Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina - OKSANA VENZHEHA
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FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA
Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di
Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina
Bakalářská diplomová práce
OKSANA VENZHEHA
Vedoucí práce: prof. PhDr. Miloš Štědroň, CSc.
Ústav hudební vědy
Hudební věda
Brno 2021
FRANCESCA CACCINI: LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA
Bibliografický záznam
Autor: Oksana Venzheha
Filozofická fakulta
Masarykova univerzita
Ústav hudební vědy
Název práce: Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero
dall'isola d'Alcina
Studijní program: Hudební věda
Vedoucí práce: prof. PhDr. Miloš Štědroň, CSc.
Rok: 2021
Počet stran: 87
Klíčová slova: Itálie, Francesca Caccini, 17. století, opera,
baroko, balletto
2
FRANCESCA CACCINI: LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA
Bibliographic record
Author: Oksana Venzheha
Faculty of Arts
Masaryk University
Department of Musicology
Title of Thesis: Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero
dall'isola d'Alcina
Degree Program: Musicology
Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Miloš Štědroň, CSc.
Year: 2021
Number of Pages: 87
Keywords: Italy, Francesca Caccini, 17th century, Baroque,
opera, balletto
3
FRANCESCA CACCINI: LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA Abstract This bachelor’s thesis deals with an opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina by Francesca Caccini, composed in 1625 for the feast in Florence dedicated to the visit of Ladislaus IV of Poland. It is the only extant big theatrical work from Francesca Caccini. The aims of this thesis are there- fore to update the state of research about Francesca Caccini and all the no- torious information about her and the perception of her opera; describe the genesis and production of this work and identify its place in the historical context. The thesis also includes composer’s biography and is completed with an analysis of libretto and music. 4
FRANCESCA CACCINI: LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA
Anotace
Tato bakalářská práce pojednává o opeře La liberazione di Ruggiero
dall'isola d'Alcina od Francescy Caccini, složené v roce 1625 ke příležitosti
návštěvy polského prince Ladislava IV. Vasy ve Florencii v období
karnevalu. Je to jediné velké divadelní dílo od Francescy Caccini, které se
dochovalo. Cílem této práce je proto aktualizovat stav výzkumu o Francesce
Caccini a všechny již doposud zjištěné informace o ní a vnímání její opery;
popsat vznik a produkci tohoto díla a jeho místo v historickém kontextu své
doby. Důležitou součástí práce je také biografie skladatele a je doplněna
analýzou libreta a hudby.
5FRANCESCA CACCINI: LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA
Čestné prohlášení
Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci na téma Francesca Caccini: La
liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina vypracovala samostatně pod
vedením prof. Miloše Štědroně a uvedla v ní všechny použité literární
a jiné odborné zdroje v souladu s právními předpisy, vnitřními předpisy
Masarykovy univerzity a vnitřními akty řízení Masarykovy univerzity a
Filozofické fakulty MU.
V Brně 13. března 2021 .......................................
Oksana Venzheha
7FRANCESCA CACCINI: LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL'ISOLA D'ALCINA
Poděkování
Na tomto místě bych ráda poděkovala vedoucímu své práce prof.
PhDr. Miloši Štědroňovi, CSc. za jeho lidský akademický přístup,
nesmírnou ochotu se kterou k mé práci přistupoval a trpělivost při jejím
psaní. Další poděkování náleží Giorgiu Cadorinimu, Dottore in Lettere,
Ph.D., jehož podnětné rady a vstřícnost inspirovaly mne v průběhu psání
práci. V neposlední řadě děkuji své rodině a přátelům za psychickou
podporu a zejména své kolegyni Evgenii Tokmakově za její
neocenitelnou technickou pomoc.
9LIST OF FIGURES
Table of contents
List of figures 12
List of tables 14
1 Introduction 15
2 Francesca Caccini (1587–1641) 18
2.1 State of Research........................................................................................ 18
2.2 Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court ............................................... 22
3 Opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina 27
3.1 Historical Context ...................................................................................... 27
3.2 Diffusion of Opera around 1625 .......................................................... 28
3.3 Performance and Staging Circumstances of the Opera ............... 31
3.3.1 Florence (1625) ……………………………………………………………31
3.3.2. Warsaw (1628) ……………………………………………….…………….33
4 Analysis 35
4.1 Libretto .......................................................................................................... 40
4.2 Music............................................................................................................... 44
5 Conclusions 67
6 Summary 69
Bibliography 70
Appendix A 79
Appendix B 80
11LIST OF TABLES List of figures Figure 1. The list of performers of the dancing roles from the fac-simile edition of La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina………………………32 Figure 2. Sinfonia……………………………………………………………………………..47 Figure 3. Figure 3. Prologue, the first appearing of Nettunno “Non perchè congiurati...” ………………………....………………………………………………………..49 Figure 4. Figure 4. Prologue, the second appearing of Nettuno “Ma per mirare…” …………………………………………………….……………………………….…50 Figure 5. Prologue, the third appearing of Nettuno “Meco venite…” ……51 Figure 6. Ritornello from the prologue. Fac-simile edition, 1998 ……….52 Figure 7. Ritornello from the prologue, transcription………………………...52 Figure 8. Prologue, choir of Numi dell’acque………………………………….….53 Figure 9. Claudio Monteverdi: opera L’Orfeo, scene I, choir “Vieni, Imeneo, deh vieni...” ..............................................................................................................53 Figure 10. Prologue, the fifth and sixth appearing of Nettunno…….…….54 Figure 11. Scene I, Melissa: „Cosi perfida Alcina…“.........................................55 12
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 12. Scene I, ritornello……………………………………………………….……56
Figure 13. Scene I, Due Damigelle: “Gentil Ruggiero D’amor...”.........,,.......57
Figure 14. Scene I, Ruggiero: “Quanto per dolce…”.............................,,,,........58
Figure 15. Scene I, Alcina: “Ah, non ti perder gioco...”............................,,,,,...59
Figure 16. Scene II, Alcina: “Così condisci ingrato…”......................................60
Figure 17. Claudio Monteverdi: L’Orfeo. Second appearing of Euridice
“Ahi vista troppo dolce…”............................................................................................61
Figure 18. Claudio Monteverdi: L’Orfeo. Second appearing of Euridice
“Ahi vista troppo dolce…”, transcription……………………………………….….62
Figure 19. Scene I, Una delle piante incantate: „Lasso, qual vista
atroce…“.............................................................................................................................64
Figure 20. Claudio Monteverdi: choir ritornel “Apprendete pietà” from
Ballo delle ingrate. Over-written from the edition of Luigi Torchi. L’arte
musicale in Italia/ G. Ricordi a C., Milano, p. 237 ..............................................65
Figure 21. Example from the ending of La liberazione…………………….…66
13LIST OF TABLES List of tables Table 1. The harmonic progression of sinfonia………….................................. 48 14
INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction
This work aims to contribute to the research about Francesca Caccini,
an early-baroque Florentine composer, with the historical placement
and analysis of the opera entitled La liberazione di Ruggiero dall´isola
d´Alcina (The Liberation of Ruggiero from the Island of Alcina). This
opera has been created for the Medici court in Florence and performed
for the first time on February 3, 1625, at the Villa Poggio Imperiale in
honor of prince Ladislaus IV of Poland (1595–1648). The original manu-
script belongs to Collezione Villa Maffei Poggiolini in Florence and is kept
there. La liberazione is one of a few works or Francesca Caccini that have
survived till our days, the other ones are several pieces from La tancia
and Il passatempo from the year 1618, and a collection of thirty-six sa-
cred and secular songs for the two voices and madrigals of various styles
in Italian and Latin languages entitled Il primo libro delle musiche.
