Astrea placata
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Astrea placata |
Sculpture by Astraea, |
|
| Shape: | Componimento drammatico |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | First setting by Luca Antonio Predieri |
| Libretto : | Pietro Metastasio |
| Premiere: | August 28, 1739 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | in the realm of Jupiter |
| people | |
Astrea placata ovvero La felicità della terra (German: "The soothed Astraea or The bliss of the earth") is a libretto for a Componimento drammatico in one act by Pietro Metastasio . The first setting by Luca Antonio Predieri was performed on August 28, 1739 in the gallery of the Imperial Favorita in Vienna for the birthday party of Empress Elisabeth . In this work Metastasio dealt with the philosophical currents of his time such as the Enlightenment .
An English translation of Francis Olivari's libretto appeared in Dublin in 1797 under the name Astrea appeased .
action
Astraea is the virgin goddess of innocence and purity in Greek and Roman mythology. She is also equated with Dike, the goddess of justice. Astraea leaves the earth during the Iron Age because people no longer have any respect for justice and law. According to legend, one day she will return to earth to restore the Golden Age. The basic idea of this libretto is based on the sentence "Et Virgo cæde madentes / Ultima Cælestum terras Astræa reliquit" ("From blood-moistened lands / The virgin returned home, Astraia, the last heavenly.") From the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses (verses 149– 150). Astraea and Apollon discuss the fate of guilty humanity with the allegories of goodness and severity before the supreme deity Jupiter .
The following table of contents is based on the English translation of the libretto by Francis Olivari.
Astraea and Apollon stand before Jupiter and demand a decision: Astraea demands vengeance for the fact that humanity has banished them from the earth and disregards their sacred laws. In return, Apollo asks for pity for the misguided people. Astraea is supported by the choir of virtues, while Apollon is accompanied by a choir of deities. Jupiter thinks the question is important enough to deal with. But first he wants to consult the Allegories of Mildness and Severity. As expected, the "Strict" recommends destroying the rebellious and burning the earth. The “mildness”, on the other hand, pleads for grace. Jupiter should rather see to it that the misguided people are put on the right path. The "Strenge" and Astraea do not believe that an improvement is possible. Humanity will pervert even the greatest blessings. However, Jupiter decides to follow the advice of "mildness". For him, revenge is only a last resort. Everyone present should now make a suggestion on how humanity could be improved.
Apollon made the first plea. Jupiter has blessed humanity with many gifts: honor, riches, strength, talents, beauty, wisdom, courage and fame. However, fate did not distribute them evenly, and so envy and hatred arise. He suggests that the task of distribution should be withdrawn from fate and that Astraea (the goddess of justice) should be handed over. However, Astraea believes that human inequality is important for cohesion. If it were gone, no one would care about the other. Because of the unevenly distributed gifts, everyone needs the others for his well-being, just as a strong man needs his wife to lead, she needs his protection, and both in turn are nourished by others. Apollo replies that people with a cruel fate could not be happy, even though they have the same right to it. Astraea denies this. The fewer gifts someone has, the less their wishes are. Therefore, he is not in principle more unhappy than someone with more gifts. The rich would also constantly fear for their property. Jupiter thinks the proposal is indeed unsuitable. Too much resistance is to be expected. On the other hand, the different celestial spheres together also result in harmony.
The "Mild" suggests to deprive people of self-love, the source of all problems. People would not see mistakes in themselves that they criticize others. While pursuing their own plans, they ignore or destroy those of others. Jupiter, however, considers this love - if it is guided by reason - to be the main source of every high wish. He who does not love himself cannot love anyone else. He compares it to the waves of a stone thrown into a lake, which spread out from the center point.
“Strictness” advocates destroying people's passions, anger, pride and love. These are the “stormy winds” that stir up the “seas” of human life (“I procellosi venti / Son questi, o Dei, che del'umana vita / Tutto infestano il Mar”) and the “rebellious troops”, the disorder , bring forth ("l'empie son queste / Sediziosis sheer, ond'è per tutto / Disordiue e tumulto"). Apollo replies that man without his passions is nothing more than a callous plant. No ship could sail without a winch and no battle could be fought without troops. The captain or general simply had to make the best use of it. The passions are only a means to an end. You can't blame them.
