Melania Bucciarelli
Om
I was born and educated in Italy, where I combined performance studies (Pianoforte Diploma, 1983) with studies in Music History and the Humanities at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ (Laurea di Dottore in Lettere, 1991). I obtained my PhD in Historical Musicology at Kings College (University of London) in 1998 and joined the Musikkinstitutt at NTNU in 2016, after Senior Lectureships in the music departments at Oxford Brookes University and City University London.
I specialise in Italian opera, theatre and literature from a variety of musicological and interdisciplinary perspectives: from studies on genre, literature and dramaturgy, period acting and staging practices, to cultural history. I have explored the concept of ‘Italianità’ and ways in which Italian baroque opera could function as a medium of cultural transfer, a mediator of public perceptions of otherness, gender roles, and ideologies, with particular foucs on the context of opera in London, Venice and central Europe in the eighteenth century. Recent publications focus on the phenomenon of the castrato and singers’s agency in Eighteenth-century opera.
I currently lead the research project WOVEN - Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice, funded by the NFR.
Possible areas for doctoral supervision within Western Art Music traditions include: music history, opera studies, early music, music exoticism and gender studies; philosophy of music; music and literature; music and rhetoric, music and theatre (including commedia dell’arte, acting and staging practices); music and psychoanalysis; cultural studies of music; reception and social history of music.
Current projects
Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice (WoVen). Norges Forskningsråd, Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal. Project leader and principal investigator
Research groups
'Opera in Venice at the time of Antonio Vivaldi'. Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice.
'La drammaturgia musicale a Venezia (1678-1792)'. Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi, Venice.
Literary and Cultural Eighteenth-Century Studies (LACES)
PhD supervision
Brad Carlton Sisk: Varieties of Musical Dramaturgy in the Serious Operas of Giuseppe Maria Orlandini (1676-1760) and His Collaborators
Alene Mari Holder: Vivaldi’s cross-gender casting: An analysis- and practice-based study of trouser role repertoire in Eighteenth-century Venice
Lars Henrik Johansen: '...chanter un discours'. The Eloquence of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Leçons de Ténebres
Publikasjoner
2026
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2026)
Vieni, Andromaca, vieni…». Andromaca tra Salvi e Racine.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
2025
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Korneeva, Tatiana;
Vescovo, Piermario.
(2025)
Introduction.
Innledning i antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2025)
Galeotta fu Venezia e la Faustina: New Sources for Francesco Bernardi, Il Senesino, and Faustina Bordoni's 1728-1729 Opera Season in Venice.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Korneeva, Tatiana;
Vescovo, Piermario.
(2025)
Voices in Motion: Women and the Pan-European Mobility of Italian Opera in the Eighteenth Century.
Edizioni di Pagina
Antologi
2021
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Butler, Margaret.
(2021)
Women on Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice: A New Research Collaborative.
Society for Eighteenth-Century Music Newsletter
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2021)
Italian Singers on the Move: Networks, Social Support, and Contact with the Native Land during Senesino’s London Years.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2021)
Kvinner, opera og den offentlege scena i Venezia på 1700-tallet.
Musikk & Historie
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2017
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2017)
'Farò il possibile per vincer l’animo di M.r Handel': Senesino’s arrival in London and Arsace’s rhetoric of passions.
Eighteenth-Century Music
Vitenskapelig oversiktsartikkel
2015
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2015)
Senesino's negotiations with the Royal Academy of Music: further insight into the Riva-Bernardi correspondence and the role of singers in the practice of eighteenth-century opera.
Cambridge Opera Journal
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2012
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2012)
Luigi Nono, Omaggio a Emilio Vedova.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2012)
Niccolò Castiglioni, Tre Misteri.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2012)
Luigi Nono, Intolleranza 1960.
Faglig kapittel
2010
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2010)
From Rinaldo to Orlando, or Senesino's Path to Madness.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
2009
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2009)
Eleanor Selfridge Field, The Calendar of Venetian Opera: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760, Stanford University Press: Stanford, 2007).
Eighteenth-Century Music
Bokanmeldelse
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2009)
Giovanni Bononcini.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2009)
From Rinaldo to Orlando, or Senesino's Path to Madness.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
2008
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2008)
Classical Tragedy in the Italian Manner: The Case of Polidoro.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2008)
Taming the Exotic: Vivaldi’s Armida al campo d’Egitto.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
2007
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2007)
From Venice to London: On the Trail of Luigi Riccoboni and Italian Opera.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2007)
Echi tassiani e rappresentazioni dell'Oriente al Teatro S. Angelo di Venezia.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Joncus, Berta.
