Honoring God and the City is a documentary history of musical activities at Venetian lay confraternities from their origins in the thirteenth century to their suppression in the early nineteenth, demonstrating the vital role they played in the cultural life of Venice.

In mid-seventeenth-century Venice, opera first emerged from courts and private drawing rooms to become a form of public entertainment. Early commercial operas were elaborate spectacles, featuring ornate costumes and set design along with dancing and music. As ambitious works of theater, these productions required not only significant financial backing, but also strong managers to oversee several months of rehearsals and performances. These impresarios were responsible for every facet of production from contracting the cast to balancing the books at season's end. The systems they created still survive, in part, today.
Inventing the Business of Opera explores public opera in its infancy, from 1637 to 1677, when theater owners and impresarios established Venice as the operatic capital of Europe. Drawing on extensive new documentation, the book studies all of the components necessary to opera production, from the financial backing and the issue of patronage to the commissioning and creation of the libretto and the score; the recruitment and employment of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists; the production of the scenery and the costumes; and the nature of the audience. The authors examine the challenges faced by four separate Venetian theaters during the seventeenth century, and focus particularly on the progress of Marco Faustini, the impresario most well known today. Faustini made his way from one of Venice's smallest theaters to one of the largest, and his advancement provides a personal view of an impresario and his partners, who ranged from Venetian nobles to artisans. Throughout the book, Venice emerges as a city that prized novelty over economy, with new repertory, scenery, costumes, and expensive singers the rule rather than the exception.
Through close examination of an extraordinary cache of documents--including personal papers, account books, and correspondence--Beth and Jonathan Glixon provide a comprehensive view of opera production in mid seventeenth- century Venice. For the first time in a study of Venetian opera, an emphasis is placed on the physical production-- the scenery, costumes, and stage machinery--that tied these opera productions to the social and economic life of the city. This original and meticulously researched study will be of strong interest to all students of opera and its history.

Honoring God and the City presents the first detailed history of musical activities at Venetian lay confraternities, societies that were crucial to the cultural and ceremonial life of Venice. Based on over two decades of research in Venetian archives, musicologist Jonathan Glixon traces musical practices from the origins of the earliest confraternities in the mid-thirteenth century to their suppression under the French and Austrian governments in the early nineteenth century.
Glixon first discusses the scole grandi, the largest and most important of the Venetian confraternities. Scole grandi hosted some of the most elaborate musical events in the Venetian calendar, including lavish annual festivities for each scola's patron saint and often enlisting such high-profile musicians as Giovanni Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi. Glixon places detailed descriptions of these events in the context of the scole grandi's long histories, as the roles of salaried musicians, singers, string players, and organists evolved over the centuries.
The book's second part is concerned with the scole piccole, the numerous smaller confraternities born in churches throughout Venice. These local organizations, usually consisting of a modest number of salaried musicians augmented by hired players, took part in annual festivities and performances and played a crucial role in local cultural life.
Detailed appendixes include a calendar of musical events at all Venetian confraternities in the early eighteenth century and a complete listing of musicians for an important seventeenth century festival. The result of painstaking research, Honoring God and the City demonstrates the vital role of confraternitiesin the musical and ceremonial life of Venice.

In mid seventeenth-century Venice, opera first emerged from courts and private drawing rooms to become a form of public entertainment. Early commercial operas were elaborate spectacles, featuring ornate costumes and set design along with dancing and music. As ambitious works of theater, these productions required not only significant financial backing, but also strong managers to oversee several months of rehearsals and performances. These impresarios were responsible for every facet of production from contracting the cast to balancing the books at season's end. The systems they created still survive, in part, today.
Inventing the Business of Opera explores public opera in its infancy, from 1637 to 1677, when theater owners and impresarios established Venice as the operatic capital of Europe. Drawing on extensive new documentation, the book studies all of the components necessary to opera production, from the financial backing of various populations of Venice, to the commissioning and creation of the libretto and the score; the recruitment and employment of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists; the production of the scenery and the costumes, and, the nature of the audience; and, finally, the issue of patronage. Throughout the book, the problems faced by impresarios come into new focus. The authors chronicle the progress of Marco Faustini, the impresario most well known today, who made his way from one of Venice's smallest theaters to one of the largest. His companies provide the most personal view of an impresario and his partners, who ranged from Venetian nobles to artisans. Throughout the book, Venice emerges as a city that prized novelty over economy, with new repertory, scenery, costumes, and expensive singers the rule rather than the exception. The authors examine the challenges faced by four separate Venetian theaters during the seventeenth century: San Cassiano, the first opera theater, the Novissimo, the small Sant'Aponal, and San Luca, established in 1660. Only two of them would survive past the 1650s.
Through close examination of an extraordinary cache of documents--including personal papers, account books, and correspondence -- Beth and Jonathan Glixon provide a comprehensive view of opera production in mid-seventeenth century Venice. For the first time in a study of opera, an emphasis is placed on the physical production -- the scenery, costumes, and stage machinery -- that tied these opera productions to the social and economic life of the city. This original and meticulously researched study will be of strong interest to all students of opera and its history.