Enrico Leone
| Work data | |
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| Title: | Henry the Lion |
| Original title: | Enrico Leone |
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Title page of the libretto, 1689 |
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| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Agostino Steffani |
| Libretto : | Ortensio Bartolomeo Mauro |
| Premiere: | January 30, 1689 |
| Place of premiere: | Schlosstheater Hannover |
| Playing time: | about 3 hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Mediterranean area and Lüneburg in the 12th century |
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Enrico Leone (also Henrico Leone , German: Heinrich der Löwe ) is an opera in three acts written in Italian in 1689 by the Italian Baroque composer Agostino Steffani .
action
The plot is largely inspired by the Henry saga, with all characters - except Henry the Lion and his wife Matilde - being fictitious. On his return from the Holy Land , where Henry the Lion took part in the crusade , his ship gets into distress . On the verge of sinking, Heinrich is sewn into a leather skin by the crew as a last resort and grabbed from the deck of the ship by a griffin who thinks this is prey and brought ashore, where Heinrich threatens to be fed to the griffin's boys.
Meanwhile at home in the palace in Lüneburg, Metilde, Heinrich's wife, awaits the return of her husband. Almaro, Duke of Burgundy, who is actually engaged to Idalba, daughter of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, tries to approach the Duchess, but is turned away. Thereupon Almaro allies himself with Errea, who is not only Metilde's wet nurse , but also a sorceress, in order to achieve his goal. Errea tries to convince the Duchess of Heinrich's death.
Heinrich manages to free himself from grasping. He watches a lion fight with a dragon . When the lion threatens to be killed, Heinrich kills the lindworm and thereby saves the big cat, which from now on does not leave his side out of gratitude.
In Lüneburg, the enchantress spins her intrigue: With devils in league, she suggests to the Duchess that her husband's last wish is the marriage of Metilde to Almaro.
Heinrich finally returns to Lüneburg, accompanied by the lion on a cloud. He falls asleep from tiredness and does not notice that demons want to kidnap him and kill the lion, who is defending his master. When Heinrich wakes up, he saves the big cat's life a second time.
In the meantime, Almaro has managed to persuade Metilde to marry him after all. The wedding preparations are in progress when Heinrich appears at court in disguise. When his wife finds his wedding ring in her wine cup, he reveals himself to her. Metilde is overjoyed. Almaro asks for forgiveness, whereupon Heinrich forgives him, because he needs the troops of the Burgundian duke for the siege of the city of Bardowick. During the fighting for the city, Idalba, Almaro's fiancé, saves his life. After a victorious battle, Heinrich announces the marriage of both. Out of gratitude, Barbarossa's daughter promises to mediate between her father and Heinrich.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
Work history
Agostino Steffani had been in the service of Duke Ernst August of Hanover as opera bandmaster through the mediation of the scholar Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who worked at the Hanover court, and was commissioned by the Duke of Guelph to compose a festival opera for the opening of the new palace opera house. The libretto is by Ortensio Mauro , who was court poet and secretary to Sophies von der Pfalz , wife of Duke Ernst August, between 1684 and 1704 . The first performance took place on January 30, 1689 in Italian and should at the same time form the culmination of the Hanoverian comparison between Brandenburg, Celle, Wolfenbüttel and Hanover. The soprano Vittoria Tarquini (called “la Bombace”), the tenor Antonio Borosini , Giuseppe Galloni and an unidentified castrato “Nicolino” or “Nicolini” (probably Nicola Paris or Remolini) sang in the world premiere.
Power political claim
The choice of the theme " Heinrich the Lion " was no coincidence, but an expression of Duke Ernst August's and the Welfenhaus's claim to power politics. The opera was intended to make it clear that the Welfs had determined and shaped the history of the empire long before the Brandenburgs, Saxons or Habsburgs . Duchess Sophie wrote in a letter to Leibniz: “Herr Hortensio [Mauro] is writing the play about Henry the Lion; I believe that the theme was chosen so that posterity just doesn't forget the rank that this house once held. ”Also the fact that the premiere in Hanover almost exactly on the 500th anniversary of the conquest and destruction of Bardowick by Heinrich den Leo took place, was a systematic approach.
