The rhetoric in scene in the first operas of seventeenth century through an anonymous treatise: Il Corago

• Grant number: 14/06438-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2014
• End date: May 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Opera
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Monica Isabel Lucas
• Grantee: Ligiana Costa Araujo
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this project is to initiate a post doctorate on the rhetoric of gesture and the staging of the first operas in music history through a translation, in-depth analysis and practical experiments of an anonymous manuscript treatise written between 1620 and 1630, Il Corago. It is one of the most important texts in regards to the scenic and musical seventeenth century and will be by the first time translated into Portuguese accompanied by analytical and practical studies practice. This post-doctoral research will occur in two areas, the first being in the field of theoretical research and the second in a practical sphere: the first result will include a book with the complete translation of Il Corago accompanied by critical apparatus, glossary and pictures of the manuscript. The second product is the creation of a weekly laboratory activity with singing students from USP music department. In this, students will experience in practice, led by the post doctoral student, the gestural, interpretive and rhetorical principles that the author of Corago codified. Whereas it is a practical handbook designed for singers , the validity of his ideas can be much better measured, evaluated and questioned when the concepts are put into practice, especially considering the temporal distance that separates us from this work. Thus, this project also aims to assemble small scenes from seventeenth-century operas, ballets or scenic madrigals which can either be taken to a professional stage and serve as internal and experimental laboratory. During the process of Il Corago translation the group will have collective readings of the same texts and other contemporaries such as the Treatise of Scenic Music by Giovanni Battista Doni or The Art of gestures by Giovanni Bonifacio. (AU)