Margherita Costa, diva of the baroque court / Jessica Goethals.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goethals, Jessica, author.

Series:

Toronto Italian Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Costa, Margherita, active 17th century.

Costa, Margherita.

Authors, Italian--Italy--Rome--17th century--Biography.

Authors, Italian.

Courtesans--Italy--Rome--Biography.

Courtesans.

Sopranos (Singers)--Italy--Rome--Biography.

Sopranos (Singers).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2023]

Summary:

"The Roman singer, courtesan, and writer Margherita Costa won prominence and fame across the courts of Italy and France during the mid-seventeenth century. She secured a steady stream of elite patrons--including popes, queens, grand dukes, and influential cardinals --while male poets and librettists wrote celebratory poetry on her behalf. In addition to her appearances as a soprano on the opera stage, Costa published a remarkable fourteen full-length texts across an expanse of genres: burlesque comedy, drama, equestrian ballet, pastoral opera, amorous letters, lyric poetry, and history. Margherita Costa, Diva of the Baroque Court brings together close textual readings of Costa’s numerous publications with archival materials detailing her performance itinerary and social-cultural networks. The book progresses chronologically through her life, geographically along the routes she travelled, and thematically via the genres in which she experimented. Jessica Goethals illuminates how Costa was unafraid to leap over the boundaries of decorum that delimited what women should and did write about. More than merely a literary biography, this book is also a portrait of seventeenth-century courts, their concerns, and their entertainments."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Editing History

Bizzarria, Burlesque, and Buffoonery

From the Golden Oak to the Weeping Cypress: Epic, Lament, and Dynastic Messaging

Starry Carousels: Equestrian Ballet and Aristocratic Astronomies

Singing Saint and the Plumed Bee: Courting the Barberini

Hunting for Diana, or An Ode to Regents

“A Change of Sky Does Me No Good”: Envy, Rivalry, and Other Courtly Criticisms.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4875-4731-5

1-4875-4732-3

OCLC:

1375567427