FABULA DI ORFEO BY ANGELO POLIZIANO: FROM POEM TO LIBRETTO

The article is devoted to Angelo Poliziano's La Fabula di Orfeo from the position of the formation of specific qualities of a libretto for a dramatic musical composition. The research is carried out in reliance on the historically emerged systematization of Italian poetic forms, as well as on the results of study of the genre characterizations of Orfeo in the works of N. Pirrotta, A. Tissoni Benvenuti, C.Fantazzi and M. Bosisio. Poliziano's text, being the result of complex intertwinements of style and genre, possesses a new quality, being meant for the stage. Among the numerous sources of Orfeo there is an absence of stage compositions the poet unites parts of the plot and its different interpretations, relying on his experience of the creation of the scalar narrative and lyrical Italian and Latin texts (Stanzas on a Tournament, The Gift of the Foster Nurse). The play is characterized by a certain inconsistency of dramatic development, contrast of poetic meters, forms and stylistic registers meant for various stages of the action. Among the unfolded sections written in thirds or octaves, the 'inserted' canzonas and Latin verses, most conspicuous is the scene of the loss of Eurydice in which the exposition with normal stanzas is entirely violated, the narration is superseded by drama, while the complex poetical organization reflects the interaction between the protagonists. Analysis of Fabula di Orfeo as a libretto for a musical production gives the possibility to denominate a new angle of this composition the stylistic and compositional variety of which is conditioned not only by a complex combinatorial set of the sources, poetical manners and languages, but also a transitional genre -based nature of the composition, in which Poliziano paves the way from literary narration to a full-fledged stage action.