El Estilo Italiano

Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
The Italian Style and the Period

Author(s): Francesca Falcone, Katharine Kanter and Hugh Ward-Perkins
Source: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 29, No. 3, Wanted: Bournonville Dead or Alive: Bournonville Past,
Present, and Future. Proceedings of the Royal Danish Ballet's 2006 Bournonville Symposium (
2006), pp. 317-340
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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Dance Chronicle,
29:317-340, 2006
| ^ pn- ->U if l^rjrif^
Copyright? 2006 FrancescaFalcone LICUL)C
| <f Taylor & Francs Group
ISSN: 0147-2526 1532-4257 online ? *
print/
DOI: 10.1080/01472520600964922
THE ITALIAN STYLE AND THE PERIOD
FRANCESCA FALCONE
Among the crush of political and social events taking place in Italy
between 1748 and 1830, there was also intense dance activity in the
big theatres, from Venice and Milan

to Naples and Turin. Itwas in
this period, the aim of broadening
with the expressive scope, that
dance came to the fore, with traits peculiar to Italy,
pantomimic
and that dance found a raison d'etre with its own specific field: the
ballet d'action.
In its frantic competion with opera, dance came
increasingly
to rely on mime and thus, on occasion, gave way to incoherence.
The action could be hard to follow, so at least initially the ballet
d'action was coolly received by the Italian critics. At the same time,
dance tendedto ever greater as was also the case with the
virtuosity,
were to present
singing voice in opera. Ballet dancers accustomed
as "dumb show" (pantomime) actors, a versatility
ing themselves
they had inherited from the days of the commedia dell'arte. It is
for this reason that I shall here deal with pantomimic dance rather
than la danse proprement dite.
In the first part of my discussion, which covers the 1770s and
1780s when debate
raged in Italy over the ballet d'action, we shall
be looking at the theory behind pantomimic dance, notably the
debate over the of gesture, as appears, for example,
"legibility"
in the "Lettere a Monsieur Noverre" of Gasparo Angiolini.1 This
is, of course, the "red thread" that leads to Bournonville through
Vincenzo Galeotti, Angiolini's disciple and follower, who was to
have so great an impact in Denmark, where he worked from 1775
until his death in 1816.*
Galeotti had been a disciple of both Angiolini and Noverre. In this context, how
ever, we are focusing on elements that I feel Galeotti had absorbed from Angiolini. Al
though Bournonville often departed from Galeotti's choreographic ideas in his autobi
ography, it is unthinkable that he was not influenced by him. Bournonville attributed to

the Italian dancer-choreographer "a certain measure of esprit and invention, the practical
317
318 Dance Chronicle
Inspeaking of choreographers from entirely different

and contexts as and
epochs historical-geographical Angiolini
Bournonville, one must of course exercise caution. Unlike
Denmark, theatrical in Italy has not had the benefit of an
dance
unbroken tradition, for reasons connected to the specific
political
and historical events of the country, on which we shall not dwell
here. But as a result, none of Angiolini's
pantomime ballets have
come down to us, despite the fact that, unlike Noverre, he was
well aware of the need for an accurate system of notation in accor
dance with the tradition of dancing, which he called choregraphie*
He saw this as critical, if one wished to transmit the vocabulary
of gesture, rather than leave it to chance and word of mouth, a
tradition that he deemed "imperfect." Bournonville also believed
as is shown
in
choregraphie,2 by his choreographic memoranda and
his notes on pantomime.
We can retrace the theories surrounding pantomimic dance in
"Lettere a Monsieur Noverre" and essays
Italy through Angiolini's
by the most "enlightened" of the Milanese thinkers of the day, who
fueled debate on pantomimic dance, which was marked by the
quarrels between Angiolini and Noverre in the years 1773-1775,
about which we shall deal
only marginally.
After this, Iwould like tomove on to the second decade of the
nineteenth century, to discuss my recreation (one that is still on
the "drawing boards") of a brief piece known as the Coloquio agitato
de' due amanti from Act III of Salvatore Vigano's La Vestale, a tragic
on
choreodrama created at La Scala, Milan, June 9, 1818, tomusic
The was on Etienne De
by various composers. story loosely based
Jouy's libretto for Gasparo Spontini's opera La Vestale, which was
in Paris at the Academie Imperiale de Musique in 1807,
produced
and in Italy for the first time, at Naples in 1811, although Milan
was not to see it until 1822, well after Vigano's ballet. Moreover,
skill and matchlessprecision" (My Theatre Life, translated by Patricia N. McAndrew [Middle
town, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 1979], p. 651). It is also worth taking into account
the Royal Danish Ballet's preservation of Galeotti's only ballet still today in the repertoire,
The Whims ofCupid and theBallet Master (1786), which was duly restaged during the periods
when Bournonville was in duties outside the Danish Royal Theatre.
occupied
It is a pity that nothing has remained of the choreographic description of scenes from
of 1756 that claimed to have made (Gasparo Angiolini,
Hilverding's Pygmalion Angiolini
"Lettere a Monsieur Noverre," in // ballo pantomimo, Lettere, saggi e libelli sulla danza (1773
1785), ed. Carmela Lombardi [Turin: Paravia Scriptorium, 1998], pp. 68-69).
Period 319
The Italian Styleand the
had the happy ending of Spontini's opera to a

Vigano changed
in which the heroine, who is condemned to
tragic finale Emilia,
be buried alive, is not reprieved by the Goddess Vesta.
The reason for approaching who represents a dif
Vigano,
ferent expressive to pantomimic dance, is to identify
sensibility
another fundamental development in Italian dance, of which
Bournonville was even before 1830, the year
certainly aware,
of his engagement as dance master at the Royal Theatre. Al
was not shown in his own work as early as 1830, what
though it
is certain is that from 1848?a crucial year not only for Danish
also for Bournonville's own ex
political and military events, but
istential crisis?he began to handle national themes that some
times also included dramatic qualities, as in the ballet Waldemar,
a need that was particularly appreciated by his
thereby answering
audience.*
There of issues relating to Italian pantomime

are a number
that remain up, particular with respect to Vigano's
to be cleared
dance pantomime. It is a great pity that so many of Vigano's se
crets, like his dances, have vanished forever, since dance pan
tomime also played a major role in the early-nine teen th-century
ballets of Francesco Clerico, Gaetano Gioja, Vincenzo Galzerani,
and Antonio Monticini, among others. And obviously, pantomime
also played a significant role in Galeotti's ballets.^
Pantomime was among the essential disciplines that a pro
fessional dancer was expected to master while at theatre school,
notably at the San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan.* But

