Axur, re d'Ormus
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| Title: | Axur, re d'Ormus |
Title page of the libretto, Vienna 1788 |
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| Shape: | Dramma tragicomico in three acts |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Antonio Salieri |
| Libretto : | Lorenzo Da Ponte |
| Literary source: | Tarare of Beaumarchais |
| Premiere: | January 8, 1788 |
| Place of premiere: | Burgtheater , Vienna |
| Playing time: | about 3 hours |
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Axur, re d'Ormus ( Axur, King of Hormuz is) a tragicomic opera ( dramma tragicomico ) in five acts by Antonio Salieri , the budding Hofkapellmeister Emperor Joseph II. The libretto adapted Lorenzo Da Ponte to that of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais to Tarare , the original Paris version of the work. The first performance took place on January 8, 1788 at the Vienna Burgtheater .
action
first act
A small forest on the seashore, not far from Atar's house
Atar, who rose from a simple soldier to a royal general, and his wife Aspasia are united in deep love (duet: Qui dove scherza l'aura ). Their happiness would be perfect if they could lead a secluded life together. Aspasia is convinced that King Axur, in view of his services, would not refuse to do so if he asked him to do so (aria: Perdermi? E chi potria svellermi dal tuo fianco? ). Although Atar suffers from having to leave Aspasia frequently, he feels indebted to his king and the people who worship him. Suddenly fearful shouts disturb the couple's idyll: A fire rages in Atar's house. While Atar rushes to the scene of the fire, Aspasia is kidnapped by Altamor.
Second act
Gallery in the Axurs palace
Axur's confidante Biscroma asks the king for mercy for Atar and reminds him that Atar saved his life and that he owed his power to him (duet: Non mi seccar, Biscroma ). But Axur, who envy Atar his popularity with the people as much as his personal happiness, is determined to destroy him.
Enter Altamor and announce the successful kidnapping of Aspasia. The king orders Biscroma to hold a feast in honor of the woman he desires.
Led by slaves, Aspasia is presented to the king (chorus: Ne 'più vaghi soggiorni dell' Asia ). She learns from Fiammetta that she is in his seraglio. She furiously insults Axur for having abused her husband's loyalty and courage.
Urson asks for an audience with the king for the desperate Atar. Atar implores Axur for mercy and reports on the crimes that have befallen him (aria: Pietade, Signore, del misero Atar ). Axur hypocritically offers his help. When Atar complains about the kidnapping of Aspasia, the king speaks of her contemptuously as a slave. Horrified Atar defends his wife (Aria: Soave luce di Paradiso ). Axur reminds him of his past deeds and reprimands his unmanly behavior. He pretended to give Altamor the order to help Atar find Aspasia's kidnappers, but secretly gave him orders to kill Atar. Biscroma senses the danger that threatens Atar and thinks about how he could save him (quartet: Pria che la nuova aurora ).
Third act
Spacious place in front of the temple of Brahma
The high priest Arteneo reports to Axur that the kingdom is again threatened by enemies (Cavatine: Di tua milizia ). He advises his master to appoint a new general and to tell the people that he has been appointed by the gods. When asked about suitable names, Axur suggests his own son to the high priest: Altamor (aria: Tu fa che intanto uniscasi il popolo agitato ). Arteneo already sees his own power growing with the upcoming election of his son (monologue: O divina prudenza ).
Biscroma comes across the dreaming Atar (monologue: Da qual nuova sciagura ) in the palace and reports to him that Aspasia is being held captive in Axur's harem under the name Irza. He proposes that Aspasia's liberation be prepared by means of a rope ladder that leads from the seraglio to the sea. Atar is supposed to sneak into the garden at night and fetch his wife back (aria: V'andrò, tutto si tenti ).
In the meantime the people have gathered in front of the temple (March in A minor) to find out the name of the new general and to pledge allegiance to him. Let the innocent lips of a boy, Elamir, proclaim him. But contrary to the order of the high priest, Elamir does not name Altamor, but Atar. The people cheer and Atar agrees to take command of the army again (aria with chorus: Chi vuol la gloria ). The ignored Altamor insults Atar, whereupon Atar challenges him to a duel (quartet: Non partir, la scelta è ingiusta ). Axur and Arteneo are only able to restore calm in the temple with difficulty. A choir at the price of Brahma closes the act.