(2007)
Music as Social and Cultural Practice.
Boydell & Brewer
Antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2007)
Venice and the East: Operatic Readings of Tasso’s Armida in early Eighteenth-Century Venice.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Joncus, Berta.
(2007)
Introduction Music as Social and Cultural Practice.
Innledning i antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Joncus, Berta.
(2007)
Preface Music as Social and Cultural Practice.
Innledning i antologi
2006
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Dubowy, Norbert;
Strohm, Reinhard.
(2006)
Italian Opera in Central Europe, 1614-c.1780, vol. 1: Institutions and Ceremonies.
BWV - Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag
Antologi
2005
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2005)
Conference Report: Le arti della scena e l'esotismo in età moderna (Naples, 6-9 May 2004).
Eighteenth-Century Music
Vitenskapelig artikkel
2003
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2003)
"Parto o bella, ma con qual cuore…". Riflessioni sulla drammaturgia del dramma per musica e il suo rapporto con l'arte comica.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
2000
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2000)
Italian Opera and European Theatre, 1680-1720: Plots, Performers, Dramaturgies.
Brepols
Vitenskapelig monografi
1999
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(1999)
Radamisto's Theatrical Sources and their Influence on Handel's Creative Process.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
1993
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(1993)
Conference-Workshop Report, Ariodante: Baroque Drama and Handel Opera (London, 13-18 April 1993).
Current Musicology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Tidsskriftspublikasjoner
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2015)
Senesino's negotiations with the Royal Academy of Music: further insight into the Riva-Bernardi correspondence and the role of singers in the practice of eighteenth-century opera.
Cambridge Opera Journal
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2009)
Eleanor Selfridge Field, The Calendar of Venetian Opera: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760, Stanford University Press: Stanford, 2007).
Eighteenth-Century Music
Bokanmeldelse
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2017)
'Farò il possibile per vincer l’animo di M.r Handel': Senesino’s arrival in London and Arsace’s rhetoric of passions.
Eighteenth-Century Music
Vitenskapelig oversiktsartikkel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(1993)
Conference-Workshop Report, Ariodante: Baroque Drama and Handel Opera (London, 13-18 April 1993).
Current Musicology
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2005)
Conference Report: Le arti della scena e l'esotismo in età moderna (Naples, 6-9 May 2004).
Eighteenth-Century Music
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Butler, Margaret.
(2021)
Women on Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice: A New Research Collaborative.
Society for Eighteenth-Century Music Newsletter
Vitenskapelig artikkel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2021)
Kvinner, opera og den offentlege scena i Venezia på 1700-tallet.
Musikk & Historie
Vitenskapelig artikkel
Bøker
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Korneeva, Tatiana;
Vescovo, Piermario.
(2025)
Voices in Motion: Women and the Pan-European Mobility of Italian Opera in the Eighteenth Century.
Edizioni di Pagina
Antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Dubowy, Norbert;
Strohm, Reinhard.
(2006)
Italian Opera in Central Europe, 1614-c.1780, vol. 1: Institutions and Ceremonies.
BWV - Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag
Antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2000)
Italian Opera and European Theatre, 1680-1720: Plots, Performers, Dramaturgies.
Brepols
Vitenskapelig monografi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Joncus, Berta.
(2007)
Music as Social and Cultural Practice.
Boydell & Brewer
Antologi
Del av bok/rapport
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2026)
Vieni, Andromaca, vieni…». Andromaca tra Salvi e Racine.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Korneeva, Tatiana;
Vescovo, Piermario.
(2025)
Introduction.
Innledning i antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2025)
Galeotta fu Venezia e la Faustina: New Sources for Francesco Bernardi, Il Senesino, and Faustina Bordoni's 1728-1729 Opera Season in Venice.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2012)
Luigi Nono, Omaggio a Emilio Vedova.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2012)
Niccolò Castiglioni, Tre Misteri.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2012)
Luigi Nono, Intolleranza 1960.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(1999)
Radamisto's Theatrical Sources and their Influence on Handel's Creative Process.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2008)
Classical Tragedy in the Italian Manner: The Case of Polidoro.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2007)
From Venice to London: On the Trail of Luigi Riccoboni and Italian Opera.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2010)
From Rinaldo to Orlando, or Senesino's Path to Madness.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2007)
Echi tassiani e rappresentazioni dell'Oriente al Teatro S. Angelo di Venezia.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2007)
Venice and the East: Operatic Readings of Tasso’s Armida in early Eighteenth-Century Venice.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2008)
Taming the Exotic: Vivaldi’s Armida al campo d’Egitto.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2009)
Giovanni Bononcini.
