L'eroe cinese
| Work data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | L'eroe cinese |
Third act, last scene. |
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| Shape: | Opera seria |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | First setting by Giuseppe Bonno |
| Libretto : | Pietro Metastasio |
| Premiere: | May 13, 1752 |
| Place of premiere: | Garden theater at Schönbrunn Palace , Vienna |
| Place and time of the action: | Chinese imperial residence city Singana, 827 BC. Chr |
| people | |
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L'eroe cinese is an opera - libretto in three acts by Pietro Metastasio . It was also set to music under the name Narbale . It was performed for the first time in a setting by Giuseppe Bonno on May 13, 1752 in the garden theater of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna by the daughters of Empress Maria Theresa and her friends.
A German translation of the libretto by Johann Anton Koch appeared in 1774 under the name Der Chines Held in the sixth volume of his unfinished complete edition Des Herr Abbot Peter Metastasio Kayserl. Royal Court Poet's Dramatic Poems.
action
The opera is based on a report in the historical work Description de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise (Description of China and the Chinese Tatarei ) by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde , published in 1735 . It is about the successor of the Chinese emperor Li vang ( Zhou Livang , Livanio), the tenth emperor of the third dynasty ( Zhou ). After his fall, his son Suen vang ( Zhou Xuanwang , Svenvango) was saved by his minister Tchao kong ( Gonghe , Le ang, Leango) by exchanging him for his own son, who was subsequently murdered. Twenty years later these events are cleared up and the rightful heir to the throne reinstated.
“In the great Chinese empire, the heroic fidelity of the old Leango is still famous to this day, after so many centuries.
In a general uprising, where his master, the Kayser Livanio, was forced to flee and, in order to get the life out of the barbaric hands of the angry mob, the young Suenvango, the only posthumous heir of the murdered Kayser family receive; thus Leango exchanged his young son for the imperial by a glorious deception, by tying his own in a clever and unnoticed way in the other's diapers. With a heroic generosity, regardless of his fatherly tenderness, he saw his son pierced with many blows, without revealing the secret.
This history is taken from P. du Halde in his description of the stories of the Chinese monarchy in the history of Tchao-Kong.
The performance is in the Imperial Resident City. "
The following table of contents is based on the libretto used by Antonio Sacchini in 1771.
first act
Room of the Tartar prisoners in the imperial palace with paintings, rich furnishings, lifelike painted wallpaper and other Chinese jewelry
On one side there is a table and chair.
The Tatar princesses Lisinga and Ulania are held as prisoners at the Chinese court. Lisinga is in love with Siveno, the son of the current Chinese regent Leango. At the beginning of the opera she receives a letter from her father, in which he reports on the peace agreement between China and the Tatar Empire. To seal it, Lisinga should marry the Chinese heir to the throne. Lisinga is desperate. She has to give up Siveno and wonders who could be the heir to the throne, since the prince was murdered in childhood after the overthrow of Emperor Livango twenty years ago. The throne has remained vacant since that time and is held by Leango for his successor. Siveno promises Lisinga to remain loyal to her.
The war mandarin Minteo confesses his love to Ulania. This behaves repellent because he is below her in rank. Secretly, however, she also loves him, which Minteo does not hide. After she leaves, Leango comes and reminds Minteo of how he supported him and made him his current position. Now he will need his help in return. Since the rebels have been defeated and there is finally peace in the empire, Leango now wants to announce the identity of the heir to the throne and crown him.
Meanwhile, the council has decided to crown Leango emperor himself on the basis of his merits, and Siveno brings this news to him. Leango has a meeting called to give his response. Lisinga is relieved that Leango's son Siveno is now the promised heir to the throne.
Second act
Paths overlooking the imperial city of Singane and the river flowing past it
Towers, roofs, idol temples, ships and trees with an exotic look.
Since Leango refuses the throne and wants to present the true imperial heir shortly, Siveno believes he will lose Lisinga. In order not to be constantly reminded of her, he wants to leave town. Ulania assures him that Lisinga will remain loyal to him and renounce the kingdom. But Siveno does not want to allow that. He rejects her request to speak to Lisinga at least one more time before he fled, as it would cause him too much pain. After he leaves, Minteo comes and tells Ulania that a popular uprising has broken out that he needs to take care of. Ulania asks him to be careful and indirectly confesses her love to him.
Leango tells Lisinga that she should become empress today. Because she does not yet know that Siveno is the heir to the throne, she asks him for a respite. You have already forgiven your heart. However, Leango cannot reveal the truth to her until his Tatar helpers have arrived.
