The Baroque court opera in the context of the social and aesthetic regimes of the era: the case of Vienna

This essay considers on the material of the Vienna court baroque opera an issue of a wide variety of aesthetic, socio-cultural, political tasks that this most important institution of the Baroque court culture was called to solve. The purpose of the essay is to show that the opera court theater in the hands of the Habsburgs was an important and effective tool for consolidating the social elite and propaganda of Imperial foreign policy ambitions. For this, the authors use the historical-cultural, phenomenological and art history methods, as well as an interdisciplinary approach. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that, for the first time, the scattered information about the court theater of the Baroque era in Vienna is used as material for reconstructing the principles of its functioning as a social institution whose aesthetic goals were inseparable from the internal and external political goals of the Hapsburg throne. A choice of Vienna as a demonstrational polygon is not random: with the exception of the homeland of Opera, Italy, neither European polis could boast conducting business of the Opera at such level. The examples from the history of the Vienna court opera, been analyzed in this essay, cover the period of the XVII - the first half of the XVIII century. The essay notes an initial stage of this history associated with the two Empresses, the Italians, to whom Vienna owes its export of Italian opera. During these years, a theatre of opera and ballet is used as a means of uniting of elite consolidated by the Italian language into privileged social group. Participation of courtiers in opera and ballet productions contributes to cohesion of nobles crowding at the throne in court society. The subject of special attention is the Vienna court opera during the reign of Leopold I. A personal passion for playing music converts by Emperor in an important social type of king-artist. An attitude to the opera as a personal matter of the monarch is illustrated by examples borrowed from the libretto and the set design of the opera The Golden Apple by Cesti and Sbarra, witnessed the perception of the Baroque opera at some certain level of its existence as personal regalia and insignia of the reigning ruler. On the other hand, the very structure of the theater space symbolizes another symbolic aspect of opera action: a monarch is the first among equals, he and his entourage celebrate themselves in the form of a festive opera performance. The essay concludes with the interpretation of a new type of scenography theoretically justified in the early XVIII century by Francesco Galli Bibiena and established in Vienna in the 1710s - 1740s. The new set design prevents the effect of quasi-mirror similarity of opera characters to the main addressees, who are in the hall, the monarch does not have a privileged point of view and turns into a spectator among the spectators, and “drama on music” loses its connection with the propaganda of the state brilliance. The Baroque was replaced by the age of Enlightenment.

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