well before the establishment of these courses at these two distin
guished Italian theatre schools, the Italian dancer, and particularly
For a rediscovery of the attitudes and poses adopted by Bournonville in the ballets
with stories based on national myths and themes, many of which are no longer in the
repertoire at the Danish Royal Theatre, it isworth examining Knud Arne Jiirgensen's The
Bournonville Ballets: A Photographic Record 1844-1933 (London: Dance Books, 1987).
tBournonville attributed to Galeotti's pantomime both those characteristics that the
Italians had inherited from the ancient Romans: "certain conventional gestures, certain
measured on the note" and
unchangeable forms; steps... exactly, gestures fall precisely
that capacity to combine dance with pantomime, which he wrongly believed to be exclusive
to Noverre (Bournonville, My Theatre Life, p. 14).
*The teaching of mime at La Scala was instituted from the year the ballet school was
founded in 1813, when itwas entrusted to the dancer Urbano Garzia. Teaching of mime
at the San Carlo, on the other hand, was only instituted in 1825 and entrusted to the (by
then) aged choreographer Gaetano Gioja.
320 Dance Chronicle
those in the grotesque genre, had had the opportunity to develop

in two theatrical fields that were in apparent contrast
artistically
with one another: those of technical virtuosity and expressive
pantomime.*
Angiolini's Pantomime and the Legibility of the Gesture
According to
Angiolini, it was around 1742, with Franz Hilver
at Vienna, that dance to an "texture"
ding began acquire organic
peculiar to it,with the introduction of small episodes involving
national characteristics and great care being paid to characters
shown in their day-to-day apparel.
The "simple" and the "natural"?two aesthetic categories that
Bournonville also kept well in mind^ and that Angiolini stresses
in his theoretical principles?came to take precedence over the
dances, as the Florentine master put it, "of and Pier
Harlequin
rot ... who disgrace the stage with their lazzi, gestures, and leap
ing and the liberties of indecent dancers who trample upon

taste, modesty, and mores."* Early in his career, Angiolini fol
to "the
lowed footsteps, before devoting himself
in Hilverding's
the fearful and the sublime of true Moreover,
pathetic, tragedy."
the muse of tragedy was to be followed with great success by
Galeotti in the last years of his career as a balletmaster for the
Danish Royal Theatre, with such popular works as Lagertha (1801),
his tragic pantomime on Danish themes, and Romeo og Giulietta
(1811).
Although in his earliest essay, the famous one accompany
ing his Don Juan, created in Vienna in 1761 to music expressely

Gluck, describes himself as the heir
composed by Angiolini boldly
For more information on this subject, see the interesting study The Grotesque Dancer
on theEighteenth-Century Stage: Gennaro Magri and His World, ed. Rebecca Harris-Warrick and
Bruce Alan Brown (Madison: The University ofWisconsin Press, 2005).
'Bournonville's admonition to his dancers, to be simple and natural and never depart
from the "immutable laws of Nature," recurs "obsessively" in both Bournonville's theoretical
works and his autobiography.
^Gasparo Angiolini, "Lettere," p. 52: "daArlechino, daPierd, daDottore, daPantaloneec,

danze che disonoravano la scena per i lazzi, igesti, i salti e le svincolature di quegl'indecenti
ballerini che calpestavano il gusto, la delicatezza e il costume."
The Ltalian
Style and thePeriod 321
to the pantomimic traditions of the ancients, he later became a

little more cautious, partly to deflect the barbs of his critics, no
tably Ange Goudar, an enemy of pantomimic ballet

outspoken
and a supporter of the acrobatic style of the grotesque dancers.
Goudar found Angiolini's Venetian dances incongruous, as, for
when he has a ballet dancer Henri IV
example, playing King per
form cabrioles and entrechats in // re alia caccia, performed at the
Teatro S. Benedetto in Venice in 1773. (It was also known as
La Caccia d'Enrico TV).3 Nor was Goudar overly delighted with
the large placards in Angiolini's ballet Semiramis (1765), with
texts explaining that Ninias was Semiramis' In order
daughter!
to lend to the even Galeotti, as Bournonville
clarity plot, reports,
felt the need to have tablets, or banners held up on
placards,
stage.4
In Angiolini's second essay on Semiramis, he takes pains to
justify himself by saying that itwas very hard to represent "a tragic,
fearsome, and entire event," and continued, "innovations are no
easy thing... whenever one attempts to break new ground, the end
is not in sight; similarly, the theory of an art form is learnt
through
study and reflection, while fine performance is the mark of true
talent alone."5 This position led him little by little to
disengage
himself from the principles that he had claimed to follow in his
firstViennese writings and to identify himself with the Italian style,
from which, however, he had never in fact
departed.6 Evidently
this led him to an irreparable break with the ideas
propounded by
Noverre.
With years of intense work behind him in Vienna, Venice,

Saint Petersburg, Milan, and Turin, Angiolini came to an aware
ness of his own
poetics, and was able to refute point by point the
"incoherencies" in the dramaturgy of his colleague and enemy,
Jean-Georges Noverre. In Milan, from 1774 and for the next two
years, Angiolini created pantomime ballets that may not have been
as successful as the Don
early Juan, Semiramide, and LI re alia caccia,
but neverthless allowed him to experiment with his theories on
such ballets. And all these ballets would be
composing staged in
Copenhagen by Galeotti, although with some changes in choreog
raphy and music.7
Angiolini felt that one should avoid or fantastical
allegorical
a
subjects, point of view that became fundamental to Bournonville
322 Dance Chronicle
as well. Such subjects, as Bournonville gradually learned, held no

appeal for his audience, who preferred his ballets that portrayed
scenes from everyday life, based on different national customs. An
was also persuaded that the pantomime ballet needed cast
giolini
iron rules, such as Aristotle's rule of the Three Unities (time, place,
and action), but in choosing the subject one should reject "the dif
ficult," "the complicated," and "the overly ornamental,"8 factors
that would only distract and disorient the public. Bournonville
was also to prove himself sensitive to this aspect, particularly when
itwas applied to the principles of the danse d'ecole, as is stressed in
his Etudes Choregraphiques.
was aware that he lacked Noverre's grandiose feel
Angiolini
for the stage pictures and his splendid arrangements for the
ing
de ballet. More focused upon a few crit
corps modestly, Angiolini
ical points, where the protagonist would play the central role. His
can be
balanced vision, his judgment in "choosing subjects that
that are intelligible, while avoiding situations
properly expressed,
in pantomime that [cannot] be readily grasped,"* and especially
his ability to "touch the heart" brought him the approval of the
leading intellectuals among his contemporaries.*
Starting with certain comments in his autobiography, which signaled a dissociation

