Abstract
"Staging the Pastoral concentrates on two performances of Torquato Tasso's pastoral play Aminta that were separated by over fifty years (1574 and 1628). Through micro-reconstructions of these stagings, it shows how the birth of modern Western theater as we know it was far less linear and simple than subsequent teleological narratives have lead us to believe. This study is based on extensive archival research and offers to English-speaking readers many previously non-translated documents. It will be of interest to students and scholars of theater and performance, early modern cultural history, Italian literature, and comparative literature."--BOOK JACKET.