Sarah M. Iacono «Dove son, dove corro… Confusa smarrita». A Source for Paisiello’s Passione di Gesù Cristo and Other Works in Lecce

Abstract

Copyist studios flourished in major music centers by the second half of the 18^th century. Manuscripts were still the main dissemination vehicles for vocal music and short instrumental pieces in particular; they could be easily adapted both to the needs of the entrepreneurs overseeing production and sale and to their educated buyers’ preferences. A theater was opened in 1759 in Lecce, the “little Naples” of the Provincia di Terra d’Otranto, thus increasing the already high number of collectors among prominent locals. These music amateurs kept apace with the latest stage productions in Lecce, Rome, and Naples, and could obtain copies of the latest hits. The sources discussed here testify to the widespread interest in Giovanni Paisiello’s operas, staged at the Teatro Nuovo since its earliest seasons and surviving in local noblemen’s manuscript collections. Today these sit at the Bernardini Library, one of Lecce’s main book repositories. By studying this material, we could reconstruct musical interests and the development of musical taste throughout this peripheral area of the Kingdom of Naples by the late 18^th century, in step with the major upheavals then shaking Europe.