in
from the excesses of Romanticism (My Theatre Life, p. 34), up to the ideas expounded
his Etudes Choregraphiques of 1855, Bournonville identified in fantastic ballet (or "anacre
ontic," as he singularly renamed it) a tendency to develop fairy-tale themes that detached
themselves from the reality of events, by including "cabalistic" or "mythological" subjects
in a way that was "incompatible with all action whose object is to recount the manners and
customs of people from a natural world" (Etudes Choregraphiques, p. 264). From the point of
view of dance technique, this tendency took the form of aerial passages (leaps and batterie),
endowed with great lightness and suppleness. According to Bournonville, the dancer Jules
Perrot, the exponent of a genre expressly created for him by Auguste Vestris, danced like
a "Zephyr with the wings of a bat" (My Theatre Life, p. 47).
'The substantial differences between the ways of composing of Noverre and Angiolini,
along with their respective merits and defects, are concisely outlined in a letterwritten by the
Milanese intellectual Pietro Verri to his brother (June 3, 1775) in a period when Milanese
culture was particularly marked by polemical discussion of the two giants of choreography
(Pietro and Alessandro Verri, "Lettere sul teatro e sulla danza?1770-1781," in // ballo
pantomimo, pp. 175-6).

+Wherever Angiolini worked, the city's literary circles welcomed him with open arms.
In Milan, at the family residence of Angiolini's wife, Teresa Fogliazzi, a woman as beautiful
as she was cultured, one came across poets and writers such as Metastasio, Giuseppe Parini,
Pietro and Alessandro Verri, and indeed the flower of Milanese society. In the political and
philosophical discussions Angiolini himself took an active part.
The Ltalian Style and thePeriod 323
Revising his initial standpoint, Angiolini gradually departed

from the exclusive production of pantomime ballets in the tragic
genre and began to embrace all the other genres of choreography.

In this way he followed the suggestions made (not too kindly) by
Goudar. And itwas this versatility of expres
significantly precisely
sive register, which prompted him to venture in the various genres
of pantomime, that was praised by the otherwise stern critic Stefano
Arteaga, who placed him above other renowned artists such as

Charles Le Picq, Giuseppe Salomoni, and Onorato Vigano.9
By then in open polemic with Noverre, Angiolini, denouncing
all the difficulties of pantomimic dance in describing the nature
some
of the character and action, declared with pride that he had
never attempted to explain "ideas of the past and future."10 "Pan
tomime most the present," Bournonville was
forcefully describes
to write in his autobiography, sharing Angiolini's point of view.*
As Matteo Borsa, the author of the "Saggio filosofico sui balli
had said about the incongruencies of pantomimic
pantomimi,"11
dance (following two decades of discussion between Francesco
Algarotti, Antonio
Planelli, Francesco Milizia, and later Stefano
when it came to grasping the import of the mimed ac
Arteaga),
tion, all that a gesture alludes to must be presented on stage as
a
though within picture-frame. This meant that pantomimic dance
was to be viewed as one of the representative arts, such as sculp
ture, painting, and architecture. The recurrent demand that the
choreographer and dancer refer back to the plastic arts (the in

was in turn taken from the Greeks)
for which
spiration explains
were to be in accordance with precise crite
why figures composed
ria of harmony, composure, and dignity. Hence, the reference to
the "purity" of Raphael, the "grace" of Correggio, the "delicacy" of
Francesco Albani, the firmness of Guercino.^ As though itwere a
*
August Bournonville, My Theatre Life, p. 16. According to Bournonville only spoken
drama could establish a relationship with the past and announce the future.
^Matteo Borsa, "Saggio filosofico sui balli pantomimi seri dell'opera (1782-1783),"
in // ballo pantomimo, p. 218. In conformity with the return to classical models at the end of
the eighteenth century, the Italian painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were
often imitated by the representatives of the best Italian and European culture, particularly
when itwas a matter of appealing to the canons of beauty, grace, and harmony. The study of
the paintings of the great classical artists, such as those cited in the text,was fundamental to
the education of the composer of dance, not only in the eighteenth century with Noverre,
but also in the nineteenth with Blasis and Bournonville. It is indeed singular that the names
of these painters should regularly appear in the theoretical writings of masters belonging
to different nationalities.
324 Dance Chronicle
painting, the dance must show, not relate; itmust itself be action,
rather than allude to action. In this respect, Borsa the
adopted
arguments of Horace in his Ars Poetica.
The fashion for pantomime ballet had led to certain gestures
used on that Borsa considered to be as
being stage arbitrary, such
where the dancing mime describes a queen who has fainted in the
next room. With his hand, the dancer first traces a crown
circling
his head, and then to indicate yet more majesty, draws himself
up, stretching the neck and
swelling the bosom. The fainting is
hand one
round the other, like tiny mill
portrayed by "twirling
wheels."* these were some of the gestures Bournonville
Probably
studied from Galeotti's rich repertoire of gestures, "gathered from
Roman and Neapolitan
folkways."12
Mime, as Borsa cannot stand on its own and must
explains,
either refer back to discourse or whereas dance con
dialogue,
tains within it an that is limited only by its
expressive potential
own that it can show
specificity; is, nothing other than itself.13
It follows that the occasions that prompt dance are mo
logically
ments of rejoicing or the celebration of human love. Although
it may seem that is also Goudar the
paradoxical, why praises
grottesco dancer, who is at least coherent in that he dances simply to
danced
Regarding the union of dance with pantomime, various per
were also critics and intellectuals like Borsa
plexities expressed by
and Arteaga. The reason was that most dancers were accustomed
to grossly mime gestures, puffing themselves up in
exaggerating
the most artificial way, and distorting the classical-academic up
right stance. Indeed, it became unusual to see a dancer walk nat
a fact that Noverre also deplores in his famous Lettres. The
urally,
dancer would crisscross the stage, sometimes on demi-pointe, seem
or he would rush around as though in the
ingly about to fly off,
run-up to In addition, or so it seems, the raised arms, chin,
ajump.
and eyes! How, then could one render despondency or fear, which
a more or less bent posture, as inward,
require though folding
"facendo che una mano s'aggiri d'intorno all'altra, dunque (conclusione finale) il
far colle mani ilmulinello" (Borsa, "Saggio filosofico," p. 220).
'The idea that dance can only express moments of joy was later stressed also by the
majority of the choreographers of the nineteenth century, such as Carlo Blasis, Salvatore
Vigano, and August Bournonville. On more than one occasion Bournonville came out in
support of this idea in both his autobiography and his Etudes.
The Italian Styleand thePeriod 325
and thus, a posture contrary to the conventional, upright dancer's

stance?
A way out had to be found. the general public was
For while
avid for pantomimic action, literary circles found the pantomime
not only riddled with incongruities, but also a serious threat to
opera.
In 1785 Stefano Arteaga, in his "Ragionamento sopra il Ballo
Pantomimico,"* wrote that although the choreographer should in
deed include mime in his dances, these dances should, at the very
least, take five principles into account, his adaptation of the neo
classical "unities" drawn from Aristotle: theymust be "one," which
meant that theymust represent a single, major action and not me
ander off into futile diversions; be "varied" and awaken the public's
interest through the novelty of events; be "orderly," in the sense
that each action must flow into the next; be "fitting," which meant
that the gestures must speak of the sentiments, the character, the
time, and the place appropriate to the character
being portrayed;
and be "pathetic," which meant that the personage must move the
spectator through his depiction of the affects.15

