Il trionfo d'Amore (Metastasio)
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Il trionfo d'Amore |
Performance of the ballet “Le Triomphe de l'amour” by Florian Leopold Gassmann on January 24, 1765 by the three youngest children of Maria Theresa : Ferdinand , Maria Antonia and Maximilian |
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| Shape: | Azione teatrale |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | First setting by Florian Leopold Gassmann |
| Libretto : | Pietro Metastasio |
| Premiere: | January 25, 1765 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | On the shores of Cyprus , mythical time |
| people | |
Il trionfo d'Amore (German: "Der Triumph Amors") is a libretto for an azione teatrale in part by Pietro Metastasio . It is a fundamentally revised and abridged version of L'asilo d'Amore from 1732. It was performed for the first time in the setting by Florian Leopold Gassmann on January 25, 1765 for the wedding of Joseph II with his second wife Maria Josepha of Bavaria in Schönbrunn Palace .
action
In a fishing cave on the coast of Cyprus, Venus warns her son Amor, dressed as a fisherman, of the wrath of the other gods. After considering whether to flee with young girls (who behave too conspicuously), young men (who are either whining or arrogant) or older people (who lose their temper), he decides to go alone to a safe haven to search. Meanwhile, Venus wants to oppose the gods.
The cave disappears and the Palace of Venus, adorned with statues and reliefs from her life, appears. Venus is in her clamshell drawn by pigeons. She is surrounded by graces and cupids. The gods Apollo , Mars , Pallas and Mercury come in their carriages, accompanied by geniuses. They complain that the lovers are putting their hope in such a cruel god and ask Venus about Cupid's whereabouts. Mercury demands that he justify himself to Jupiter. They agree to Venus' suggestion to await his return. Apollo sends his geniuses to look for him. In his aria he advises them not to look in places of calm, but in places where deceit and grief prevail. One by one, the gods bring his complaints against Cupid. Mercury accuses him of insulting the gods and bullying mortals. Apollo accuses him of ensuring that art is no longer praised for heroic deeds, but rather idleness and laziness. According to Mars, he turns fearless warriors into foolish lovers. Pallas points out that Cupid is messing up the whole world and robbing each of the gods part of their power.
Venus declares that the allegations are justified. But her son cannot be held responsible for the damage. Rather, the guilt lies with the lovers themselves who misuse his gifts. To solve the problems, Venus suggests placing Cupid under the supervision of a teacher. In the second discussion that follows, the gods try to find a suitable person for this task. However, the various proposals such as “time” or “anger” are discarded, and eventually all renew their charges against Cupid.
The dispute is interrupted by Cupid's appearance. He gradually appears in a small cloud and is accompanied by geniuses. Cupid accuses himself of a new crime for igniting Joseph and Maria Josepha for each other. He asks the other deities to punish him for it. However, they are moved, are happy for the couple and finally declare themselves defeated. When they ask Amor to take them to Austria to the royal bride and groom, the latter replies in astonishment: “How! a blind person! a boy! ”(“ Come! un cieco! un fanciullo! ”). This leads to Apollo's final answer: “He is blind who refuses your innocent gifts. He is a child who accuses you of the same error ”(“ È cieco chi s'abusa de 'tuoi doni innocenti; È fanciul chi t'accusa del proprio error ”). The piece ends with a chorus of praise for Cupid.
history
In 1765, Metastasio was commissioned by Maria Theresa to revise his libretto L'asilo d'Amore , which had already been written for Linz in 1732, on the occasion of the wedding celebration of Joseph II with his second wife Maria Josepha of Bavaria . This work had never been performed in Vienna. On the one hand, adjustments were necessary for the new purpose, since it was originally written for the birthday party of Empress Elisabeth Christine , and on the other hand, the tastes of the audience had also changed, who wanted greater uniformity and better dramatic context. In addition, for economic reasons it was necessary to shorten the duration of the performance, to reduce the number of arias and characters and to adapt the use of the stage machinery to the conditions in the theater of Schönbrunn Palace , as the earlier text had been performed outdoors. Metastasio had been overwhelmed with work in 1765 and complained in a letter that there was not enough time for it. So it was certainly convenient for him not to have to write a new work in this case. Nevertheless, he was not satisfied with the most necessary adjustments to the wedding celebration, but revised the text so fundamentally that he saw it as an independent work. He tightened the dramatic plot and shortened the text by a quarter. The most important change, however, concerns the end. While the sea god Proteo appears in the original version and tells of Cupid's refuge, it is now Cupid himself who brings the plot to a close in order to begin the celebration of the wedding couple. Cupid's victory takes place on stage and is not just told by a third person. The figure of the Proteo has been completely deleted. However, the basic structure of the piece was retained. The prologue of Venus and Cupid was only slightly shortened. Metastasio, on the other hand, reduced the text of the subsequent debate between the deities Venus, Apollon, Mars, Mercury and Pallas by almost half of the original length while maintaining the sequence and the psychological and moral content. Only the aria of Mars remained; that of Pallas was replaced by an aria that was previously performed at a later point. Two other arias have been deleted. The second dispute over the choice of teacher was also reduced. The "reason" originally proposed by Venus is no longer mentioned. The conclusion of the conversation, in which Venus described the benefits of Cupid as a synthesis of opposing powers and the world's first driving force, was also omitted.
