Scoring the ballo fantastico: supernatural characters and their music in Italy’s ballets during the Risorgimento

Abstract

Ballets with the designation fantastico first appeared in Italy’s theaters during the Risorgimento period. Ultramontane romanticism and fantastic topics were a minority within a diverse repertoire, reflecting the Italian revolution for independence. While some of these ballets were imports (often greatly adapted) of successful French romantic ballets, many were Italian choreographers’ own brand of theater. The fantastic could even appear in the guise of allegorical characters within ballet genres more common to the Italian stage. This article situates the fantastic in Italy's theatrical scene and offers an investigation of the musical manifestation of supernatural characters in Italy's ballets through the case studies of four works that span six decades of performance—Il Noce di Benevento (1812), Fausto (1849),Bianchi e Negri (1853), and Gretchen (1868). This topical music is an important part of Italy's musical-theatrical participation in romanticism. While musicologists have largely focused on Italy's operas and dance scholars on French ballet for the nineteenth century, this article begins to bridge the gap with a focus on Italian ballet music.