In Angiolini's essays on the need for a system of notation,
which he called choregraphie (as we noted above) and which, like
more than the spoken,
all written languages would be "perfected"
he summarizes his thoughts on the "material" dance as opposed
to pantomime. Unlike Noverre, Angiolini contends that "material"
dance had not changed since the days of the old masters and rests
upon unchanging principles: "Ua-plomb, Vensemble, les deployements,
les developpements, lemoelleux, le liant, lepoint d'appui."16 In his view,
one must first learn the rudiments of "material" dance, which,
on the dancer's a fairly
depending personal ability, will take but
short time. Then one turns to the study of "pantomimic dance,"
which can convey all the feelings and ideas of man. The former
demands a of music; the latter, the still more
deep knowledge
difficult study of the human heart.
It is thus clear that once the body has been trained in the
fundamentals of academic dance, one must turn to study of
to be seen not but rather as an
pantomime, separately, integral
part of "material" dance. Angiolini writes that one must invent a
*
Stefano Arteaga, "Ragionamento sopra il Ballo Pantomimico" from "Le Rivoluzioni
del Teatro Musicale Italiano (1785)," in II ballopantomimo, pp. 235-60.
326Dance Chronicle
a few, essential serve to describe

choregraphie, whereby symbols will
the "material" dance, while others will serve to describe the "pan
tomimic meaning." Unfortunately, this scheme remained but a
pious intention.
A Proposal for a Re-Creation on the Basis of the Sources

and Documents: "Coloquio agitato de' due amanti" from Act III
of Salvatore Vigano's La Vestale
Unfortunately all of Salvatore Vigano's ballets have met with the

same fate as
Angiolini's:
none survive. Nor do we know the secrets
or his
of mime en scene, which Sten
of his phrasing cunning mises
dhal compared to the onrush
of events in Shakespeare's tragedies.
Of all the ballets Vigano staged inMilan, La Vestale is the best
documented, not only through detailed reports, especially those
mu
of Carlo Ritorni,17 through several pieces of printed
but also
sic, bearing that also carry the name of the
captions fortunately
Like most choreographers, was also in the
composers.18 Vigano
habit of using pieces from different musical works, which he was
skilled at adapting to the pantomimed and danced situations by
Title page from the score of La Vestale adapted for solo harpsichord.
means of a technique of collage that he found particularly con

To date, however, not all the sources of these pieces have
genial.
been identified. As pointed out Rossana Dalmonte,19 we can
by
not help noticing the great modernity of Vigano's musical choices,
for instead of choosing instrumental music, he employs music that
contains the theatrical criterion
of "speaking music," as would be
displayed much later in opera. Moreover, he himself composed

certain passages that often served the purpose of connecting one
to the next, as in the case of the music for La Vestale, forwhich
piece
Vigano used thirty-one pieces composed by Johann Baptist Weigl,
Peter Lichtenthal, Gioacchino Rossini, Gasparo Spontini, Ludwig
van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Michele Carafa.
The retrieval of these printed musical pieces has helped me to un
derstand how the scenes were meant to progress. Nonetheless, it
needs to be stressed that this is but a modest attempt to imagine a
lost mime piece.
In this phase
of my research, I have looked at Act III, the act
of "tragic pantomime" par excellence, trying to figure out what
may have been the gestures and attitudes of the brief mime ex
cerpt "Agitated conversation between two lovers"

(Coloquio agitato
de' due amanti). The music Vigano chose for this piece is from the
overture to Rossini's Lagazza ladra, an opera semi-seria that had its
at La Scala in
premiere 1817. This selection is preceded by a brief
excerpt from Spontini's La Vestale with the caption "Decius and his
friend Claudius enter the Temple of Vesta" (Entra Decio colVamico
nel Tempio di Vesta). For my demonstration I also used this last
piece,
which constituted an introduction to the "Agitated conversation
between two lovers." In the piece drawn from the music of
Spon
tini, however, I have not inserted the figure of Claudius; in any case,
as Ritorni's
descriptions point out, he accompanies his friend only
to the entrance of the temple and then retires to leave the two
lovers in their
intimacy* The following allegro (from Rossini's La
gazza ladra) is eighty-four bars long, sixty-nine of which are from
the overture, the rest consisting of adaptations,
probably by Vigano
himself, that tie into the following section, from Beethoven, un
der which the caption
appears "Emilia revives."^ Three pieces were
This piece corresponds to the introduction to the duet "Avran pieta gli dei" (Act II,
no. 10).
^This Beethoven source has not yet been identified.
328 Dance Chronicle
used here: inmy demonstration I used Spontini's and Rossini's mu

sic, with the final piece composed most probably by Vigano. Vigano
was almost maniacal in his attention to the tiniest detail of creat
ing the historical background to his dances, which were

inspired
by Greek and Roman models, in the prevailing fashion. In order
to adhere toViganos as as I have ex
descriptions closely possible,
amined the work of contemporary painters and sculptors, as well
as the art works that were in
sixteenth-century especially admired
his day, to find inspiration for the poses and attitudes (see illustra
tions). I have also relied on manuals of mime and drama that were
or
contemporary only slightly later.* The resulting vocabulary of
poses was very useful in the of the
preparation "Coloquio agitato
de'due amanti," which was first experimentally reconstructed in
July 2005 for two students from the Accademia Nazionale di Danza
in Rome. (On the occasion of this Bournonville the
symposium,
was then for the two soloists of the Danish
piece prepared Royal
Theatre, Diana Cuni and Morten Eggert, who concluded my paper
with their demonstration.)
From his teachers, Vigano had inherited a predilection for the
grandiose, for heroic subjects and tragical scenes. Perusal of both
the comments on^ and the music for the ballet has made one of
Vigano's stylistic features clearer to me: the action moved swiftly

and concisely, like pure dance sequences in the true French style
alternating with mime. From Noverre, Vigano had acquired his

