L'Olimpiade (Pergolesi)
L'Olimpiade | |
---|---|
Opera seria by G. B. Pergolesi | |
Librettist | Pietro Metastasio |
Language | Italian |
Based on | L'Olimpiade |
Premiere | 1735 Teatro Tordinona, Rome |
L'Olimpiade is an opera in the form of a
in Rome and "came to be probably the most admired"It is regarded as "one of the finest opere serie of the early eighteenth century".[3]
Background
The new
The Teatro Tordinona was a long-established theatre with its roots in the 17th century, which had recently been rebuilt and was the property of the
Performance history
The opera made its debut in January 1735
The widespread diffusion of Pergolesi's L'Olimpiade is attested by the unusual number of manuscripts (more than twenty) of the score which have survived: this opera, along with La serva padrona and the Stabat Mater, provided the basis for Pergolesi's lasting fame across Europe. A performance of his version of the aria "Se cerca, se dice" had – according to Charles Burney – made an impression "seldom" equalled on the English public. In the second half of the 18th century the aria became "a touchstone for all subsequent composers [...] The success of the aria was such that it was still being parodied decades later, even in slightly vulgar ways", as for example in I due supposti conti by Cimarosa in 1784, where a character who has just swallowed a powerful laxative leaves the stage singing "Se cerca, se dice:/'Il conte dov'è?'/rispondi che il conte/correndo partì" ("If she comes looking, if she comes saying/'Where's the count?'/Answer that the count/Has had to make a quick exit").[20] As late as the 1810s Stendhal dedicated an impassioned analysis to it in his letters on Metastasio, remarking: "the whole of Italy knows [this] aria by heart, and this is probably why L'Olimpiade is not revived. No director would dare run the risk of staging an opera whose main aria was already lodged deep in the memory of every member of the audience."[21]
In the modern era, after a short-lived revival at the Teatro della Fortuna in Fano and the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi to mark the bicentenary of Pergolesi’s death (scheduled for 1936, but postponed until 1937),[22] and a couple of performances in Germany,[23] L'Olimpiade did not appear again until it was given in concert form in 1992 as part of the IV International Festival of Gerace at the local church of San Francesco. This performance was the basis for the world premiere recording of the opera. A second series of performances took place in 1996 conducted by William Christie at various French venues including the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The first staged performances in the 21st century took place in 2003 in several historical theatres of Emilia-Romagna (Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia), conducted by Ottavio Dantone in a production by Italo Nunziata. The opera has appeared several times since then.[24] Unitel Classics made a video recording of the "magnificent" version presented in 2011 at the Festival Pergolesi Spontini in Jesi, conducted by Alessandro De Marchi with a production again by Italo Nunziata.[25]
Structure
L'Olimpiade consists of the following musical items:
- An opening sinfonia
- 24 arias
- A duet
- A march
- A final quartet
- Secco recitatives
- An accompanied recitative
The arias are usually accompanied by strings alone; in six of them the orchestra is expanded by the use of oboes and horns, in three others trumpets are added. This enlarged orchestra also takes part in the sinfonia.[26]
As was the practice in Rome, the setting of Metastasio's libretto is reasonably faithful to the original: apart from the unavoidable suppression of the choruses mentioned above, Pergolesi limited himself to introducing only four additional arias and one substitute aria.[27] These are primarily arias for the two comprimari, not catered for in Metastasio’s text, namely "Talor guerriero invitto” for Aminta in the first act, and "Apportator son io" and "L'infelice in questo stato" for Alcandro in the second and third acts respectively. In the third scene of Act 3 the aria Metastasio wrote for Megacle, "Lo seguitai felice", was replaced by a few lines of recitative and a long bravura aria "Torbido in volto e nero" with a divided orchestra.[28] In the sixth scene, as the action draws to a close, a moving additional aria was also inserted for Licida, "Nella fatal mia sorte".
