Antiochus and Stratonica
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Antiochus and Stratonica |
| Original title: | L'Amore Ammalato. The sick love, or: Antiochus and Stratonica |
Title page of the libretto from 1708 |
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| Shape: | Musical drama in three acts |
| Original language: | German , Italian |
| Music: | Christoph Graupner |
| Libretto : | Barthold enemy |
| Literary source: | Luca Assarini , Thomas Corneille , Talander |
| Premiere: | 1708 |
| Place of premiere: | Hamburg |
| Place and time of the action: | Area in and around Damascus around 300 BC Chr. |
| people | |
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L'Amore Ammalato. The kranckende love, or: Antiochus and Stratonica is a baroque - opera in three acts by Christoph Graupner ( music ) to a libretto by Barthold enemy of templates Luca Assarini , Thomas Corneille and Talander . It is about the love of the Seleucid prince Antiochus for his stepmother Stratonica . The first performance took place in 1708 in the opera at the Gänsemarkt in Hamburg .
The opera is mainly written in German, but also contains some arias in Italian.
action
first act
In a magic grotto adorned with statues, Mirtenia conjures up Astaroth with Negrodorus and other magicians to create a spell that is supposed to make Demetrius fall in love with Mirtenia. Ghosts appear and go to get Demetrius. The Assyrian King Seleucus , his second wife Stratonica , his first son Antiochus and the Macedonian envoy Hesychius come to admire Mirtenia's magic game. The spirits now bring the sleeping Demetrius, covered with clouds. When Mirtenia wakes him up, he thinks he is in paradise and sees an angel in Mirtenia. The statues come to life and dance. Demetrius is put back to sleep and taken away. Seleucus, Stratonica and Hesychius applaud the game. Only Negrodorus criticizes the lack of a fool - an allusion to the practice at the Gänsemarktoper at the time of having a strange person appear in serious operas : “And are the operas still so beautiful / If Arlechino doesn't do his amp? / So they can do not exist. A fool must see his own. "
Demetrius sleeps on a rose bank in his garden. When he wakes up, his wife Ellenia and Myrtenia assure him of their love at the same time. However, he cannot choose either of them.
Seleucus, Stratonica, Antiochus and Negrodous appear with a large retinue. Seleucus and Stratonica sing about their mutual love. Hesychius brings a letter to the queen from her father, the Macedonian king Demetrius , in which he informs her that her enemy Alexander has finally been defeated. Everyone except Negrodorus, who hates all bloodshed, and Antiochus, who is unhappily in love with his stepmother Stratonica, want to celebrate.
Ellenia accuses Demetrius of infidelity. However, he protests his innocence, which Ellenia finally believes. After she leaves, Mirtenia tries in vain to seduce Demetrius. They disappear behind an arbor. Ellenia comes back with Negrodorus and hears Demetrius talking to Ellenia from behind the arbor. She doesn't know what to think of it. Negrodorus closes the first act with a commentary on the power of women.
Second act
Antiochus plays mournfully with a bird in his palace room. Just as the bird was caught in a net, so too has it become entangled in the web of love. He releases the bird. Hesychius and Stratonica come and ask him why he is sad. Negrodorus brings an invitation from the king to dinner.
Stratonica also feels strong affection for Antiochus, but is bound by her marriage to Seleucus.
Ellenia watches Mirtenia hold Demetrius' hand. When there is a hug, she intervenes. Demetrius rejects Ellenia, claiming that he now hates her.
Seleucus, Stratonica and Antiochus sit at the royal banquet table. Demetrius, Mirtenia, Ellenia and Hesychius sit at another table. Negrodorus, on the other hand, has a table to himself and enjoys the wine. After a brief argument between Demetrius and Ellenia, Mirtenia transforms the room into the garden in front of her magic flying castle. Ghosts carry a globe through the clouds. From this emerge the four seasons represented by Flora , Ceres , Bachus and Vulcanus and are played around by amourettes. Then they all disappear back into the sphere.
Negrodorus conjures up a ghost in the form of a woman. When he tries to touch her, she disappears. A monkey, a fire-breathing dragon and a giant appear one after the other. He interprets this as a parable for the development of love: “A lover woos with shadows / nothing is all spooney as the dude Aefferey. With suspicion he spits fire / And becomes a monster if Eyffer comes to equip him. "
Antiochus gets into a frenzy out of longing for the Stratonica, which he cannot reach. Demetrius, Hesychius, Seleucus and Stratonica come, but cannot help him. Seleucus worries about his son.
