Abstract
The opera Le nozze in sogno (text by Pietro Susini; music by Antonio Cesti, first performed in 1665 in Florence) takes place in the multilingual city of Livorno. The opera’s characters use different languages, including stately Italian, comic Tuscan, lingua ionadattica, cant, Sicilian, Calabrian, and Judeo-Italian. This paper focuses on the character of Moses, a Jewish sorcerer, who is associated with strong anti-Semitic sentiments. The analysis reveals that Moses speaks neither the Judeo-Spanish nor the Judeo-Italian peculiar to Livorno; rather, he speaks in Judeo-Roman. Why was this choice made? The final part of the essay looks into possible reasons by examining previous uses of Judeo-Roman for Jewish stock characters and by considering the relations between the grand ducal government and the ‘Jewish Nation’. It also highlights the internal conflicts within the Jewish world of Livorno.