Collaboration, arrangement, ‘dressing’: The different recipes for the pasticcio alla napoletana in the first half of the 18th century

The aura of suspicion that surrounded the practice of ‘pasticcio’, which was widespread in the 18th century until relatively recent years, has been dissipating recently, even though aesthetic prejudice dies hard. The contribution deals with the phenomenon in the Neapolitan context between the last years of the 17th century and 1737 (the year of the opening of the S. Carlo theatre), mainly in the opera seria sphere, but also devoting a brief paragraph to comedy for music. The subject had been relatively little explored; the essay highlights different modes of intervention on librettos and scores, distinguishing between the practices of adaptation already typical of the 17th century, those of compositional collaboration, and those more appropriately of mashing. The different and specific responsibilities of the various categories involved in the production system of dramma per musica (librettists, composers, singers and impresarios) are investigated, on the basis of exemplary cases for which new attributions of individual arias are proposed, with the reconstruction of the possible paths of the materials used in the kneading operation, while correcting previous hypotheses that did not stand the test of facts. In particular, "Il comando non inteso ed ubbidito" (1713), "Stratonica" (1727) and "Siface" (1734) are examined: three operas that represent three different moments and three different situations and provide an excellent opportunity to outlining the lines of research that open up around the theme of pasticcio in Neapolitan theatre practice.