‘D’un bel canto patrioto francese’: On the Penetration of French Revolutionary Elements in the Spectacles of Republican Milan (1796–1802)

Figures & data

FIGURE 1 Foro Bonaparte during the 1801 festival, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Table

Visual	Sound/noise
Civil and military officers climb the stairs leading to the amphitheatre; boys present them with olive branches.	Hymns and symphonies
Officers move towards the funeral monument	Funeral march
Officers reach the funeral monument; boys drape it with wraths of flowers	Military sounds (gunfire, drums, etc.)
Officers reach the temple; boys affix laurel wreaths to the temple’s columns	Explosions from the castle’s ruins
(Anon., 1801: iii–v)

Table

Piece	Performance venue	Performers
I. concertato chorus A. Minoja (1752–1825)	1. La Scala	25 choristers, 12 players
	2. outdoors (Palazzo Serbelloni)	the above plus band (12 extra players)
II. Chorus from Il re Teodoro in Venezia [King Theodore in Venice] G. Paisiello (1740–1816), arr. A. Rolla (1757–1841)	Outdoors (unspecified)	Choir and orchestra (La Scala)
III. patriotic hymn A. Minoja	outdoors (Porta Romana)	25 choristers 36 players
IV. symphonies, marches L. de Bailou (1736–1804)	outdoors (unspecified)	military bands + extra players

FIGURE 2 Stemma repubblicano designed in 1798 by Giovanni Ranza. Milan, CRS Achille Bertarelli.

TABLE 1 OPERE SERIE PRODUCED AT LA SCALA, 1796–1802.

Carnival Season	Title	Libretto author	Composer
1797	La congiura Pisoniana [The Pisonian Conspiracy]	F. Salfi	A. Tarchi
1798	Gli Orazi e i Curiazi [The Horatii and the Curiatii]	S. Sografi	D. Cimarosa
	Meleagro [Meleagro]	G. Schmidt	N. Zingarelli
1799	Il trionfo di Clelia [The Triumph of Clelia]	S. Sografi	S. Nasolini
	Gli Sciti [The Scythians]	G. Rossi	G. Nicolini
1801	Clitennestra [Clytemnestra]	F. Salfi	N. Zingarelli
	I baccanali di Roma [The Bacchanals of Rome]	L. Romanelli	G. Nicolini
1802	I Manlii [The Manilus Family]	S. Sografi	G. Nicolini
	I misteri eleusini [The Eleusinian Mysteries]	G. Bernardoni	S. Mayr

TABLE 2 SELECTION OF BALLETS PRODUCED AT LA SCALA, 1796–1802.

Season	Ballet
Autumn 1796	Lucrezia, ovvero L’espulsione dei Re da Roma [Lucrezia, or the Expulsion of the Kings from Rome]
Carnival 1797	Guglielmo Tell, ossia La rivoluzione svizzera [Guillaume Tell, or the Swiss Revolution]
	Lucio Giunio Bruto [Lucius Junius Brutus]
Lent 1797	Il general Colli in Roma [General Colli in Rome]
Autumn 1797	Il buon patriota [The Good Patriot]
	I patriotti repubblicani [The Republican Patriots]
Carnival 1798	Amor fra l'armi [Love in Arms]
Advent 1798	L'Italia rigenerata [Italy Regenerated]
Carnival 1799	Reclutamento in un villaggio [Village Recruitment]
	La vera giustizia nei patriotti [True Justice of the Patriots]
Lent 1799	Il Bruto Milanese, ossia La congiura contro G. M. Visconti [The Milanese Brutus, or the Conspiracy against G. M. Visconti]
	I Francesi in Egitto [The French in Egypt]
Autumn 1801	Cleopatra [Cleopatra]
Carnival 1802	Agamennone [Agamemnon]
	La morte di Pirro [The Death of Pyrrhus]
	Il tamburo notturno [The Night Drum]

Anon. 1801. Programma della festa per la celebrazione della Pace e per la collocazione della prima pietra del Foro Bonaparte (1801). Milan: n.p. [Miscellanea KK.IV.10. Milan: Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense].

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