El Prometeo
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Aun vencido, vence Amor, ò El Prometeo |
Title page of the libretto, Vienna 1669 |
|
| Shape: | “Comedia en musica” in three acts |
| Original language: | Spanish |
| Music: | Antonio Draghi |
| Libretto : | Antonio Draghi |
| Literary source: | Calderón : La estatua de Prometeo (?) |
| Premiere: | December 10, 1669 |
| Place of premiere: | Imperial Palace Vienna |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours (version by Leonardo García Alarcón ) |
| Place and time of the action: | mythical time |
| people | |
|
|
Aun vencido, vence Amor, ò El Prometeo is an opera (original name: "Comedia en musica") in three acts by Antonio Draghi with its own libretto , possibly based on Calderón's La estatua de Prometeo. It was premiered on December 10, 1669 in the Imperial Palace in Vienna.
action
first act
Seashore
Scene 1. The two princes Prometeo and Pelèo watch how the beautiful nymph Tetis rises from the sea, accompanied by nereids and tritons . They both fall in love with her. Tetis rejects Prometeo, promises her love to Pelèo and disappears again.
Scene 2. Prometeo and Pelèo express their different feelings. One is desperate, the other is hopeful.
Scene 3. The Nereid Nisèa observes the plaintive Prometeo. She is secretly in love with him, but does not dare to speak to him. Finally he goes away. While Nisèa is cursing her shyness, Prometeo's servant Satyro appears and asks her where his master is. Nisèa joins him.
Scene 4. Mercurio , the messenger of the gods, informs Tetis' father Nerèo that Jupiter has decided to marry his daughter.
Scene 5. Tetis herself is not happy about this honor, as she wants to remain loyal to her lover Pelèo. However, she cannot oppose Heavenly Father.
Scene 6. Tetis informs Pelèo about Jupiter's plan. Both are unhappy.
House by the forest
Scene 7. Prometeo creates a woman statue to which he wants to dedicate his love from now on.
Scene 8. Satyro and Nisèa comment on Prometeo's work. While Satyro finds her cold, Nisèa is jealous.
Scene 9. Suddenly the goddess Minerua appears . She came to earth for two reasons: On the one hand, she wants to punish her adversary Aragne for her arrogance, and on the other hand, she is curious about Prometeo's famous statue and promises him a reward. Prometeo wants nothing more than that they bring the statue to life. Minerua invites him to visit heaven. His servant Satyro is allowed to accompany him.
Sea with a cliff
Scene 10. Pandòra asks Jupiter to adjourn his marriage to Tetis. She warns him that an endeavor that is too coveted could end in disaster. Tetis had instructed her servant Aragne to inform Jupiter's wife Juno of his planned adultery. This in turn turned to her, Pandòra, and let Jupiter tell that her only wishes are important to her. But he should live out his excesses of love on earth to avoid arguments. Mercurio and Hercules still ask Jupiter to postpone the wedding.
Scene 11. Nerèo presents his daughter to the gods, who, to the delight of her father, agrees to marry Jupiter. She's just asking for a delay until she's ready. Jupiter agrees. While the choir of Nereids and Tritons cheers him, Tetis says goodbye to her lover Pelèo. She tells him that her heart remains true to him.
Scene 12. Nereids and Tritons celebrate the upcoming wedding with song and dance.
Second act
sky
Scene 1. Prometeo and Satyro look around the sky, fascinated. Satyro misses an inn because he's hungry. Prometeo discovered the fire that connects the body with the soul. On the spur of the moment he steals it and travels back to earth with Satyro.
Scene 2. Pandòra is the first to discover the theft and immediately reports it to Jupiter. He decides to severely punish the act. Even the death penalty is not enough for such an outrage.
Scene 3. Jupiter orders Pandòra to travel to earth and shower human friends Prometeos with suffering.
Scene 4. Meanwhile, Mercure is supposed to track down Prometeo and chain him to the rocks in the Caucasus. A vulture is supposed to eat its entrails there. Prometeo must not die from it, however, as the punishment should last forever.
Lonely area at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains
Scene 5. Minerua, Prometeo and Satyro bring the statue with the help of some helpers. Minerua renews its promise to reward Prometeo for its loyalty. But first she has to clear up her matter with Aragne. As soon as she is gone, Prometeo brings his statue to life with the stolen fire.
Scene 6. Prometeo declares his love for the statue.
Scene 7. Mercurio appears. He freezes the statue with his staff and disappears in smoke. Then he announces to Prometeo the punishment imposed by Jupiter. While Prometeo complains about his loss, Satyro runs away cowardly.
