ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
M
y journey has been a long one, made possible only with the help of dozens of
friends and colleagues along the way who’ve exhorted me to keep my eyes on
the prize. At the very top of what will be a truly prodigious list, pride of place
goes to my dissertation committee. To Tom Kelly, my advisor: you have guided my progress
with a keen eye for detail and style, never fearing to puncture an idea that merely sounded good,
and reminding me of the larger picture at every turn. You were the first professor I met at
Harvard when I came to visit all those years ago, and I will never forget how welcome you made
me feel from the outset. From our seminars together that ranged from Ambrosian chant to Paris
in the 1830s, I deeply appreciate the fact that you always made room for my interests during our
conversations—and even more, that they often intersected with your own. I’ll be forever grateful
for the opportunity we had to work together when I head-TF’ed for First Nights, and will always
remember fondly the occasions when you and Peggy opened your home to me.
Mauro Calcagno, mio relatore: thank you for having set me on this path so many years
ago, and for having accompanied me the entire way. Our Monteverdi seminar during my first
semester at Harvard contains some of my fondest memories as a graduate student. I shudder to
think back on my attempts to translate Tasso, Rinuccini, and Marino with only a faint grasp of
Italian at the time, and am eternally grateful that you nudged me in the direction of the
Middlebury Language Program. Our conversations in your office, on Skype, at your home in
Long Island, and most recently in Philadelphia, have been a mainstay of my development as an
academic. Thank you for always seeing the best in even the dross that I have at times spilled.
You, Jamuna, and Mariacristina have provided me with emotional support beyond anything I
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could have hoped for, particularly during a difficult period in 2011, and I am fortunate to have
you three in my life.
To Alex Rehding, I will always admire the effortless ease with which you’ve spouted
profound ideas. Auditing your seminar on the Sublime, taking seminars on the history of theory
with you, and eventually helping you to design a new Music 51 curriculum, were only a thin
slice of the fun I had hanging out with you. At you and Bevil’s magnificent house I had the
opportunity to cook things like mole, Beef Wellington, pastitsio, and frozen dumplings brought
up from New York, not to mention my first experience with the Eurovision Song Contest in
2007. From getting to house (and cat-) sit for you, to giggling at Amazon reviews for Penetrating
Wagner’s Ring that you innocently sent my way, you’ve been like a cool older cousin to me, one
who’s also frighteningly intelligent. Thank you for your role in my formation as a scholar and as
a person.
And Kate van Orden, a late but exceedingly welcome addition to my committee: thank
you for having invigorated my research with a breath of fresh air. Your timely expertise with
print culture saved me from a potentially embarrassing episode, in which I’d have had to explain
why I resorted simply to the transliteration of “impressione” to refer to an actual edition. Our
short collaboration has given me a deep appreciation for the experience and savvy that you’ve
directed at my chapters, always couched in nurturing and encouraging language—vital for this
last, exhausting phase of the dissertation. It has truly been an honor and a pleasure.
This dissertation is the final product of hours upon hours spent in Isham library during
the winter of 2009 digitizing its vast collection of microfilms of Giasone librettos, at the behest
of Ellen Rosand. At the time, I was only acquainted with the opera by means of a rapid, and
perforce shallow, study of seventeenth-century Venetian opera during the preceding summer for
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my general exams. When presented with the opportunity to attend a seminar at Yale University
on Cavalli’s operas during the Spring 2009 semester, taught by Ellen Rosand, I readily accepted,
not realizing that she would ask me to furnish the class with those same digitized librettos. It may
have been due to an unfounded sense of possessiveness that I felt for those libretto PDFs, but
halfway during one of the most intellectually stimulating seminars I’ve had the privilege of
participating in, I realized that I wanted to do a dissertation on Giasone. What began as a
philological puzzle quickly grew into a deep appreciation and love for the craftsmanship of the
libretto and music. And so I thank you, Ellen, for having guided me in the direction of this opera,
and for all of your invaluable feedback and assistance along the way to this finished product.
