Abstract
On 14 October 1628 the Medici court witnessed a performance of Marco da Gagliano's opera La Flora, a work whose ostensible purpose was to celebrate a marriage uniting Florence and Parma. This event occurred three months after Ferdinando II assumed the tide of grand duke of Tuscany, ending a period of regency government that had begun in 1621, during which Ferdinando's mother and grandmother ruled Tuscany. An analysis of La Flora reveals that its allegorical themes extend beyond mere celebration of a wedding, and that the opera actually reenacts the transfer of power from female to male rule.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 437-476 |
| Number of pages | 40 |
| Journal | Journal of the American Musicological Society |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1998 |