L'asilo d'Amore
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | L'asilo d'Amore |
Title page of the libretto from 1732 |
|
| Shape: | Festa teatrale |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | First setting by Antonio Caldara |
| Libretto : | Pietro Metastasio |
| Premiere: | August 28, 1732 |
| Place of premiere: | Hauptplatz , Linz |
| Place and time of the action: | Close to the shore on the island of Cyprus , mythical time |
| people | |
L'asilo d'Amore (German: "The refuge of Cupid") is a libretto for a Festa teatrale in one act by Pietro Metastasio . It was performed for the first time in the setting by Antonio Caldara on August 28, 1732 in the main square in Linz on the birthday of Empress Elisabeth-Christine , the wife of Charles VI.
action
The following table of contents is based on the translation by Johann Adam Hiller .
The scene is a natural cave in a mountain on the coast of Cyprus. Nets, fish traps and similar things indicate that there are fishermen in the area. The stones around the cave are covered with moss and ivy, and the water flowing down from the mountain meanders through the unevenness of the ground. The grotto is only reached by daylight through cracks in the rock and is therefore halfway at dusk.
Venere warns her son Amore of the wrath of the other gods who feel offended by him. She urges him to flee the island. Amore has dressed up as a fisherman and feels safe. Yet he gives in to their requests. Venere advises him to disguise himself as a girl and to escape with young women. However, their behavior would immediately betray him. On the other hand, if he were surrounded by young men, they would not accept him as a friend or as a master. Older people would not be able to maintain their usual seriousness in his presence. Before they can make up their minds, the hostile gods are already approaching, and Amore decides to find a safe haven alone. Venere goes to stop the enemy. Before his escape, Amore turns to the loving souls, who now have to do without.
The cave disappears and the Palace of the Venere appears near the shore on the sea. The decorations and statues on the building refer to events from the life of Venere and Amore or express their characteristics symbolically. In front of the palace, Apollo, Marte, Pallade and Mercurio appear on clouds with chariots designed according to their characteristics. Venere comes towards them in a shell drawn by pigeons. In the palace there are graces and gods of love from the service of the Venere. The other gods are accompanied by geniuses.
The choir of geniuses and the gods ask Venere where Amore is. He must answer to Jupiter for his crimes. When Venere asked what he was accused of, they answered: he turned the bottom of the world, he mocked the gods and tormented mortals and demanded that the government of heaven and earth be established according to his wishes. Each of the gods brings their own complaints and deepens them in an aria. He stole the zither from Apollo and misuses it to seduce people. Marte complains that even in war he confuses the soldiers. He had wrested control of the fine arts from Mercurio. Pallade accuses him of undermining virtue and science. The list of Amore's crimes ends with the choir's wish that his reign should come to an end.
Venere replied to the allegations that her son was not responsible for the damage. Rather, his foolish companions, the lovers, are to blame. If these did not abuse his gifts, he would be rest after labor, nourishment for peace, and encouragement to virtue. For Marte, however, it doesn't matter whether Amore is directly or indirectly to blame. In any case, the problems with his exile would come to an end. Venere suggests placing him under the supervision of a strict teacher instead. Since he was still young, he could probably change. The most suitable person for this is the time that will gradually wean him off the debauchery. Apollo considers this a futile hope, since his soul would get used to the evil beforehand. Venere now suggests sending him to the school of quarrels to fight one evil with the other. Marte thinks nothing of it, because quarrels and Amore, although enemies, would always appear together and get along well. Mercurio dismisses Veneres' next suggestion that Busyness disarm Amore. Especially those who are very busy are easy to overcome by Amore. Finally, Venere suggests submitting Amore to reason, but Pallade thinks that as a blind child he does not understand their language and will probably even lead his guide astray. After all of their proposals have been rejected, Venere points out the virtues of Amore. He maintains the calm between the elements, unites what has separated and creates the world over and over again through an eternal cycle. The other gods, however, are not so easily calmed down and in chorus renew their demand for Amore's downfall.