The arrival of the Tatars is reported to Leango and he informs Siveno of his identity as the heir to the throne, Svenvango. After he leaves, however, Minteo comes and tells Siveno that he himself is Livanios' son and thus the new ruler. He had just learned this from old Alsingo, who saved him as a child and passed him off as his own son. When Leango was offered the throne today, Alsingo could no longer be silent. Minteo assures Siveno of his friendship and leaves. Siveno is confused and can't be happy with Lisinga, who already thinks he's her bridegroom.
Third act
A lonely and shady place in the imperial gardens
Siveno comes to Lisinga with the Chinese guard. He orders the soldiers to bring Lisinga to safety in the tower and asks them to wait for him there until the rebellion is put down. Lisinga tries to follow him, but is stopped by Leango, who calms her down. The Tatar reinforcements have already arrived and will support them. The castle itself is defended by Minteo. When Lisinga tells him that Siveno is also on his way to the battle zone, he sends the guards to get him back. Lisinga calmly goes into the castle. Now Ulania comes and tells Leango that the castle is not guarded. Minteo himself is the leader of the rebels and wants to take the throne. Minteo comes to them and Leango calls him a traitor. Minteo, however, calms him down. The people consider him the real Svenvango. But he wants to ask Leango for advice and has nothing to do with the uprising. Because Ulania claims to have seen him among the rebels, Minteo confirms his loyalty to Leango, takes off his sword and declares that he will wait for his decision. Ulania and Leango are impressed by his virtue. Leango asks both of them to follow him to the temple to see the real king. Minteo, however, first wants to find Siveno and get him out of danger.
The illuminated interior of the great imperial idol temple
The design and decorations of the building correspond to the taste and the temple service of this people. Bigwigs, war and learned mandarins, great gentlemen and guards.
Lisinga tells Leango about the presumed death of Siveno. She saw him fighting with the insurgents when he was cornered by the enemy and fell into the river. Leango believes that all his efforts have been in vain and wishes for death. Then Ulania comes and reports that Siveno was saved by Minteo. The insurgents have also given up.
Siveno and Minteo come in the wake of Chinese, who bring the blood-smeared royal children's clothes on a basin. Siveno declares Minteo the real heir. Leango now gives him a document from the former emperor Livanio, in which he confirms that Siveno is his son and that Leango heroically saved him. When Siveno points out the clothes in which little Svenvango was apparently murdered, Leango replies that it was not the heir to the throne who was killed, but his own son, whom he put in royal clothes to protect the prince. He himself observed the act. He doesn't want to see today's happy day spoiled by this sad memory. Then he is interrupted by Minteo, who explains that he himself is this supposedly murdered son. At that time he was rescued and raised by old Alsingo, who had believed that this would preserve the real prince. His scars on his hand and neck are proof. So Siveno is really the heir to the throne, and Minteo is Leango's son. Everyone is deeply touched. At the end of the opera, the choir praises the loyalty of the hero Leango.
history
In addition to the historical report from the first volume of Du Halde's historical work Description de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise , Metastasio also featured the Chinese drama 趙氏孤兒 ( Tchao-chi-cou-eulh or Zhaoshi gu'er , dt .: The orphan von Zhao ) by Ji Junxiang (Hi-Him-Siang), which was published as another volume of the same work. L'orphelin de la maison de Tchao ( The Orphan of the House of Tchao ) was translated into French by the Jesuit missionary Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare and was the first ever Chinese drama to be translated into a European language. It was later translated into other languages and formed the basis for further adaptations such as Voltaire's L'orphelin de la Chine ( The Orphan from China ) from 1755. The film Sacrifice by Chen Kaige (2010) is also based on this drama. The 2009 first performed opera The Orphan (dt .: The orphan ) by Jeffrey Ching processes the material and quotes some lines from Metastasio's libretto.
As with Il re pastore , which Metastasio had written the previous year, L'eroe cinese is an occasional piece of work for Empress Maria Theresa , which her daughters and their friends, the "noble young ladies and gentlemen" ("giovani distine dame e cavalieri ”) was performed at the Habsburg court itself in the garden theater of Schönbrunn Palace. The courtly custom brought some restrictions with it. For example, the clothes of the female performers had to completely cover their legs, even if they were male characters. This ruled out an action set in ancient Greece or Rome, and so Metastasio opted for an Asian theme. To make matters worse, none of the noble actors could be expected to play the role of a villain, and that the number of scenes, arias and roles as well as the overall length of the piece were limited. In the period that followed, around twenty other settings appeared.