Fourth act
Illuminated garden of the seraglio, decorated for the festival
Axur has changed his mind and wants the harem festival scheduled for the following day to be held this evening. Biscroma tries to stop him, so as not to endanger the planned kidnapping of Aspasia. But Axur cannot be changed and Biscroma decides to put an early end to the party with a trick.
Slaves bring Aspasia and the festival begins (chorus: Il Cielo rintuoni di gridi di gioia ). A harlequinade is performed, which is applauded by the king. Then Biscroma sings a little song in which he describes his life and tells how he was once saved by Atar (romance: Nato io son nello stato romano ). As soon as the name came out of his lips, Axur throws himself furiously at Biscroma. Chaos breaks out, everything flees. Aspasia passed out at the mention of Atar's name, and Fiammetta fears for her life. At Fiammetta's outcry, Axur leaves Biscroma and returns to the harem.
In the meantime, Atar has sneaked into the palace. Biscroma disguises him as a Moor so that the king cannot recognize him. At the same moment, Axur comes out of Aspasia's room furious because she has firmly rejected him. At the sight of the Moor he immediately comes up with a new malicious thought (Cavatine: Misero abbieto negro ): As punishment for the humiliation that Aspasia has inflicted on him, the black man is to become her husband.
Magnificent room of Aspasias
Desperate about her fate and convinced that Atar was killed, Aspasia wishes for death (Cavatine: Son queste le speranze and Rondo: Morte, pietosa morte ). When Biscroma tells her that she is to be married to a dumb black woman, she tearfully asks Fiammetta to sacrifice herself in her place, which she does (duet: Salva me di tanta infamia ).
The "Mohr" Atar is disappointed when he realizes that "Irza / Fiammetta" is not his Aspasia (Finale: Dunque un muto tu non sei? ). Suddenly Urson storms into the harem with guards; Axur had given them orders to kill the Moor, because he still does not want to give up hope in Aspasia. Biscroma holds back the soldiers and reveals the true identity of their victim. They recoil in horror; they know that the situation is hopeless (ensemble: Crudo Axur, chi può placarti? ).
Fifth act
Inner courtyard in the palace of Axurs, prepared for the execution of Atar
Axur has Atar brought to him to announce his punishment (aria: Idol vano d'un popol codardo ). However, he only wishes himself death and warns Axur of the consequences of his shameful actions (Cavatine: Morir posso solo una volta ). He also explains to the king that the girl "Irza" is not Aspasia at all.
The indignant king immediately sends for Aspasia, and when she appears, the two lovers happily embrace. Fiammetta confesses that she disguised herself as "Irza" and is sentenced to death. Atar, who is separated from Aspasia, also faces the death penalty. Aspasia threatens to stab himself if the guards seize Atar (trio: Il mio corragio deluse i voti tuoi ).
Slaves rush to Axur's feet and ask him for mercy for Atar. Under Biscroma's leadership, soldiers appear to free Atar. But the latter puts a stop to it and demands that the king be respected. Axur must recognize that Atar's popular authority is unchallenged and greater than his own. He stabs himself under bitter curses.
The crowd calls Atar their new king. At first he rejects this honor, but then accepts it on the condition that the chains are not removed from him. They should be a warning to him to use the newly won power only for the benefit of the people (final chorus: Qual piacer le nostr 'anime ingombra ).
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : two horns , two trumpets
- Timpani , drums : bass drum , cymbals , drum
- mandolin
- Strings
- Basso continuo
Work history
Emergence
Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto is based on the opera Tarare (1787) by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, also composed by Salieri . After the triumphant success of this opera in Paris, Emperor Joseph II wanted an Italian version for his court theater in Vienna. The wedding of the later Franz II was the occasion for the festive premiere.
Da Ponte and Salieri tailored the French model to the needs of the Viennese stage, and the ballet division was replaced by an Italian harlequinade . The prologue was omitted, instead Da Ponte and Salieri wrote a new first act and renamed most of the people: “Atar” became “Axur”, “Tarare” became “Atar”, “Calpigi” became “Biscroma”, “Spinette” "Became" Fiammetta ". Political allusions were largely smoothed out or completely eliminated.