After the end of the choir, the sea rises higher. In a chariot made of shells and corals, drawn by sea horses, Proteo appears, accompanied by nereids and tritons, and approaches the shore.
Proteo urges the offended gods to calm down and make peace. Amore found a sanctuary. His current opponents will soon be his friends because he has changed. He hid himself in Eli's cradle (Empress Elisabeth-Christine , depending on the occasion of the performance, the celebrated ruler is honored here; in Hasse's version of 1743 it is King August III ), found all the virtues gathered there and absorbed them . The other gods let themselves be convinced of this turn and forego their revenge. At the end of the work, the choir celebrates the happy day.
history
L'asilo d'Amore was performed for the first time on August 28, 1732 in the main square of Linz on the occasion of the birthday of Emperor Elisabeth-Christine . This and her husband, Emperor Karl VI. resided at this time with part of the court in Linz to receive the homage from Upper Austria. The work was lavishly staged by the imperial theater engineer Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena and performed by well-known singers, including Theresa Holzhauser (the wife of the composer Georg Reutter ) as Venere and probably her youngest brother Domenico Holzhauser as Amore. The other actors were the soprano Barbara Pisani (Pallade), the former castrato Gaetano Orsini (Apollo), the soprano castrato Domenico Genovesi (Mercurio), the bass Christoph Praun (Marte) and the tenor Gaetano Borghi (Proteus).
On the occasion of the wedding of Joseph II with his second wife Maria Josepha of Bavaria in 1765, Metastasio fundamentally revised the libretto under the name Il trionfo d'Amore . He regarded this version as an independent work. It was set to music by Florian Leopold Gassmann .
1770 appeared on the occasion of the wedding of the Dauphin, the later Louis XVI. , a French imitation of the text under the name L'asyle de l'Amour. It is attributed to the Abbé Claude de La Paumerelle (born 1746) based on the initials "PMLDPDB" ("par Monsieur l'Abbé de (La) Paumerelle de B.").
In 1786 the composer and music writer Johann Adam Hiller published in his book Ueber Metastasio und seine Werke: In addition to some pieces translated into German, a German translation under the title Die Freystätte Amors.
In L'asilo d'Amore , Metastasio considers two main principles of Cartesianism , a philosophy that he had already studied in his youth with Gregorio Caloprese : passions and emotions are therefore not bad per se; Virtue and morality lie in the extent to which one is able to control the actions that result from it. Mestastio had already dealt with this topic in his early work Giustino . In the Asilo , Venus explains that the gifts of Amore can only trigger follies in the hands of fools. In contrast to these, the Empress Elisa has such a great virtue that she acts as a model of moral strength for others - Amore herself included. Lodovico Antonio Muratori praised this approach Metastasios for the ease and humor with which it conveyed the moral message.
Settings
The following composers set this libretto to music:
| year | composer | premiere | Performance location | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1732 | Antonio Caldara | August 28, 1732 | Linz | “Festa teatrale per musica” on the birthday of Empress Elisabeth-Christine |
|
| 1732 or 1737 | Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli | 1732 or 1737, court theater | Braunschweig | "Festa teatrale" | |
| 1738 | Giovanni Battista Pescetti | Spring 1738, King's Theater on Haymarket | London | "intermezzo" | |
| 1742 | Johann Adolph Hasse | July 1742 | Naples | "Festa teatrale"; also on October 7, 1743 for the birthday of August III. in Hubertusburg (according to Neville this was the world premiere) |
|
| 1743 | Paolo Scalabrini | 1743 | Vienna | "Festa teatrale" | |
| 1750 | Francesco Corselli | 1750, Coliseo del Buen Retiro | Madrid | “Serenata” for the wedding of Infanta Maria Antonia of Spain with Viktor Amadeus III. , the Prince of Savoy; also on April 12, 1759 in the Buen Retiro, Salón de los Reinos in Madrid |
|
| 1758 | Niccolò Jommelli | 1758, court theater | Stuttgart | ||
| 1769 | Giuseppe Sarti | July 22, 1769, court theater | Christiansborg | “Dramatic cantata”, revised by Jacques-Marie Deschamps as L'asile de l'amour | |
| 1775 | anonymous ( pasticcio ) | 1775 | London | "Cantata", libretto arranged as La difesa d'amore by Francesco Badini | |
| 1787 | Pyotr Aleksejevich Skokov | February 2, 1787 | Naples | ||
| 1789 | Johann Gottfried shift | 1789 | |||
| 1797 | Thank God Benedict Bierey | 1797 |
Recordings and performances in recent times
-
Antonio Caldara
- 2016 (performances in the Český Krumlov Castle Theater ): Ondřej Macek (conductor and harpsichord), Zuzana Vrbová (director), Hof-Musici baroque orchestra. Kristýna Fílová (Venere), Pavla Štěpničková (Amore), Jana Dvořáková (Pallade), Veronika Mráčková Fučíková (Apollo), Lucie Prokopová (Mercurio), Ivo Michl (Marte), Tomáš Kočan (Proteo).
