Nero (opera)

Work data
Title:	Nero
Original title:	The love obtained through blood and murder, or: Nero
Title page of the libretto, Hamburg 1705
Shape:	early German baroque opera
Original language:	German
Music:	georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto :	Friedrich Christian Feustking
Premiere:	February 25, 1705
Place of premiere:	Theater am Gänsemarkt , Hamburg
Place and time of the action:	Rome , AD 58-64
people
Nero , Roman Emperor ( tenor ) Agrippina , Nero's mother Octavia , Nero's first wife Sabina Poppea , Nero's lover, later his second wife Tiridates , Armenian Crown Prince Cassandra, Median Crown Princess, in love with Tiridates Seneca , imperial privy councilor Anicetus, darling of the emperor, in love with Octavia Graptus, slave released by Emperor Claudius Priests, people

Love achieved through blood and murder, or: Nero ( HWV 2) is Georg Friedrich Handel's second opera. Your music is lost.

Creation & libretto

While his extremely successful first opera, which Almira was still showing almost every evening, Handel spent the days writing a second opera with the momentum of his success. Already in February 1705, six weeks after the premiere of Almira , his Nero came on the stage of the Hamburg Gänsemarkt-Theater . Here, too, the literary dispute simmered between the poets, who shared a preference for coarse, satirical or patriotic libretti with a large part of the Hamburg audience on the one hand, and those who advocated more serious and theatrically more credible texts. As in the case of Almira , Barthold Feind countered Feustking's with his own libretto with the same content: The Roman Unrest or: The noble Octavia , which premiered almost six months later with the music of Reinhard Keizer . While enemy with Nero | The desperate self = murderer ( Weißenfels , 1685, libretto - and music? - by Johann Beer ) names a master libretto, Feustking expressly mentions in his preface that he only took the descriptions directly from historical works. The fact that Feustking's Nero , unlike his Almira libretto, does not contain any pieces in Italian speaks for the fact that he did not have an Italian libretto as a source . There are contradicting opinions about the quality of the textbook, which was written for Handel from the start and which should have been able to influence it in advance. In addition to the captivating basic theme, which aims to accuse tyranny, arbitrariness and vicious life at court, the people involved also appear interesting and profiled. There is a considerable number of ensemble scenes that often give Handel the opportunity to deviate from the rigid recitative-aria scheme: In addition to the 50 arias, we find 10 duets, 6 trios and 3 choirs. Another picture gives us a traditional saying by Handel, which Christian Friedrich Hunold (published under the pseudonym “Menantes”) reproduces and which shows that Handel was critical of the quality of the libretto. Handel thus criticizes the lack of poetic spirit in poetry:

“How should a musician do something nice if he doesn't have nice words? That is why when composing the Opera Nero one did not complain unfairly: There is no spirit in poetry, and one has an annoyance to put such in music. "

- Christian Friedrich Hunold : Theatrical, gallant and sacred poems , Hamburg 1705

When classifying this quote, it must be taken into account that Hunold was an opponent of Feustking in the ongoing dispute between the Hamburg theater poets. The twenty-four-year-old Johann Mattheson , who had already sung Fernando in Almira , said goodbye with the title role of Nero as a singer from the Hamburg stage, on which he had been a soloist for nine years (initially with his boy's voice) and went into diplomatic service . He later writes about it:

“Handel led [...] to. 1705, the 8th Jenner, […] his first opera, Almira, happily opened. Nero followed on February 25th. Then I said goodbye to the theater with pleasure, after I had introduced the main character in the last two beautiful operas to general applause, and had done similar work for 15 years, perhaps a little too long: so that it was time for me it was to be intent on something more solid and permanent; which one too, God praise! has probably gone from place to place. Handel, however, stayed at the local operas for four to five years [he left Hamburg in the summer of 1706], and he also had a lot of scholars. "

- Johann Mattheson : Basis of an honor gate. Hamburg 1740

After the work had been performed three times, Handel also withdrew from the Oper am Gänsemarkt, teaching and studying the works of his colleagues (including making a complete copy of Keiser's Octavia , which he took with him to Italy), and alongside the Composition of the double opera Florindo and Daphne in 1706 he prepared his departure for Italy.

