ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the approach and methodology utilized to examine Calzabigi's and Paisiello's tragedy Elfrida, even though the latter explores contextual themes relative to the decade of the 1790s. Artistic developments also play a critical role, as the genre of Neapolitan tragedy remained responsive to past traditions in the city as well as increasingly open to an emergent experimentation as seen especially through the growth of ideas such as pantomime ballet. The efforts of Neapolitan reformers in the 1780s, above all Filangieri and Pagano, united political and social issues within the framework of enlightened rationalism. The histories of Galanti and Grimaldi are compelling evidence of the growth of historiographic inquiry in Naples, and of a burgeoning nationalism. Contemporary initiatives such as legal reform and the formulation of economic alternatives to feudalism inevitably led to further investigation focused on their origins.
