballet—Encyclopedias. I. Cohen, Selma Jeanne, 1920-. II. Dance Perspectives Foundation. GV1585.I586 1998 97-36562 792.6'2'03—dc21 CIP ISBN 0-19-509462-X (set) ISBN 0-19-512309-3 (vol. 5) Notices of copyright appear in captions accompanying illustrations throughout this work. The publisher has made every effort to identify proprietors of copyright, to secure permission to reprint materials protected by copyright, and to make appropriate acknowledgments of sources and proprietary rights. Please notify the publisher if oversights or errors are discovered. Balanchine is a trademark of The George Balanchine Trust Printing (last digit): 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper N CONTINUED NOZZE DEGLI DEI, LE. Choreography: Agnioli cent of Venus to Heaven, and the maritime wedding of Ricci. Director: Ferdinando Sarcinelli. Music: Five un¬ Neptune and Amphitrite. The scenes represented the known composers. Libretto: Abbe Giovanni Carlo Cop¬ Wood of Diana, the Garden of Venus, the Sea, Vulcan's pola. Scenery, costumes, and machinery: Alfonso Parigi Grotto, Tartarus, and Heaven ("scene of the whole the younger. First performance: 8 July 1637, courtyard of heaven”). The spectacle thus depicted an imaginary voy¬ the Pitti Palace, Florence. age through the three realms of human, divine, and infer¬ This spectacle, the title of which means "The Wedding nal, which together with an allegory of the four elements of the Gods,” was presented on the occasion of the wed¬ (air, water, earth, and fire), composed the magical number ding of the grand duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand II de’ seven. Medici, to Vittoria della Rovere, princess of Urbino. The There were also seven scenes, including the view of Flo¬ wedding was given great publicity by the printing in 1637 rence in the prologue. In the course of the action each of four celebratory publications. Le Nozze degli Dei, a scene appeared twice, except for the view of Florence and booklet by the librettist, G. C. Coppola, included eight en¬ the final vision of Heaven. There were therefore twelve gravings by Stefano Della Bella illustrating the sets and changes of scenery, possibly symbolic of the months of stage effects. Argomento delle Nozze degli Dei, by an anony¬ the year. Certainly symbolic was the choice of the two mous author, and Relazione delle Nozze degli Dei by F. nonrepeated subjects, Florence and Heaven—establishing Rondinelli also appeared. Descrizione delle feste date in an exact relationship between the seat of the ruler and the Firenze (Description of the Festivals Given in Florence), seat of the gods. In this way, the ruler defined himself as by F. de’ Bardi with an engraving by S. Della Bella, docu¬ representing divinity on earth, and his private happiness ments the tournament presented after the performance of was identified with the public happiness of his subjects. Le Nozze degli Dei, inspired by the episode of Armida in This allusive metaphor recurs frequently in court specta¬ Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Liberated) by Torquato cles of the seventeenth century. Tasso. In this respect, Le Nozze degli Dei is no different from The exceptional prominence given to the celebration similar presentations, except for the invention of a "pat¬ was perhaps motivated by the desire to mask an unhappy tern title” (Zorzi, 1977). Its innovative elements lie else¬ political situation. In 1631 the small but strategically and where—in certain scenes or choreographic formulas, and culturally important duchy of Urbino was annexed to the in the relationship of the action to the theatrical environ¬ Vatican State by Pope Urban VIII Barberini. Vittoria della ment. Most of the scenes are within the Florentine the¬ Rovere, the last descendant of the dukes of Urbino, was atrical tradition. For example, the Garden of Venus and thus the princess of a nonexistent realm, and the wedding the Sea have precedents in the Garden of Calypso and in sanctioned the waiver of all her claims to her ancestral the Ship of Amerigo Vespucci, as conceived by Giulio Pa¬ domain. It is no accident that a panorama of Florence rigi for 11 Giudizio di Paride (The Judgment of Paris; Flo¬ is shown in the prologue to Le Nozze degli Dei; this is rence, 1608). The inferno recalls the descent of Circe to not only a courtly allusion but also a consoling image Tartarus, a scene by Giulio Parigi for La Liberazione di Tir- for the bride, to whom a new and stable realm is being reno (Florence, 1616) documented in an engraving by offered. Jacques Callot. The plot of Le Nozze degli Dei is very slender: Jove, the A new element is the “scene of the whole heaven,” ob¬ chief deity, decides to give wives to the gods of Olympus, scured by two pillars of dark clouds in the foreground. but his choices cause many conflicts, which are finally re¬ The pillars emphasize the luminosity of the celestial vi¬ solved to general satisfaction. To this thread are attached sion in the background and divide it like an altar triptych, various mythological episodes, including the rape of as if wishing to establish a liturgical image of the sover¬ Persephone, the descent of the Centaurs to Tartarus, the eign power. The novelty of this type of scene was quickly battle between the followers of Mars and Vulcan, the as¬ assimilated by contemporary scene painters: in the Eng- 1 2 NOZZE DEGLI DEI, LE lish masque Salmacida Spolia (1640), Inigo Jones intro¬ cyclopedia of the various contemporary forms of theatrical duced a “scene of the whole heaven”; in Gridelino, a court expression. ballet presented in Turin in 1653, the pillars of clouds The environment in which Le Nozze degli Dei was pre¬ reappear. sented is also significant. In Florence, the courtyard of the The splendid quality of the engravings by Stefano Della Pitti Palace was transformed into a theater. A platform Bella makes them valuable as documentation not only for was erected in it for the bridal pair and the most illustri¬ the scenery but also for the choreography. Della Bella ous guests; many spectators were in the courtyard itself, unites different episodes in a single image, but he is very used as theater pit and surrounded by balconies; other accurate in reproducing the steps, figures, and costumes. spectators watched from windows and balconies on the The choreography for Le Nozze degli Dei is unusual in com¬ second floor of the palace, around three sides. The fourth bining different types of dances in a single spectacle. These side was the stage, delimited by a large scenic arch which include pastoral dance, in Diana's Wood; children’s ballet, supported the curtain. Zorzi (1977) sees this arrangement in the ballet of the little Amors in the Garden of Venus; the as “the archetype of a modern theater” and an anticipa¬ grotesque ballet in the dance of the Centaurs in Tartarus; tion of the “structure of the opera, surrounded by several the so-called overthrow, the warriors' battle in the Grotto superimposed ranks of boxes.” In reality, in 1637 there of Vulcan), and the equestrian ballet and the figures of the were already theaters with boxes in Venice, but these were tournament in the Heavens. The last scene has remarkable choreography, arranged vertically on superimposed levels. Against all the rules, the heavier group of the equestrian LE NOZZE DEGLI dei. (below) The Garden of Venus, the third ballet is above; under it, the dancers are configured (just as scene, and (opposite page) the Heavens, the sixth scene, from Le was done in real tournaments) to form the initial and final Nozze degli Dei, first performed on 8 July 1637 in the courtyard of letters of the names of the bridal couple—F and O on the the Pitti Palace, Florence, in honor of the marriage of Ferdinand II de’ Medici and Vittoria della Rovere. The etchings are by Ste¬ left, and V and A on the right. The spectacle was thus an en¬ fano Della Bella after Alfonso Parigi the younger. (Courtesy of Madison U. Sowell and Debra H. Sowell, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.)