Cast of the premiere

• Nero - Johann Mattheson ( tenor )
• Poppea - Anna-Margaretha Conradi, called "Conradine" ( soprano ) (?)
• Tiridates - Johann Konrad Dreyer ( tenor ) (?)
• Graptus - Christoph Rauch (bass) (?)
• further line-up: unknown. Presumably Anna Maria Schober (soprano), Anna Rischmüller (soprano), Margaretha Susanna Kayser (soprano) and bassist Gottfried Grünewald sang in other roles .

In contrast to the very successful Almira with twenty performances, the three performances of Nero are modest. However, because of the beginning of Lent, the theater had to close.

action

Historical and literary background

The murder of the Roman emperor Claudius and Nero's assumption of power in 54, the attack on Nero's mother Agrippina in 59 and the burning of Rome in AD 64, Otho's campaign to Lusitania (Portugal) , the exile of Nero's wife Claudia Octavia and the incorporation of Armenia into the Empire through the Roman coronation of Trdat I as Armenian king are in the Annales (12th – 15th book) of Tacitus and in De vita Caesarum (5th book: Vita divi Claudi and 6th book: Vita Neronis ) of Suetonius . The librettist also refers to Xiphilinus as well as Cluvius and Fabius Rusticus as predecessor writings of Tacitus. With the exception of the medical princess Cassandra, all the people involved are documented there. However, the libretto summarizes historical events that took place at different times, as the "preface" of the Hamburg libretto admits:

“So now also the bloodhound Nero, described so cruelly by all historians, appears on the local scene: Such a tiger / that is not afraid / to steal life from the one / who had given him life / yes cron and scepter: a Such angry man / who strangled his wife of virtue / and decorated the ermine of his purple with unmarried vices / dishonored / desecrated: Yes, such a monster / who ultimately rewarded all services and benefits rendered to him with blood and murder. And so I consider it unnecessary / to describe the content of the present Singspiel in detail / in consideration / that the name Nero is already enough / to explain that / what else one tends to design in the beginning. Only this one wanted to remember / that one and other passages / which are dealt with in one's curriculum vitae / and perhaps made a corner of nature itself / passed with diligence. For even though the oeuvre of Neronis and his mother, Agrippina, mentioned by Svetonio and Tacito, could have expanded the intrigues of love / yet such things are disregarded from various watch-related matters / partly because they honored minds unpleasant / partly also / that they are The author of some masses in doubt. Because only without prejudice the words Taciti Annal. XIV. Cap.2. Lies through / he will easily notice / that they are not written as certain / as believed. Namely, Tacitus follows in the footsteps of Cluvii and Fabii Rustici, who both contradict each other quite a bit / because that one the incest the Agrippines / this one but the Neroni / with whom also Svetonius in Vit. Ner. Cap.28. agrees / and a few more circumstances / ignorant where from? added. But both do not agree with what Xiphilinus in Ner. pm162. reports: That namely, that Nero was very similar to another / that of the Agrippines / was very much in love / and then the hero that he was courting / pretending to be with his mother. The accusation against the city of Rome / Sveton, which he set on fire, has another reason. she gives Cap.38. from a certain truth; alone Tacitus Annal. XV.39. is a little more cautious [...] and afterwards he adds / that the Kayser was in Antium at that time / and did not come to Rome earlier / as if the fire had already taken hold of the Mæcenatic pleasure gardens [...] So one does not yet know the disagreement of the old historians to compare / which they / umb the mother-murder perhaps the more horrible to portray / annotated: Svetonius Cap.34. bring the news / he had partly praised her bare limbs and their education / partly rebuked them / also drank there [...] Only openly Tacitus doubts very much / whether he saw her once after her death. [...] such things that are again conflicting with each other should probably give some curious Kopff the thought: the historians of that time would have endeavored / to enlarge the size of the Neronian vices more and more / in order to show those later descendants a complete horror of nature with lively colors . And in truth / Tacitus gives, among other things, further instructions for this soupçon / since he is Annal. lib. XVI. Cap.3. about the death of Poppæa and its causes speaks / and says / that some think / he executed her with Gifft [...] In addition, the author has to darken the similarity of the story with some Fictionibus at the same time / therefore one and others again Time-computational issues [...] cannot be distant to interfere / which can hopefully so little to ignorance [...] be expounded. [...] After all, he / the Poësie asks not to place an overly ungracious censorship / because one looks at her imperfection even with pitying eyes. "

