Il ciclope

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Work data
Title: Il ciclope
Shape: Cantata drammatica
Original language: Italian
Music: The name of the composer of the first setting is not known
Libretto : Pietro Metastasio
Premiere: 1754
Place of premiere: Vienna
people

Il ciclope (German: "Der Kyklop") is a libretto for a Cantata drammatica for two voices by Pietro Metastasio . It was commissioned by Emperor Franz I in 1754 and performed privately at the Viennese court in order to emphasize the special bass voice of one of his servants.

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The libretto is about the ugly Cyclops Polifemo , who is in love with the beautiful nymph Galatea , although he knows that she already has a lover ( Aci ). Through love he feels his former strength dwindle (aria “Mio cor, tu prendi a scherno”). Galatea, however, makes fun of its advertising and looks. Polifemo thinks he would look less ugly to her if she didn't think about Aci all the time. In her aria “È vero, è vero” she agrees with him. Thereupon he threatens her and her lover in pictorial words full of allusions to mythology. Galatea, however, feels safe as she is certain of Cupid's support.

Settings

The following composers set this libretto to music:

year composer premiere Performance location Remarks
1754 anonymous 1754 Vienna
1776 Johann Adolph Hasse 1776 Venice
1787 Bonifazio Asioli 1787 "Cantata a due voci"
1804 Friedrich August Kanne 1804 Leipzig "Duodrama" op. 6
before 1812 Joseph Roesler before 1812 "Cantata a due voci"
1825 Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata 1825 Florence Cantata for soprano and bass;
composed for the competition of the Accademia delle Belle Arti
before 1832 Franz Xaver Kleinheinz before 1832
unknown Giuseppe Morosini unknown "Cantata" Polifemo

Recordings and performances in recent times

Digital copies

  1. ^ Libretto (Italian) as digitized version at the Munich Digitization Center . In: Opere del signor abate Pietro Metastasio , Volume 2, Herissant, Paris 1780, pp. 429–434.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Don Neville:  Metastasio [Trapassi], Pietro (Antonio Domenico Bonaventura). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  2. ^ Jacques Joly: Les fêtes théâtrales de Métastase à la cour de Vienne, 1731–1767. Pu Blaise Pascal, 1978, ISBN 978-2845160194 , p. 279 ff. ( Online at Google Books)
  3. ↑ Raffaele Mellace: Metastasio and Hasse: two "Habsburg" artists and their lifelong relationship (PDF)
  4. ^ Information on works on the cantata by Bonifazio Asioli in the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales , accessed on March 27, 2015.
  5. ^ Imogen Fellinger: Kanne, Friedrich August. In: Music in the past and present. Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( Digital Library Volume 60), p. 40063 (cf. MGG Vol. 16, p. 903).
  6. ^ Kanne, il Ciclope. In: Handbook of musical literature. Supplementary volume. Whistling, 1829, p. 1233 ( online at Google Books ).
  7. ↑ August “von” Kotzebue, Friedrich August Kuhn, G. Merkel: Der Freimüthige, or Berlinische Zeitung for educated, impartial readers. 1804, p. 437. Review of the duo drama by Friedrich August Kanne ( online at Google Books ).
  8. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Rösler, Joseph . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 26th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1874, pp. 242–244 ( digitized version ).
  9. ↑ Fabio Bisogni and Dorothea Keupp ( trans .): Casamorata, Luigi Ferdinando. In: Music in the past and present. Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( digital library volume 60), p. 12154 (see MGG vol. 15, p. 1354).
  10. ^ Hans Jancik: Kleinheinz, Franz Xaver. In: Music in the past and present. Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( Digital Library Volume 60), p. 42143 (cf. MGG Vol. 07, p. 1207).
  11. ^ Library dataset of the cantata by Giuseppe Morosini on polovea.sebina.it , accessed on March 27, 2015.
  12. ^ Johann Adolph Hasse: Il Ciclope / La Danza. CD information from Allmusic , accessed on March 27, 2015.
  13. ↑ Publications on the Hasse-Gesellschaft Bergedorf website ( memento of September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 27, 2015.