Armida (Salieri)
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Original title: | Armida |
Beginning of the overture in the autograph score |
|
| Shape: | Dramma per musica |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Antonio Salieri |
| Libretto : | Marco Coltellini |
| Literary source: | Torquato Tasso : The Liberated Jerusalem |
| Premiere: | June 2, 1771 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna, Burgtheater |
| Playing time: | about 2 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Armida magic island |
| people | |
Armida is a dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Salieri . It was premiered on June 2, 1771 in the Vienna Burgtheater . The libretto is by Marco Coltellini and is based on the Armida material from the Liberated Jerusalem by Torquato Tasso .
Armida was one of Salieri's first major works to be performed in public. In this remarkable piece, Salieri confesses for the first time to the reforms of his mentor and friend Christoph Willibald Gluck . The work shows an almost thoroughly composed figure; Noteworthy are numerous choral movements and a ballet that is strongly integrated into the plot. A musical historical innovation is Salieri's preceding Sinfonia in Pantomima , in which he tries to paint the prehistory of the operatic plot and thus forms an inseparable unit with the opera - in contrast to the largely arbitrary nature of many overtures at the time. The work is extremely colorfully orchestrated, the orchestral part is quite demanding; The characteristic sound of the trombones, which were rather uncommon in Vienna at the time, is also used effectively.
After its successful premiere, the work quickly spread across Europe; it was played in numerous translations (including into Danish) and published early on as a piano reduction by Carl Friedrich Cramer . A few music automatons have also been preserved, which performed individual numbers of the opera. Due to the great success of this opera, Salieri was offered a position at the progressive Gustavian Opera in Stockholm, but he did not accept the offer to Sweden - probably at the instigation of Emperor Joseph II . Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock were among the countless admirers of the piece .
Web links
- Armida (Antonio Salieri) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- Libretto (Italian), Vienna 1771. Digitized version of the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna .
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolph Angermüller: Antonio Salieri. His life and world with special reference to his great operas. Katzbichler, Munich 1971–1974
- ↑ Volkmar Braunbehrens: Salieri, a musician in the shadow of Mozart? A biography. Piper, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-492-18322-0