"Strictness" briefly summarizes the suggestions and answers mentioned so far and means that there is apparently no solution. Jupiter should therefore destroy the ungrateful people and look for a more worthy target for his concern. Astraea and Apollon again plead individually, then accompanied by their choirs, for severity or grace.
Jupiter replies that there is definitely a solution: virtue can peacefully bring the greatest disagreements together. The "Strict" replies that it has too few followers. The seduced mortals would mindlessly follow the pleasure. The "mildness" indicates that virtue and pleasure are not opposites. On the contrary, there can be no real joy without virtue. Superficial pleasure would quickly lead to pain - like a child reaching for a flame and getting burned on it. Astraea agrees, but adds that virtue could no longer be recognized if it descended on earth. Once when the virtues left the earth and came to her in heaven, they left their clothes behind and the vices seized them. Since then, deceit has disguised itself as friendship, envy as pity, caution as fear, revenge as honor, rash as courage and heroism as cruelty. Jupiter asks Astraea if she would agree with his proposal if there was a way to distinguish virtues from vices. When Astraea replies in the affirmative, he declares that a great heroic soul will descend on earth today. Their splendor will outshine the false virtues. She will come to Germany and her name will be Elisa (the Empress Elisabeth , whose birthday will be celebrated with the play). Everyone is excited. Astraea, too, is soothed and happy that she can take her abandoned throne on earth again. At the end they sing together about the new happy age that Elisa ushers in.
Historical classification
Metastasio wrote Astrea placata on the occasion of the birthday party of Empress Elisabeth on August 28, 1739. In a letter dated August 1, he complained about the hurry in which he had to write the new work. The uncertain political situation after the War of the Polish Succession and the Russo-Austrian Turkish War , which was to end three weeks later with the Peace of Belgrade , meant that he found little peace for his work.
In his serenata, the celebration of Empress Elisabeth finds its place in the general celebration of peace. It is linked to the question of how the rivalries and hatred among people could be ended. Metastasio also considered the relationship between individual merit and fate philosophically and ideologically. He had already dealt with this topic in Il palladio conservato and Il sogno di Scipione . In addition to the ideas of the French and English philosophers, he also dealt with theses of the Enlightenment and tried to unite them with the monarchical ideal. In the main part of the work, the gods argue in pairs (Apollon and Astraea, the "mildness" and Jupiter, Apollo and the "severity") about how one should behave towards mortals. There are three debates in total. The first deals with equality between people and touches on economic and political problems, while the other two - through self-love and through passion - relate to one another and operate exclusively on a psychological and moral level. The function of the deities in this piece is limited to presenting opposing moral and political positions.
Enlightenment thoughts are dealt with, for example, in Apollo's suggestion to distribute the divine gifts evenly. Voltaire pursued this goal in 1733 at the beginning of his Lettres philosophiques , in which he had taken up the pessimistic theses of Michel de Montaignes and Blaise Pascal . But the proposal is quickly rejected because, according to Astraea, inequality is the basis of social life. Metastasio uses Enlightenment arguments to underpin the existing social order. The text does not simply adopt traditional views, but is a concrete answer to the Enlightenment. Similarly, he works with the deistic motif of the cosmic clockwork in order to prove the meaningfulness of social structures.
The debate on the self-love contains elements of the moralist of the French writers of the 17th century such as François de La Rochefoucauld and Jean de La Bruyère and the rationalist credo of the Academy of the Arcadia . Man must first know himself before he can understand and evaluate the world around him. Jupiter's answer already anticipates Rousseau's distinction between the terms “self-love” (“l'amour de soi”, the urge to self-preservation) and “self-love” (“l'amour-propre”, self-love in a social context). The latter is a powerful stimulant for the individual if it is guided by reason. The reference to “mildness” in Jupiter's proposed solution to the darker side of pleasure is in accordance with the tendency of sensitivity in the first half of the 18th century and with the philosophy of John Locke and Voltaire.
The text of the final choir, with its reference to the new era to be expected, obviously refers to the peace that returned after the War of the Polish Succession and the War of the Austrian Turks. Metastasio saw it as his task as an imperial poet to restore confidence in the ruler and the validity of the monarchy and the social structure after the military setbacks.