taste for grandiose stage pictures; from Dauberval, the cleanliness
*
Of the various treatises on mime and acting technique consulted, I cite the following:
Johann Jakob Engel, Lettere intorno alia mimica (1785-1786), Italian translation by Giovanni
Rasori (Milan: Pirrotta, 1818-1819; facsimile reprint, Rome: II fondaco dei teatri, E&A Edi
tori Associati, 1993); Antonio Morrocchesi, Lezioni di declamazione e d'arte teatrale (Florence:
Tip. AllTnsegna di Dante, 1832; facsimile reprint, Rome: Gremese, 1991); Andrea De Io
rio, La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano (Naples: 1832; reprint, Bologna:
Forni, 1979); Domenico Buffelli, Elementi di mimica (Milan: Visaj, 1829); Alamanno Morelli,
Prontuario dellepose sceniche (Milan: Borroni e Scotti, 1854); Carlo Blasis, Saggi eprospetto delle
materie del trattatogenerate dipantomima naturale e dipantomima teatrale (Milan: Guglielmini e
Redaelli, 1840); and Carlo Blasis, Luomofisico, intellettuale emorale (Milan: Tip. Guglielmini,
1857).
tStendhal,
Rome, Naples etFlorence (Paris: Honore Champion, 1919); Ritorni, Com
mentarii; Sydney Morgan, LItalie par Lady Morgan (Brussels: Wahlen, 1821); Giulio Ferrario,
Lettera di un Cavaliere in Risposta alle osservazioni/di un antico Militare sulla "Vestale" (Milan:
Tipografia Vincenzo Ferrario, 1818); Giulio Ferrario, 77Costume Antico eModerno o Storia del
della Religione, delle Arti, Scienze ed Usanze di tuttiIPopoli, Vol. 20 (Milan
governo, della Milizia,
and Florence: Vincenzo Batelli, 1818-1834); Lodovico Silvestri, IRR. Teatri diMilano/ Scala
e Canobbiana, Vol. 41 (Milan: a spese del compilatore ed editore, 1818).
The finale ofAct III of the ballet La Vestale.On the rightDecius and his friend
Claudius are to flee from the temple. Emilia at the center has fainted. On
ready
the left the priestess and the other Vestals are
arriving, alerted by the sound.
of his danse d'ecole; and from Angiolini (although indirectly) and

the Italian tradition, the sense that all gesture must be eloquent
and straightforward.
When Vigano writes in his preface to La Vestale that "I attempt
to construct my works in such a way that the no
public shall lack
of what may have whether before or af
understanding transpired,
ter the action [itself],"* he shows himself to have been particularly
sensitive to a matter that had aroused heated debate, as we saw
in the first part of this paper. What ismore, Vigano considered it
useless to make remarks on a ballet's mat
quite prefatory subject
ter,whether by recounting it or by writing comments of any kind,
tento sempre di costruire miei

i lavori di maniera che lo spettatore non abbia bisogno
di cognizioni ne anteriori ne posteriori all'azione" (Carlo Ritorni, Commentarii della Vita e
delle Opere coredrammatiche di Salvatore Vigano e della coreografia e de'corepei scrittida Carlo Ritorni
(Milan: Guglielmini e Redaelli, 1838, p. 198).
Reggiano
330 Dance Chronicle
since the "affects" must be intelligible to the public in the very heat
of the action.
For LaVestale, Vigano was fortunate to have two remarkable
dancers at his disposal: Antonietta Pallerini and Nicola Molinari.
After her initial theatrical performances as a classical dancer, Pal
lerini had shown a great talent for mime, notably tragic mime. As
she was tall and very slender, "her outline recalled rather the salient
traits of sculpture than the gentler contours of
painting," accord
ing to Ritorni, who added that itwas preferable to see her from the
front, because her face, he wrote, had "something odd about it"
(un certo non so che).* The critic Francesco Regli describes Nicola
Molinari as "a foremost mime of his Of stature, he
day. imposing
had well delineated forms; his gesturing was expressive; all his
movements vigorous... his was so that
physiognomy interesting,
he depicted the violent, ardent, and lofty passions in a marvelous
way/'t
In cultural background, so forth, our own mod
training, and
ern corps de ballet is different from that of Vigano's
quite day,
and that must be borne in mind. At La Scala pupils undertook
very intense study, involving hours of mime scenes taken from
both tragedy and comedy. Urbano Garzia, the school's professor
of mime, doubtless a role in preparing the mime
played major
scenes of La Vestale,^ while in theatre schools that tradition
today's
of mime has virtually disappeared, Bournonville's repertoire being
the sole notable exception. That being said, Bournonville's mime
is quite unlike the tragic pantomime that was then the rage in Italy.
The libretto and my reconstruction
La Vestale takes places in ancient Rome. In Act I, attended by the

Consuls, Senators, Vestals, and the whole of Rome, the harvest is
"La Pallerini sorti forme e sembianze che somiglia ilmodello d'una statua greca, ed
han piuttosto i taglienti contorni della scoltura, che imorbidi della pittura" (Carlo Ritorni,
Commentarii, p. 345).
^"un primo mimo dei tempi suoi. D'imponente statura, aveva forme ben disegnate; il
suo gesto era tutte le sue mosse ... interessante la sua fisionomia,
espressivo; energiche per
cui a maraviglia dipingeva le passioni violente, ardenti, esaltate" (Francesco Regli, Dizionario
biografico dei piu celebripoeti ed artisti melodrammatici, tragici e comici, maestri, concertisti, coreografi,
mimi, ballerini, scenografi, giornalisti, impresari, ecc. ecc. chefiorirono in Italia dal 1800 al 1860
[Turin, 1860; reprint, Bologna: Forni, 1990], p. 337).
*In the libretto of the ballet, Urbano Garzia appears alongside Vigano among the
"Inventori e Compositori de' Balli."
This a Bacchanal, a divertissement the Italian

picture represents composed by
balletmaster Carlo Blasis, published in his Traite in 1820 (Plate XIV, Figure 4).
Blasis made his debut at La Scala in 1817 and in 1818was among theprimi ballerini
seri dancing at the of La Vestale. The poses and attitudes of these figures
premiere
may well have been inspired by those created byVigano forhis Bacchanal ofAct
I in La Vestale.
being celebrated with wresding matches and a chariot race. Among

the athletes is Decius, son of the Consul Murenius, who receives
a His meets that of a Vestal
prize. glance Emilia, Virgin, and their
fate is sealed. Act II takes place in Murenius' residence. Decius
learns that he cannot win Emilia and considers suicide. Touched
by his despair, Decius' friend Claudius proposes that he enter the