Of all the members of that Cavalli seminar, a truly all-star ensemble of Italian scholars
and Yale graduate students, I am most grateful for my collaboration with Joseph Salem, coauthor of our article on Giasone’s sources. It was an honor to be given the opportunity to
piggyback onto the proceedings for the conference that took place at the end of that seminar, a
true highlight and capstone for the semester that showed us students the vast and myriad
possibilities for Cavalli scholarship. Joe’s work on the scores in particular was a virtuosic display
of information management, and I hope to have done honor to our partnership in the first two
chapters of this dissertation. This is not in the least meant to discount the visiting scholars who
graced us with their knowledge and expertise that spring, and whose ongoing assistance and
support have gone a long way in helping me to reach the finish line: Jennifer Williams Brown,
Wendy Heller, Beth and Jonathan Glixon, Nicola Michelassi, Nicola Badolato, Álvaro Torrente,
and Davide Daolmi. Many other Seicento scholars have lent their experience as well at various
stages of my research, and I am deeply grateful for their feedback as well: Rebekah Ahrendt,
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Alessio Ruffatti, Louise Stein, Kelley Harness, Margaret Murata, Valeria De Lucca, Tim Carter,
Barbara Nestola, and Hendrik Schulze.
I am especially thankful for advice and comments provided by Anna Tedesco, whose
work on the prose version of Giasone has been such a valuable springboard for my own
reflections on the relationship between it and the first two libretto editions. Lorenzo Bianconi,
the man behind the man, I humbly thank you for having shared your vast erudition on this opera
and the Seicento with me, in comments on my sources article, to filling in some vital missing
pages among several of the digitized librettos at Isham Library, and finally to granting me access
to the final frontier of the Giasone scores, that source ensconced behind a wall of Borromeos on
Isola Bella: I cannot express how grateful I am to have learned something about this score
because of you. Nicola Usula, my fellow Argonaut, your profound knowledge and love for
Giasone have humbled and inspired me, and I can only hope that this dissertation does a
modicum of justice to your already impressive body of scholarship on this work.
Christine Jeanneret, you’ve been a solid scholarly presence in my life since I first
attempted to provide feedback on a Marenzio article you had drafted. Thank you for all of your
intellectual and emotional support over the years, and for always humoring me by allowing us to
correspond exclusively in Italian from the early days. Carlo Lanfossi, my Milanese brother, you
will never know how much your advice and help have meant to me, from showing me neat tricks
with OPAC when we first met in 2010, to your general knowledge about all things Italian and
Seicento, to helping me with countless translations over the years, to acting as a sounding board
for my conference papers, to discoursing on the right kind of tomato with which to make a
proper ragù or the many culinary treats awaiting me when I finally travel to Italy; you have been
a steadfast rock. Thank you for having my back.
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The cornerstone of this dissertation—its philological section—would have been
impossible to build without the stalwart aid of the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library staff. Many
thanks to the Keeper of the Isham Memorial Library and now head of the music library, Sarah
Adams, for all those many months back in 2009 and 2010 wrangling with libraries all throughout
Italy for access to their librettos. Huge thanks to Douglas Freundlich and to Joshua Kantor for
cataloguing and organizing the sources once they began trickling in, as well as to the library staff
at large, including Andrew Wilson, Sarah Barton, Robert Dennis, Peter Laurence, Liza Vick, and
Kerry Masteller, for all of your help over the years.
I am deeply indebted to the professors I’ve had the privilege to work with over my years
at Harvard: Christoph Wolff, Kofi Agawu, Sean Gallagher, Carolyn Abbate, Elliott Gyger, Anne
Shreffler, Lewis Lockwood, Elvira G. Di Fabio, Jason Stanyek, and Paul McIntyre. My
intellectual approach in this dissertation and as a scholar was forged and honed by your seminars
and your mentorship. Special thanks to Maria Rose, who encouraged me to dive into music
academia, to Carol Oja for always believing in me, to Kay Shelemay for your strong advocacy
over the years, to Sindhu Revuluri for your support and kind words, and to Suzannah Clark for
always listening and for offering incredibly timely advice and feedback on the writing process.
To the staff of the Harvard music department, you’ve made this a truly welcoming place,
and keep the ship running smoothly day in and day out. Kaye Denny, Charles Stillman, Lesley
Bannatyne, Jean Moncrieff, Eva Kim, Karen Rynne, Fernando Viesca, and Mary Gerbi: thank
you all. Many thanks also to Bob LaPointe in the GSAS office for always being on my side, and
for answering my countless questions. And most of all, to Nancy Shafman at the helm, I cannot
begin to express my gratitude for all of the administrative rigor and expertise (and candies) you
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have brought to bear over my nine years here, that made my experience at Harvard so smooth
and pleasant.
