In this dissertation, I investigate how belief embeds itself in physical experience and penetrates the rational mind, thereby distorting senses of reality. My analyses focus on the interplay between spectacle, particularly within the sonic domain, and the demonic during the Italian Counter-Reformation. Through an exploration of musical theater and Renaissance demonological treatises, I theorize diabolical stagings in two primary ways. First, I examine demonic nature from a theological perspective, employing Renaissance theories and accounts of the “real” demonic to conceptualize the demon as a theatrical figure—an actor—that engages in the art of temptation. This conceptualization reveals how the demon employs theatrical practice to manifest itself to the spiritual detriment of human actors and audiences. Second, I analyze the theological and political ramifications for audiences and sovereigns—whether secular or clerical—of staging diabolical figures in contexts related to musical theater, including opera libretti, musical intermedi, and full operatic works. I explore how sonic experiences, whether demonically or theatrically produced, contribute to a curated understanding of reality and how these understandings influence human engagement and learning. In each case examined in this dissertation, both real demons and their theatrical counterparts emerge as subversive figures of temptation and control, with profound implications for the actions and worldviews of their audiences. These analyses elucidate the complex dynamics between belief, experience, and perception, demonstrating the potent impact of diabolical stagings on human thought and behavior.

I also, therefore, explore the intricate interplay among textual, sonic, and visual representations of the diabolical by scrutinizing depictions of sound-based spectacle through the prism of Renaissance demonological understandings of perception and audition. Generally, theatrical spectacles encompassed a synthesis of visual, auditory, and rhetorical stimuli designed to convey a message to an audience. However, the credibility of visual representation becomes particularly low within the realm of demonic theater. In both offstage demonic phenomena perceived by spectators and in theatrical spectacles, visual effects can be readily manipulated to evoke specific emotional responses in viewers. The work of Nicola Sabbatini (1574-1653), especially his Pratica di fabricar scene, e machine ne’ teatri (1638), exemplifies the extent to which theaters sought to influence audiences’ emotional reactions through elaborate stage machinery and scenic design. I argue that the objects of my study made apparent the tensions between visual stimuli and the immaterial phenomena of emotional reactions and intellectual and spiritual senses of reality. In doing so, they heightened the stakes for audiences who believed that real demons could access the capacity of visual stimuli to grab the attention of viewers. This would open an avenue to interact with and manipulate the viewers’ understanding of what they see and subsequently with how they conceptualize their world depending on the performer’s desires, be they political, theological, or otherwise.