- Friedrich Christian Feustking : Preface to Love Obtained through Blood and Murder, or: Nero , Hamburg 1705

first act

The location of the first scene is the Campus Martium in Rome, in the middle of which a high scaffolding with many statues has been erected. Here the burial and the elevation to god of the late emperor Claudius by his son Nero takes place. Afterwards, Nero complains to Poppea at the same place, whom he desires, that he felt no sympathy from her, and becomes intrusive. She fends off with various clues. Then she learns that Nero has sent her husband Ottone on a campaign to Portugal so that she would be free for him. However, she initially reacts indignantly. Prince Tiridates from Armenia approaches the anxious Poppea and tells her that he wants her love. She refuses. Cassandra from the media joins them disguised as a man . She is disappointed because Tiridates had already hooked up with her before: Poppea has another reason for rejection and she leaves. Cassandra and Tiridates are now alone, and Cassandra's anger mounts. He denies even knowing her. A lower scene opens, you can see the imperial mausoleum, in which the busts of the deceased emperors are placed. In the middle there is a small altar. Octavia, suspecting evil from Nero, goes to the priests. But Nero (disguised as a priest) mixed with them. Weeping, Octavia confides to the priests that Nero poisoned her father Claudius and she suspects that her joie de vivre will not last long, when Nero and Anicetus jump out angrily with the bodyguard. Nero insults her publicly for slandering him and swears vengeance. She asks for mercy, but is arrested. Seneca, the imperial advisor, warns Nero to moderate his inclinations. Graptus, the slave released by Claudius who now has to bury him, leaves no doubt that he will not cry tears after his old master.

Cassandra and Poppea meet in a friendly conversation in the large palace hall. The former, still in men's clothing, shows Poppea a portrait of Tiridates in order to justify her privileges over him. Poppea, who suspects that “Cassandra” may not be a man, meets Tiridates in another room and wants to find out from him who is in the portrait. Tiridates admits that this image is similar to him, but denies that it is himself. When he leaves and Nero appears, Poppea still has the picture in her hands. Nero becomes intrusive again and wants to kiss her, while he discovers the portrait. Jealously he snatches it from her. She appeases by saying that the portrait is only on loan. Seneca advises Nero to forgive his wife Octavia, who wants to cast her out. Graptus appears with harlequins for a dance intended to distract the emperor.

“Opern-Theatrum” on the Gänsemarkt. Detail from the cityscape of Paul Heinecken, 1726

Second act

Nero and his court are in the summer palace. Octavia is sitting by the pond with a fishing rod. Agrippina is lying in the window of the palace. This is under renovation. At the same moment a stone chunk of the palace falls down. Agrippina, who almost had an accident, suspects treason. She says they want to bury her alive. But Octavia is sure she was meant. Anicetus and Seneca are added to the previous ones. The former tells Octavia that Nero is waiting for her in Rome and that all Romans are happy about it. Agrippina, left alone with Seneca, wants to incite him to poison Nero. Seneca and Anicetus greet Octavia again with big words in the Imperial Hall in Rome. Octavia asks Nero for mercy, who grants her with the hint that she will soon be able to lie in her arms again. Octavia feels well. At Seneca's advice and request, Agrippina is also to be brought to Rome. Seneca goes to put the directive into effect. Poppea is particularly happy about the events: she is now safe from Nero. Nero now also accepts his mother, who has arrived in Rome, with grace, but gives her rules of conduct to refrain from abuse of power: only he is entitled to this right. Nero wants to give his people "bread and games". Like Paris , he wants to choose Poppea as the most beautiful of the three Roman women around him, Octavia, Poppea and Cassandra. Then Seneca, Cassandra and Tiridates meet. Seneca laments the decline in values ​​in Rome. Cassandra is hopeful of getting Tiridates' love. He still claims not to know Cassandra, but asks for her name and the announcement of her fatherland. She confesses that she comes from the Parthian land between the Tigris and the Euphrates and was sent from there. When asked, she also tells him that she has also been in the media under the name Lachisis. But the Crown Princess there (allegedly) took her own life. Now Tiridates is curious and excited and would like to know what the Crown Princess was called. She replies: "Cassandra." The death is said to have been caused by an unfit prince. Tiridates is certain that he is meant by this. Suddenly his mood changes. Now he claims that Cassandra cannot be dead and accuses his counterpart as a liar. Almost like a madman, he asks about Cassandra. Nobody knows them. He thinks he's caught up in a plot. Seneca and Anicetus try in vain to calm him down. You are beginning to think that the young king is a guilty lunatic. Graptus, alone in one scene, no longer understands the world. He does not understand Seneca's hints. (This is supposed to kill Nero after all.) He also does not understand the story of an insane Tiridates, which Anicetus told him. In any case, he chooses never to be a philosopher.

