Song and Season: Science, Culture, and Theatrical Time in Early Modern Venice (review)

Having worked on the history of Venetian opera for many years and about to publish a book entitled A New Chronology of Venetian Opera, Eleanor Selfridge-Field had to come to grips with the complex history of the calendar and timekeeping in Venice in the seventeenth century. That calendars and timekeeping changed considerably in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries throughout Europe has long been known, but the problems are particularly intense in Venice. Some of those issues continue into the nineteenth century. (When Rigoletto talks about midnight in Verdi’s opera, which had its premiere in Venice in 1851, there are just six strokes of the clock: the “day” was figured as beginning with nightfall.) As we seek to understand contemporary reports, we need to understand precisely how the calendar was figured from moment to moment within the period Selfridge-Field is treating. The church calendar was one thing; the municipal calendar another; many figured their calendars on the basis of the presence or absence of the nobility in the city. And once we turn to theaters, how were seasons counted? What did “Carnival” actually mean? How did “masking” interact with theatrical practice? When were Lenten seasons permitted and how? Which theaters were permitted to be opened during what periods?

Selfridge-Field rightly insists that no one can speak responsibly about the chronology of Venetian opera without considering these matters. Unfortunately, her book is laced with typographical and grammatical errors that do not encourage readers to trust her statements. In chapter 9, on “Season and Genre from the Middle Ages to Today,” there are many outright errors in her treatment of the operas of Rossini and Verdi. These, too, do not encourage readers to have the confidence that her detailed treatment of chronological matters in the seventeenth century requires.