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Subject:
From:
Denis Fodor <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 3 Mar 2001 11:24:28 EST
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Aaron J Rabushka admonishes:

>Wait a minute--operas for lent? In many places the opera houses were
>closed for lent.  Was there, by contrast, somewhere where lenten opera
>was emphasized?

Back in the dawn of opera when,say, Peri's Dafne was premiered at
the Palazzo Corsi in Florence, "opera houses" were the abodes of the
aristocracy.  They closed only (and then only partially) when the owner
moved to his outlying villa for the summer.  Lent being the slow season
between Carneval and Easter, the maecenases of the day had stuff
specifically composed to enliven those 40 days--and, of course, others,
too.  For highly religious periods, such as Christmas and Easter, orders
went out for masses and oratorios.  Later when the patronage of music
became embourgoised and commercial, themes became less seasonal.

Denis Fodor

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