The avenging Cupid
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| Original title: | The avenging Cupid |
Title page of the libretto from 1724 |
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| Shape: | Shepherd game (pastoral) |
| Original language: | German , Italian |
| Music: | Reinhard Keizer |
| Libretto : | Johann Ulrich König |
| Literary source: | Francesco de Lemene |
| Premiere: | 1712 |
| Place of premiere: | Hamburg |
| Place and time of the action: | Mythical time |
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Which vengeful Cupid is a baroque - opera in three acts by Reinhard Keizer ( music ) with a libretto by Johann Ulrich König . The text is based in part on the endimony by Francesco de Lemene . The original version of the work was performed for the first time in April 1712 under the name Die Discovered Verstellung or The Secret Love of Diana in the opera on Gänsemarkt in Hamburg . Most of the music in this version is lost. The fundamentally revised version described here was given there in 1724 under the name The Avenging Cupid .
The opera is mainly written in German, but also contains seven Italian arias by other composers.
action
first act
The love god Cupid flies through a forest. When the hunting goddess Diana and her entourage, Tirsis, Aurilla, Arethusa and Sylvano arrive, he goes into hiding. Diana points out her strict prohibition of love: "Whoever loves loses his life." Cupid resolves not to let this rest and to incite the love feelings of the others.
Tirsis falls in love with Aurilla. She doesn't believe his flattery, however.
In a cave, Endimion thinks of his beloved Dorinda and falls asleep. In one hand he holds a broken arrow, in the other he is leading a white dog. Cupid and Diana enter the cave one after the other. Cupid hides and aims his arrow at Diana to make her fall in love with Endimion. Diana takes Endimion's broken arrow and instead leaves one of her own arrows. Now Sylvano comes into the cave to steal from Endimion. Among other things, he takes Diana's arrow and places a shepherd's staff there instead. Aurilla arrives and admires the arrow in Sylvano's hand. He gives it to her. Sylvano asks her not to tell Diana so that she doesn't think he is in love with Aurilla, and leaves the cave. Now Cupido Aurilla reveals himself. He shoots one of his arrows at her and disappears. She falls in love with Endimion. When he wakes up and misses his arrow, Aurilla gives him the one that Sylvano had just given her.
Diana descends to earth in a cloud in front of her hunting lodge and sings of her love for Endimion. In search of Dorinda, he comes over and throws himself down in awe of Diana. She thinks this is love because she recognizes her arrow in his hands. When she now wants to release him from the prohibition of love, he explains to her that he wants to remain true to the commandment. He would even prefer his dog to the one who would have given him the arrow. Furious, she takes the arrow from Endimion and chases it away.
Aurilla comes to Diana, lost in thought, and recognizes the arrow she had given Endimion in Diana's hands. She notices that Diana is also in love with Endimion and passes out. Sylvano comes with fauns and satyrs and wakes them up. It is carried away by the faunas. Sylvano is happy about his success and considers himself a great doctor.
Second act
Diana, Tirsis, Aurilla, Endimion, Sylvano and their entourage enjoy life in the pleasure garden of Diana. Aurilla lies down to sleep under a tree on which Cupid is sitting. He shoots an arrow at her.
Endimion explains to Diana that Aurilla gave him the arrow she stole from him and wants to know the reason for her anger. Diana realizes her mistake. She now knows that Aurilla is also in love with Endimion.
Diana, Endimion, Aurilla, Tirsis, the disguised Cupid and some nymphs and hunters begin a game in which everyone is supposed to whisper a secret to their neighbors, which, however, should not have anything to do with love . A nymph breaks the rules and kisses Endimion. Diana and Aurilla immediately get jealous. The nymph is sentenced to death and undressed. Cupid appears under the disguise. The nymphs flee.
Endimion searches for Dorinda in the forest. He meets Sylvano and asks him for help with the search. Because Sylvano does not know Dorinda, Endimion describes her in flattering words.
Tirsis and Aurilla complain about the inhuman law of not being allowed to love. Because they cannot confess their suffering, they write the names of their loved ones in tree bark. Before they read what each other has written, Diana arrives. The two flee. Diana reads the names "Endimion" and "Aurilla" in the bark and becomes jealous. Sylvano comes over and tells Diana that Endimion is in love with Dorinda.
The river god Alpheus longs for Arethusa in his underground palace. In order to get closer to her, he disguises himself as a hunter.