Lüneburg instead of Braunschweig
Just as the politically given theme of "Heinrich the Lion" was to be understood as a demonstration of power by the Hanoverian Welfenhaus, so was the choice of Lüneburg as the main location for the action. Knowing that Braunschweig was the historically documented residence of Heinrich the Lion, Mauro moved the story to Lüneburg in order to meet the representational demands of the Hanoverian Guelphs here as well. In the later, German-language, performances, Braunschweig was made the location.
Later performances
After the world premiere, the work was performed in 1696 - this time in a German translation - in the Hamburg Opera on Gänsemarkt . Johann Oswald Harms , who later worked in the Braunschweig Opera House on Hagenmarkt , was responsible for the set , which was clearly based on Dutch seascapes . In the years 1697, 1699 and 1716 the opera was also performed in Braunschweig, after an arrangement by Georg Caspar Schürmann , in the house on Hagenmarkt. The translation was done by Gottlieb Fiedler . In the Braunschweig performance, however, the location of Lüneburg had been moved to the historically correct one, namely Braunschweig. Schürmann had also added some of his own duets and arias . This version was performed again during the summer fair in 1729.
admission
In 1986, Calig Verlag Munich published a recording by the Lower Saxony Chamber Orchestra and the Capella Agostino Steffani under the direction of Lajos Rovatkay .
literature
- Candace Marles: Opera as Instrumentum regni. Agostino Steffani's "Enrico Leone" . In: The Opera Quarterly , 1994; No. 11, pp. 43-78
Web links
- Libretto (Italian), 1689. Digitized version of the Wolfenbüttel digital library
- Work information and libretto on librettidopera.it (Italian)
- Enrico Leone (Agostino Steffani) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Work data on Enrico Leone based on MGG with discography at Operone
- Detailed information about the opera on klassika.info
- Newspaper article about the performance on Braunschweig's Burgplatz in 1995 (PDF; 129 kB) and photos of the scene
Individual evidence
- ^ Project Gutenberg: Brothers Grimm: German legends No. 526 : Heinrich the lion .
- ↑ Anja-Rosa Thöming: Enrico Leone. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 6: Works. Spontini - Zumsteeg. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-492-02421-1 , pp. 13-15.
- ^ Gerhard Croll: Agostino Steffani "Enrico Leone", Hanover 1689 ; Text supplement to: Agostino Steffani Enrico Leone - Heinrich the Lion. Dramma da recitarsi per l'anno 1689 nel nuovo Theatro d'Hannover , p. 2.
- ↑ Luckhardt, Jochen; Niehoff, Franz (ed.): Heinrich the lion and his time. Rule and Representation of the Guelphs 1125-1235 , Volume 3: Nachleben Department, p. 134.
- ↑ Croll, as above, p. 1 f.
- ↑ Helen Coffey: "Opera for the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Italian singers at the Hannover Court", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of the Leibniz-Zeit , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V & R-unipress), Göttingen, 2017, p. 107–122, here: p. 117, excerpts online as Google Book (English; accessed on October 21, 2019)
- ↑ Matthew Gardner: "Steffani's Italian Opera singers in Hanover, Recruitment and Vocal Style", in: Claudia Kaufold, Nicole K. Strohmann, Colin Timms (HRG.): Agostini Steffani - European composer, Hanoverian diplomat and bishop of Leibniz's time , ..., Göttingen, 2017, pp. 123-138, here: p. 128 (see previous footnote)
- ↑ Colin Timms: Polymath of the Baroque: Agostino Steffani and His Music , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 55, online as Google Book (English; accessed October 21, 2019)
- ↑ quoted from: Leisinger, Ulrich : Leibniz Reflexe in der Deutschen Musiktheorie des 18. Jahrhundert , p. 11 ff.
- ^ Croll, as above, p. 7.
- ^ Frese, Hans Martin: A stage designer of the baroque. Johann Oswald Harms in the service of Duke Anton Ulrichs , In: Braunschweig - Reports from the cultural life , Braunschweig 1971, pp. 16-21.
- ↑ Moderhack, Richard : Late medieval wall paintings for the Heinrichssage in Karden ad Mosel , in: Braunschweigische Heimat , 1978, 64th year, issue 2, September, p. 51.
- ↑ Luckhardt; Niehoff, as above, p. 131 f.
- ↑ Detailed information on the recording from 1986 .