of Vesta a secret pasageway.
Temple through
The scene of Act III is the temple. Emilia tends the sacred
flame that the Romans must never allow to be Al
extinguished.
a not
though she loves Decius, being priestess she may surrender
to human love. She struggles valiantly with herself, as if trying to
crush her love, but in the end the flame of passion prevails. In
the meantime, Decius has stolen into the temple together with
Claudius, who stands back to guard the entrance. Decius advances
on Emilia, who shrinks from him in terror as he tries to persuade
her to flee with him. Emilia spurns his plea, but as Decius loses
heart and turns away in despair, Emilia, fearing to lose him for
ever, falls to the ground in a faint. Decius runs to her, and Emilia
revives in his embrace. The sacred fire flickers out, and the tem
into darkness. As Decius and Claudius race away
ple is plunged
down the stairs, the other Vestals, alerted by the noise, appear and
summon the High Priest and Priestess.
332 Dance Chronicle
Act IV represents the trial of Emilia, in the sacred grove. She is

found guilty and sentenced to be buried alive. The scene forAct Vis
a in their multitudes towatch the
plain, where the Romans appear
impious Vestal's destruction. A pit is dug, and Emilia steps into it,
arms in a piteous gesture.
to disappear gradually, after raising her
A heavy stone is placed over her head. Decius throws himself at
the High Priest and during the ensuing uproar is transfixed by
a
guard's lance. Gathering his last strength, he crawls to Emilia's
tomb to die, amid the tears and lamentations of the people.
In the ballet, the acts that were essentially tragic pantomime
were Act III and Act V, while the others also included pure dance
sequences suited to the action. For example, in Act I we see the

sacred dances of the Vestals, "with attitudes and poses en equilibre
that recall the Victories on ancient Triumphal Arches," a baccha
nal "danced by Maenads, young Bacchants and where the
Satyrs,"*
"modern form of dance" encountered that of the ancients* and fi
a a even
nally March, with defile covering the entire stage, and where
the chariots were arranged according to the laws of perspective.
Act II, at the residence of Consul Murenius, includes a dance
of the slaves, its centerpiece a pas de deux in the French style. But
in those passages where the emotions run high, Vigano introduces
the technique of tragic pantomime alongside the dance, deploying
a skill in that has induced some modern commentators
"splicing"
to compare him to a film director.20
in the musical score and putting them
By taking the captions
the ballet's libretto and Ritorni's detailed description,
alongside
I have been able to match the action to Rossini's music from the
between Decius and Emilia to the moment when Decius
meeting
rushes to the side of the fainting Emilia, forming, as Ritorni writes,
"models for a sculptural group of great beauty"* Rossini's score,
which alternates proposal and response, is suggestive of the alter
a Emilia is intent upon the thought of
nating rhythms of dialogue:
encountering Decius, but those fond reflections are chased by a
severe religious fervor; she calls upon herself to think of her duty
and tends to the sacred flame.
"con atteggiamenti ed equilibrj che ricordan le sculte vittorie negli archi di trionfo
"danza baccanale, fraMenadi, e satiri" (Ritorni, Commetarii,
dell'antichita"; giovani baccanti,
p. 201).
tRitorni, Commentarii, p. 202.
*un pajo di gruppi da modello di sublime scultura" (Ritorni, Commentarii, p. 206).
3_
Giacomo The Triumph

Berger's of Astrea (1815, Royal Palace of Caserta-Sala di
Astrea) shows Astrea, goddess of Justice, between Truth and Innocence. Notice
the face-on position of the body and the resolute gesture with which Astrea raises
the scales on one side. The gesture of the hand, with fingers bunched and index
finger and thumb touching, signifies in Classical iconography the sense of Justice.
This allegorical a very common one also in the of figures
gesture, representation
in paintings and statues of the Classical was the object of study in the
period,
treatises on and mime. Notice how this position, with the thumb and
acting
index finger lightly touching without actually joining, became emblematic of the
of the hand in the academic dance tradition, as we can observe in
positioning
the iconography of Rameau's Le maitre a danser (1725). The
figure below is drawn
from Andrea De La mimica
Iorio, degli antichi, Plate XIX, Figure 3, the position of
the hand
representingjustice.
When Deciusappears on the left, and is the first to see the

beloved Emilia, she turns, terrified, and raises her arms in stunned
With an arm forward and and then by
surprise. palm downward,
raising and lowering the arm, Decius to her to be calm.
appeals
In the strength of his ardor, Decius advances toward her, unable
334 Dance Chronicle
to hide his emotion, rounding his arms as though to embrace her,

with both palms facing each other. He inclines his head, as though
to receive a kiss. She shrinks back, with gestures that speak of both
terror and shame. The latter is expressed by timidly inclining the
head side, glancing earthward, and placing her fingers over
to one
her lips. She turns to flee, in a pose with one leg bent, the other
stretched out behind, one arm raised, the other lowered with the
palm downward, pointing into the distance. Contrast is afforded

as though fearing to be caught
by her shy gaze, turned backward
by
someone or
something in the very act of flight. This is one
of the most intense moments of the whole work, for in it "mute
dialogue" is transfigured into dance with results that we shall again

encounter in certain poses of Romantic ballet, and particularly in
Giselle.
tomime.
The gaze importance both to dance and
is of critical
I haveattempted to give the gaze of the fleeing Emilia, who looks
round at Decius to an
though her back is turned him, intensity that
combines fear and passionate affection. The inclined head, the
curve of the back, and the gaze lend the pose an extreme softness
that stands in sharp contrast to the preceding pose, in which she
had shrunk obliquely backward. Turning one's back can mean
many things besides contempt; itmay mean refusing to see what the
other will do; itmay mean caution, or even anger. There is nothing
of all that in Emilia's pose here, but rather despairing weakness
and, when she turns toward Decius, gentle abandon. The "proposal
and response" sequences in the music are suddenly interrupted by
a fortissimo improvviso where one may, I believe, identify the firm
run to defend the altar, requires
gesture by which Emilia, who has
Decius to stop and hold this position.
Another gesture I have inserted here may perhaps be more
to it comes from an
symbolic and harder recognize, but image very
well known at the time. Emilia stands facing the audience, her back
to the altar, the left arm placed upon it, the right arm raised and
bent, the hand with the thumb and index finger joined, as though
a set of scales. To my mind, this pose represents Emilia's
holding
iron will to judge her own conduct. To swear an oath, the ancients
a hand on the altar.
placed
The next seven beats signal a moment of excitement that sug
as one in the libretto, courte
gest a shift in Decius' mood, reads
to flee with him.
ously but persistently trying to persuade Emilia
thePeriod 335
The Italian Style and
She too changes, although without yielding, and begs him to leave
her free and not tempt her by going down on bended knee (as he
does). Her resolve is less steadfast. He reaches out toward her, but
she runs from him, around the altar. He catches up with her, seizes
one of her hands, and pulls her down the stairs toward the outside
world.
runs up the
slips from his grasp yet again and, panting,
Emilia
stairs to the altar. This time Decius concludes that she does not
love him and, losing hope, declines to follow. The strong beat of
the bar seems a gesture that is both firm and despairing
to indicate
on Emilia's part, as she clings to the altar, but without the steadfast
manner she displayed when the scene opened. In this sequence,
I have imagined sudden changes in expression, suggested by the
we have of Mile. Pallerini, who, rather like a silent
descriptions
film actress, is said to have shifted in the twinkling of an eye from
a to either resolution or the pangs of love.
tragical mask
the appropriate expressions the face could take on
Among
were the arched eyebrows or the eyes opened wide (Pallerini could
make her large eyes appear to start from her head), the inclination
of the head (as recommended by Leonardo da Vinci in his Trattato
della pittura21 to lend to the countenance), and the
expression
or the biting of one's lips as
flaring nostrils and the half-open lips
true intent. A gesture to express suffering
though to hide one's
that I have assigned to Emilia is where she appears to rend her
bodice with both hands, as though to "bare the heart." Seeing
Emilia swoon, Decius runs to her and places himself behind her,
weeping and berating himself as the cause of her pain. Conquered

