Pasticcio production in eighteenth-century Milan

This article aims to enrich our knowledge of eighteenth-century Italian opera by putting emphasis on some unusual production procedures adopted in view of Demetrio performance at Milan’s Regio Ducal Teatro in Milan (1748–1749). Through a detailed examination of the correspondence between the Neapolitan composer Pietro Pulli (1710–1759), and a Milanese authority (perhaps the impresario, an agent, or someone writing for him), and Giuseppe Baldan, a Venetian copyist, the following are focused aspects:

1. Another composer, Baldassarre Galuppi, acted as an agent for Pulli in Venice. 

2. The choice of the libretto was entrusted to Pulli, contrary what usually attested by eighteenth-century treatises on opera or archival documents relating to the impresarios of the time.

3. This choice was influenced by the artistic needs of the tenor Angelo Amorevoli, instead of the sopranos, both castrati and prima donnas, as was more often practiced.

4. Singers sent Pulli samples of their virtuosic repertoire, in order to facilitate his composition work in their absence.

5. Pulli offered to correct the libretto, unlike other composers who left the task to other figures, such as court or theater poets. 

6. Pulli began the work by composing the recitatives. This detail sheds light on his compositional practice and perhaps on the compositional strategies of Neapolitan school composers of his time.

7. In the correspondence Pulli makes clear reference to a specific compositional phase, in which melody and bass are jotted down without instrumentation, creating a sort of ‘skeleton’ of the work. This detail is also extremely important as regard the compositional processes of Neapolitan composers.

8. Demetrio was a sort of “reversed” pasticcio, in which a pre-existing chain of recitatives is adapted to a new set of arias. This defies the four principal types of pasticcio described by Curtis Price (“revival with substitutions”, “true pasticcio”, “self-pasticcio”, “collaborative medley”).