Alterità ed esotismo nella commedia per musica napoletana del Settecento: la «Dardanè» di Cerlone e Paisiello e le sue fonti

Abstract

Francesco Cerlone and Giovanni Paisiello's comic opera "Dardanè" was performed for the first time in Naples in 1772. Its plot revolves around a peculiar theme from Middle Eastern religious and cultural tradition: the 'triple talak', i.e. the Muslim practice of instant divorce. The article investigates the fortune of this topic in European litterature and theatre. The intertextual itinerary starts from the collection of pseudo-Persian tales "Les milles et un jours" by Pétis de la Croix (Paris 1710-1712); other important steps are two pièces with the same title, "Arlequin hulla", the first one by Lesage and d'Orneval (Paris 1716), and the second one by Biancolelli and Romagnesi (Paris 1728). An example closer to "Dardanè" is Gozzi's comedy "I pitocchi fortunati" (Venice 1772), which is demonstrated to be an independent creation based on the same French sources.