La liberazione played a big role not only in her own career but also in
the music history, as it was probably the first musical opera created by a
woman composer. In spite the fact that today it is considered to be a
comic opera, Francesca Caccini in collaboration with the librettist Ferdi-
nando Saracinelli identified it both in the score and libretto as an opera-
balletto.
The basis for this thesis is a fac-simile edition of the score and libretto,
containing five engravings of the sets by Giulio Parigi. The year of its print
coincides with the first stage representation of La liberazione in modern
times at Teatro Metastasio in Prato on the 20th of December 1998. The
15INTRODUCTION
original print from the year 1625 was executed by Pietro Cecconcelli in
Florence.1
The thesis is introduced by the chapter with a state of research. There
I will focus on a summary of the current state of knowledge closely re-
lated to the subject. Further in the individual chapters we will first deal
with the composer’s personality and life. The next chapter will focus on
the circumstances of the opera performance at the court in Florence and
three years later in Warsaw, a ceremonial occasion on which the work
was studied and performed. The basis of the final section of this thesis
will be an analysis of certain musical examples from the opera compared
with relative pieces from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Ballo delle ingrate in
order to see whether the features of seconda prattica are present in Cac-
cini’s works. The genesis of libretto by Ferdinando Saracinelli makes a
part of the analysis as well.
The personality and music of Francesca Caccini has interested many
researchers and those out of the sphere of musicology. Thanks to the se-
ries of articles by Maria Giovanna Masera in the 1940s, her life and music
was returned into attention. Among those who made an important con-
tribution to the research on Francesca Caccini and her music there can
be named such scholars as Doris Silbert, who also released a modern edi-
tion of the opera2; Caroline Raney with her introduction to Caccini in
1965, and others. Nowadays Francesca Caccini and her music are still be-
ing rediscovered due to the high interest of society towards women’s ac-
tivities. And therefore, unsurprisingly, the most prolific researcher on
1 CACCINI, Francesca. La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina. Firenze: Pietro
Cecconcelli, 1625.
2 La liberazione di Ruggiero, in Smith College Archives, Northampton, MA, Ed. Doris Sil-
bert., 1945.
16INTRODUCTION
this topic is Suzanne Cusick, an American musicologist with a feminist
approach. She wrote a monograph entitled Francesca Caccini at the
Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power, in which Caccini is con-
sidered to be not only the first woman composer creating operas, but
also a person that influenced the circulation of power in the Medici court
with her music that has been created for the political needs. Also, exam-
ining her letters, Cusick studies her relationships with other artists that
had been in contact with her, such as for example Michelangelo Buona-
rotti the Younger, who wrote many texts set by Francesca, and Christo-
foro Bronzini.
17FRANCESCA CACCINI
2 Francesca Caccini
2.1 State of Research
Whereas Francesca Caccini is still rather unknown to the public, most
of the works about her are based on the biography written in a form of a
dictionary entry and repeat the content and the views of each other.
Some of them provide the formal analysis of her music with not much
being said about the harmonics. Only her Il Primo libro delle musiche has
been fully analyzed3, while her only extant opera La liberazione di Ruggi-
ero dall’isola d’Alcina only partially.
One of the earliest sources in which Francesca Caccini has been men-
tioned is Lexicon Der Tonkünstler by Ernst Ludwig Gerber from the year
1790.4 According to the author5, Caccini was “one of the best singers of
her time, but also a composer and poet, writing in Latin and Italian", he
also mentions her nickname La Cecchina6.
Having connections with France, Francesca is an interesting study
subject for the French musicology. Therefore, she appears in a publica-
tion of a French musicologist Adriano de la Fage, who had been working
3 LOBATO MIRANDA, Marina. Francesca Caccini (1587-1641): Composer, Performer,
and Professor Represented in Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche. Thesis, Georgia State
University, 2014.
4 GERBER, Ernst Ludwig. Historisch-Biographisches Lexicon Der Tonkünstler, Welches
Nachrichten Von Dem Leben Und Werken Musikalischer Schriftsteller, Berühmter
Componisten, Sänger Etc... Enthält. Leipzig: J. G. I. Breitkopf, to 1792, 1790.
5 Ibid., volume 72, p. 591.
6 In Italian „singing bird “.
18FRANCESCA CACCINI
for the House of Medici in Florence, too. The article7 written for Gazzetta
Musicale di Milano had been released in 1847.