Web links
Digital copies
- ^ A b Johann Adam Hiller: Ueber Metastasio und seine Werke , Leipzig 1786, as a digitized version on Google Books.
- ↑ Abbé Claude de La Paumerelle: L'asyle de l'Amour. France, 1770. Digitized in Gallica .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the Serenata by Antonio Caldara, Linz 1732. Digitized in the Internet Culturale portal .
- ↑ Libretto (Italian / German) of the Serenata by Johann Adolph Hasse, Hubertusburg 1743. Digitized version of the Munich digitization center .
- ^ Libretto (Italian / Spanish) of the Serenata by Francesco Corselli, Madrid 1750. Digitized at Google Books.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e 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).
- ^ A b L'asilo d'Amore (Antonio Caldara) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on February 6, 2015.
- ^ A b c Don Neville, Joseph Raffa: L'asilo d'Amore ( Online, PDF ).
- ^ Jacques Joly: Les fêtes théâtrales de Métastase à la cour de Vienne, 1731–1767. Pu Blaise Pascal, 1978, ISBN 978-2845160194 , p. 122 ff ( limited preview on Google Books).
- ↑ List of the stage works by Giuseppe Paganelli based on the MGG at Operone, accessed on October 5, 2014.
- ↑ L'asilo d'amore (Paganelli) at Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres, Stanford University, accessed October 5, 2014.
- ^ Libretto record of the Serenata by Giuseppe Paganelli on Google Books.
- ^ List of the stage works by Giovanni Battista Pescetti based on the MGG at Operone, accessed on September 29, 2014.
- ↑ Asilo d'amore (Johann Adolf Hasse) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on February 6, 2015.
- ^ List of stage works by Johann Adolf Hasse based on MGG at Operone, accessed on September 29, 2014.
- ^ Alfred Noe: The Italian court poets. The end of an era. In: Elisabeth Fritz-Hilscher (Ed.): In the service of a state idea. Arts and artists at the Viennese court around 1740 (= Viennese musicological contributions, volume 24). Böhlau, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-205-78927-7 . P. 38.
- ^ L'asilo d'amore (Francesco Corselli) at Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres, Stanford University, accessed February 6, 2015.
- ^ List of the stage works by Francesco Corselli based on the MGG at Operone, accessed on September 29, 2014.
- ↑ L'asilo d'amore (Niccolò Jommelli) at the opening night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres, Stanford University, accessed February 6, 2015.
- ↑ List of stage works by Giuseppe Sarti based on the MGG at Operone, accessed on September 29, 2014.
- ^ Libretto record of the anonymous cantata on Google Books.
- ^ Libretto data set for the anonymous cantata at the University Library of Ghent .
- ^ Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli: Il Settecento. Electa, Naples 1994, ISBN 978-8843548187 , p. 433.
- ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 2. Altenburg 1857, p. 765 ( online at Zeno.org ).
- ^ Hof-Musici a Caldara: Strahovský klášter útočištěm lásky (Czech) , accessed on September 28, 2016.