Third act

Johann Mattheson, also a conductor, composer and music scholar. He ended his singing career with the title role in Nero .

There is a small stage in the pleasure garden. The imperial court watches how the curtain opens and the story of Paris, Juno, Venus and Pallas (which differs from Greek mythology) is played: the beautiful shepherd Paris admires the green thalers and damp meadows. Three nymphs, the goddesses Juno, Venus and Pallas, come and he has the task of deciding which of the three is the most beautiful. Paris is shy and believes it cannot dare to make such a decision. He tries to be diplomatic by declaring all three of them equally beautiful. But Juno and Venus demand a decision. He demands time to think about it. You are going to come back soon. After Paris has met each lady individually, he is even more undecided. After a lot of back and forth, Paris finally decides on Venus. The result: the other two insult him as a fraud. The “theater within the theater” closes with a duet between Paris and Venus. Cassandra is alone in the imperial garden and complains that she has shed her strange dress, but not her worries. Most of all, she is scared of Tiridate's frenzy. Anicetus is also alone. He ponders that Octavia (as the beautiful Pallas of this time) and Agrippina (as the powerful Juno of this time) must serve as a prelude to their misfortune. Their happiness so far is like thick snow, because Poppea (as the present radiant Venus) will triumph and soon lie in Paris' (Nero's) arms. He is now aware of the analogy to the Paris scene on the small stage. Tiridates is still looking for Cassandra and, exhausted with grief, falls asleep. Now he lies under a tree in the emperor's garden. Poppea comes near, but thinks she is alone. She still doesn't know whether she should be charmed by Nero. This appears as if called and asks again to be worshiped by her. She says she doesn't like flattery. However, he emphasizes the seriousness of his advertising. Besides, she doesn't just want to be his side sun, because there's Octavia, the empress. Tiridates is still sleeping. Cassandra approaches the two who cannot agree. In his sleep Tiridates calls for Cassandra. Poppea and Nero are annoyed that someone was listening. Finally they recognize Tiridates, startled. Nero wants to know who Tiridates is talking about. Poppea reminds him of the picture in her hand and suspects that the man in the new king's costume is the bride and Cassandra. Nero asks why it is trying to hide. Now Cassandra reports, hearing this in the addition, and explains that Tiridates left her when they were engaged. As a test, she (disguised as a man) told him that Cassandra had killed herself out of shame and sadness. Hence Tiridates (apparent) mental confusion. When he gradually wakes up, he is told that Cassandra is alive and standing next to him: great surprise, noble forgiveness and great joy.

The new setting is burning Rome, which can be overlooked from a mountain. Some murder burners jump around with burning torches. Octavia, Agrippina, and Seneca agree that Nero is the commander of the arson. Together with Anicetus, it is decided to keep silent about the emperor's atrocity. But Anicetus takes the opportunity to tell Octavia about his love for her. Nero, who enters, accuses Octavia of a relationship with Anicetus. Ordered by the emperor, Anicetus declares his love for Octavia and hypocritically confesses that Agrippina is not faithful to the emperor either. Nero banishes his wife. Tiridates again receives the royal crown of Armenia and becomes an ally of Rome. Nero also agrees that Tiridate should be married to Cassandra. Poppea admits that she can't resist Nero's advertising. Seneca is happy and congratulates. Finally the people get “bread and games” and, unimpressed by all the horrors, sing: Hymen blessed this noble couple!