Scene 8. Nisèa looks sadly at the desperate Prometeo, but still doesn't dare to speak to him.
Scene 9. Tetis and Pelèo continue to hope that Juno will intervene and prevent the wedding.
Scene 10. Aragne warns the two of the arrival of Tetis' father Nerèo. Pelèo withdraws. Nerèo informs his daughter that the deadline has expired and that the wedding should now take place. In a duet, Nerèo expresses his joy and his daughter expresses her despair over it.
Scene 11. Mercurio has Prometeo brought to the Caucasus and chained there. Pandòra also carries out her mission and brings harm to humanity. Prometeo desperately laments his fate.
In the Caucasus
Scene 12. Mortals wail at the suffering that has befallen them. A comical ballet of the limping, hunchback and lame follows.
Third act
Mountainous area at the foot of the Caucasus
Scene 1. There is a confrontation between Minerua and Aragne. Aragne declares that she does not intend to offend the gods. However, the cloth she weaves proves that she is equal to the gods through her art of weaving. Since she cannot oppose the power of the goddess, who is angry about this arrogance, she finally gives in. She declares that she would rather die than endure such injustice. A quick death of her opponent is not enough for Minerua. Aragne will suffer eternal torments. Minerua turns her into a spider that has to weave forever.
Scene 2. Minerua discovers Prometeo who is chained to the rocks. She is shocked by his situation and feels complicit in his suffering. To comfort him, she informs him about the planned marriage of Jupiter and Tetis and announces that the child of the two Jupiter will surpass Jupiter in size and power. Therefore Jupiter will voluntarily renounce his love for Tetis. Minerua withdraws without having helped Prometeo.
Scene 3. Prometeo complains about the many failed hopes in his life.
Scene 4. Nisèa, who has never given up her search for her secret lover, finds the chained Prometeo and is determined to free him. Prometeo doesn't think he's worth risking her loved ones for him. She moves away again.
Scene 5. Prometeo wonders who the woman was and why she had so much love for him. Satyro also finds his way back to his master, but has to flee from the vulture.
Scene 6. Jupiter arrives, accompanied by Mercurio, Hercules and Pandòra and announces to Prometeo that he has granted Minerua's wish and has forgiven him. Hercules is to break his chains. Hercules, Mercurio and Pandòra praise his gentleness.
Scene 7. Hercules frees Prometeo from his bonds with boastful slogans.
Scene 8. Nisèa and Satyro return and no longer find Prometeo in his prison. Nisèa is concerned that she does not know whether he was freed or taken to an even worse place. She wants to ask Minerua for help.
Lovely valleys
Scene 9. Tetis and Pelèo continue to hope for Juno's intervention when Jupiter appears and releases Tetis. After Minerua's intercession, he realized that she loves someone else and that after the wedding she would not feel like his bride but like his slave. Tetis assures that she would never have denied him, but that she was afraid of Juno's anger. However, she always knew that Pelèo was destined for her. Jupiter no longer has anything against this connection. Since he also knows that she worries about her servant Aragne, he orders Pandòra to reclaim her from Minerua.
Royal Palace of the Tetis
Scene 10. Nerèo celebrates his impending glory with Nereids and Tritons.
Scene 11. Jupiter informs Nerèo of the change in his plans and the impending marriage of Tetis and Pelèo.
Scene 12. All gods and mortals extol the good qualities of Jupiter. Minerua announces that Aragne is redeemed. She also unites the faithful Nisèa with Prometeo. Love has triumphed although it was defeated.
The universe
The conclusion and crowning of the festival is a praise to the Habsburg ruling family through the allegories of hope and human nature that float in a cloud from heaven.
Work history
Antonio Draghi wrote his "Comedia in musica" Aun vencido, vence Amor, ò El Prometeo on a separate text in Spanish to celebrate the birthday of the "Spanish Queen" ("la serenissima reyna de España", at that time actually regent and queen mother) ) Maria Anna von Österreich 1669. Draghi wrote the libretto himself. It may be based on Calderón's comedy La estatua de Prometeo.
The genesis of Calderón's comedy is not completely clear. It appeared in 1677 in the Quinta Parte of the comedy edition in the form of a pirated copy described by Calderón himself as "completely inauthentic". On the basis of thematic similarities, the Calderón researcher Henry Warren Hilborn dated the creation to the year 1670, one year after the opera was performed. According to the title page of the print edition, the premiere took place on the occasion of the Queen Mother's birthday on December 22nd. According to the program of the new production at the Opéra de Dijon, this was also in 1669. That year, however, a different work by Calderón (Fieras afemina amor) was played on the occasion . The years before that are out of the question, as after the death of Philip IV in 1665 no courtly plays were performed until this year.