to revive her, takes her hand, and places
by her beauty, he attempts
it on his bosom as though tomake her a part of him.
this final tableau, inspired by representations
With of pity or
in
assistance neoclassical sculpture, I ended my presentation.
pious
To conclude, I decided to propose the recreation of this short
piece taken from La Vestale for the symposium since it constitutes,

in my opinion, one of the most of Vigano's
significant examples
creative process. The pantomimic dialogue perfected by Vigano
was founded on the technique of contrast,* which allowed him to
highlight the fully displayed passions of the characters. This pro

cedure, which both Ritorni and Stendhal had clearly identified
*"mettersi in controversia" (Ritorni, Commentarii, p. 395).
336 Dance Chronicle
The Rape In this detail we can observe

J. Louis David, oftheSabines (Paris, Louvre).
the figure in the middle of the old woman who, seated and semiconcealed
ground
a shield, bares her breast in a gesture of To reveal her
by disarming desperation.
breast more effectively, she raises her head and tilts it slightly backward. The gaze
is petrified by grief. This pose of great dramatic intensity, which David had studied
from the ancients, is reported in the nineteenth-century manuals of mime and
In the of Emilia, abandoned Decius, who believes her to
acting. pantomime by
be indifferent to his love, this gesture is full of grief. Indeed, Emilia is unable to
sustain the emotion and faints shortly afterward.
On the left the Mourning of Christhy Canova (1800, Possagno, Above

Gipsoteca).
Beside a (1810, Thorvaldsen Museum).
right, Cupid Swooning Psyche Copenhagen,
Below right, Cephalus and Procris (c. 1800, Venice, Pinacoteca Manfrediana del
Seminario). Three different subjects that deal

with the themes, of
respectively,
the mourning of Christ's dead body andthe fainting of two characters from
In all three we notice that the event is enclosed
mythology. iconographic images
in a space, a geometric dear to neoclassical
pyramidal figure particularly painters
and sculptors, who drew inspiration for this subject from Hellenistic works. The
recurrence of this iconographic model in works by the contemporaries John
Flaxman and Anton me to draw on it for the scene
Raphael Mengs encouraged
of Emilia's and Decius' rescue. This scene, which concludes the piece
fainting
conversation between two lovers," is con
"Agitated replete with strong dramatic
notations.
in Vigano, freed pantomime from the risk of having to describe

the actions in a "sterile" In the dialogue between Decius and
way*
Emilia we find a succession of states of mind that perfectly match
the Rossini score. The agitation and the cut-and-thrust
rapidity of
the dialogue suggest that each gesture had a precise meaning and
could be immediately comprehended. Judging from the descrip
tions of contemporary commentators, the gestures of Emilia and
Decius were never redundant or
repetitive; the discourse aimed
Ritorni, Commentarii, p. 395.
338 Dance Chronicle
directly at the heart of the spectator, relying solely on the force

of sentiment. Thus the strong contrast of
feelings: Decius' fearless
exuberance, rendered with a stride that is almost always projected
forward and Emilia's bewildered timidity, rendered by backward
poses of the or wary gestures.
body
Although this study is far from exhaustive and makes no claim
to fill the substantial historical gap in our of Vigano, it
knowledge
has allowed me with the instruments available, such as the musical,
iconographic, and literary sources, to focus on his compositional
techniques and, in particular, to examine how the pantomimic

discourse is put together using criteria of
immediacy and rapidity.
We strongly hope that there will be studies of even greater thor
oughness, if for no other reason than to revive at least some of the
flavor of the great vanished art of this "mute as Ritorni
poet," justly
named Vigano.
Translated by Katharine Kanter and Hugh Ward-Perkins
Acknowledgments
First andforemost, let me thank Frank Andersen, the Royal

Ballet's artistic director, as well as Sofie Raske Andersen, Sus Friis
j0rgensen, and the organizers, Erik Aschengreen and George Dor
an enormous
ris,who have put such effort into ensuring the success
of every last detail of the symposium. In agreeing to work up this
study of Italian pantomime with so little lead-time, the Royal The

atre's Diana Cuni and Morten
Eggert have been extraordinarily
kind?not to mention
their great expertise. My thanks also go to
Eva S0rensen from the Royal Danish Theatre, who accompanied
us with such care and skill.
For researchon the sources, allow me to thank
Jose Sasportes,
Giorgio di Genova, Stefano Liberati, Flavia Pappacena, Laura Salvi,
and Patrizia Veroli. Madison and Debra Sowell have kindly al
lowed me to use an image from their private collection which has
been crucial tomy work. Thanks also to the support of Margherita
Parrilla, the head of the Accademia
Nazionale di Danza in Rome,
to the enthusiasm of two of our students, Marta Marcelli and Illja
Kun, and my colleague Toni Sorgi, the reconstruction has actually
seen the light of day. Allow me also to thank the head of the Mu
nicipal Library of Correggio, Dr. Viller Masoni, who did everything

to research the musical sources.
possible
The Italian Style and thePeriod 339
Notes
1. Gasparo "Lettere a Monsieur Noverre sopra i balli