Self-borrowings
With the exception of the last named aria[29] the music for the other modifications derives from self-borrowings from Adriano in Siria, partly enriched with extra instrumentation: the text is mimicked in the three arias for the comprimari and copied word for word in the substitute piece for Megacle.[30] Pergolesi also used music from Adriano to set the original Metastasian verses in Aminta’s second aria (Act 3), "Son qual per mare ignoto".[31]
Other music is shared with La conversione e morte di San Guglielmo ("The Conversion and Death of Saint William"),[32] the sacred opera the composer had written as a final exercise as part of his studies at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesǜ Cristo. In particular, this applies to the sinfonia and at least two other notable pieces, for which Metastasio's text also remained unchanged: Aristea's aria "Tu di saper procura" (which corresponds to the solo for the angel, "Fremi pur quanto vuoi")[33] and the only duet, placed at the end of the first act, "Ne' giorni tuoi felici", between Megacle and Aristea (which corresponds to the duet "Di pace e di contento" between Saint William and Father Arsenio).[34] Given that the holograph score of the earlier work by Pergolesi has not survived, it is even possible that it is not a case of L'Olimpiade borrowing from Guglielmo but rather the reverse, with the reuse of music from L'Olimpiade in later Neapolitan revivals of the other piece, attested by the scores of Guglielmo which have come down to us.[35] Whatever the case, the duet was highly celebrated throughout the 18th century[36] and continues to be admired in the modern era. In particular, it has been written that the duet shows that "Pergolesi was a musical dramatist to the finger tips, not merely an effective setter of words". In it:
the tenderly 'speaking' melody that bears the true current of feeling backwards and forwards between Aristea and Megacle, is periodically racked by spasms of angular chromaticism that depict them on the verge of losing self-control, or broken down into dialogue of opera-buffa-like verisimilitude.[37]
Critical appraisal
In spite of the heterogenous character the opera might have assumed as a result of such a composition history, Raffaele Mellace echoes the remarks of the historian of 18th-century musical drama Reinhard Strohm when he writes in his article on L'Olimpiade in the Dizionario dell'Opera 2008:
What strikes the listener, beyond any dissimilarity between the various numbers in the score, is the essentially unified character of the musical invention: an atmosphere of warm, joyous freshness breathes from every single page of the opera, reaching as far as the arias for minor characters and even the march in the third act. It offers an interpretation of the text which is completely in harmony with Metastasio's poetry and the exaltation of youth and love particular to this drama. The "pathetic" moments are short and few in number in an opera which resolves even the most emotionally lacerating situations with a grace which perfectly captures the expressive medium of the poet's verse, treated with extraordinary sensitivity in the declamation.
Strohm himself summarised the historical significance of L'Olimpiade in his book on Italian opera of the 18th century:
Pergolesi's L'Olimpiade represents one of the happy moments in the history of opera. The literary masterpiece of a Metastasio at the peak of his art (he was barely 35 when he wrote it) found its first musical flowering at the hands of the young composer from Jesi. Many of those who praised the libretto did so thinking unconsciously of Pergolesi's melodies. In his score, L'Olimpiade is a homage to youth and love of the kind which perhaps can only be completely successful in musical drama.[38]
Roles
Role | Voice type[39] | Premiere cast[40] |
---|---|---|
Clistene | tenor | Giovanni Battista Pinacci |
Aristea | en travesti )
|
Mariano Nicolini ("Marianino") |
Argene | soprano castrato (en travesti) | Giovanni Tedeschi ("Amadori") |
Licida | soprano castrato | Francesco Bilancioni (o Bilanzoni) |
Megacle | soprano castrato | Domenico Ricci ("Menicuccio") |
Aminta | tenor | Nicola Licchesi |
Alcandro | contralto castrato | Carlo Brunetti |
Synopsis
For an outline of the plot see the article on Metastasio's libretto.
Recordings
Audio
Year | Cast (in the following order: Clistene, Aristea, Argene, Licida, Megacle, Aminta, Alcandro) |
Conductor, Orchestra, Note |
Label |
---|---|---|---|
complete recordings | |||
1992 | Ernesto Palacio, María Angeles Peters, Giovanna Manci, Adelaida Negri, Lucetta Bizzi Raimundo Mettre Irena Zaric |
Marco Armiliato, Filarmonica de Stat Transilvania di Cluj (live recording) |
CD:
|
2011 | Jeffrey Francis, Raffaella Milanesi, Ann-Beth Solvang, Jennifer Rivera, Olga Pasishnyk Marcus Brutscher Martin Oro |
Alessandro De Marchi, Academia Montis Regalis (live recording on period instruments, Innsbruck, 2010) |
CD:
|
Video
Year | Cast (in the following order: Clistene, Aristea, Argene, Licida, Megacle, Aminta, Alcandro) |
Conductor, Orchestra, Stage director |
Label |
---|---|---|---|
2013[41] | Raul Gimenez , Lyubov Petrova, Yetzabel Arias Fernandez, Jennifer Rivera, Sofia Soloviy, Antonio Lozano, Milena Storti |
Alessandro De Marchi, Academia Montis Regalis (period instruments), Italo Nunziata |
Arthaus:
|
Notes and references
- ^ Kimbell, p. 257.
- ISBN 0-203-88797-2). However, according to Claire Genewein, there were "over a hundred" renderings of Metastasio's libretto in music (On completing the score of l'Olimpiade, essay in the booklet accompanying the Dynamic DVD of L'Olimpiade by Baldassare Galuppiconducted by Andrea Marcon). Don Neville in his article on Metastasio in the New Grove Dictionary lists 55 settings, not counting different versions of the opera by the same composer (III, p. 356).