F. J. Fétis in his Biographie universelle des musiciens also mentions her
talent for musical composition as well as her singing skills. Though in
that article Fétis misidentified the years of her life, he precisely described
La Liberazione, and for the other works created by Caccini he indicated
the libraries in which they are preserved.
Later Oscar Chilesotti publishes an article about her opera in Gazzetta
Musicale di Milano8 reviewing the perception of the opera and its plot
without musical analysis.
In 1905 Angelo Solerti writes his Musica, ballo e drammatica alla corte
medicea dal 1600 al 1637, where mentions the Caccini family several
times. There he cites Francesca as both a singer and a composer follow-
ing first of all the way performances were produced and their historical
context, not being focused primarily on Francesca Caccini.
Another researcher dealing with the topic is Arnaldo Bonaventura. In
his article entitled A portrait of Cecchina (Un ritratto della Cecchina) for
an Italian magazine La cultura musicale released in the year 1922, he
collected the information known at that time and extrapolated it to the
personality of Caccini, focusing on her career and the relationships she
had with the contemporaries. A short article from him appears as well in
Enciclopedia Italiana from the year 1930.
7 De la FAGE, Adriano. “La prima compositrice di opere in musica; e la sua opera.” Gaz-
zetta Musicale di Milano, 10 November 1847, 354-55.
8 CHILESOTTI, Oscar. La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina di Francesca
Caccini (Cont. e fine, vedi N. 32 e 33). Gazzetta Musicale di Milano, 20 August 1896,
573-75.
19FRANCESCA CACCINI
In the 1940s a contribution to the topic has been made by Maria Gio-
vanna Masera. With her three publications9, all for La Rassegna Musicale,
she drew more attention of researchers to Caccini.
Matteo Gliński speaks10 about La Liberazione as of the first Italian
opera to be played outside of Italy (Susanne Cusick states11 that it was a
wrong conclusion) and follows up its way from the Medici court to Po-
land, where it premiered in 1628.
In the 1960s Caroline Raney continued the study with a series of
works dedicated to Caccini. The works introduces her biography based
on the correspondence, provides us with the style analysis within Il
Primo Libro, but also one piece from La Liberazione. These publications
have been definitely important for the promotion of the topic.
Liliana Pannella wrote an entry for Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
in 1973 and provided extensive information on the life and work of the
composer. A detailed bibliography is present as well. Since then, the per-
sonality of Francesca Caccini gets gradually more involved in different
studies and articles, and so we can find her in publications for example
by Mariangela Cappelli in Dizionario enciclopedica della musica e dei
9 MASERA, Maria Giovanna. Alcune lettere inedite di Francesca Caccini in La rassegna
musicale, 28 April 1940, 173-82.
Una musicista fiorentina del seicento: Francesca Caccini parte prima: La vida. La ras-
segna musicale, 19 May 1941, 181-207.
Una musicista fiorentina del seicento; Francesca Caccini, in La Rassegna Musicale 15,
1942, p. 249-66.
10 GLINSKI, Matteo. La prima stagione lirica italiana all’estero (1628). Siena: Ticci Ei-
tore Libraio, 1943.
11 Hanning, Barbara R., Suzanne G. Cusick, and Susan Parisi. "Caccini family (opera)."
Grove Music Online. 2002. Oxford University Press. Date of access 21 Apr. 2021,
20FRANCESCA CACCINI
musicisti (mentiones Caccini’s collaborations with other authors such as
Marco da Gagliano and Jacopo Cicognini and the works that have been
lost); Alessandro Magini wrote a preface for the facsimile edition of La
liberazione; there is an entry from John Walter Hill in Die Musik in Ges-
chichte und Gegenwart; William Gradante and Iain Fenlon in The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; Tim Carter, an Australian musi-
cologist specializing in late Renaissance and Baroque Italian music;
Warren Kirkendale focusing on the music in Florence of Medici and men-
tioning Francesca in his monograph The court musicians in Florence dur-
ing the principate of the Medici.
Exists also a series of works from Polish researchers such as
Adamczyk M., Zygmunt Szweykowski, and Ewa Kawczyńska who made a
Polish translation of Cusick’s article. This interest is due to the direct con-
nection of La liberazione with Poland because, as mentioned earlier, the
opera was primarily created as an homage to the prince Ladislaus IV of
Poland12 visiting Florence during the period of the carnival in 1625, and
its second premiere was in Warsaw in 1628.13
Slightly different methodology is used by the representatives of gen-
der studies. More attention has been paid to Francesca Caccini especially
in the recent decades due to the bigger interest in music of 17th century
and development of feminism in society. The fact that she was a success-
ful woman composer makes her a captivating study for the researchers
examining the effects of her femininity and her social position as well as
her unique training as a composer on her music. Therefore, in the early
12 Ladislaus IV of Poland (1595–1648), king of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and
titular King of Sweden, whose regency lasted from 1632 until his death in 1648.
13 CUSICK, Suzanne. Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of
Power. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2009, p. 191.
21FRANCESCA CACCINI
2000s Suzanne Cusick, an American musicologist with a feminist ap-
proach, has published numerous studies on this topic researching espe-
cially Caccini’s activity at the Medici court14. Her works written from a
perspective of gender studies are the most comprehensive. To complete
her biography with a new view and unknown facts, Cusick analyzes the
portrayal of Caccini from Christoforo Bronzini, who as she states was her
first biographer.15 More attention has been paid as well to La liberazione
providing stylistic analysis and historical context described.
Different kinds of methodologies have been used in this field of re-
search. Apart from the biographies, music analysis and gender music
studies there have been published the works concerning on the correct
interpretation of Caccini’s compositions in performance both sung and
played. The reception of her opera has also been reflected. Her letters
and librettos she used for the operas are available in English translation.
The study of Francesca Caccini is complicated by the fact that very few
of her works have survived and there is relatively small amount of infor-
mation accessible about her. The records of her cease after she leaves the
court of Medici, so that period of her life as well as her composition dur-
ing that times remains unstudied and requires a proper research.
