This thesis is concerned with the discernment of rhetorical technique within the eighteenth-century opera seria. An oration and an opera seria are both carefully planned word strategies which are vocally performed before an audience with the aim both to entertain and to persuade. As the audience is led through a succession of events and emotional responses to these events, a climax is reached where the audience is suddenly aware of the message of the oration or drama, and the conclusion strongly reinforces this before the curtain drops. The audience is therefore obj ectively convinced as to the moral of the drama through the libretto and is similarly emotionally convinced through the use of music and gesture. This is the method of opera seria. The libretto, the music, and the acting all work towards the same rhetorical ideal of a moral lesson through persuasive presentation. It is truly an exercise in rhetoric from its smallest component to its overall structure. Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782) wrote his first opera seria libretto in 1724 -- Didone abbandonata (set by Domenico Sarro) -- and from this point on, he became the century's chief librettist for opera seria. Anxious to continue the earlier reforms in operatic libretti, Metastasio required an ideal model on which to base his reforms. Given his strong knowledge and ready skill in the art of oration, this thesis proposes that it is upon this model that he formulated his many opera seria libretti. Although the original 1724 production of Didone abbandonata was a great success, most eighteenth-century critics of opera maintained that the drama was best presented in the Rome production (1726) as set to music by Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730), and it is this setting which will be the focus of the thesis. Chapter I examines and defines the art of rhetoric. Proof is provided to illustrate that both music and rhetoric share the same means, procedures, and goals, and as seen through the words of musicians and writers of rhetoric, it is shown that they themselves borrowed extensively from each other. In Chapter II, the libretto of Didone abbandonata is analyzed as a rhetorical exercise using the rhetorical framework discussed in the previous chapter as a guide. Chapter III examines the persuasive functions of the aria and the accompanied recitative for, although the libretto alone is a persuasive argument, it grows more powerful when underlined and punctuated with music as a direct appeal to the emotions of the audience. Finally, Chapter IV concludes with a discussion of the abuse of the aria by virtuoso singers and the unchanging opera seria format whose principles did not adapt to changing tastes of the audience. As a result, the opera seria remains a genre of the early eighteenth-century. / Graduate / 0413

Univ., Magisterarb., 2008--Frankfurt (Main).

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 273-284).

Diss.--Lett.--Dresde, Allemagne--Univ., 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 371-386. Index.

The main purpose of this thesis is to illustrate Sciascia's work concerning the "mafia". It implies a previous discussion on the mafia and why no government could destroy it . It also points out its relationship with the Sicilia society and other countries on earth. The introduction gives an account of the history of Sicily and its invaders throughout the centuries. The formation of the old law of "omerta" (conspiracy of silence) developed as a defense and protection against the harsh rule of the Spaniards who dominated the island continually from the fifteenth century till 1860. This old law became the basic principle of the mafia as illustrated in the four novels written by Leonardo Sciascia. The titles are as follows: 1. II giorno della civetta (The Day of the Owl); 2. A ciascuno i l suo (To Each his Own); 3. Todo modo (One Way or Another); 4. II contesto (Equal Danger). The structure of each novel is the same as generally found in the detective story genre but without any denouement. The first chapter deals with "II giorno della civetta" where examples of local mafia are illustrated including the struggle for justice. Sciascia shows the structure of the mafia in a small Sicilian town. The second chapter analyzes the novel "A ciascuno i l suo" where the mafia infiltrates the government and many political sectors. In chapter four "II contesto" one encounters an urban, cosmopolitan system of corruption involving the elite class of judges and high political party leaders. Sciascia challenges the very institution of justice, political parties and the government at large. He takes on himself the responsibility, as writer, to push for the recognition of moral values of a society and an era. The epilogue covers the efforts of the "Antimafia" men in their attempt to put down the mafia. The end covers the international mafia and its criminal underground activities such as the drug trafficking, money laundering, prostitution, etc. Various antimafia personalities have been killed in this campaign and the struggle continues today in spite of many "mafia bosses" having been arrested. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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Esta tese compreende uma edição dos estudos de anatomia de Leonardo da Vinci, em torno da qual estão textos que visam interpretá-los sob o ponto de vista da epistemologia. Parte-se de uma visão ampla a respeito do problema do conhecimento e localiza-se a seguir parte desse problema no âmbito de cultura em que Leonardo se formou, com uma análise das fontes de época que tratam das questões relativas à aproximação entre as artes e as ciências do período. Apresenta-se a seguir uma edição significativa dos estudos de anatomia de Leonardo, na qual se discute principalmente sua elaboração ao longo dos trinta anos em que Leonardo investigou a anatomia. Retorna-se a Leonardo e seu âmbito de formação em vista de pensar a aproximação que Leonardo fez entre arte e ciência, superando seus contemporâneos artífices e, assim, colocando-se fora de sua cultura de origem sem alcançar à cultura letrada e colocando um ponto de interrogação na classificação dos saberes de sua época. Por fim, retoma-se as considerações amplas a respeito de conhecer, associando-as ao conhecer sui generis de Leonardo. / This thesis presents an edition of Leonardo da Vincis anatomical studies, which is surrounded by comments whose aim is to interpret these studies with respect to an epistemological point of view. Departing from a broad view about the problem of knowledge, this thesis then presents this problem in the culture in which Leonardo was educated, with an analysis of the sources in which the relations between the arts and sciences are presented and explored. It is followed by an important selection his anatomical studies, in which it is discussed the development of Leonardos work as an anatomist during thirty years. This thesis then return to Leonardos culture in order to think his synthesis between art and science that surpassed the aims and ambitions of his contemporaries, but making him a strange in his own culture and at the same time questioning the cultural establishment of his time. In the end, this thesis comes back to the broad view on the problem of knowledge and associates it to the sui generis knowledge of Leonardo da Vinci.

Cette étude qui interroge l'ensemble des fictions policières de Leonardo Padura Fuentes propose une réflexion sur la place et la spécificité de l'écriture de cet auteur dans la tradition de la littérature policière cubaine. Cette réflexion identifie et met en lumière les liens qu'entretient la fiction policière de cet écrivain avec la réalité quotidienne, ainsi que l'ancrage de ces récits dans un référent identifiable, condition indispensable pour que ceux-ci assument le rôle traditionnel de peinture sociale du roman policier. Ce travail analyse comment, grâce au remaniement des canons du genre, à la rénovation de la tradition littéraire policière cubaine et aux liens tissés avec la réalité, Leonardo Padura Fuentes transcende le littéraire pour livrer, au-delà de ses fictions, une vision réaliste d'une société cubaine contemporaine en crise, proposant de la sorte une chronique sociale ainsi qu'un éclairage particulier et original sur l'histoire de Cuba des vingt dernières années. / This study examines all of Leonardo Padura Fuentes' detective novels and offers a reflection on the place and the specificity of this author's writing within the tradition of Cuban enigma-crime literature. This dissertation identifies and highlights links that connect the police drama of this writer's novels with Cuban society's everyday reality, as well as arguing for the anchoring of these stories within an identifiable historical referent, a prerequisite for the traditional role of social investigative writing. This work analyses how, thanks to the redefinition of gender cannons, the renovation of the Cuban detective novel literary tradition and its links with reality, Leonardo Padura Fuentes transcends literature to deliver, beyond its drama, a realistic vision of a contemporary Cuban society in crisis, proposing a social chronicle as well as a particular and original focus on the history of the Cuba of the last twenty years.

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