Giovanni Cosimo Villifranchi (or Villafranchi, 1646–1699) was, according to Robert Lamar Weaver, "the most productive and creative Italian comic
librettist
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...
in the second half of the 17th century." He wrote the majority of comic works performed at the
Villa Pratolino during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Villifranchi advocated simplicity in comic language, in opposition to the complex linguistic formality of the
commedia erudita practiced by such earlier
Florentine authors as
Giambattista Ricciardi.
[James Samuel Leve, “Humor and intrigue: A comparative study of comic opera in Florence and Rome during the late seventeenth century,” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1998)]
References
Further reading
* Gianturco, Carolyn. "Il Trespolo tutore di Stradella e di Pasquini," ''Venezia e il melodramma nel settecento: Venice'' 1973–5, i, 185–98.
* Weaver, Robert Lamar and Norma. ''A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater, i: 1590–1750'' (Detroit, 1978); ''ii: 1751–1800'' (Warren, MI, 1993)
* Leve, James Samuel . "Humor and intrigue: A comparative study of comic opera in Florence and Rome during the late seventeenth century." Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1998.
1646 births
1699 deaths
Italian opera librettists
Italian dramatists and playwrights
Italian male dramatists and playwrights
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