2.2 Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court
Born in Florence on September 18, 1587 in the family of Giulio Caccini
— a tenor at the Medici court patronized by Cosimo I and a member of
Camerata of Giovanni de’ Bardi known also as Florentine Camerata, Fran-
cesca Caccini as well as her sister Settimia Caccini were very well
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., p. 19
22FRANCESCA CACCINI
exposed to the world of professional theatrical performance. Their father
gave them a proper musical and literary education. He planned a career
for Francesca right from the start and taught her the art of composition,
singing, and playing the lute, harpsichord and chitarrone. Even though
the musician family of Caccinis were only servants, Francesca learned
court manners, several languages and wrote poetry in Latin and Italian.
Therefore, her training was based on the courtly habitus.
After Concerto delle donne in Ferrara in trio with a famous singer Vit-
toria Archilei, the sisters became known as "donne di Caccini” (women of
Caccini) and were making an integral part of court chamber music, Fran-
cesca Caccini grew up within this ensemble.16
Even though she worked for the Medici family till 1637, in this chapter
I would like to have a closer look at the period of her services for the
Medici up to the year 1627 for that it is the most relevant to the subject
of this thesis, her opera La Liberazione (1625). In January 1628 she had
left the service due to the death of her first husband Giovanni Battista
Signorini and remarried with Tomaso Raffaelli, the Lucchese patron and
amateur singer. This led to the fact that she entered the service of the
banker-diplomat Vincentio Buonvisi in Lucca.17
As most of the researchers deem, she had been involved in the musi-
cal and theatrical production at the court already since 1600. That year
coincides with the creation of Jacopo Peri’s Euridice and its first perfor-
mance on October 6 at the wedding celebrations of Marie de' Medici to
16 Anke Charton, Artikel „Francesca Caccini“, in: MUGI. Musikvermittlung und Gender-
forschung: Lexikon und multimediale Präsentationen, hg. von Beatrix Borchard und
Nina Noeske, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, 2003ff. Stand vom ...
URL: http://mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de/artikel/Francesca_Caccini
17 Cusick, New Grove.
23FRANCESCA CACCINI
Henry IV of France at the Pitti Palace. Since her father was supplying the
opera with his music as well, there is a big chance that Francesca took
part at least as a singer.
How decisive was the word of the Medici in life of Francesca and her
family can also be seen from the following events: during their visit in
France around the year 1604, which was requested by Marie de' Medici,
she impressed the king with her performance and was offered to stay at
the French court, however she could not leave her service at the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany and had to decline the participation in the premiere of
Ariadna by Monteverdi in Mantua as well. 18
Officially she entered the service only in 1607 after getting married
with a fellow court singer Giovanni Battista Signorini on the 11th of No-
vember. Based on the information written in a copy of her marriage con-
tract held in the Riccardi family archive, an Italian 18th century historian
Giovanni Lami ran into conclusion that the marriage had been on the or-
ders of the grand duchess Christine de Lorraine. Since then and until
1614 she performed in sacred music festivals during the Holy Week. Dur-
ing that period, she was also writing music for court in cooperation with
Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger as a librettist.19
Beginning with a stipend of ten scudi per month, which was doubled
later20 she had been one of the highest-paid women musicians already
by the year 1627. As affirms Cusick in her monograph, the services she
would provide included:
18 Carolyn Raney, “Francesca Caccini’s Primo Libro,” Music and Letters 48/4 (Oct.
1967), 350.
19 LOBATO, 2014, p. 5
20 CUSICK, 2009, p. 61
24FRANCESCA CACCINI
“ …virtuosa solo singing, both improvised and sopra’l
libro (by the book); sing with others in church, chamber,
and theatrical settings; compose new music and coach
its performance in all three settings; play lute, theorbo,
harpsichord, guitar, harp, “and every sort of stringed in-
strument” as performance circumstances required;
evaluate the performance abilities of others; teach sing-
ing, instrumental performance, and composition to girls
and young women whose study with her was subsidized
by a court eager to transform Florence’s new way of
making music into a tradition; and teach music to some
of the ruling family’s children. […] Alone among the
court’s women musicians, Francesca was as likely to be
trusted with composing all or part of a court spectacle as
was Marco da Gagliano or Jacopo Peri. Francesca’s ver-
satility made her a highly useful servant. Her work
among the women who quietly ruled Tuscany during the
long regencies made her a powerful one, able both to
capitalize on her familiarity with her patrons and to give
eloquent, entertaining voice to their concerns.”21
Her father’s death occured in 1617 when Francesca was at the age of
30. That year she also published her Il primo libro delle musiche.
At the court Francesca got several important acquaintances, such as
already mentioned Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, in collabora-
tion with whom she wrote La stiava (1607), La Tancia (1611), Il
Passatempo (1614) and La Fiera (1619). La Tancia was strongly
21 Ibid.
25FRANCESCA CACCINI criticized by Christina de Lorena for the obscene language used by Buo- narroti. The other famous figures with who she had collaborated or least- wise met were the librettists Ottavio Rinuccini, Jacopo Cicognini and Fer- dinando Saracinelli; composers Marco da Gagliano and Giovanni Battista da Gagliano. She was also admired by Claudio Monteverdi, Pietro della Valle and Gabriello Chiabrera.22 22 Alessandro Magini in the preface to the musical score of La liberazione, 1998. 26
OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
3 Opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola
d’Alcina
3.1 Historical Context
In order to have a better understanding of the situation in which the
opera of Francesca Caccini had been created, it is necessary to review the
historical context. At the beginning of the 17th century, Florence was a
capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, a central Italian monarchy replac-
ing the Republic of Florence from the year 1569. According to Suzanne
Cusick the dates of Caccini‘s career lasted formally from when she mar-
ried a fellow-singer, Giovanni Battista Signorini in 1607 to 1641. In fact,
she had shown her performing skills to the court already in 1600 in the
entertainments for the wedding of Maria de’ Medici and Henry IV of
France. Therefore, the times of her career at the court coincides with the
regency of Christine de Lorraine as the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and
her husband Ferdinando I as the Grand Duke until 1609. From then their
son Cosimo II was running the monarchy together with Mary Magdalene
of Austria, but after his early death caused by tuberculosis in 1621 de
facto Mary Magdalene and Christine Lorraine had become responsible
for the court as joint regents whereas Ferdinando II (the son of Cosimo
II and the direct heir to the throne) had not yet reached maturity.