On the occasion of this wedding in 1765, a series of performances took place in Schönbrunn, which were performed by members of the imperial family and the nobility. The gift of the children of Joseph's sister Maria Theresia consisted of a performance of Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Il Parnaso confuso (also based on a text by Metastasios) on January 24th. Maria Josepha , Maria Elisabeth and Maria Karolina played the roles of the three muses and Maria Amalia the Apollo. The three youngest children then performed a little ballet with the French title “Le Triomphe de l'amour”, in which Ferdinand and Maria Antonia played a shepherd couple while Maximilian played Cupid. The ballet is depicted in a painting by Johann Franz Greipel or Johann Georg Weikert, which can be seen in the Vienna Hofburg . The Serenata described here, with the almost identical Italian name Il trionfo d'Amore , was performed on the following day, January 25, 1765. The music for the last two works came from Florian Leopold Gassmann . Due to the similarity of names, they are sometimes confused in the literature. The performance of Il trionfo d'Amore was performed by well-known singers: Rosa Tartaglini Tibaldi sang Venus, alto Gaetano Guadagni sang Apollon, Elisabetta Teuber the Pallas, the soprano Luca Fabris the Amor, the tenor Giuseppe Tibaldi the Mars and Giuseppe Ristorini the Mercury. On January 30th, Gluck's opera Telemaco ossia L'isola di Circe was performed with the same performers.
The Serenata Augurio di felicità, o sia Il trionfo d'Amore by Marcos António Portugal , assigned to this libretto by Grove Music Online , is based, according to recent research, on the composer's own text, who used verses from various works by Metastasius. This composition was performed on November 7, 1817 for the wedding of the Portuguese Crown Prince Pedro de Alcântara with Carolina Giuseppa Leopoldina in Rio de Janeiro .
Performances in recent times
In 2000 Gassmann's Serenata was performed in the Ballenstedt Castle Theater with the ensembles L'Azione Teatrale and Savaria Baroque under the direction of Reinhold Kubik . The production came from Margit Legler , who also took on the role of Amor.
Web links
- Libretto as digitized version (Italian) on Google Books .
- Augurio di Felicità o sia Il Trionfo d'Amore. Libretto of the Serenata by Marcos António Portugal as full text (Italian) on iar.unicamp.br .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Don Neville: Metastasio [Trapassi], Pietro (Antonio Domenico Bonaventura). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ Metastasio, Pietro in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart , p. 50861 ff (cf. MGG vol. 9, p. 229 ff.) Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( digital library volume 60).
- ↑ Il trionfo d'Amore (Florian Leopold Gassmann) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Tour of the Imperial Apartments → Large anteroom on the website of the Hofburg Vienna , accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ^ Jacques Joly: Les fêtes théâtrales de Métastase à la cour de Vienne, 1731–1767. Pu Blaise Pascal, 1978, ISBN 978-2845160194 , p. 129 ff.
- ↑ Julia Teresa Friehs: La Boum II - the party continues: Private performances by the imperial children. Article on habsburger.net , accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Gluck as once in the Kaiserhaus (PDF) on schoenbrunn.at ( memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Il trionfo d'Amore (Florian Leopold Gassmann) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Review of the performance of Telemann's Telemaco at Theater Basel in Online Musik Magazin , accessed on February 26, 2015.
- ^ University of Western Ontario : Il trionfo d'Amore. ( Online, PDF ).
- ↑ Augurio di felicità, o sia Il trionfo d'amore (Marcos António Portugal) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ Alberto José Vieira Pacheco: O Libreto de Augurio di Felicità, o Sia Il Trionfo d'Amore de Marcos Portugal: um pastiche literário on revistas.ufg.br (Portuguese), accessed on February 24, 2015.
- ↑ L'AZIONE TEATRALE III to the website of Margit Legler retrieved on February 24, 2014.