Abstract

The present study sets out to put the dramaturgy of Metastasio's Passion of 1730 in relationship with certain aspects of medieval sacred drama: in particular the scenic elaboration of the mourning (the "Freudian Trauerarbeit") for the dead Christ by the three Maries in the scene in which they buy aromatics ("unguentaria"). The peculiarity of a Passion which, as thought antithesis to its very title, hinges on the figure of the dead Christ, gives rise to various considerations regarding procedures of spiritual thought applied to mistery of the Redeemer's death. These procedures are used with considerable "modernity" in the practice of medieval "ludi" and are surprisingly evoluted in the dramatization of the Metastasio's oratorio/"azione sacra".