Exactly in that period which lasted from 1621 to 1629 appears Cac-
cini’s opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (1625). The
composition was commissioned to Francesca Caccini by Mary Magdalene
for the occasion of a visit of the Polish-Swedish prince Ladislaus VI Vasa.
That historical event and the relation to it of the reviewed opera-balletto
27OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
was reconstructed and described in Cusick’s biggest work Francesca Cac-
cini at the Medici Court: Music and the Circulation of Power.
3.2 Diffusion of Opera around 1625
The genesis of opera as a genre is not a one-time affair of a single
moment and place in history. During the 20th century while dealing with
the subject of the birth of opera, musicology related it to the Florentine
inception of opera approximately starting from the year 1600. Nowa-
days, we tend to think about it as of a processual formation in the North-
ern part of Italy at certain courts (Florence, Mantua, Ferrara, Rome, Ve-
nezia, Bologna). An important social situation for the birth of opera at the
Northern-Italian courts had been wedding or betrothal. That circum-
stance has been described and emphasized by Tim Carter.23 According to
him opera appears as an emphasis of the wedding ritual. For that reason,
the new ritual had been borrowed by the other courts and enriched with
new local specifics after a Florentine wedding festivity entitled La Pelle-
grina (1589). The impact of Florence on diffusion of the new ritual was
determinative at least due to the culminating reign of the Medici as gran-
duca whose power supremacy was established by the policy of betrothal
internationally and in the context of Europe and by the link with the
French court (Catherine de' Medici connected with the House of Valois in
the late 16th century; Marie de' Medici connected with the House of Bour-
bon by becoming the second wife of Henry IV the Great). The first operas
were in fact of a product of Florentine initiative.
23 Carter, Tim. “A Florentine Wedding of 1608.” Acta Musicologica, vol. 55, no. 1, 1983,
pp. 89–107. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/932663. Accessed 10 May 2021.
28OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
Apart from the Tuscan influence at the northern courts we should fol-
low the line of Florence and Rome as well. The impact of Roman oratorio
reached Florence foremost owing to a composer, organizer, and a noble-
man Emilio de’ Cavalieri, who was also an author of a sacred opera Rap-
presentazione di anima e di corpo (1600).
An important differentiation of the early opera celebrations came
about at the beginning of 17th century. Mythologic plots used in Floren-
tine librettos (Dafne based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Euridice and Ari-
anna) caused an important shift towards the operas of Monteverdi in
Mantua (L’Orfeo, 1607; Arianna, 1608; Il ballo delle ingrate, 1608). The
import of that kind of opera abroad began in the second decade of 17th
century and was caused by the wedding celebrations of Italian princesses
with Bourbon and Habsburg princes: Marie de’ Medici married Henry IV
the Great; Eleonora Gonzaga married Ferdinand II. Early operas appear
later at the court in Vienna and other Habsburg courts on the Lands of
the Bohemian and Hungarian Crown mainly as court festivities – 1615 in
Vienna, 1617 in Prague.
The second decade of 17th century in Italy is marked by the relocation of
opera activities to Rome. Some operas appear at the papal court during
the pontificate of Matteo Barberini (Urban VIII), whose dynasty is fa-
mous as supporters of the arts. Those opera make a separate and inde-
pendent Roman opera tradition. Its culmination falls on the creation of
Stefano Landi San Alessio (1629). At the time when Francesca Caccini
wrote her “Polish-Swedish” opera La liberazione di Ruggiero, a new type
of opera in the form of a theatrical composition appears in Venice – Mon-
teverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (1624). The first sung
opera in the German surrounding was on the protestant basis
29OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
represented by Dafne (1627) of Heinrich Schütz with libretto written by
Martin Opitz.
The presence of political aspects and intrigues in early operas or mu-
sical celebrations with opera features at that time was a common thing.
As an example and a proof of that, I attach a document discovered by a
musicologist and lutenist Miloslav Študent and presented in his article
about a musical celebration Phasma Dionysiacum that took place in Pra-
gue on the 5th of February 1617 at the conference organized simultane-
ously with a sort of remake of that composition in Prague in 2017 for the
occasion of the 400th anniversary at the Prague Castle. The document is
entitled La musica del Regno di Bohemia and according to its content, it
seems to be someone’s commentary to the event.
Transcription of the fac-simile:
Cantori
L’archiduca Ferdinando
L’archiduca Maximiliano
L’imperatore Mattheo
Il Legato Pontifico
L’interlocutori
Il grand Duca Toscano
Il Legato Veneto
Il Legato d’Espagnese
L’archiduca Ferdinando canta L’alto/ Re mi fa.
L’archiduca Maximiliano canta Il Basso/ Mi fa sol.
L’imperatore Can(ta) il tenore/ Re mi sol.
Gli interlocutori
Il grand Duca parla, questi cantori non sono d’accordo.
Il legato Veneta/ questa musica mi piace.
30OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
Il legato d’Espagna/ questo madrigale non si Cantava bene.
L’Espagna non tiene la battuta giusta.
I principi vinti respondono
perchè musica d’Espagna non vale in Bohemia in Alamania
Il Legato di Bohemia dice/ pian pian signori, che sensa me non si fara
nulla
It is clearly demonstrated in this document how a new form of theatrical
presentation is bound with a famous political discourse. Particular expo-
nents strive for the Czech realm and the power over it (Re mi fa/ Mi fa
sol/ Re mi sol) up to the ending phrase of a Czech deputy (Il Legato di
Bohemia —? Vilém Slavata or some other Czech politician?), who alerts
the others that the final decision belongs to the Czechs (… senza me non
si fara’ nulla…).
