Chivalric Festivals at the Ferrarese Court of Alfonso II d'Este

In the age of Alfonso II D'Este (1533-1597), the tournois à thème developed into a more complex performance, the cavalleria, which involved stage-setting, acting, music, dancing, machinery and firework displays. One of its most accomplished examples was the cavalleria L'Isola Beata (1569), which is fully described and analysed in this work. The cavalleria also influenced the development of dramatic tournaments in the Italian courts, and anticipated a new form of performance in the Baroque period, the opera-torneo.

Autorentext

The Author: Alessandro Marcigliano studied at the University of Bologna, Italy, where he specialized in drama and foreign languages. He was then a language assistant at the University of Manchester, where he worked on Renaissance Italian drama. He is now a free-lance conference interpreter and translator, working mostly for the European Institutions.

Zusammenfassung
"'Chivalric Festivals' provides a rare, carefully documented, and detailed account of the spectacle that became the model for the great performances of the seventeenth century in northern Italian courts, France, and even Spain." (Diane Ghirardo, Sixteenth Century Journal)

Inhalt
Contents: Renaissance theatre in Ferrara: a general view The Age of Alfonso II Ferrarese cavallerias (1561-1570): L'Isola Beata (1569) Influence of cavalleria in Italy The opera-torneo in Ferrara and the Ferrarese tradition in the Baroque period.