HOW DOES A performance tradition die? Often, we are so busy thinking about the new— the origins of something, its premiere— that we forget to consider its end. How does the performance tradition itself die out? What makes it finally stop, the energy and creativity thrusting into it now over? That is the question hovering over this chapter, which focuses on the moment in which the generative energies of the Jewish Mantuan community and the complex but ongoing exchange between it and the Gonzaga Christian community came to an end.

We know that theatre, which had once been a mainstay of the Jewish community in Mantua, no longer happened there after 1650— certainly not in the consistent way it had for 120 years. There were some aborted attempts to get it to restart it, but for all intents and purposes, the final performance in Mantua occurred in 1650. Why did it end at that point and in that year? What were the stakes for the ending? Was it a decision made by both parties— Jewish and Christian, artists and public? Was coercion involved?

In this chapter, I consider the circumstances that led to the ultimate cessation: the dying out of the powerful Guglielmo and Vincenzo father-son forces; successive waves of misfortune, such as a devastating plague; and then the horrific Mantuan War of Succession (1628– 1630) when the community was temporarily exiled in 1630 and performances had to stop. Upon returning to the devastated city, no one was able to support the kind of lavish spectacles that the Jews had put on since the early sixteenth century. Nonetheless, against these tremendous odds, by the time the Jewish population returned to a devastated Mantua in 1631, the Università had begun to re-group and then it staged its post-exile performances once again. Thus, not even the War of Succession was able to completely bring the performance tradition to a stop. If that is the case, then what did cause it to end? In this chapter, I trace the final decades of Jewish performance in Mantua. I look at various historical interpretations of the end of the performances and provide some additional theories as to why this important form of cultural exchange and currency was halted.