Cupid flies into a bird net stretched out by Sylvano and gets caught in it. Sylvano mocks him.
Third act
Diana looks at the sleeping Endimion in a room of her hunting lodge. She can just pull herself together not to kiss him. Then she heard him call the name Dorinda in his sleep. She wakes him up, insults him as a traitor and runs away angrily. Aurilla comes into the room. Endimion tells her about Diana's anger, which he cannot explain.
Tirsis declares his love for Aurilla, which she does not return.
Arethusa celebrates her love for Cleon. Alpheus comes to her disguised as a hunter. Diana appears in a golden flying chariot pulled by two deer. Arethusa is disappointed that the hunter is not Cleon. Alpheus reveals herself to her as god, whereupon she tries to flee in dismay, but is persecuted by him. She now asks Diana for assistance. This draws a mist between the two, turns Arethusa into a river and then removes the mist again. Alpheus follows her by sinking into the earth.
The captured Cupid sings a song of mockery to Sylvano.
Tirsis continues to harass Aurilla. She tries to tear herself out of his arms. Here come Diana and Endimion. She is still in love with him and is angry with him because he prefers Dorinda to her. Now Tirsis is bringing a bitch. Endimion is overjoyed to have found his hunting dog Dorinda. Diana is ashamed of her jealousy. Endimion leaves her with the dog. Aurilla comes up without noticing Diana and raves about Endimion. Diana turns her into a tree.
Sylvano offers Diana the bird (Cupid) he has caught as a gift. Tirsis explains to her that he will not obey her command. Although Diana threatens him with death, he sticks to his decision. Silvano brings hunters over to shoot Tirsis. Tirsis is tied to the tree Aurilla was transformed into. He kisses the tree and declares that he wants to be buried here. Endimion interrupts the impending execution and asks Diana for mercy for Tirsis. Sylvano brings a bird cage with the captured Cupid. Diana recognizes him immediately and releases him. As a reward, he brings her together with Endimion. He then shoots the tree that Tirsis is tied to. The tree transforms back into Aurilla, which is now connected to Tirsis. You will be untied.
After a solemn procession by everyone involved in the temple of Diana, her heavenly palace appears. The full moon opens in which Diana and Cupid sit on a throne. The two have finally made peace, and the love ban is lifted. Endimion sits on the throne in place of Cupid. Everyone praises love as “the sugar of life”.
Performance history
After the first series of performances in 1712 under the name The Discovered Verification or The Secret Love of Diana , the revised work was brought back to the stage in 1724. In it, Keiser's then eleven-year-old daughter Sophie Keizer (called Mad lle Keizerin) made her debut with the title role of Cupid, which was heavily adapted for this. At least 17 arias were newly composed. Margaretha Susanna Kayser (called Mad me Kayserin) took on the role of Diana . Compared to the first version, some scenes were omitted. In particular, the roles of Arethusa, Alpheus and Cleon have been removed or shortened considerably.
On August 11, 2001, the opera was performed again at the Lusatian Opera Summer in Gut Geisendorf . Richard Hughey was the musical director. Manuela Neumann (Diana), Corinna Porr (Cupido), Eva Slametschka (Aurilla), Stephan Noack (Endimion) and Andreas Jäpel (Tirsis) sang .
Another series of performances took place in May 2003 with the Operastudio Vlaanderen and the Vlaamse Opera in Belgium . Florian Heyerick directed the ensemble of the Royal Conservatory in Brussels . Directed by Gabriele Rech . The singers were Malgorzata Rodek (Cupido), Thorunn Sigthorsdottir (Aurilla), Cecilia Smiga (Diana), Myrto Georgiadou (Endimion), Breiffni Horgan (Sylvano) and Lars Piselé (Tirsis).
Web links
- Libretto from 1712 and libretto from 1724 as a digitized version in the directory of prints from the 18th century published in German-speaking countries .
- The discovered misrepresentation : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ^ John H. Roberts: Cupid. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ^ Foreword to the libretto from 1724.
- ↑ a b Performance history in operabaroque (French), accessed on August 18, 2014.
- ↑ At the end there are the couples - report on the performance from 2001 in the Berliner Zeitung on August 17, 2001, accessed on August 19, 2014.
- ↑ Pictures of scenes from the 2003 performance on the website of director Gabriele Rech , accessed on August 19, 2014.