A venetian world in letters: the Massi correspondence at the Hauptstaatsarchive in Hannover.(Critical Essay)

Although the northern German city of Hannover may seem an improbable place to look for sources on seventeenth-century Venetian opera, the Niedersachsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, nevertheless, holds a corpus of more than three hundred letters relating to the subject. Written by the Venetian secretary Francesco Maria Massi, the composer Antonio Sartorio, and the librettists Pietro Dolfin and Nicolo Beregan, the correspondence must be considered one of the most valuable collections of ephemera on Venetian musical life in the 1660s and 1670s. The four figures are linked to Hannover by their association with the German ruler Duke Johann Friedrich of Braunschweig-Luneburg, one of Europe's most powerful absolutist monarchs of the time, and the complex nexus of Johann Friedrich's political, social, and cultural ties to La Serenissima created both the circumstances for the existence of the letters and their unique relevance to the world of Venetian opera.

By far the largest group of letters is that written by Francesco Maria Massi (210 letters) who, as Johann Friedrich's secretary in Venice, corresponded regularly with him (weekly in certain periods of the year). The other three men were linked to the duke in different capacities. Antonio Sartorio was his Kapelimeister in Hannover for ten years (1666-75), while the librettist Pietro Dolfin was one of Johann Friedrich's chief contacts among the Venetian nobility and was responsible for delicate affairs such as the management of his opera boxes. Finally, the lawyer and librettist Nicolo Beregan was not so much an associate but rather a friend who corresponded only occasionally. What enhances the interest of these letters for us is that all four people were involved in opera making. This is true even of Massi who, although not a composer or a librettist himself, was nevertheless close to opera dealings through his friendship with the main theater owners of the city, the Vendramins and the Grimanis. Massi's key va lue for posterity, however, is that of a perceptive observer of opera and its performance.

DUKE JOHANN FRIEDRICH OF BRAUNSCHWEIG-LUNEBURG (1625-1679)

The figure of Johann Friedrich remains an acknowledged, but as yet not fully investigated, patron of seventeenth-century Venetian opera. An indication of his importance is the fact that between 1654 and 1688 no less than twenty-eight librettos were dedicated to him and members of his family in Venice alone. (1) Together with his two brothers, Ernst August and Georg Wilhelm, (2) Johann Friedrich was a frequent visitor to Venice where he owned some of the best boxes of its opera houses. His brother Ernst August, who succeeded Johann Friedrich after his death in 1679, is well known to opera historians for his visit to the residence of the Venetian nobleman Marco Contarini in Piazzola-sul-Brenta (near Venice) in 1685. The published chronicle that commemorates that visit is of great significance, as it is the main evidence to suggest that the large collection of seventeenth-century opera scores surviving at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana today was once part of the large Gontarini library at Piazzola. (3)

The magnitude of Johann Friedrich's influence as a patron is due to a personal kinship with the culture and intellectuality of his time, enhanced by a powerful position on the political map of Europe. (4) His political prestige was due to the position of his duchy in northern Europe, his alliance to France and Louis XIV, and also to a powerful army of mercenaries which he employed for his own wars and lent to his allies for their defense. (5)

Beyond Venice, Johann Friedrich's close ties with Italy in general resulted from his conversion to Catholicism in 1651 and his marriage, in 1668, to Benedicte-Henriette Philippine von der Pfalz (1652-1730), a Catholic whose mother was a Gonzaga (Anna Gonzaga had married Eduard von der Pfalz). (6) As true for most absolutist rulers of his time, Johann Friedrich's innate curiosity about intellectual matters was also accompanied by a sharp understanding of the political role of the arts. It is characteristic that upon inheriting the duchy in 1665, his immediate actions included the establishment of a world-class Hofkapelle and a Hofbibliothek (today the Niedersachsische Landesbibliothek). (7) The court chapel was largely manned by Italian singers and instrumentalists, and for the post of Hofkapellmeister he employed the composer Antonio Sartorio from Venice, who served in Hannover from 1666 to 1675.

The high quality of the Hofkapelle is evident from the letters: every carnival season the best of the duke's singers would be given leave to travel to Venice to sing in the opera houses, and theater owners often vied to secure their use from Johann Friedrich. Johann Friedrich was therefore a figure of influence over opera theaters, and even in the years in which he did not travel to Venice, his presence in the city was still powerful, as is indicated by the many librettos dedicated to him. Finally, this prominent presence was felt even further in the guise of invitations issued to social and political acquaintances to enjoy his opera boxes when he and his family were not using them. The amount of space devoted in the Dolfin correspondence to the boxes and their administration suggests that a high profile was afforded to the prestigious opera boxes and their absent owner.