Giovanni Antonio Boretti

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Giovanni Antonio Boretti (around 1640 in Rome - December 17, 1672 in Venice ) was an Italian opera singer with a bass voice and composer who is mainly known for his eight operas .

life and work

Basically only what is known about Boretti is what is mentioned in the preface to the libretti of his operas. Its Roman origin is certain. It is possible that Guid'Antonio Boretti from Gubbio , active in Rome from 1619 to 1646, mentioned as the singer of the opera La maga fulminata (Venice 1638), was his father.

His activity as a singer is guaranteed by the prefaces of the opera Le fortune di Rodope e Damira ( Pietro Andrea Ziani , Turin 1662) and his own work by Alessandro Amante (1667). He is said to have sung at the Basilica of Sant 'Antonio in Padua from 1659 to 1661 .

His first opera - La Zenobia (1666) - was also the first by the librettist Matteo Noris . It was about Septimia Zenobia , Queen of Palmyra , who lived in the third century. The premiere took place at the Teatro San Cassiano , where comedies were usually played from 1659. The work is dedicated to Filippo Giuliano Mazarin Mancini . The libretto shows that Boretti appeared in the role of the satrap king and that the backdrops were painted by Francesco Santurini (1627–1682).

The opera Eliogabalo by Francesco Cavalli , a drama about the Roman emperor Elagabal, was announced for the Venetian carnival season 1667/68 at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo . However, the premiere was canceled at short notice. Instead, Boretti's Eliogabalo was performed with a new libretto by Aurelio Aureli . While in Cavalli the voluptuous and dissolute emperor is murdered in the end, he survives in Boretti's composure and regrets his actions. The Cavalli version was premiered in Crema in 1999 and thereafter u. a. presented in Brussels, Innsbruck, Paris and Amsterdam. Boretti's opera, however, has so far been forgotten.

From April 3, 1672, Boretti was appointed Vice Kapellmeister at the court of Parma. He died in Venice in December of that year while preparing his last operas - Domitiano and Claudio Cesare , which premiered ten days after his death.

His opera Eliogabalo was also performed posthumously in his native Rome, on January 4, 1673 in the Teatro Tordinona . This work was shown again in Venice in 1687, but under a different title.

Operas

All works were premiered in Venice.

  • La Zenobia (Libretto: Matteo Noris ), 3 acts (January 10, 1666)
  • Alessandro amante (anonymous adaptation of the libretto by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini : Gli amori di Alessandro magno e di Rossane , 1651), prologue and 3 acts (January 28, 1667; urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10578599-9 )
  • Eliogabalo ( Aurelio Aureli ), 3 acts (January 10, 1668 in the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo ; further on January 4, 1673 in Rome at the Teatro Tordinona , 1687 again in Venice as Il vitio depresso e la virtù coronata )
  • Marcello in Siracusa (Libretto: Noris), 3 acts (Carnival 1670)
  • L'Ercole in Tebe (libretto: Giovanni Andrea Moniglia , edited by Aurelio Aureli), 3 acts (12 or 13 December 1670 in the Teatro Vendramin ; 1688 in Piacenza as L'Ercole trionfante )
  • Dario in Babilonia (Libretto: Francesco Beverini ), 3 acts (January 24, 1671)
  • Claudio Cesare (Libretto: Aureli), 3 acts (December 27, 1672)
  • Domitiano (Libretto: Noris), 3 acts (December 27, 1672)

literature

Web links

Notes and sources

  1. ↑ a b c Luca Zoppelli, Lorenzo Bianconi:  Boretti, Giovanni Antonio. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 3 (Bjelinski - Calzabigi). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1113-6  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  2. ^ A b Eleanor Selfridge-Field: A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 , Stanford University Press, 2007, p. 84.
  3. ↑ In our time, the Zenobia des Metastasio is much better known , first set to music by Bononcini in 1737 and premiered in Vienna. This work, however, is about a different historical figure, namely the Iberian Zenobia , the wife of Rhadamistos .
  4. ↑ Mauro Calcagno (translation: Maja Kamprath): "Eliogabalo" by Francesco Cavalli in Dortmund , from [t] akte 2/2010
personal data
SURNAME Boretti, Giovanni Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1640
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH December 17, 1672
Place of death Venice