ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that despite its disappearance from surviving sources, Ulisse’s ballo played an important role in the development of its scene. It considers the opera in light of Monteverdi’s career, in terms of genre, and what the “eight Moors” may have connoted in 1640 Venice. The chapter shows that the paucity of the historical record does not itself substantiate the frequent claim that dance was dispensable or that it was unintegrated into an otherwise tightly knit drama. In an extension of Ovid, love, courtship, and seduction are opposed to, compared to, and equated with fighting, battle, and war. The most prominent image of love and war is Ulisse’s bow, presented allegorically in the prologue as the bow of Cupid. Moors fighting, moors in love: the ballo is another front in the war of love, a dance of war as a dance of lust.