I have been blessed with financial support during my time here, and wish to acknowledge
and thank those who endowed me with the Ferdinand Gordon and Elizabeth Hunter Morrill
Graduate Fellowship as well as the Richard F. French grant at Harvard on multiple occasions, the
Mario G. and Katrina Tanner Vangeli Memorial Prize at Middlebury College, and the AMS
committee that granted me the first ever William Holmes/Frank D’Accone Endowment for
Travel and Research in the History of Opera.
My music professors from CUNY, whom I have known for over a decade now, helped
set me on my current path, and continue to be pillars of support and inspiration in my academic
career: Jennifer Oates, professor and music librarian extraordinaire; Edward Smaldone,
department head and mentor; James John, my favorite choral conductor; Cindy Bell, who was so
much more than a conductor and music educator; Jeff Nichols, composer, theorist—I will never
forget our fugue composition class, or your beautiful meditation on the legacy that parents leave
behind after the death of my mother. Anne Stone, who taught my first music history course, my
first bibliography seminar, and my first Renaissance/Ars subtilior notation tutorial, your savvy
and often ironic take on the profession has always provided me with valuable perspective.
Richard Kramer, you helped me to truly experience the beauty of the written word, and to see
what musicology can and should be. Barbara Hanning, la Professoressa, we had time for only
one seminar together, but it was a monumental one (I still have the T-shirt); thank you for all of
the meals, advice, and nurture and support. And finally, Henry Burnett, professor, mentor, chef,
friend: I will be forever grateful for the chance to have worked with you, and to learn at your feet
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everything from music to movies to finance to cooking. You still have the best recipes for
rugelach and kugel.
The Italian Language School at Middlebury College was a vital component for this
dissertation project. I doubt I would have learned Italian any faster in two summers if I had gone
to Italy. To Antonio Vitti, director of the program, bravo: a truly superb collection of teachers
who consistently gave 110% to any student who asked. Thank you to all those who taught me:
Peter Kairoff, who helped me to fall in love with opera all over again, this time in another
language; Gloria DiFolco, for the hours spent tutoring me in diction and for helping me tap into
my inner istrione; Anna Carozza, everybody’s favorite nonna and a slice of home in a strange
land; Julian Gargiulo, whose musical about Middlebury was one of the best things about that
summer in 2009; Antonello Borra, your enthusiasm and energy continue to inspire me; Lorenzo
Borgotallo, I can’t thank you enough for having pored through the entire Giasone libretto with
me on your own time, helping me to truly understand its richness and nuance; Ernesto Livorni,
cool and avuncular, thank you for all the conversations and for the bibliography on dramatic
theory; and last but not least Alicia Vitti, my first Italian teacher, who made it look easy and in
whom I truly heard for the first time la bellezza della lingua.
My classmates at Harvard have provided support and encouragement from day one, and I
owe them a deep debt of gratitude for making it worth going into the department every day.
While it is impossible to name every peer who has made a positive impact on my graduate career
(especially in an already-lengthy Acknowledgements section), I wish to thank, in particular:
Ryan Bañagale, Katherine Lee, Aaron Allen, Michael Cuthbert, Evan MacCarthy, Ellen Exner,
John McKay, Dave Sullivan, Ana Paula Hirano, Edgar Barroso, and José-Luis Hurtado. To
James Park, my Korean brother at Yale, I’m grateful to you and Cynthia for your friendship, for
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all the pizza at Pepe’s, and most of all for the unalloyed glee with which you razz me. My
various Music 309 colleagues, writing group partners, and Early Music Group friends, thank you
for helping me to see this project to fruition: Hannah Lewis, Matthew Henseler, Micah Wittmer,
Luci Mok, Jamie Blasina, Andy Friedman, Delia Casadei, Leon Chisholm, and Emerson
Morgan. Huge thanks to Elizabeth Craft, honorary 2006 G-1: your friendship and support over
the years have been truly a blessing. To Davide Ceriani, roommate, landlord, my Florentine
brother, caro amico: you’ve been there with me through thick and thin, and I’m fortunate to call
you my friend. And finally to the stupendous 2006 G-1 cohort: we did it! From running the
department ragged through our sheer numbers, to Sunday teatimes, to studying en masse for
generals that summer of 2008, I have never been prouder to be part of such an extraordinary
collection of people: Matthew Mugmon, Louis Epstein, Frank Lehman, Andrea Bohlman,
Glenda Goodman, Michael Heller, Meredith Schweig, Rowland Moseley, Sofia Becerra-Licha,
Danny Mekonnen, Toby Ottersen, Gabriele Vanoni, Sasha Siem, and Ulrich Kreppein.
