Il Parnasso in festa

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Work data
Title: Il Parnasso in festa / The festival on Mount Parnassus for the wedding of Thetis and Peleus
Original title: Parnasso in festa per li sponsali di Teti e Peleo
The King's Theater on Haymarket in London, location of the world premiere.

The King's Theater on Haymarket in London, location of the world premiere.

Shape: Serenata in three parts
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Giacomo Rossi?
Premiere: March 13, 1734
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Place and time of the action: in mythical Arcadia , in mythical times
people

Il Parnasso in festa ( HWV 73 , original title Parnasso in festa per li sponsali di Teti e Peleo ) is a serenata in three parts by Georg Friedrich Handel . As the author of the anonymous libretto is Giacomo Rossi suspected. The premiere took place semi-staged on March 13, 1734 in the King's Theater on the Haymarket in London on the occasion of the wedding of Princess Anne to Prince William of Orange under the direction of Handel. It was one of the highlights of the celebration.

Emergence

On the occasion of the wedding of Handel's pupil and sponsor Princess Anna with the Prince of Orange, two major musical works were performed. Handel's rival company, the Opera of Nobility , performed an oratorio on the theme of David and Bathsheba . In this biblical material, King David commits adultery and has his beloved's husband killed. In addition, the child of David and Bathsheba dies shortly after birth. Handel, on the other hand, found a more suitable topic from Greek mythology for his Second Academy . Apollo and the Muses celebrate the wedding of Thetis and Peleus , a distinguished virtuous couple whose love only develops in the course of the plot. The libretto was written by an anonymous lyricist exclusively for the occasion. This emphasized the dynastic claim of the House of Hanover , which hosted the wedding. Handel chose the genre of the serenata as a semi-scenic form of composition, which was then commonly used to celebrate and pay homage to high-ranking public figures. It is his only contribution to this genre.

Since Handel had a trusting relationship with Princess Anne and the English King George II also attached great importance to his music, the composition had to be given a particularly splendid character. For this purpose he took over large parts of the oratorio Athalia , written for Oxford and not yet performed in London , changed the order of the movements, added nine new numbers and carefully revised many things. The contemporary music historian Charles Burney assessed the quality of the arrangement as follows: “The Italian words are underlaid to the borrowed music, as far as emphasis and expression are concerned, with such understanding and attention that, if we were not aware of the new and special occasion, at which Parnasso was edited in Festa, it would be difficult to discover whether the music was originally composed for the serenata or for the oratorio. ”The premiere took place on March 13, 1734, the eve of the wedding, in the King's Theater at Hay Market in London instead of. It was extremely well received and has been followed by a number of performances.

In addition to the usual opera orchestra of 24 strings, oboes, bassoons, two harpsichords and theorbo, the orchestra was expanded to include flutes, recorders, horns, trumpets and “timpani scordati” (muted timpani).

action

The serenata is set on the festively decorated Parnassus Mountains, the seat of the god Apollo and the muses. It has no actual plot in the sense of an opera. Instead, the protagonists appear one by one. They sing about the praise of pure love and celebrate together with dance and song the wedding of the nymph Thetis, the daughter of the sea god Nereus , with the Thessalian hero Peleus.

First part

In the first part, the muse of historiography Clio , the god Apollo, his son, the singer Orfeo , the war god Marte and the commenting choir appear. Clio introduces those present and Apollo invites the muses to the celebration. Apollo asks for Jupiter's blessing . Clio now recalls Apollo's own story with the nymph Daphne . She had fled from his courtship and was turned into a laurel tree by the gods in order to escape him. Apollo suppresses these memories and encourages everyone to drink in praise of Bacchus. Marte starts a drinking song, and Clio, too, surrenders to the effects of the alcohol.

Second part

The second part is dedicated to the Orfeo theme. Calliope , the muse of poetry, Apollo, the huntress Cloride, Euterpe , the muse of poetry, Clio and the choir alternately praise love, loyalty and the art of Orfeos. Orfeo himself expresses his grief over the loss of his lover Eurydice . After her death, he descended into the underworld to bring her back. But since he could not obey the divine command not to look for her on the way back, he had lost her a second time. Apollo asks him to forget his grief. Clio says that Orfeos' song can silence nature and make the birds forget about singing. Chloris would like to hear other than just soothing tones and is satisfied by the choir with a hunting song. Calliope asks Orfeo why he looked back when he came out of hell. He wishes to be able to forget the sad memory and asks the choir for pity. Apollo comforts him with the fact that his love is so chaste and pure a flame that it will appease the anger of the infernals ("infernals"). Clio and the Muses declare that the virtues of Peleus and Thetis would bless the earth with a magnitude equal to the power of Orfeos. Apollo asks the tritons of Neptune to blow their trumpets to celebrate the wedding. In the orchestra, however, horns play here instead of trumpets.

third part

In the last part the gods, muses, nymphs and shepherds unite to sing a song of praise for the bride and groom, love, heroic descendants and fame. The Sinfonia announces the arrival of Marte with military sounds. He opens the third part in which, together with the choir, he shows the bride and groom their glorious fate. Orfeo predicts the couple will have glorious descendants. Calliope asks Peleus to imitate the heroic deeds of his ancestors. At the request of Apollo, the nymphs and shepherds present the happy couple with fruits and flowers. Clio wishes the couple a long and happy life, whose virtue will serve as an example to the world. Euterpe prays that the couple will win hearts. Apollo, supported by the choir, prophesies the couple a long line of heroic and happy offspring.

Performance history

After the premiere on March 13, 1734, there were four subsequent performances in the King's Theater on March 16, 19, 23 and 26, 1734. The cast was:

Further London revivals of the Handel period took place on March 9 and 11, 1737 at the Theater Royal Covent Garden and on November 8, 1740 at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater .

The most famous contemporary revival took place on the occasion of Princess Anne's seventh wedding anniversary on March 14, 1741. This took place again at the King's Theater, the location of the world premiere, with the original set and original costumes.

From more recent times, some performances and a CD recording should be mentioned:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Burney, History IV, p. 377, quoted from Friedrich Chrysander: GF Handel: 2nd volume .
  2. ↑ Discography of the singer Elisabeth Cooymans on 401dutchdivas.nl , accessed on September 5, 2014.
  3. ↑ Program information of the Concertzender from February 21, 2005, accessed on September 5, 2014.
  4. ^ Report on the Göttingen Handel Festival 2005 in Online Musik Magazin , accessed on September 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ Program of the Handel Festival Halle 2014 on barock-konzerte.de , accessed on September 5, 2014.