Virginia Christy Lamothe, Ph.D. 2009

Advisor: Tim Carter

Dissertation Title: The Theater of Piety: Sacred Operas for the Barberini Family (Rome, 1632-1643)

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Dissertation Abstract:

In a time of religious war, plague, and reformation, Pope Urban VIII and his cardinal-nephews Antonio and Francesco Barberini sought to establish the authority of the Catholic Church by inspiring audiences of Rome with visions of the heroic deeds of saints. One way in which they did this was by commissioning operas based on the lives of saints from the poet Giulio Rospigliosi (later Pope Clement IX), and papal musicians Stefano Landi and Virgilio Mazzocchi. Aside from the merit of providing an in-depth look at four of these little-known works, Sant’Alessio (1632, 1634), Santi Didimo e Teodora (1635), San Bonifatio (1638), and Sant’Eustachio (1643), this dissertation also discusses how these operas reveal changing ideas of faith, civic pride, death and salvation, education, and the role of women during the first half of the seventeenth century. The analysis of the music and the drama stems from studies of the surviving manuscript scores, libretti, payment records and letters about the first performances. This dissertation also provides a discussion of the religious culture in which these operas took place by examining other contemporary primary sources such as sermons, histories of saints’ lives, spiritual exercises, Jesuit school plays, books of manners and social decorum, and accounts of festivals held in Rome during the papacy of Pope Urban VIII. 

Dr. Lamothe is currently Assistant Professor of Musicology at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Her research has focused on music in renaissance Italy, on which she has published several articles; on music history pedagogy, about which she co-authored and co-edited the book Curriculum Development for Online Education; and music in America in the early 20th century, research that will form the basis of her forthcoming book Music at the Majestic Theater (1903-1913). She is also the founder and director of the Belmont in Rome study abroad program at her university. She is also trained in historical dance practice, which she also teaches.