Andrew W. Mellon Foundation /ACLS Early Career Fellow 2008-09
Valeria De Lucca
My work focuses on patronage of music and theatre in Italy during the seventeenth century. I am particularly interested in the relationship between private and public musical institutions (the court and the public theatre, the patron and the impresario), in early-modern women patrons of music, and in the use of patronage of music and theatrical events as a means to achieve political and social goals. I am also interested in operatic performance practice and in the role that singers played as liaisons between religious institutions, the court, and the public theatres.
I am currently working on a monograph on the patronage of music and theatre of Lorenzo Onofrio and Maria Mancini Colonna, husband and wife, members of one of the most illustrious and ancient Roman families, and on the impact of their activities on the cultural life of Rome, Venice and Naples between 1659 and 1689. This book stems from my Ph.D. thesis, 'Dalle sponde del Tebro alle rive dell’Adria': Maria Mancini and Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna’s Patronage of Music and Theater between Rome and Venice (1659-1675) and expands its chronological and geographical boundaries. My purpose is to reconstruct the Colonna’s pivotal role in the circulation of repertories and of the most sought-after singers, composers, and musicians between Rome, Naples, and Venice and to consider a multiplicity of musical genres and their broad cultural context. I also discuss the ways in which gender and social constructions influenced Lorenzo Onofrio and Maria’s patronage, emphasizing the different motivations, aims, and reception of their artistic endeavours. Finally, my monograph investigates the development of their support of music from court patronage tout court to semi-private support of opera when they opened a theatre in their palace, reflecting a crucial transitional phase in the history of patronage of music.
