L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Work data
Title: Elpidia
Original title: L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi
Title page of the libretto, London 1725

Title page of the libretto, London 1725

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: Leonardo Vinci , Giuseppe Maria Orlandini , arrangement: Georg Friedrich Händel
Libretto : after Apostolo Zeno , I rivali generosi (1697)
Premiere: May 11, 1725
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Place and time of the action: Ravenna , 540
people

L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi or Elpidia ( HWV A 1 ) is a dramma per musica in three acts and the first pasticcio performed by George Frideric Handel in London.

Emergence

According to some researchers (e.g. Warren Treadgold), this contemporary mosaic from Ravenna is Belisarius. The assignment is uncertain.

The previous assumption in music historiography that the pasticcio L'Elpidia is a Handelian arrangement with the addition of own compositions (recitatives, two duets , two accompaniment recitatives ), e.g. B. with Reinhard Strohm and Bernd Baselt , was refuted by the discovery of a correspondence from the London theater manager Owen Swiney , published by Elizabeth Gibson in 1989, insofar as it emerges that the Royal Academy of Music received a finished opera pastry from Swiney in Venice .

The libretto printed for the first London performance states “ Signor Leonardo Vinci, except a few songs by Signor Giuseppe Orlandini ” as the composer of the components of the pasticcio. As Reinhard Strohm found out, most of the arias came from the three operas of the carnival season 1724/25 at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice: Leonardo Vinci's Ifigenia in Tauride (seven arias and final chorus) and La Rosmira fedele (six arias), as well as Giuseppe Maria Orlandini's Berenice (three arias). Strohm assumed that Elpidia was a free compilation of Handel and that he wrote the secco recitatives and perhaps some other pieces, such as the two duets (nos. 1 and 12), two accompaniments (nos. 3 and 18) and the final movement of the Sinfonia ( overture ) had composed for it. But as we can now assume, the directors of the Royal Academy have asked their agent in Italy, Swiney, to fill the void created by the departure of Giovanni Battista Bononcini from the Academy with additional repertoire. Swiney himself may have chosen Zeno's libretto, which was first performed in Venice in 1697 under the title I rivali generosi with music by Marc'Antonio Ziani , edited it and compiled the arias for the London singers he knew. The unmistakable style of the recitatives, however, clearly points to Vinci as the composer of them, as well as the two new duets and the Accompagnato recitatives. A duet from his Ifigenia became the final chorus.

The score that Swiney sent to London probably consisted only of the music of Vinci and Orlandini, but before the first performance of the opera the piece underwent considerable revisions, so the favorite arias of the singers present were used in several places, by Giovanni Maria Capelli and Francesco Peli, Domenico Sarro and Vinci. An aria from Berenice that Pacini was supposed to sing was replaced by another that he sang in Capellis Venceslao in 1724 . The role of Belisario, initially intended for a tenor, perhaps Alexander Gordon , was set up for the bassist Giuseppe Maria Boschi , who received three arias: he had once sung two of these in Antonio Lotti's Teofane (1719) in Dresden. It is noteworthy that the Cuzzoni sang five arias that had originally been composed for her rival Faustina Bordoni . Handel's role in these revisions is uncertain. Presumably he directed the performances since he was in possession of the director's score, but there are no verifiable traces of his hand in this manuscript. He changed some of Vinci's recitatives and shortened one of his arias.

Elpidia had on May 11, 1725 at the King's Theater premiere and this first pastiche of Royal Academy has been quite successful, because it ran until the end of the season to eleven nights, the last time on 19 June.

Cast of the premiere

The next season began on November 30, 1725 with a resumption of pasticcios. Antonio Baldi , Luigi Antinori and Anna Vicenza Dotti sang for Pacini, Borosini (he went back to Vienna) and Sorosina in a total of five performances until December 14th. For this second series of Elpidia , many of the arias were replaced by others by Geminiano Giacomelli , Domenico Sarro , and Orlandini and Vinci, mainly to deal with the new singers. The exact structure can no longer be determined, as no printed libretto from 1725 has survived.

The music publisher John Walsh published the overture and a total of nineteen chants, which is an unusually large number for a pasticcio. The main source for the opera Elpidia is the director's score (“hand copy”), which was used in both seasons. What is lacking in music there can be supplemented for the most part from the print by Walsh. Modern editions of the libretti from 1697 and 1725 were published by Lorenzo Bianconi in 1992.

action

In the sixth century, the Byzantine emperor Justinian sent his general Belisarius to Italy to recapture the country ruled by the Ostrogothic king Witichis .