Margaret Rich Greer, editor of the critical edition of La estatua de Prometeo, suspected "speculatively" that Draghi's opera was written before the drama. Emperor Leopold I announced in a letter dated February 5, 1670 to Franz Eusebius von Pötting , the then imperial ambassador to Spain, that he would send him nine copies of the opera, four of which were intended for the Queen Mother. According to Rich Greer, this could have given Calderón the idea of his comedy, possibly after a suggestion by Maria Anna. Both works differ significantly. The libretto, which Rich Greer described as a “mythological fruit salad”, in her opinion, in contrast to Calderón's work, lacks any dramatic context. The comedy deals primarily with the conflicts between Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus and between Minerva and Pallas . In the opera, on the other hand, Prometheus is clearly the focus, while Epimetheus is absent and Minerva and Pallas are two names of the same person.
Most likely, Draghi first set the text to music in Italian and then had it translated into Spanish. It is the first Spanish-language opera by an Italian composer.
The opera was premiered on December 10, 1669 in the Imperial Palace in Vienna and was repeated there on December 22nd.
Printed editions of the complete libretto in Spanish and Italian as well as the score manuscript of the first two acts have been preserved in the Leopoldina library . The music of the third act, however, is lost. The conductor Leonardo García Alarcón composed this completely new for a production of the Opéra de Dijon 2018, carefully recreating Draghi's style with his preferred intervals and bass lines.
The Opéra de Dijon presented Alarcón's reconstruction in June 2018 in a production by Laurent Delvert based on sketches by Gustavo Tambascio, who died while preparing for the production . The costumes came from Jesús Ruiz (costumes). The Capella Mediterranea and the Chœur de chambre de Namur played under the direction of Alarcón with Fabio Trümpy in the title role, Scott Conner as Pelèo and Mariana Flores as Tetis and voice of the statue.
Recordings
- 2018 - Leonardo García Alarcón (conductor), Laurent Delvert (production based on sketches by Gustavo Tambascio), Jesús Ruiz (costumes), Capella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur.
Fabio Trümpy (Prometeo), Scott Conner (Pelèo), Victor Torrès (Nerèo), Mariana Flores (Tetis and statue), Alejandro Meerapfel (Jupiter), Zachary Wilder (Mercurio), Ana Quintans (Minerua), Giuseppina Bridelli (Nisèa), Borja Quiza (Satyro), Anna Reinhold (Pandòra), Kamil Ben Hsaïn Lachiri (Hercules), Lucia Martin Carton (Aragne).
Video; live from the Opéra de Dijon; Recast of the third act by Leonardo García Alarcón.
Video stream on france.tv.
Web links
- Spanish libretto , Italian libretto , score manuscript of the first act and score manuscript of the second act . Digital copies from the Austrian National Library
- Benché vinto, vince Amore, o Il Prometeo (Antonio Draghi) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Information on the new production on the Opéra de Dijon website
- Program of the Opéra de Dijon (PDF)
- Trailer of the production of the Opéra de Dijon on YouTube
- Bruno Maury: La clémence de Jupiter. Review of the performance in Dijon on baroquiades.com, June 30, 2018 (French)
Remarks
- ↑ Spelling of the names according to the Spanish libretto, voices according to the version by Leonardo García Alarcón.
- ↑ a b In the version by Leonardo García Alarcón, scenes 9 and 10 of the second act have been moved to the front behind scene 4.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information about the production in Dijon , accessed on July 18, 2019.
- ^ A b Pedro Calderón de la Barca : La estatua de Prometeo. Critical edition by Margaret Rich Greer. Edition Reichenberger, Kassel 1986, ISBN 3-923593-27-9 , pp. VII – VIII ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ a b c d e Program booklet of the Opéra de Dijon (PDF), accessed on July 18, 2019.
- ↑ Margaret Rich Greer: The Play of Power: Mythological Court Dramas of Calderon de la Barca. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2017, ISBN 978-0-691-62910-0 , p. 129 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Raoul Meloncelli: Draghi, Antonio. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 41: Donaggio – Dugnani. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1992.
- ^ "El Prometeo" musique d'Antonio Draghi et Leonardo García Alarcón on france.tv (blocked in Germany), accessed on July 17, 2019.