While Da Ponte's libretto is a free translation of the French original into Italian, the musical similarity between the two versions is much less. While the Parisian music was created for "French singing actors", "Italian acting singers" were on the stage in Vienna. Salieri composed a large part of the work from scratch: In his opinion, the different way of singing and the different relationship between word and song required a different musical aesthetic approach. Almost all of the musical numbers have been extensively reworked or completely re-composed by Salieri, in a style that he also uses in his other Italian operas, which are located between Buffa and Seria, especially in the free transition from the Accompagnato to the musical numbers, which in themselves are also very freely treated . To a certain extent, the comic and dramatic accents, which quasi shifted from line to line in the Tarare, are more clearly distinguished from one another . The result was “a masterpiece of a completely new kind that opera sung in Italian did not know before”, “a milestone in overcoming the Italian genre opera to a multi-layered musical theater,” […] “also in its Italian version a profound political commentary on the conditions of the ancien régime and its possible end ”.
Preparations for the premiere stretched over several months. The presentation of these circumstances in Da Ponte's memoir from 1827 is marked by reservations. Da Ponte had to return from Prague to Vienna because of the axur before the world premiere of Don Giovanni . For Salieri, the death of his patron Christoph Willibald Gluck and the composition of the oratorio Le Jugement dernier for the Paris Concert spirituel fell during this period .
Axur re d'Ormuz (as it was spelled at the time) premiered on January 8, 1788 in the Vienna Burgtheater . Compared to the Tarare score, which is very popular in Vienna, the new version was under pressure from open-minded circles that it could not withstand throughout. Count Zinzendorf, who, according to his diary, had studied the score of the original since November 16, 1787, found Da Pontes “pièce fort platte”. It was nonetheless one of the most successful productions of the Viennese court opera, especially sponsored by Emperor Joseph II. In the first three years there were already 51 performances in Vienna both in the Burg and from October 1790 in the Kärntnertortheater .
reception
Thanks to its unusual wealth of forms, the well-composed overall structure and the successful balance between the serious and the satirical-comical, Axur advanced to one of Salieri's most famous and popular operas soon after the premiere. In Vienna the play was on the repertoire more than a hundred times up to 1805. Numerous piano reductions and arrangements of the opera (e.g. for string quartet or wind ensemble), as well as cycles of variations on popular numbers of the opera, promoted widespread dissemination of the work. Various music automatons such as flute clocks have even been preserved, which performed popular numbers from Axur ; Such a flute work from around 1790 is now in the Musical Instrument Museum of the University of Leipzig .
The Musikalisches Wochenblatt wrote about the work on the occasion of a performance of the Axur in Berlin in 1791 : “The music is full of the most beautiful genius traits and striking individual effects. There are sentences and passages in it that leave everything else that one knows about Salieri behind. [...] But especially in the scenes in which the masterful music of a Salieri intensified the effect which the poet's well-chosen situations produced, the impression that various of them made on the audience was indescribable: among which the scenes in the temple, in the second act. In general, the music creates an effect that can only be felt, not described [...]. "Even the critical poet and composer ETA Hoffmann found unusually enthusiastic words in 1795:" [...] the music of the opera is, like everything from Salieri, very excellent - richness of thought and correct declamation give it the rank like Mozart's - oh friend, a single opera composed in this way could make the happiness of my life! "
Classification of the work
Within Salieri's operatic output, Cublai, gran kan de 'Tartari (according to the autograph “cominciato a Parigi l'estate del anno 1786”, ie during the preparation of Tarare ) and Catilina (approx. 1790–1792) gave up Libretti by Giambattista Casti ( cf.Prima la musica e poi le parole ) two other operas that strive for similar formal richness in Italian as Tarare or Axur and above all have a similar political explosiveness, which is why they are from the (self?) Censorship during Salieri's lifetime were never allowed to perform.
Translations of the work
The first German version came out in 1790 as Axur, King of Ormus. An opera in 4 acts based on the Italian and Beaumarchais' Tarare by D [oktor]. Blacksmith. Salieri's music on the stage was not a simple translation of Da Ponte's furnishings: rather, passages from the French original were reinserted into the prose dialogues obtained from recitative parts. Schmieder's very smooth and faithful translation was performed for the first time by the Mainz National Theater in Frankfurt on August 14, 1790, and it was re-produced there in 1830 and 1843.