- ISBN 978-0-231-11958-0.
- ^ The Kingdom of Naples had become a Viceroyalty belonging to the Austrian Habsburg dynasty in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1734, during the War of the Polish Succession, Charles of Bourbon, the younger son of King Philip V of Spain, chased the Austrians from Naples and made the city the capital of a newly independent kingdom. He was confirmed as King Charles VII of Naples by the Treaty of Vienna which ended the war in 1738 (Luca Salza, Naples entre Baroque et Lumières, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2013, pp. 40–42).
- maestro di cappella by Prince Ferdinando Colonna of Stigliano, a leading official at the court of the Austrian viceroy, and in 1734 he had assumed the same role for Duke Domenico Marzio Carafa of Maddaloni, a relative of the prince. At the time of the Bourbon conquest both households had taken refuge in Rome and had invited the musician to follow them. There, Pergolesi undertook a commission from the Carafas to compose a Mass in F Major in honour of Saint John of Nepomuk, patron saint of Bohemia and thus particularly venerated in the Habsburg Empire. It was performed to enormous acclaim in the basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina. Although this episode showed Pergolesi in a bad light, he was nevertheless invited to return to Naples by the new Bourbon superintendent of its theatres, the Marquess of Arienzo, Lelio Carafa, who was on close terms with the new king and an uncle of the Duke of Maddaloni. Carafa became one of Pergolesi's patrons and proposed Adriano in Siria to him; it was staged at the end of October. (Toscani).
- ^ Dorsi, pp. 127 and 129.
- ^ Mellace
- ^ Hucke and Monson, p. 953.
- Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1737, as well as that of Megacle in the version by Gaetano Latilla at the Teatro San Cassianoin Venice in 1752.
- ^ Sergio Durante, Ricci [Rizzi, Riccio], Domenico ["Menicuccio"], in Sadie, III, p. 1309.
- ^ Winton Dean, Pinacci, Giovanni Battista, in Sadie, III, p. 1014.
- ^ Dennis Libby (with John Rosselli), Tedeschi [Amadori], Giovanni, in Sadie, IV, p. 674.
- ^ Dorsi, p. 129
- ^ According to Monson, probably on 2 January.
- ^ Toscani
- ^ André Grétry, Mémoires ou Essai sur la Musique, Paris/Liège, Prault/Desoer, 1789, p. 508 (accessible for free online at Google Books). According to Grétry's account, Duni – then a novice composer – went to visit Pergolesi shortly after the failure, calling him "maestro" and consoling him by saying that the opera he himself was soon to stage (Il Nerone, premiered on 21 May) was not worth a single aria from Pergolesi's work which had been so badly received by the public.
- ^ Mellace
- ^ Monson. According to Monson, on the contrary, the pasticcio staged at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice in 1737, albeit widely attributed to Pergolesi (and maybe containing some of his music), was mainly based on Vivaldi's 1734 setting.
- ^ Charles Burney, A General History Of Music: From The Earliest Ages to the Present Period, Volume the 4th, London, Printed for the Author, 1789, p. 448 (accessible for free online at Google Books). The aria "Immagini dolenti", erroneously attributed by Burney to Domenico Scarlatti, is actually drawn from Arminio in Germania by Giuseppe Scarlatti.
- ^ Dorsi, p. 131. In the same year (1784) Cimarosa also staged his own version of L'Olimpiade.
- ^ Stendhal, pp. 286–287.
- ^ Gianni Gualdoni, Le celebrazioni del 1936 avviano la rinascita, "Voce della Vallesina", Year LV, 11, 25 March 2007, p. 5 (accessible for free online at the journal's website Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine). The brochure (Olimpiade, Rome, Proia, 1937), with the cast list, is cited at Italianopera.org. It reveals that, as might be expected, there was no question of a textually accurate version: the roles of the two male protagonists, for example, were probably transposed an octave downwards and were performed by tenors, while the tenor role of Clistene was evidently also transposed and was sung by the bass Luciano Neroni.
- ISBN 978-3866407206).
- ^ Page on Pergolesi's L'Olimpiade at Le magazine de l'opéra baroque
- ^ "We are fortunate to have this magnificent performance recorded" (Noel Megahey, The Opera Journal, 20 March 2013).
- ^ Catalucci and Maestri, p. 10.
- ^ Adriano in Siria, for example, was overhauled in a far more profound way given that ultimately only ten arias survived from the 27 originally written by Metastasio (Dale E. Monson, Adriano in Siria (ii), in Sadie, I, p. 28).