Settings
The following composers set this libretto to music:
| year | composer | premiere | Performance location | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1739 | Luca Antonio Predieri | August 28, 1739 | Vienna | for the birthday of Empress Elisabeth |
| 1742 | Johann Michael Breunig | 1742 | Dresden | |
| 1746 | Johann Georg Schürer | October 7, 1746, court theater | Dresden | “Componimento drammatico” for the birthday of King August III. ; Libretto arranged by Biagio Campagnari ; performed again on September 5, 1753 for the birthday of Prince Elector Friedrich Christian of Saxony ; 1754 in Warsaw |
| 1760 | Gian Francesco de Majo | June 29, 1760, Teatro San Carlo | Naples | "Serenata"; Tenor Anton Raaff sang the role of Apollo at the premiere . |
| 1760 | Giuseppe Sarti | October 17, 1760, Det Kongelige Teater | Copenhagen | “Festa teatrale” for the centenary of the sovereignty of the Danish royal family |
| 1765 | Hieronymus Mango | 1765, court of Raymund Anton von Strasoldo | Eichstatt | "Intermezzo" |
| 1770 | Tommaso Traetta | 1770, court theater | St. Petersburg | "Azione teatrale" |
| 1785 | Anton, King of Saxony | 1785 |
literature
- Jacques Joly: Les fêtes théâtrales de Metastasio à la cour de Vienne, 1731–1767. Pu Blaise Pascal, 1978, ISBN 978-2845160194 , p. 215 ff. ( Online at Google Books)
Digital copies
- ^ Pietro Metastasio: Opere drammatiche, Volume VI. Dalla Società Tipografica de 'Classici Italiani, Milan 1823 ( online at Google Books ).
- ^ A b c Pietro Metastasio, Francis Olivari: Three dramatic pieces of Metastasio. The dream of Scipio. The Birth of Jupiter. Astrea appeased. Dublin 1797 ( online at Google Books )
- ↑ Score of the Serenata by Johann Michael Breunig in the SWB online catalog.
- ↑ Score of the Serenata by Johann Georg Schürer in the SWB online catalog.
- ↑ Score of the Serenata by Gian Francesco de Majo, Naples 1760 as digitized version in the Internet Culturale portal .
Remarks
- ↑ On handelforever.com is believed that Mozart by the mediation Raaff material Majos in his Idomeneo took over. Raaff was involved in its creation and also sang the title role in the world premiere in 1781 (Julian Rushton: Master Musicians - Mozart. Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-019-518264-4 , pp. 80 ff). Also Hermann Abert pointed to the stylistic influence on Mozart Majos out ( Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Jazzybee Verlag, 2012, online at Google Books ). More recent Mozart biographies are silent about this.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Don Neville: Metastasio [Trapassi], Pietro (Antonio Domenico Bonaventura). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ Metastasio, Pietro in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart , p. 50861 ff (cf. MGG vol. 9, p. 229 ff.) Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( digital library volume 60).
- ^ Ovid: Metamorphoses. Translation: Reinhart Suchier, edited by Egon Gottwein. Verses 149-150.
- ↑ See Il sogno di Scipione .
- ↑ a b c Joly p. 216
- ↑ Joly, p. 215
- ↑ Joly p. 217
- ↑ a b Joly p. 227
- ↑ Joly p. 218
- ↑ Joly p. 219: "il ne feint de donner la parole aux partisans des" lumières "naissantes que pour réaffirmer le bien-fondé de l'ordre social existant, en prenant qui plus est les arguments essentiels de ses adversaires comme fondement d ' une justification de la tradition. "
- ↑ Joly p. 219
- ^ Dieter Sturma: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. CH Beck, 2001, ISBN 978-3-406-41949-2 , p. 60 ( online at Google Books ).
- ↑ Joly p. 221
- ↑ Joly, p. 225
- ↑ Astrea placata, ossia La felicità della terra (Luca Antonio Predieri) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on March 17, 2015.
- ↑ Bruno Forment: La Terra, il Cielo e l'Inferno - The Representation and Reception of Greco-Roman Mythology in Opera Seria . Doctoral thesis of the University of Ghent, 2006/2007, p. 42 ( online (PDF) )
- ↑ Astrea placata ovvero La felicità della terra (Johann Georg Schürer) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on March 17, 2015.
- ↑ June 29, 1760: “Astrea”. In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
- ↑ Astrea placata ovvero La felicità della terra (Giuseppe Sarti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on March 17, 2015.
- ^ List of the stage works by Hieronymus Mango based on the MGG at Operone, accessed on October 14, 2014.
- ↑ Astrea placata (Tommaso Traetta) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on March 17, 2015.