At this point the opera begins. Belisario besieges the Eastern Gothic capital of Ravenna . Two Greek princes fight at his side: Olindo and Ormonte, but they are rivals for the love of Elpidia, the princess of Apulia. Though she loves Olindo, she declares that she will marry whoever is the bravest in battle. Vitige also has an eye on Elpidia and kidnapped her, while Ormonte captures Vitige's daughter Rosmilda, who immediately falls in love with him. Olindo turns himself over to Vitige to get Elpidia's release. Ormonte saves Olindo and forces him, out of gratitude, to forego Elpidia in his favor. Now Olindo threatens to accuse Ormonte of high treason and so Ormonte renounces it, Ormonte resigns from his claims on Elpidia and agrees to marry Rosmilda.

Handel and the pasticcio

The pasticcio was a source for Handel, of which he made frequent use in the following years. They weren't new in London or on the continent, but so far Handel hadn't brought one to the stage. After L'Elpidia , he produced seven arrangements of this kind within five years: Ormisda in 1729/30, Venceslao in 1730/31, Lucio Papirio dittatore 1731/32, Catone in 1732/33, and no fewer than three, Semiramide riconosciuta , Caio Fabbricio and Arbace in 1733/34. Handel's working method in the construction of the pasticci was very different, but all materials are based on libretti by Zeno or Metastasio , familiar in the European opera metropolises , which many contemporary composers had adopted - above all Leonardo Vinci , Johann Adolph Hasse , Nicola Porpora , Leonardo Leo , Giuseppe Orlandini and Geminiano Giacomelli . Handel composed the recitatives or adapted existing ones from the chosen template. Very rarely did he rewrite an aria, usually in order to adapt it to a different pitch and tessit . For example in Semiramide riconosciuta , where he completely recomposed an aria for an old castrato Saper bramante (No. 14) for bassist Gustav Waltz , because a simple octave transposition (which has been common since the 1920s until today) was not an option for him. Wherever possible, he included the repertoire of the singer in question in the selection of arias. Most of the time the arias had to be transposed when they were transferred from one context to another or transferred from one singer to another. They also got a new text by means of the parody process . The result didn't always have to make sense, because it was more about letting the singers shine than producing a coherent drama. Aside from Ormisda and Elpidia , who were the only ones to see revivals , Handel's pasticci weren't particularly successful - Venceslao and Lucio Papirio dittatore only had four performances each - but like revivals, they required less work than composing and rehearsing new works could well be used as a stopgap or start of the season, or step in when a new opera, as was the case with Partenope in February 1730 and Ezio in January 1732, was a failure. Handel's pasticci have one important common feature: the sources were all contemporary and popular materials that had been set to music in the recent past by many composers who set in the “modern” Neapolitan style . He had introduced this with the Elpidia in London and later this style merged with his own contrapuntal way of working to create that unique mixture that permeates his later operas.

orchestra

Two oboes , two trumpets , strings, basso continuo ( violoncello , lute , harpsichord ).

literature

  • Reinhard Strohm : Handel's pasticci. In: Essays on Handel and Italian Opera . Cambridge University Press, 1985, Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-26428-0 , pp. 167 ff. (English)
  • Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Instrumental music, pasticci and fragments. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 3. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7618-0716-3 .
  • John H. Roberts: L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi. In: Annette Landgraf, David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia . Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 , pp. 211 f. (English)
  • Apostolo Zeno : L'Elpidia, overo li rivali generosi. Drama per musica. Da rappresentarsi nel Regio Teatro di Hay-Market, per la Reale Accademia di Musica. Reprint of the 1725 libretto, Gale Ecco, Print Editions, Hampshire 2010, ISBN 978-1-170-97569-5 .
  • Steffen Voss : Pasticci: Elpidia, ovvero li rivali generosi. In: Hans Joachim Marx (Hrsg.): The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes: The Handel Lexicon. Volume 6. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, ISBN 978-3-89007-552-5 , p. 558.

Web links

Commons : L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Reinhard Strohm : Handel's pasticci. In: Essays on Handel and Italian Opera . Cambridge University Press, 1985, Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-26428-0 , pp. 167 ff.
  2. ^ Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Instrumental music, pasticci and fragments. In: Walter Eisen (ed.): Handel manual . Volume 3. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7618-0716-3 , p. 345.
  3. ^ Elizabeth Gibson: The Royal Academy of Music, 1719-1728: The Institution and Its Directors . Garland Publishing, New York / London 1989, ISBN 0-8240-2342-0 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f John H. Roberts: L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi. In: Annette Landgraf, David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia . Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 , pp. 211 f.
  5. ↑ Lorenzo Bianconi: I: Da Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria (1707) a L'Elpidia, overo Li rivali generosi (1725). In: I libretti italiani di Georg Friedrich Händel e le loro fonti , Leo S. Olschki Verlag, Florence 1992.
  6. ↑ Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006. Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , pp. 128 f.