- ^ The aria is provided with "an accompaniment entrusted to two orchestral groups which play alternately and then together, a timbrically suggestive solution" (Dorsi, p. 132). The aria was written, in Adriano in Siria, for one of the most famous (and capricious) castrati of the era, Caffarelli.
- ^ Menchelli-Buttini, p. 398.
- ^ Dorsi, p. 129. Aminta's aria derives from Osroa's "Sprezza il furor del vento" (Act 1), while Alcandro's two arias are taken from Aquilio's "Contento forse vivere" (Act 3) and Emirena's "Prigioniera abbandonata" (Act 1).
- ^ Celletti, I, p. 117. The piece is based on Osroa's aria "Leon piagato a morte" (Act 2).
- ^ The full title of this little known work by Pergolesi is as follows: Li prodigj della divina grazia nella conversione, e morte di S. Guglielmo duca di Aquitania. Dramma sacro per musica del sig. Gio: Battista Pergolesi rappresentato nell'anno 1731 (cf. Studi Pergolesi – Università di Milano).
- ^ Celletti, I, p. 117.
- ^ Catalucci and Maestri, p. 9.
- ^ Hucke, Pergolesi: Probleme eines Werkverzeichnisses, op.cit. Regarding the sinfonia, Catalucci and Maestri write: "The chronological problem is an open question still unsolved, namely whether the Guglielmo symphony was reused for the opera or vice versa" (p. 10).
- ^ Mellace. Rousseau made the piece the archetype of the form in the article "Duo" in his Dictionnaire de musique (Paris, Duchesne, 1768, p. 182; accessible online at Internet Archive).
- ^ Kimbell, p. 266.
- ^ Strohm, p. 214
- ^ Following the information given by Mellace.
- ^ According to the original libretto.
- ^ Live recording from the Teatro studio Valeria Moriconi in Jesi (2011).
Sources
- Original libretto: (in Italian) L'Olimpiade. Drama per musica da rappresentarsi nell'antico teatro di Tordinona nel carnavale dell'anno 1735. Dedicato all'illustrissima ed eccellentissima signora duchessa donna Ottavia Strozzi Corsini, pronipote della santità di nostro signore papa Clemente XII, felicemente regnante, Rome, 1735 (accessible online in transcription at Varianti all'opera – Università degli studi di Milano, Padova e Siena)
- (in Italian) Salvatore Caruselli (editor), Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica, Longanesi & C. Periodici S.p.A., Rome
- Gabriele Catalucci and Fabio Maestri, introductory notes to the audio recording of San Guglielmo Duca d'Aquitania, issued by Bongiovanni, Bologna, 1989, GB 2060/61-2
- (in Italian) ISBN 9788847900240.
- (in Italian) Fabrizio Dorsi and Giuseppe Rausa, Storia dell'opera italiana, Turin, Paravia Bruno Mondadori, 2000, ISBN 978-88-424-9408-9
- (in German) Helmut Hucke, Pergolesi: Probleme eines Werkverzeichnisses, "Acta musicologica", 52 (1980), n. 2, pp. 195–225: 208.
- Helmut Hucke and Dale E. Monson, Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista, in Stanley Sadie, op.cit., III, pp. 951–956
- David Kimbell, Italian Opera, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994 (paperback), p. 257 ff., ISBN 0-521-23533-2
- (in Italian) Raffaele Mellace, Olimpiade, L', in Piero Gelli and Filippo Poletti (editors), Dizionario dell'opera 2008, Milan, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, pp. 924–926, ISBN 978-88-6073-184-5 (reproduced at Opera Manager)
- (in Italian) Francesca Menchelli-Buttini, Fra musica e drammaturgia: l'Olimpiade di Metastasio-Pergolesi, "Studi musicali" (Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia), Nuova serie, I, 2010, n. 2, pp. 389–430 (accessible online at Academia.edu)
- Dale E. Monson, Olimpiade, L' (ii), in Stanley Sadie, op.cit., III, p. 663
- ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2
- (in French) Stendhal, Vies de Haydn, de Mozart et de Métastase (nouvelle édition entièrement revue), Paris, Levy, 1854, pp. 286 ff. (accessible for free online at Internet Archive)
- (in Italian) Reinhard Strohm, L'opera italiana nel Settecento, Venice, Marsilio, 1991, ISBN 88-317-6586-8(in particular see the chapter entitled: Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: L'olimpiade (Roma 1735), pp. 214–227)
- (in Italian) Claudio Toscani, Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 82, 2015 (accessible online at Treccani.it)
- This article contains material translated from the equivalent article in the Italian Wikipedia.