Benedetto Marcello's Il teatro alla moda was first published around 1720. In this satire, Marcello comments -with sharp irony, but often with strict realism- on the many defects of the late baroque Italian opera and, more generally, on the theatre milieu of his time. Il teatro alla moda appeared anonymously, though in the cover of the first edition (reproduced above) we are informed that it has been printed by a certain "Aldiviva Licante." Note that "Aldiviva" is a transposition of Vivaldi; in fact, many of Marcello's criticisms have Vivaldi as their target. From a historical viewpoint, Marcello's pamphlet is a spiced view on a very important period of Italian opera.

Here are a few excerpts:

“In primo luogo non dovrà il Poeta moderno aver letti, né leggere mai gli Autori antichi Latini o Greci. Imperciocché nemmeno gli antichi Greci o Latini hanno mai letto i moderni.”

In the first place, the modern Librettist should not have read and must never read ancient Latin or Greek authors. And this is because the ancient Greek and Latin have never read the modern.

“Non dovrà il moderno compositore di musica possedere notizia veruna delle regole di ben comporre... non saprà quanti e quali siano li modi ovvero toni ...saprà poco leggere, manco scrivere, e per conseguenza non intenderà la lingua latina...”

The modern composer should not have any information about the rules of correct composition... should not know which and how many the modes or tones are... must hardly read, not at all write, and consequently should not understand Latin...

“Non dovrà il Virtuoso moderno aver solfeggiato, né mai solfeggiare per non cader nel pericolo di fermar la voce, d'intonar giusto, d'andar a tempo, etc,  essendo tali cose fuori affatto del moderno costume.”

The modern Virtuoso singer should not have practiced musical reading and must never practice it, in order not to be in danger of controlling his voice, of just tuning, of following the right tempo, etc., for such things are fully strange to the modern custom.