To my many friends outside academia who have helped me along the way and kept my
head screwed on the right way, I am grateful every day for your presence in my life, even as
distant as I currently am in Seattle. To my oldest friends from high school, Jason Ollison, Van
Phan, Shrenik Sanghvi, Thomas Sung, Alex Zouzias, and Mike Hyland, thank you for helping
me stay grounded. You and your families will always be a part of my own. Your numbers have
grown along the way, and I’ve been glad for the opportunity to get to know your spouses and
significant others—Miki, Jen, Lisette, Rona, Joeli, and Michelle. Much love to Carolyn Tan, my
first music teacher. A shout-out to Yeolim Nam, my first roommate in Cambridge and a fellow
Queens College classmate: rock on. Brian and Didier: thanks for keeping the music going. Un
grande abbraccio to my friends and classmates from Middlebury, summers of 2007 and 2009,
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including Jenn Corey, Andrew Ciccone, Camille Lina, Alani Hicks-Bartlett, Jim Dicenzo, Travis
Boileau, Ali Rucker, Sarah Helland, Francie Alexandre, Julian Colilli, Andre Keiser, Thomas
Wisniewski, Joe Tamagni, Antonino Riggio, Victoria Tillson-Thomas, and Carla Guglielmino.
Capoeira was a welcome, even necessary distraction during my generals summer and
beyond, and I am grateful to my capoeira family for teaching me about life inside and outside the
roda: Mestre Chuvisco, Cigana; the Harvard Capoeira club: Lindinha, Foguinha, Tudo Bem,
Bom Menino; my capoeira brothers who kept me sane throughout this entire process: Compasso,
Urso Preto, Urso Pardo, Marreta, Bambu, Tutú, Lele; my former roommates Yoshi and Tubarão
(my brother from another mother): thanks, fam.
I’ve had the fortune to meet some great people online through World of Warcraft, and
more recently Final Fantasy XIV, and am thankful to them (and to the games) for helping to take
the edge off when I needed it most. Lok’tar ogar to my Kinetic friends and raiding buddies in
Azeroth: Hypheridrunk, Vaelstraza, Dimofodi, Suganem, Yuebe, Numbers, Fourmatixs, Vinum,
Solobarix, Spaghettyohz, Nyssara, Smuglianka, and Zhorn. You are all part of the tapestry.
Among my more recent friends in Eorzea, thank you to Kindred and its officers for your
welcome: Rowyne Moonsong, Eluri Olde, Darksage Prime, Dice Silverberg, and Tiri Thon.
Onward and heavenward! How fortuitous that there’s a Vancouver contingency among you. And
to Kathryn, a recent presence and truly positive force in my life, thank you for all of your
support, for pushing me gently toward my dissertation when necessary, and for providing the
most welcome sort of distraction, also when necessary.
Finally, to my family, who have always been there for me: I am grateful in more ways
than I can express for your support and encouragement over the years. To my sisters Vitoria and
Esther, who’d have thought we’d all end up with degrees from Ivy League institutions? I am so
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proud and thrilled to welcome to the family Mark and Ryan, and most of all little Simone, who
has brightened every one of the many overcast days here in Seattle since I moved here last
summer. To Lukasz, Judith, Fiona, my goddaughter Thea, and her grandparents Marika and Paul,
thank you for helping me to become the person I am today. To Damon and my godson Malek,
I’m honored and touched to be a part of your lives. And most importantly to my dear parents,
without whom none of this would have been possible, I owe you an immeasurable debt of
gratitude for the long, hard hours you worked throughout our youth to give me and my sisters the
opportunity to follow our dreams, and for all of the tremendous love you’ve shown us along the
way. I dedicate this dissertation in loving memory of my mother, who sadly did not live to see
me complete it: I love and miss you, mom.
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