Third act
Ellenia is in the Damascus Market Square. She is torn between the three passions of virtue, vengeance and goodness. Demetrius asks her to leave him because he no longer loves her. At the market, Negrodorus, dressed as a Tartar charlatan , offers miracle cures for all kinds of diseases. A choir of quacks competes with him and eventually chases him away.
Stratonica, Seleucus and Hesychius worry about Antiochus. You decide to consult the oracle.
In his bedroom, Antiochus longs for Stratonica and prepares for death. Seleucus, Hesychus, and Stratonica enter the room. When Antiochus closes his eyes, the others think he is dead. Then he opens his eyes again and calls Stratonica's name. The others set out to get the oracle priests. However, Hesychius noted that the cause of Antiochus' suffering lies in his love for Stratonica.
In the Tempelhof, Ellenia and her three small children Flavia, Fila and Medor are preparing to say goodbye to Demetrius. They want to leave the country in mourning clothes. When Demetrius arrives, Ellenia and the children beg him to come back to them. Demetrius is touched. Mirtenia joins them. Ellenia pulls out a stiletto to stab her, but Demetrius takes it from her. His wish to at least be able to keep his son Medor with him is rejected by him. They say goodbye. Demetrius points out to Mirtenia how difficult it is for him to have to part with his children. She accuses him of weakness.
Inside the temple, Seleucus, Stratonica, Mirtenia and Demetrius prepare the sacrifice through which Antiochus is to be saved. After a rooster has been sacrificed, a voice orders the doctor to be brought to Erasistratus .
Elenia tells Seleucus that Demetrius has left her and asks him for help.
In a large room in front of the royal hall, Antiochus sits on an armchair and laments his unhappy love. Enter Seleucus, Stratonica, Demetrius, and the doctor Erasistratus. The latter is none other than the envoy Hesychius, who uses a different name in his function as personal physician. He claims that the reason for Antiochus' illness is his love for Egeria. Because he himself recently married her, only death could help. Seleucus asks Erasistratus to release Egeria in order to save Antiochus. But even the offer to raise him to the rank of prince is rejected by the latter. Seleucus should only imagine the grief it would cause him to have to part with his wife. Seleucus then swears that he is quite ready to part with Stratonica for the life of his son. Erasistratus then explains that Antiochus is actually in love with Stratonica and not Egeria. Seleucus now asks Stratonica to separate from him and instead marry Antiochus.
In front of the assembled people, Seleucus wed his son to his ex-wife. Antiochus is finally recovering. Hesychius / Erasistratus is raised to the nobility as a wage and receives Mirtenia as his wife. Seleucus orders her to release Demetrius' love spell so that he can return to his wife Ellenia. Negrodorus claims that he already had hopes for Ellenia and would now at least be accepted as a personal physician. Demetrius accepts Ellenia again, and Mirtenia also accepts the king's command.
Performance history
At the premiere of this opera in 1708, the soprano Margaretha Susanna Kayser made her debut in the role of Mirtenia at the Hamburg Gänsemarktoper.
More recently, a staged performance was scheduled for the 2009 Boston Early Music Festival . For financial reasons, this was postponed to 2011 and then to 2013. However, the performance did not take place in 2013 either.
literature
- Jörg Jacobi, Paul O'Dette, Stephen Stubbs (eds.): Antiochus and Stratonica: Opera in three acts , full score, Boston Early Music Festival Opera Series, vol. 4, Edition Baroque, Bremen 2007.
Web links
- Libretto by Antiochus and Stratonica as a digitized version in the directory of prints published in the German-speaking area of the 18th century .
Individual evidence
- ^ Dorothea Schröder: Margaretha Susanna Kayser . In Hamburg Biography - Personal Lexicon , Volume 2, ed. by Franklin Kopitzsch and Dirk Brietzke, ISBN 978-3-76-721366-1 , p. 209. (Preview on Google Books )
- ↑ Advance notice of performance at the 2009 Boston Early Music Festival on americantowns.com , accessed September 3, 2014.
- ↑ Goddesses Have Their Moment in Boston - News of the postponement of the performance to 2011 in the New York Times, June 12, 2009, accessed on September 3, 2014.
- ↑ BEMF 2011: The Cost of Baroque Opera - News about the postponement of the performance to 2013 ( Memento from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in the blog of Bernard Gordillo from June 20, 2011 (English), accessed on September 3, 2014.