3.3 Performance and Staging Circumstances
3.3.1 Florence (1625)
The genre of opera-balletto was particularly diffused among the Eu-
ropean courts at the beginning of the 17th century. They made a big and
important part at the court celebrations in one line with opera-torneo,
carosello and balletto cantato. Iconic examples of the other works of this
genre make Ballet de la Reyne (1581) in Paris, Monteverdi’s Ballo delle
ingrate (1608) staged in Mantova and a ballet by an unknown composer
Phasma dionysiacum Pragense (1617) in Prague with libretto from Vin-
cenzo d’Arco. In the case of La liberazione, above all it was meant as an
equestrian ballet (ballo al cavallo) and implied a performance on horses.
31OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
The secondary roles are conditionally separated into 8 women and men
that dance on foot (Le Dame del Balletto/I Cavalieri, che ballorno con le
Dame) and a group of those that were riding horses. Among the perform-
ers there are many important figures with family names such as Strozzi,
Concini, Medici, Rinuccini etc.
Figure 1. The list of performers of the dancing roles from the fac-simile edition of La
liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina.
As seen from the document above, the scene and machinery were de-
signed by Giulio Parigi (1571–1635).24 The choreography, both on foot
and on horses was by Agnolo Ricci, who had previously collaborated on
Francesca’s balletto Ballo delle zingare (1614).
The opera had been accepted with success by the court and by the in-
vited Ladislaus IV, who had also obviously ordered a copy of La
24 Giulio Parigi was a Florentine architect, who was commissioned to work on im-
portant buildings for the Florentine court, among which was also rearrangement
of the villa of Poggio Imperiale where the premiere of La liberazione took place.
32OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
liberazione and Rappresentazione di Santa Orsola, Vergine e Martire by
Marco da Gagliano. This information is evident from the fact that these
compositions were staged three years later in Warsaw.25 Suzanne Cusick
in her entry in Grove gives us some information about how the given bal-
letto was perceived:
”…the opera was praised by contemporary listeners for
the beauty of its siren’s song, its chorus of enchanted
plants and its ensemble writing for women’s voices and
recorder trio. Caccini’s approach to serious passages
resembles that of Jacopo Peri in that she constructs dra-
matic speeches as an unfolding variation on an opening
musico-rhetorical gesture.” 26
3.3.2 Warsaw (1628)
Not much information is known about the realization of La libera-
zione at the court in Warsaw, but according to Jerzy Golos, the interest of
Ladislaus IV to Italian secular opera had appeared already before he
would become a king. In that period, he had been arranging vocal perfor-
mances and was strongly impressed by dedicated to his honor La libera-
zione. By his order, the opera was exported to Poland and reprinted in
25 GOŁOS, Jerzy. Italian Baroque Opera in Seventeenth-century Poland, in: The Polish
Review, Spring, 1963, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 67-75, University of Illinois Press on behalf
of the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America
26 Available at: https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemu-
sic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-
5000004719
33OPERA LA LIBERAZIONE DI RUGGIERO DALL’ISOLA D’ALCINA
1628 in Cracow with a translation into Polish by Serafin Jagodynski
(Wybawienie Ruggiera). 27
Seems that the choice of the poet was also predefined, since Jago-
dynski had had a direct relation to Italy and studied in Padova and Bolo-
gna. He had also been that day in Florence with the prince at the premiere
of La liberazione.28
It is unknown where exactly the premiere of that composition took
place in Warsaw, as the permanent opera theatre was stabilized there
only in 1637 in the Royal Castle. We do not know either the names of
performers (though it is very likely that most of them were Italians), nor
the details of how it was staged and perceived by the contemporary
audience. More research on this subject remains needed.
27 GOŁOS, 1963, p. 69.
28 Dawni pisarze polscy od początków piśmiennictwa do Młodej Polski, przewodnik
biograficzny i bibliograficzny, tom drugi I-Me. Warszawa, 2001, ISBN 83-02-
08101-9, p. 15-16.
34ANALYSIS
4 Analysis
The following analysis is formed by two main sections: in the first
one I focus on the libretto and its literary roots; the second section is con-
centrated on music and it consists of the present analytical remarks for
this opera and the proper analysis of certain pieces that are the most pe-
culiar and clearly reflect Caccini’s musical thought and style. Therefore,
for the analysis I selected the opening sinfonia and certain ritornels; the
whole prologue with a more detailed insight to the character of Nettuno;
2 appearances of each of the main characters, such as Melissa, Ruggiero
and Alcina.
One of the aims of my analytical remarks is to adjust and specify the
stances from the booklets published by the ensembles engaged in per-
forming La liberazione. In my commentary I will touch in particular on
an interpretation from a Belgian conductor and musicologist Paul Van
Nevel in the article On the musical realization of La liberazione di Ruggi-
ero released for the booklet for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. Apart from
the balletto Huelgas Ensemble added to the recording a gagliarda from
Salomon Rossi (1570–c. 1630), a Jewish attendant at the Gonzaga Court
in Mantua to which he had never been accepted. Adding other music
pieces to an original balletto is nothing unusual. Barbara Nestola pointed
out that in various operas on the turn of 30th and 40th of the 17th century
a passacaglia Pur ti miro by Benedetto Ferrari had been used29 and at that
time it was a usual method.
29 °…From 1637 to 1641 Ferrari was active as a librettist and composer, mainly in Ve-
nice. His Andromeda, set to music by Manelli and staged in 1637, was the earliest
Venetian opera given before a paying public (performances had previously been
reserved for an aristocratic elite). Ferrari then provided both the text and the
35ANALYSIS
Sleeve note draws attention to the persistent meaning of a bass line,
which, according to the interprets, still played a significant part in the
interpretation of a piece at the time when La liberazione di Ruggiero was
written:
“…As the present music example demonstrates the bass
line beneath the vocal part is accompanied only by the
requisite figures that indicate the sort of chordal writ-
ing that needs to be improvised here… Although this re-
alisation presupposed the existence of certain fixed
rules, it also allowed the performers considerable free-
dom…”
This way the implementors of record underline the importance of the
bass changes for their realisation. Paul Van Nevel reflects on this likewise
in the sleeve note to the edition implemented by Huelgas Ensemble:
„…Francesca Caccini uses this dramatically charged vo-
cal style of all three of her principal roles: Alcina,
Melissa and Ruggiero. The other roles and the choral
contributions are still indebted to the sort of Renais-
sance style that may employ diminuition and ornamen-
tation but which is not really parlando in character.