It remains to be seen whether this German version was created in direct connection with Salieri, because Salieri only traveled from Vienna to Frankfurt in September, where Axur was the novelty of the National Theater for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II . Salieri was probably present at the performances on September 20th (“Frankfurter Triple Wedding”), October 2nd and 17th. Perhaps he also ensured that the Schmieder translation was played in Vienna from December 8, 1797 until 1804, and not the German version by Franz Xaver Giržik, which was performed in Pressburg in 1788 and in Budapest in 1789.
The piece has also been translated into Dutch, Russian and English. In addition to performances in almost all European metropolises (including Prague 1788, Lisbon 1790, Milan 1792, Paris 1813, Berlin 1820) until the middle of the 19th century, there are even performances in Rio de Janeiro (1814), although their success in Abroad was somewhat inferior to that in German-speaking countries.
Heinrich Heine's numerous Axur quotes in the 5th and 6th chapters of his baths in Lucca testify not only to the popularity of the opera, but also to the fact that in Heine's Schmieder-based translation the name “Tarare” appears as a tribute to the French original. Also Bettina von Arnim comes in Goethe's Correspondence with a Child several times enthusiastically to Salieri's opera to speak.
Edits
Salieri himself edited his Axur several times, including a four-act (Vienna, around 1795 and again around 1820) or two-act version (Dresden, 1790/91). Carl Cannabich composed new ballet music for a series of performances in Munich in 1801. In 1813 Felice Romani edited the libretto, which was set to music by Johann Simon Mayr and premiered in 1815 with the new title Atar ossia il serraglio d'Ormus at La Scala in Milan . Da Ponte's libretto was shortened to include the offensive prophecy scenes and the ballet scenes that are not used in Italian opera; In the end Assyrian does not commit suicide, but goes into exile with Altamor . Romani's libretto was set to music twice for Lisbon: in 1820 by Carlo Coccia and in 1837 by Miro.
Axur was particularly popular as a liberation opera in Poland: It was given in Warsaw in 1790 in Italian, from 1792 or 1793 in a Polish translation by Wojciech Bogusławski , which led to a revival in Poźnan as early as 1967 .
Modern re-performances
The first staged revival of Axur, re d'Ormus after Poźnan was in 1989 in Siena under the baton of René Clemencic . A recording was released on CD by Nuova Era. It was preceded by a concert performance in 1987 under Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Performances in the theater of Verona followed in 1994 and 1997. In 2003 the opera was enthusiastically received in Winterthur (in a performance by the Zurich Opera House ) and in 2006 in Augsburg, Munich and Salzburg.
admission
There is a CD recording under the direction of René Clemencic (Siena, 1989) with Andrea Martin in the title role as well as Eva Mei (Aspasia), Curtis Rayam (Atar) and Ettore Nova (Biscroma / Brighella). Nuova Era (NE 7366 & 67), 2001/2005.
literature
see at Tarare
- Andreas Hoebler: Antonio Salieri's Opéra Tarare and the reworking into the Opera tragicomica Axur, Rè d'Ormus. Parallelism and divergence of two stage works . Der Andere Verlag, Tönning et al. 2006, ISBN 3-89959-496-7 (At the same time: Frankfurt am Main, University of Music, dissertation, 2005).
Web links
- Axur re d'Ormus : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Axur, re d'Ormus (Antonio Salieri) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Libretto (Italian), Vienna 1788. Digitized version of the Austrian National Library
- Libretto (Italian / German), Dresden 1789. Digitalisat the State and University Library Dresden
- Action by Axur, re d'Ormus at Opera-Guide target page currently unavailable due to URL change
- Manuscripts and performances (1770–1830) by Axur, re d'Ormus in the DFG opera project
- Axur, re d'Ormus and the original Tarare in full text (Italian - French)
- Work data for Axur, re d'Ormus based on MGG with discography at Operone
Individual evidence
- ^ Josef Heinzelmann : Tarare / Axur re d'Ormus, in: Piper's Enzyklopädie des Musiktheater, Volume 5, Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-02415-7 , p. 536.
- ↑ A tabular representation of the differences can be found in Ignaz Franz von Mosel : About the life and works of Anton Salieri (…), Johann Baptist Wallishausser, Vienna 1827 ( digitized ), pp. 98–112.
- ↑ Volkmar Braunbehrens : Salieri, A musician in the shadow of Mozart? A biography, Piper, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-492-03194-3 , p. 192 ff.