Faglig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2009)
From Rinaldo to Orlando, or Senesino's Path to Madness.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2021)
Italian Singers on the Move: Networks, Social Support, and Contact with the Native Land during Senesino’s London Years.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Joncus, Berta.
(2007)
Introduction Music as Social and Cultural Practice.
Innledning i antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania;
Joncus, Berta.
(2007)
Preface Music as Social and Cultural Practice.
Innledning i antologi
-
Bucciarelli, Melania.
(2003)
"Parto o bella, ma con qual cuore…". Riflessioni sulla drammaturgia del dramma per musica e il suo rapporto con l'arte comica.
Vitenskapelig kapittel
Undervisning
Emner
- MUSV3129 - Musikk i Venezia, 'Gledens hovedstad' (1650-1750)
- MUSV2033 - Bacheloroppgave i musikkvitenskap
- MUSV3124 - Operastudier
- MUSV1031 - Musikk, kultur og samfunn i historisk perspektiv
- MUSV3144 - Kvinner, opera og feministisk musikkvitenskap
- MUSV3133 - Musikk og teater
- MUSV3006 - Masteroppgave i musikkvitenskap
Formidling
2025
-
KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania; Aresi, Stefano. (2025) Il progetto WoVen: Fonti, metodologie e risultati preliminari. La ricerca sul lavoro delle donne in età moderna: Percorsi, carriere, imprenditorialità. Tre progetti a confronto (ANR DEFI 2024-2027; VidiMus; WoVen)
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania; Sisk, Brad Carlton; Aresi, Stefano; Colonna, Deda Cristina; Arnoldo, Silvano. (2025) International Outlook: The WoVen Project. Her Perspective: the Forgotten History of Opera. International Seminar About Operas Composed by Women (Copenhagen, 27-28 November 2025)
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania; Menchelli-Buttini, Francesca. (2025) Introduction to the Round Table 'How do we do 18th-century opera? Music and gesture in Leonardo Leo’s Andromaca (Napoli 1742)'. Women in Italian Opera from Baroque to Enlightenment: Dramaturgy, Gesture, Music, Stage. International Conference
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2025) Immagini femminili fra scena e dibattito critico: Semira, Adelaide e Faustina (Venezia 1729). Women as Agents for the Pan-European Mobility of Italian Opera in the Eighteenth Century
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ForedragBucciarelli, Melania; Sisk, Brad Carlton. (2025) Urettmessig glemt? Orlandini, Venezias opera-mester. Barokkfest/Early Music Festival 2025
2024
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2024) "Si può cosa bramar, ch'ei non ti doni?". Faustina Bordoni and the 1729 Carnival Season. Women, Opera and the Public Stage in Eighteenth-Century Venice
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2024) "Le gare virtuose". L’interazione fra ruolo drammatico, interprete e immagine pubblica nell’opera italiana della prima metà del Settecento. Personaggi, ruoli ed interpreti nello spettacolo musicale, teatrale e cinematografico.
2023
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2023) «Un soggetto con sei donne, pensando in tal guisa d’incontrar forse più facilmente il tuo genio». Presenze femminili al teatro Sant’Angelo durante i primi anni della gestione Vivaldi. Il Teatro Sant'Angelo ai tempi di Antonio Vivaldi / The Sant'Angelo Theatre at the time of Antonio Vivaldi
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2023) WoVen: Le donne, l'opera e la scena pubblica nella Venezia del Settecento. Musicologia oggi (Musicology Today)
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania; Colonna, Deda Cristina; Hansen, Karina Valnumsen. (2023) Staging History for Today’s Audiences: Women in Early Opera. Deda Cristina Colonna in conversation with Melania Bucciarelli and Karina Valnumsen Hansen. Staging History for Today’s Audiences: Women in Early Opera
2022
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2022) The WoVen Project: Concepts, Sources and Methodologies. First WoVen Colloquium: Concepts, Sources and Methodologies
2021
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2021) Il gioco delle parti: Personaggi e interpreti dell’Engelberta veneziana. 'Ombre romite, taciti orrori'. Convegno internazionale di studi in occasione della prima esecuzione in tempi moderni di Engelberta (Venezia, 1708)
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2021) The WoVen project and the castrato. Castrato Singers in Opera: The Current State of Research
2019
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2019) “Travelling North of the Alps: Senesino’s career from Italy to Dresden and London”. Music, Performing Arts and Artists in the North: The French and Italian Diasporas (1600-1900)
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2019) “‘lo sistema antico ch’ei sempre propone per mostrare che quanto si fa è il medesimo ch’era prima’. Negotiating practices on the London Stage during the early years of the Royal Academy of Music”. Mapping Artistic Networks of Italian Theatre and Opera across Europe: 1600-1800
2018
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2018) "Knowing voices we cannot hear". Knowing Music – Musical Knowing: Cross disciplinary dialogue on epistemologies. International Music Research School 2018
