The Universe of Gennaro Magri: Dance, Music, and Opera in Naples during the Enlightenment

This international and interdisciplinary conference aims to use the work of GennaroMagri (ca. 1735-1780), choreographer at the Teatro San Carlo and author of the Trattato teorico-prattico del Ballo (1779), as a springboard for examining the role of comic and grotesque dance in his home city of Naples and more broadly across all parts of Europe touched by Italian dancing and Italian theatrical practices, including opera. Magri’s own international career, placed alongside his writings, invites reflections on the aesthetic and technical distinctions among the different styles of dancing in his day and their relationship to music, pantomime, theatre, and opera.

A partial list of potential topics includes theatrical dance in Naples in the 18th century (repertoire, styles, performers, dramaturgy, music); Gennaro Magri as author and choreographer (his career, the contents and interpretation of his treatise, his relationships with reformers such as Noverre and Le Picq); source studies (libretti, scores, iconography, theoretical writings, archival documents); practices on stage (dance in and alongside opera, choreographic conventions, movement vocabulary, dance-music relationships); stylistic dialogues (noble style vs. comic and grotesque dance, French vs. Italian styles, the development of pantomime ballet, the relationship of comic dance to the commedia dell’arte, aesthetic controversies).

The program committee welcomes a variety of formats: individual papers; themed sessions; round tables; lecture-demonstrations; workshops. Proposals should include a title, an abstract (one page maximum), a statement of the chosen format, and a brief biography of the participant(s) (10 lines). Proposals should be sent to magri.project@gmail.com no later than 31 March 2016; notification will be provided by the end of April.

Conference languages: Italian, French, English

Contact: Arianna Fabbricatore ( arianna.fabbricatore@gmail.com )

Program committee:

Francesco Cotticelli, Seconda Università di Napoli

Arianna Fabbricatore, Université Paris-Sorbonne

Rebecca Harris-Warrick, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Paologiovanni Maione, Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella

Marie-Thérèse Mourey, Université Paris-Sorbonne

José Sasportes, Universidade Nova de Lisboa