8. ‘La stiava dolente in suono di canto’: War, Slavery, and Difference in a Medici Court EntertainmentThe Waltz among Slovenians

On 24 February 1607, a central Italian court invited select guests to celebrate the final night of carnival at one of their palaces. Part of the entertainment was a sung and danced spectacle characterized by ‘una musica stupenda’, the success of which launched Francesca Caccini’s theatrical career and her reputation as a pioneer in the history of opera. Like most court entertainments, this one had political overtones. Situating the entertainment in relationship to the court's attitudes toward Muslim power in the eastern Mediterranean, and the court's innovations in the Mediterranean slave trade, this paper explores the ways that the entertainment's sonic design both activated and enabled the disavowal of ethnoreligious biases. The chapter concludes by meditating briefly on implications for the historiographies of aurality, women's musical culture, and opera.