Angiolini, pantomimi
(1773)," in 77 ballo Lettere, saggi e libelli sulla danza (1773-1785),
pantomimo,
ed. Carmela Lombardi (Turin: Paravia Scriptorium, 1998). It isworth noting
how, by a singular coincidence, 1748 was both the year in which the Danish
was established and that in which Gasparo made his
Royal Ballet Angiolini
first appearance in Venice as a dancer.
2. See Bournonville, Etudes (1848, 1855, 1861), ed. Knud
August Choregraphiques
Arne Jiirgensen and Francesca Falcone (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana,
2005), pp. 145-62.
3. Ange Goudar, "Osservazioni lamusica e il ballo," La danza italiana, nos.
sopra
5-6, Autumn 1987, p. 41.
4. tr. Patricia N. McAndrew
August Bournonville, My Theatre Life, (Middletown,
Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 1979), p. 642.
5. Jose Sasportes, "Invito alio studio di due secoli di danza teatrale a Venezia
(1746-1859)," in Balli teatrali a Venezia (1746-1859), generate

crono
Catalogo
a Venezia, Istituto italiano Antonio Vivaldi della Fondazione
logico dei balli teatrali
di Storia e critica delle arti
Giorgio Cini Venezia, Dipartimento "Giuseppe Mazariol"
della Universitd di Venezia, ed. Elena Ruffin and Giovanna Trentin (Milano:
Ricordi, 1994), p. 18.
6. For more details on this see Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell, "Theatrical
topic,
Ballet and Italian Opera," in Opera on Stage, Vol. 5: The
History of Italian Opera
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).
7. See Jorgen Jersild, "Le ballet d'action italien au XVIIIe siecle au Danemark,"
Acta Musicologica, Vol. 14, issues 1-4, Copenhagen 1942, pp. 74-94.
8. Angiolini, "Lettere a Monsieur Noverre," p. 69.
9. Stefano Arteaga, "Ragionamento sopra il Ballo from "Le
pantomimico"
rivoluzioni del teatro musicale italiano (1785)," in II ballo pantomimo, p. 251.
11. Matteo Borsa, filosofico sui balli seri dell'opera (1782
"Saggio pantomimi
1783)," in II ballo pantomimo, pp. 209-234.
12. Bournonville, My Theatre Life, p. 642.
13. Borsa, "Saggio filosofico," pp. 211-2.
14. Arteaga, sopra il Ballo Pantomimico," pp. 235-60.
"Ragionamento
15. Ibid., pp. 240-1.
17. Carlo Ritorni, Commentarii della Vita e delle Opere coredrammatiche di Salvatore
e della e de' scritti da Carlo Ritorni (Milan:
Vigano coreografia corepei Reggiano
Guglielmini e Redaelli, 1838).
18. La Vestale//Inventatoe sulle scene del R. Teatro alia Scala/dal
posto
Sig.r/Salvatore Vigano/Ridotto per Cembalo solo/Dall'Editore Dedicato/A
Madamigella/EleonoraDe Seyfert/ Milano Gio.Ricordi, 1818, Correggio Mu
nicipal Library, call no. 41-7 (1) 1. A preliminary of the mu

investigation
sic used in some of his ballets has been conducted
by Vigano
" by Rossana
Dalmonte, 'Une ecriture la musica e la danza," in II sogno del
corporelle':
340 Dance Chronicle
coreodramma: Salvatore Vigano poeta muto, ed. Ezio Raimondi (Bologna: II
Mulino, 1984), pp. 145-239.

19. Dalmonte, ibid.
20. For a more study of the subject,
see Fabrizio Frasnedi, "II genio pan
complete
tomimico: i fantasmi del ballo d'azione," in // sogno del coreodramma, pp. 241
326.
21. Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura, ed. Adachiara Zevi (reprint from an
edition of 1817 of the Codice Urbinate Vaticano, Rome: Savelli, 1982), p. 157,
n. 354, De'moti delle figure.

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Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

The Italian Style and the Period

THE ITALIAN STYLE AND THE PERIOD

big theatres, from Venice and Milan

ography, it is unthinkable that he was not influenced by him. Bournonville attributed to

Inspeaking of choreographers from entirely different

had the happy ending of Spontini's opera to a

There of issues relating to Italian pantomime

notably at the San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan.* But

guished Italian theatre schools, the Italian dancer, and particularly

those in the grotesque genre, had had the opportunity to develop

Angiolini's Pantomime and the Legibility of the Gesture

ing and the liberties of indecent dancers who trample upon

ing his Don Juan, created in Vienna in 1761 to music expressely

^Gasparo Angiolini, "Lettere," p. 52: "daArlechino, daPierd, daDottore, daPantaloneec,

to the pantomimic traditions of the ancients, he later became a

tably Ange Goudar, an enemy of pantomimic ballet

With years of intense work behind him in Vienna, Venice,

as well. Such subjects, as Bournonville gradually learned, held no

leading intellectuals among his contemporaries.*

Starting with certain comments in his autobiography, which signaled a dissociation

pantomimo, pp. 175-6).

Revising his initial standpoint, Angiolini gradually departed

genre and began to embrace all the other genres of choreography.

Arteaga, who placed him above other renowned artists such as

choreographer and dancer refer back to the plastic arts (the in

support of this idea in both his autobiography and his Etudes.

and thus, a posture contrary to the conventional, upright dancer's

spectator through his depiction of the affects.15

a few, essential serve to describe

A Proposal for a Re-Creation on the Basis of the Sources

Unfortunately all of Salvatore Vigano's ballets have met with the

means of a technique of collage that he found particularly con

displayed much later in opera. Moreover, he himself composed

cerpt "Agitated conversation between two lovers"

used here: inmy demonstration I used Spontini's and Rossini's mu

ing the historical background to his dances, which were

Vigano's stylistic features clearer to me: the action moved swiftly

alternating with mime. From Noverre, Vigano had acquired his

of his danse d'ecole; and from Angiolini (although indirectly) and

tento sempre di costruire miei

The libretto and my reconstruction

La Vestale takes places in ancient Rome. In Act I, attended by the

This a Bacchanal, a divertissement the Italian

being celebrated with wresding matches and a chariot race. Among

by his despair, Decius' friend Claudius proposes that he enter the

Act IV represents the trial of Emilia, in the sacred grove. She is

sequences suited to the action. For example, in Act I we see the

Giacomo The Triumph

When Deciusappears on the left, and is the first to see the

to hide his emotion, rounding his arms as though to embrace her,

palm downward, pointing into the distance. Contrast is afforded

dialogue" is transfigured into dance with results that we shall again

weeping and berating himself as the cause of her pain. Conquered

piece taken from La Vestale for the symposium since it constitutes,

highlight the fully displayed passions of the characters. This pro

*"mettersi in controversia" (Ritorni, Commentarii, p. 395).

The Rape In this detail we can observe

On the left the Mourning of Christhy Canova (1800, Possagno, Above

Seminario). Three different subjects that deal

in Vigano, freed pantomime from the risk of having to describe

Ritorni, Commentarii, p. 395.

directly at the heart of the spectator, relying solely on the force