The background to this third volume of Italian Opera in Central Europe, 1614–1780 is the emergence of the new genre of opera in Italy around 1600 and its development and dissemination in Central Europe between 1614 and c. 1780. The present volume explores more thoroughly the European dimension of Italian opera. This practice fulfilled a complex function as a medium of representation; artists contributing to opera were mediators of ideas and images in the network of European cultural relations. Opera patrons required individual artistic achievements to enhance the prestige of their ancestral houses in the competition of the dynasties. On the other hand, a general system of ethical-political values encouraged the use of universal topics and symbolic meanings. In the courtly context, some universal occasions for the staging of operas, such as marriages, coronations, noble births, carnivals and fairs, led to repetition of the subjects covered, while the reliance upon a limited number of mythological and historical plots for the libretti helped to establish a canon of opera subjects and protagonists. Besides the hero, the ruler, the lover and his beloved, more specific figures established themselves, such as the sorceress, the heroic mother, the tyrant – and in oriental plots, for example, the Mogul and his Favorita. Formal standardisation of the three-act genre of opera seria was a response to the need to circulate works and artists all around Europe.
The eighteen papers in this volume concentrate on court opera but also discuss commercial operatic practices and explore different levels of style, up to the phenomenon of parody, an ironic self-representation of the genre. European relationships in opera are identified between Italian centres and the royal court of Poland, as well as the Hanover and Bavarian courts; opera artists travelled from Venice to London, Berlin and Breslau; letters were sent abroad by Francesco Bembo, Antonio Sartorio, Luigi Riccoboni, Antonio Vivaldi and Therese Kunigunde of Bavaria. There is a special focus on the year 1683, when allied Christian armies defeated the Turks and their Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha before Vienna: this important date in European history is also reflected in opera.Table of Contents Part I – Opera Subjects
Gerhard Poppe
Opern zu Hochzeiten am kursächsischen Hof nach dem Siebenjährigen Krieg
Corinna Herr
Die Zauberin als Opernfigur: Kontexte und Interpretationen in Reinhard Keisers "Fredegunda" und Georg Friedrich Händels "Teseo"
Dorothea Schröder
Dynastische Figuren als Opernhelden: Die Welfen
Christoph Henzel
"Puoi veder, se madre io sono, dall'acerbo mio dolor". Mütterrollen in der friderizianischen Oper
Michal Bristiger and Reinhard Strohm
"Libertà, marito e trono fur miei beni ...": Die wiederentdeckte "Andromaca" von Antonio Bioni (Breslau 1730)
Anna Ryszka-Komarnicka
Polish History as the Source of Plot in the Italian "Dramma per Musica": Three Case Studies
Alina Zorawska-Wittkowska
Parodies of "Dramma per Musica" at the Warsaw Theatre of August III
Panja Mücke
Dia Pastorale und ihre Tradition in der italienischen Oper des 18. Jahruhunderts: Sujet, Gattung und kompositorische Charakteristika
Angela Romagnoli
"All'uso Mogollo": Das Reich der Moguln in der italienischen Oper des 18. Jahrhunderts Part II – European Relationships
Oliver Rosteck
Opernberichte in der deutschsprachigen Tagespresse in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts
Barbara Przybyszewska-Jarminska
"Dramma per Musica" at the Court of the Polish Vasa Kings in the Accounts of Foreign Visitors
Vassilis Vavoulis
Nicola Gratianini and Francesco Bembo: A Venetian Impresario's Wuest for a Bass in the Nahnover Court
Melania Bucciarelli
From Venice to London: On the Trail of Luigi Riccoboni and Italian Opera
Berthold Over
"… sotto l'Ombra della Regina di Pennati". Antonio Vivaldi, Kurfürstin Therese Kunigunde von Bayern und andere Wittelsbacher Part III
Karolina Targosz
L'orientalisme dans la culture et au théâtre en Pologne au XVIIe siècle
Wojciech Tygielski
A Strong King and a Weak Kingdom. John III Sobieski (1629-1696) and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the last Quarter of the seventeenth century (1674-1696)
Herbert Seifert
Musik und Theater im Exil: Unterhaltungen des Kaiserhofs auf der Flucht vor Pest und Türken, 1679-1684
Dorothea Schröder
"Cara Mustapha" oder Aufstieg und Ende eines Tyrannen | 
