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Podcast: New Books in Performing Arts
Episode: Jessica Goethals, "Margherita Costa, Diva of the Baroque Court" (U Toronto Press, 2023)
Description: The Roman singer, courtesan, and writer Margherita Costa won prominence and fame across the courts of Italy and France during the mid-seventeenth century. She secured a steady stream of elite patrons – including popes, queens, grand dukes, and influential cardinals – while male poets and librettists wrote celebratory poetry on her behalf. In addition to her appearances as a soprano on the opera stage, Costa published a remarkable fourteen full-length texts across an expanse of genres: burlesque comedy, drama, equestrian ballet, pastoral opera, amorous letters, lyric poetry, and history.Margherita Costa, Diva of the Baroque Court (U Toronto Press, 2023) brings...