music

Nero's music has not survived. Occasionally it has been suspected that Handel took the autograph or the director's score (“hand copy”) with him to Italy or deposited it with Princess Caroline von Ansbach at the court in Hanover on his transit to Italy . However, since his stay in Italy, Handel had an excellent reference library of his own works, so that the Nero score would probably have been preserved for us in this way. Meanwhile, the statement of the singer Johann Konrad Dreyer, who after Keiser's departure (September 1706) was co-tenant of the opera house and thus responsible for its continued operation, does not cast a good light on the difficulties of restarting work on the safe storage of the sheet music at the opera house:

“As the beginning of the opera performance should be made, all the scores were hidden. So I first took Solomon after Nebucadnezzar , and looked for the score of them from the individual parts. As soon as the owners of the complete scores saw this, some others gradually came to light. "

- Johann Konrad Dreyer : Basis of an honor gate. Hamburg 1740

Nevertheless, in 1830 a handwritten score by Nero from the estate of the Hamburg music dealer and organist Johann Christoph Westphal appears to have been sold, of which there has been no trace since then.

According to Friedrich Chrysander , there is a score manuscript written by Johann Mattheson by Almira . At the beginning of the 19th century, Georg Poelchau, a Berliner by choice, acquired this copy from the old Hamburg opera archive. Two overtures belong to this Berlin score . It is assumed that the second overture is the one that belongs to "Almira". The other overture, which is the first to be included, is a bit of a puzzle in terms of authorship and affiliation. Since Handel was already working on Nero before the Almira was completely finished and Mattheson was involved in giving advice on both operas, the assumption that this overture belongs to Nero would not be inconclusive . A second possibility would of course be that Georg Philipp Telemann's first overture was that he composed for the new production of Handel's Almira at the Hamburg Theater in 1732.

We know from the text book that Handel composed in Nero for an independent choir (not a “soloist association”). Here the Roman priests and the fickle, easily influenced Roman people appeared as active groups.

Furthermore, one can infer from the libretto that dance or ballet must have played an extensive role. There are dances and dance groups of the fighters and fencers, even the priests, the harlequins , the "murder burner" (arsonists & murderers) and the cavaliers with their ladies.

literature

• Winton Dean , John Merrill Knapp : Handel's Operas 1704–1726. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-525-7 . (English)
• Arnold Jacobshagen (ed.), Panja Mücke: The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes. Handel's operas. Volume 2. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2009, ISBN 978-3-89007-686-7 .
• Albert Scheibler: All 53 stage works by Georg Friedrich Handel, opera guide. Edition Cologne, Lohmar / Rheinland 1995, ISBN 3-928010-05-0 .
• Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual. Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 .

Web links

Commons : Nero (Handel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Libretto for Nero
• More information about Nero

Individual references & footnotes

1. ^ Stephan Stompor: The German performances of Handel's operas in the first half of the 18th century. In: Handel yearbook 1978 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, p. 43.
2. ^ Christian Friedrich Hunold: Theatrical, Galante and Spiritual Poems , Hamburg 1705, p. 88 f.
3. ^ Johann Mattheson: Basis of an honor gate. Hamburg 1740, p. 95. (Reproduction true to the original: Kommissionsverlag Leo Liepmannssohn , Berlin 1910)
4. ^ Bernd Baselt: Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (Hrsg.): Handel manual: Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 , p. 63.
5. ↑ Panja Mücke: Nero. In: Hans Joachim Marx (Hrsg.): The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes: Das Handel-Lexikon , (Volume 6), Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, ISBN 978-3-89007-552-5 , p. 511.
6. ↑ Preface to the libretto. Hamburg 1705.
7. ^ The whiteness triumphant over love, or Salomon Opera by Christian Friedrich Hunold [Menantes], music by Reinhard Keizer and Johann Caspar Schürmann (premier 1703)
8. ↑ Nebucadnezzar, who was overthrown and raised again, was King of Babylon under the great prophet Daniel Opera by Christian Friedrich Hunold [Menantes], music by Reinhard Keizer (UA 1704)
9. ^ Johann Mattheson: Basis of an honor gate. Hamburg 1740, p. 55. (Reproduction true to the original: Kommissionsverlag Leo Liepmannssohn, Berlin 1910)
10. ^ Winton Dean, John Merrill Knapp: Handel's Operas 1704–1726. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-525-7 , p. 69.
11. ^ Albert Scheibler: Complete 53 stage works by Georg Friedrich Handel, opera guide. Edition Köln, Lohmar / Rheinland 1995, ISBN 3-928010-05-0 , p. 440.