Moreover, these roles are mostly written in a canzo-
netta style with stanzas and refrains…“.
music for two operas, both presented in Venice: La maga fulminata (1638) and Il
Pastor regio (1640). The latter was revived in Bologna 1641. The Bolognese
version included as its final duet, the text „Pur ti miro, pur ti godo“, which was la-
ter reused (possibly with Ferraris music) for the final duet in the surviving ma-
nuscripts of Monteverdis L´Incoronazione di Poppea…°
from the booklet to CD Benedetto Ferrari – Musiche Varie a voce sola, Ensemble Ar-
taserse, Philippe Maillard Production, 2003, Ambroisie. The author of the sleeve
notes – Barbara Nestola.
36ANALYSIS
However, it can be difficultly accepted. First of all, using the term „…the
sort of Renaissance style… “for the time period when Mannerism of the
last two decades developed into early Baroque, is quite questionable. It
stands in contrast with the viewpoint of Paul Van Nevel about canzonetta
style, which was typical for the early Venetian opera and can be traced in
Monteverdi’s works already in the second decade of the 17th century
since his relocation to Venice.
Our analysis convicts us that something similar may be found in the
works of Francesca Caccini but in ritornels, triplets and episodic roles
(Damigelle, Sirena).
Since the other operas by Francesca Caccini are lost, we can only
speculate about to what extent she reacted to the development of differ-
ent opera types in the first and second decades of the 17th century — that
means above all to the operas of the composers that continued Floren-
tine opera tradition from around 1600, so Claudio Monteverdi, Marco da
Gagliano, and others. Therefore, we do not know whether La liberazione
was a manifestation of a synthesis, which was preceded by some reac-
tions to the Monteverdi’s seconda prattica in the first and second dec-
ades. She does not seem to be a protagonist of this movement, otherwise
some mentions so oriented about her would have occurred in, so far, the
most complete monograph dealing with this topic from Massimo Ossi en-
titled Divining the Oracle: Monteverdi’s Seconda Pratica. Francesca Cac-
cini does not play a part of this work.
This analysis contains an attempt to follow the features of the con-
temporary movements that could have influenced the musical style of
Caccini, such as seconda prattica and stile rappresentativo. The last men-
tioned one is documented and described in a letter from 1634 addressed
to Giovanni Battista Doni (1594–1647) by Pietro de’ Bardi, who was a
37ANALYSIS
son of the famous patron of Camerata Fiorentina—Giovanni de’ Bardi
(1534–1612):
“ To my very illustrious and revered patron, the Most
Honored Signor Giovan Battista Doni:
My father, Signor Giovanni, who took great delight
in music and was in his day a composer of some reputa-
tion, always had about him the most celebrated men of
the city, learned in this profession, and inviting them to
his house, he formed a sort of delightful and continual
academy from which vice and in particular every kind
of gaming were absent. To this the noble youth of Flor-
ence were attracted with great profit to themselves,
passing their time not only in pursuit of music, but also
in discussing and receiving instruction in poetry, astrol-
ogy, and other sciences which by turns lent value to this
pleasant converse.
Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the present famous
astronomer, a man of a certain repute in those days,
was so taken with this distinguished assembly that,
adding to practical music, in which he was highly re-
garded, the study of musical theory, he endeavored,
with the help of these virtuosi and of his own frequent
vigils, to extract the essence of the Greek, the Latin, and
the more modern writers, and by this means became a
thorough master of the theory of every sort of music.
[…]
The first poem to be sung on the stage in stile rap-
presentativo was the story of Dafne, by Signor Ottavio
Rinuccini, set to music by Peri in few numbers and short
scenes and recited and sung privately in a small room.
I was left speechless with amazement. It was sung to the
accompaniment of a consort of instruments, an ar-
rangement followed thereafter in the other comedies.
Caccini and Peri were under great obligation to Signor
Ottavio, but under still greater to Signor Jacopo Corsi,
who, becoming ardent and discontent with all but the
superlative in this art, directed these composers with
38ANALYSIS
excellent ideas and marvelous doctrines, as befitted so
noble an enterprise. These directions were carried out
by Peri and Caccini in all their compositions of this sort
and were combined by them in various manners. After
the Dafne, many stories were represented by Signor Ot-
tavio himself, who, as good poet and good musician in
one, was received with great applause, as was the affa-
ble Corsi, who supported the enterprise with a lavish
hand. The most famous of these stories were the
Euridice and the Arianna; besides these, many shorter
ones were set to music by Caccini and Peri. Nor was
there any want of men to imitate them, and in Florence,
the first home of this sort of music, and in other cities of
Italy, especially in Rome, these gave and are still giving
a marvelous account of themselves on the dramatic
stage. Among the foremost of these it seems fitting to
place Monteverdi. […]
I believe that as I serve Your Lordship with heartfelt
affection, so Your Lordship will confirm the truth of my
small selection from the many things that might be said
about this style of musica rappresentativa which is in
such esteem.
But I hope that I shaJl in some way be excused
through the kindness of Your Most Excellent Lordship,
and predicting for Your Lordship a most happy Christ-
mas, I pray that God Himself, the father of all blessings,
may grant Your Lordship perfect felicity.
Florence, December 14, 1634.
Your Very Illustrious and Reverend Lordship's
Most humble servant,
Pietro Bardi, Conte di Vernia. “30
In this letter Pietro de’ Bardi is recalling on the inception of opera in Flor-
ence around 1600.
30 STRUNK, W. O., & TREITLER, L. Source readings in music history. New York, Norton,
1998, pp. 363-366.
