The Improvisation of Poetry, 1750 – 1850
A database of commentaries on improvisational performance
An article describing improvisation in Italy, with specific accounts of performances by Sgricci and Taddei in Rome, based on the travel writings of Wilhelm Müller. The author of the article appreciates the talents of both improvisatori, but does not view improvisation as an advancement of art and poetry more generally.
Drawing on Wilhelm von Müller’s Rom, Römer und Römerinnen, the article describes Sgricci and Taddei, the most famous Italian improvisatori of the day. The author is of the opinion that improvisation, although impressive and captivating, represents a regression (rather than progress) in the art of poetry.
An anonymous writer describes the talents of the Italian improvisatrice Rosa Taddei, whose knowledge and wit are worthy of great admiration.
The anonymous critic gives a brief history of some of the best known improvisers in Italy, both men and women. He also describes some of the tricks they used to make their work appear more improvised than it was.
An article, translated from the German Morgenblatt, describing improvisation in Italy, with specific accounts of performances by Sgricci and Taddei in Rome, based on the travel writings of Wilhelm Müller. The author of the article appreciates the talents of both improvisatori, but does not view improvisation as an advancement of art and poetry more generally.
Quoting from a German periodical, the writer provides a compressed history of improvisation in Latin, Italian, and German, and compares the German improvisatore Langenschwarz with the Italian improvisatrice Taddei.
A report of a lecture on improvisation delivered at the Royal Institution by the Marquis Moscati, who is himself an improviser. Moscati gives a historically and culturally wide-ranging account of extemporaneous poetry and performs his own improvisations on the topics of music and Poland.
Evaluating the fame and ability of Taddei in light of the enthusiasm of the press, the reviewer compares her to Corilla and Bandettini. He emphasizes her youth and inexperience, yet she shows much promise: her verse flows, her rhymes are spontaneous, and she keeps to the given subject.
The author describes performances by Taddei and Sgricci, and claims that Sgricci has superior poetic skill. He praises both performers and mentions their exhaustion due to their efforts.
In his dedication of a volume of Taddei’s transcribed improvisations to a female member of the Arcadian Academy, the editor recalls their shared admiration for Taddei’s talent.
In a letter to the editor, the writer describes how the 16-year-old Taddei was inspired, by listening to Pistrucci, to commit herself to improvised verse. Her performance and her verses resemble the enthusiasm of the Pythia, without being exaggerated. However, the writer reports that at a performance she gave near Cremona, ignorant listeners criticized improvised poetry and the innocent pleasures it arouses as pure folly.
Eaton describes the spontaneous nature of poetic improvisation in Italy, the unpretentious skill of Rosa Taddei, and the trite and nonsensical improvisation of the “pastoral brotherhood” of the Arcadian Academy. She compares talented improvisatrici to the Sybils, and suggests that Sybils were actually improvisatrici speaking of the divine. Eaton describes Sgricci’s performance of Medea and says that he is one of the few improvisatori who attempts tragedy.
Moscati recounts the rise to fame of Rosa Taddei, under his own patronage. The article includes a detailed account of one of Taddei’s first performances, and gives the origin of Taddei’s stage name: Licori Partenopoea.
Wynn describes her dissatisfaction with Gabriele Rossetti’s improvisation and recalls Spinetto’s high estimation of improvisatori, including Corilla and Taddei. Wynn also comments on the relative difficulty of improvisation in different languages.
Matthews describes the improvisatrice’s strong effect on the audience, emphasizing her skill with rhymes and gestures.
Although she reports on an occasion when they were not present, Starke takes the opportunity to describe the talents of Sgricci and Taddei.
In an encyclopedia entry on improvisers and improvisation, Wolff provides a discussion of the relation between the development of the art of improvisation and the geography and spirit of each nation. He also provides a brief history of improvisation and mentions some of the most important contemporary improvisers.
The writer praises Rosa Taddei's imagination and art. During her second performance, however, she shows less strength since her genius seems to abandon her. When she muses about Piedmontese women, famous for their strength of the soul and body, she gains her own poetic power once more. Splendour of style and the beauty of the imagery gain their full expression. She is described as being virtuous, which increases her success.
Waiblinger mentions an 1827 performance by the improvisatrice Rosa Taddei, and then moves on to describe how the lower classes improvise on the streets in Rome, often at night.
In a conversation among people of different nationalities in Waiblinger’s novella, performances by the improvisatori Sgricci and Taddei are anecdotally recounted.