2015
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2015) A Clash of Interests? Writing for Senesino on the London Stage. Händel und seine Interpreten / Handel and His Interpreters. Internationale Wissenschaftliche Konferenz zu den Händel-Festspielen in Halle (Saale)
2014
-
Intervju
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ForedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2014) Farinelli and his brothers: Castrati in eighteenth-century Europe. Senter for Tidligmusikk Barokkfest 2014
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2014) Farò il possibile per vincer l’animo di M.r Handel” (I will do my best to win over M.r Handel’s heart): Arsace (1721) and Senesino’s arrival in London. Royal Musical Association 50th annual conference
2012
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2012) Senesino: An Italian Castrato in Dresden, 1717-1720. Symposium Italienischer Music in Deutschland und Frankreich - Diagonale und Parallelen
2010
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2010) Spinalba, opera buffa and the tradition of commedia dell’arte. Day Study on Spinalba
2008
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2008) Armida’s Mirror: Literary (and non-literary) motifs in Vivaldi’s Armida al campo d’Egitto (Venice, 1718). New Directions in Musical Research Series
2007
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2007) Soggetti, storie e immagini nell’opera veneziana al tempo di Antonio Vivaldi. Conference Istituto Antonio Vivaldi
2006
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ForedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2006) Singers, Voices and Props: How should we ‘do’ Handel opera?. Bloomsbury Festival, School of Advanced Studies, Debates series
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ForedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2006) From Rinaldo to Orlando, or Senesino's path to madness. Public Lectures Series, Foundling Museum
2005
-
KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2005) Venice and the East: Exotic Motives in Early Eighteenth-Century Opera. Symposium on Motezuma, Vivaldi and Opera Seria
2004
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2004) Echi tassiani e rappresentazioni dell'Oriente al Teatro S. Angelo di Venezia. International conference Le arti della scena e l'esotismo in età moderna
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2004) From Rinaldo to Orlando, or Senesino's path to madness. Symposium Italian Voices and European Practice
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Konferanseforedrag
2001
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2001) From Venice to London: On the Trail of Luigi Riccoboni and Italian Opera. Words and music: a symposium on Eighteenth-century Italian opera in memory of Giovanna Gronda
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2001) From Venice to London: On the Trail of Luigi Riccoboni and Italian Opera. European Science Foundation International Conference Opera subjects and European Relationships
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2001) Parto o bella, ma con qual cuore…: Riflessioni sulla drammaturgia del dramma per musica e il suo rapporto con l'arte comica. International conference Commedia dell'Arte e Spettacolo in musica tra Sei e Settecento
2000
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2000) Classical Tragedy in the Italian Manner: The Case of Polidoro. European Science Foundation International Conference Italianità: Image and Practice in Central European Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centur
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (2000) Parole e Musica: Corneille, Capece e il melodramma d’ispirazione francese a Roma prima di Metastasio. International Conference Le Arti in gara. Roma nel Settecento
1999
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (1999) French Drama in the Italian Manner: Dramaturgy, Spectacle and Literary Standards of Early 18th Century Italian Opera. Research seminars at the University of Natal
1998
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (1998) Luigi Riccoboni: Drama and Opera in Italy, France and England. European Science Foundation International Workshop-Conference European Baroque Opera: Institutions and Ceremonies
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (1998) Representation of nature in early 18th-century Italian opera: Albinoni-Gasparini's Engelberta (1709). Centre for 18th-Century Musical Studies International Conference Music in Eighteenth-Century Italy
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (1998) Italian tragedy and dramma per musica: attempts at a reform of Italian theatre (1694-1715). Royal Musical Association Annual Conference Music and Theatre
1996
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (1996) Commedia dell'Arte and Opera Seria. International Conference Commedia dell'Arte: Actors and Artists
1995
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KonferanseforedragBucciarelli, Melania. (1995) Radamisto's Theatrical Sources and their Influence on Handel's Creative Process. 11th Annual Conference on Music in Eighteenth-Century Britain