39ANALYSIS
The opera consists of a sinfonia, prologue and four scenes that form so-
called balletto part. Although the composition is not clearly divided into
the scenes originally, the division is just nominal and differs from one
interpretation to another. This way the structure of this opera may be
considered to contain three scenes instead of four. The roles of charac-
ters performing in prologue and balletto are the following:
Prologo:
• Nettunno (tenor)
• Vistola fiume (tenor)
• Coro di numi dell’acque
Balletto:
• Ruggiero (tenor)
• Alcina (mezzo-soprano)
• Melissa (mezzo-soprano)
• Nunzia (mezzo-soprano)
• Pastore (tenor)
• Sirena (soprano)
• Astolfo (tenor)
• Coro di damigelle di Alcina, coro di piante incantate, coro di
mostri infernali, coro di cavalieri liberati
4.1 Libretto
This opera was already a second collaboration of Francesca Caccini
with the librettist Ferdinando Saracinelli. In 1615 they worked together
on Ballo delle zingare.
The libretto of La liberazione is based on an epic poem from the year
1532 containing the features of a chivalric romance by Ludovico Ariosto
40ANALYSIS
entitled Orlando Furioso. The piece is in fact a continuation of a previ-
ously written but unfinished romance Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in
Love) by Matteo Maria Boiardo that re-elaborates medieval French cycle
named The Matter of France, known thanks to chansons de geste — the
lyric poetry from the repertoire of troubadours and trouvères originally
in the language of oïl. The most famous chanson from the cycle is The
Song of Roland which tells us about Charlemagne and his paladins.31
In Italy, in the Renaissance period, the Matter of France was taken up by
Luigi Pulci in his epic poem Il Morgante.
In 1614 Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger had already worked
on a libretto inspired by the poem of Ariosto in collaboration with Jacopo
Peri for the opera Giostra de Mandricardo e Medoro. After Caccini’s work,
quite a few composers and librettists have used the plot with Alcina in
their operas. The extravagancy of the subject attracted predominantly
the artists throughout the 18th century. Other operas inspired by this
plot were:
o Il palazzo incantato (1642), libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi (future
Pope Clement IX);
o Alcina delusa da Ruggero (1725) music by Tomaso Albinoni,
libretto by Antonio Marchi;
o Orlando furioso (1727) music by Antonio Vivaldi, libretto by
Grazio Braccioli, premiered in Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice;
o Alcina (1735) music by Georg Friedrich Händel, libretto by Anto-
nio Fanzaglia;
o Ruggiero (1769) music by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi, libretto by
Caterino Mazzolà;
31 NARDELLI, Matteo. La Chanson de Roland, 1958, p. 12.
41ANALYSIS
o Il Ruggiero (1771) music by Johann Adolf Hasse, libretto by Pietro
Metastasio;
o L'isola di Alcina (1772) music by Giuseppe Gazzaniga, libretto by
Giovanni Bertati.
According to Alessandro Magini, the libretto was initially supposed
to be written by Andrea Salvadori, the principal court poet to the Medici
family who worked with Marco da Gagliano and Jacopo Peri, but his re-
lationship with Francesca was not so congenial. Therefore, Ferdinando
Saracinelli had been chosen for this scope as an experienced poet in this
genre. Magini also mentions one curiosity about the final scene: Caccini
had elaborated her own ending of the opera, different from the one of
Saracinelli. There she substituted the last appearing of Melissa with a
choir madrigal Al diletto, al gioire (To delight, to rejoice). The reason for
that was the intention to enhance the festive effect of the ballo al cavallo.
Cantos VI, VII and VII form the basis of the plot of this opera. Below
I inserted the synopsis translated into English by Suzanne Cusick for the
booklet to a CD recording directed by Elena Sartori.32
Synopsis of the plot
Prologue
The god of the sea, Neptune, invites other marine deities to sing, with the purpose of win-
ning the goodwill of the recently arrived prince of Poland. The spirit of the River Vistula
and a chorus of other Deities of the Water then call upon Apollo to assist them in the en-
treaty and the festivities. Neptune himself then begins the tale.
Scene I
32 CACCINI, Francesca (2017), La liberazione di Ruggiero dall´isola d´Alcina, Elena Sar-
tori (dir.), CD, Salone d'Onore di Casa Romei, Ferrara.
42ANALYSIS
The sorceress Melissa, riding on the back of a dolphin, reaches the island of Alcina. Merlin
has revealed to Melissa that Ruggiero and his fiancée Bradamante are destined to become
the founders of the Este dynasty.
For that reason, Melissa has taken the decision to make an intervention in order that the
courageous warrior once again takes up his arms and – after having broken the spell bind-
ing him to the sorceress Alcina – resume the course of his destiny. So as to avoid arousing
suspicions, Melissa appears to Ruggiero disguised as the old African magician Atlante.
Scene II
Alcina has placed a spell on Ruggiero through feigning a seductive and irresistible de-
meanour and, by her witchery, is confining him on the island where she has transformed
all her previous lovers into plants once she has grown tired of them. Adescendent of the
Trojan Hector, Ruggiero’s destiny is to create the House of Este. This Saracen warrior loves
and is loved by Bradamante, a Christian warrior from Charlemagne’s army. However, un-
mindful of the pledge of betrothal binding him to Bradamante, he has sworn an oath of
love and undying devotion to Alcina.
Damsels encircle the two lovers glorifying the joys of their passion, whilst a shepherd re-
counts their loves. Alcina moves off in order to take care of the concerns of her kingdom,
thereby allowing Melissa the opportunity to speak to Ruggiero: she reminds him of his
virtuousness, his courage and his uprightness and urges him to abandon his amorous pas-
times so as to follow his distinguished destiny. The Chorus of the Enchanted Plants be-
seeches the warrior not to leave, thereby consigning them to be prey to Alcina’s fury, but
Ruggiero has now been convinced and has awakened from the spell, motivated by the wise
words of Melissa. Alcina returns and Nunzia, who had been a witness to the conversation
between Melissa and Ruggiero, tells her everything. Alcina’s rage and pain are uncontrol-
lable: she curses Melissa who, in her turn, insults her and hurls frenzied imprecations in
her direction. Ruggiero makes his departure: then it is freedom for Astolfo, son of the king
of England, and all the other plants and ladies bewitched over many years, at last freed
from the sorcery.
Scene III
The sea bursts into flames and Alcina boards a monstrous vessel constructed from whale-
bone; accompanied by the Chorus of Monsters, she vows to take her revenge. Terrified,
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