Settings
The following composers used this libretto for an opera:
| year | composer | premiere | Performance location | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1752 | Giuseppe Bonno | May 13, 1752, garden theater at Schönbrunn Palace | Vienna | also in 1755 in the Teatro de la Santa Cruz in Barcelona |
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| 1753 | anonymous | May 30, 1753, Teatro San Moisè | Venice | ||
| 1753 | Davide Perez | June 6th 1753, Teatro di Corte | Lisbon | ||
| 1753 | Baldassare Galuppi | July 10, 1753, Teatro San Carlo | Naples | also on April 12, 1766 at the King's Theater on Haymarket in London | |
| 1753 | Johann Adolph Hasse | October 7, 1753 for the Dresden court of August III. | Hubertusburg | also in July 1754 in the Theater am Dragoner-Stall in Hamburg; revised as The Chinese Hero on July 18, 1773 in the Royal Theater of Sanssouci , Berlin / Potsdam ; Performed in Amsterdam
on June 1, 1985 under the direction of Ton Koopman |
|
| 1754 | Nicola Conforto | 23 September 1754, Real Teatro del Buen Retiro | Madrid | ||
| 1756 | anonymous | 1756 | Bergamo |
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| 1757 | Francesco Antonio Uttini | 1757, palace theater | Drottningholm Palace | ||
| 1757 | Gregorio Ballabene | Carnival 1757, Teatro de 'Nobili | Fabriano | ||
| 1757 | Gaetano Piazza | December 27th 1757, Teatro Regio Ducale | Milan | ||
| 1766 | Tommaso Giordani | 1766, Smock Alley Theater | Dublin | ||
| 1770 | Antonio Sacchini | April 27, 1770, court theater | Munich | Re-performance in 1771; also in 1773 in the Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen |
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| 1770 | Gian Francesco de Majo | Autumn 1770, Teatro San Carlo | Naples | doubtful | |
| 1771 | Hieronymus Mango | 1771, court of Raymund Anton von Strasoldo | Eichstatt | ||
| 1771 | Giuseppe Colla | August 8, 1771, Teatro Sant'Agostino | Genoa | ||
| 1774 | Ferdinando Bertoni | May 25, 1774, Teatro San Moisè | Venice | as narbals |
|
| 1775 | Anton Adam Bachschmid | 1775, court of Raymund Anton von Strasoldo | Eichstatt | ||
| 1775 | Raniero Checchi | Spring 1775 | Bastia in Corsica |
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| 1781 | Venanzio Rauzzini | 1781 | Munich | Revised March 16, 1782 in King's Theater on Haymarket , London; there also in 1784 |
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| 1782 | Domenico Cimarosa | August 13th 1782, Teatro San Carlo | Naples | also in Barcelona in 1785 |
Recordings and performances in recent times
-
Johann Adolph Hasse :
- 1985: Performed at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam . Direction: Ton Koopman . Singers: Max van Egmond (Leango), David James (Siveno), Mieke van der Sluis (Lisinga), Claron McFadden (Ulania) and Elisabeth Priday (Minteo).
literature
- Adrienne Ward: Pagodas in Play: China on the Eighteenth-century Italian Opera Stage , Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp 2010, ISBN 978-0-8387-5696-6 , pp. 98 ff ( online at Google Books).
Web links
- Several different versions of the libretto as full text (Italian) on progettometastasio.it.
Digital copies
- ^ Johann Anton Koch: The abbot Peter Metastasio Kayserl. Royal Court Poet's Dramatic Poems, translated from Italian. Sixth volume. Krauss, Frankfurt and Leipzig in 1774 as digitization at the Munich digitization center .
- ↑ Jean Baptiste du Halde: Detailed description of the Chinese Empire and the great tartarey. First part. Translation by Engelbert Kaempfer as digitized version at the Munich Digitization Center , p. 292 f.
- ↑ a b Libretto (Italian / German) of the opera by Johann Adolph Hasse, Hamburg 1754 as a digitized version at the Berlin State Library .
- ^ A b Libretto (Italian / German) of the opera by Antonio Sacchini, Munich 1771 as digitized version at the Munich Digitization Center .
- ^ Qi Jiunxiong and Joseph Henri de Prémare: Tchao-chi-cou-eulh, Ou L'Orphelin De La Maison De Tchao as digitized at the Munich digitization center
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by Giuseppe Bonno, Palermo 1752. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- ^ Libretto (Italian / Spanish) of the opera by Giuseppe Bonno, Barcelona 1755 as a digitized version on Google Books .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by anonymous, Venice 1753. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- ↑ Score of the opera by Johann Adolph Hasse, 1753 as digitized version with the International Music Score Library Project .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by anonymous, Bergamo 1756. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by Gaetano Piazza, Milan 1757. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by Antonio Sacchini, Munich 1770 as digitized version at the Munich Digitization Center .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by Ferdinando Bertoni, Venice 1774. Digitized in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by Raniero Checchi, Bastia 1775 as a digitized version in the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna .
- ^ Libretto (Italian) of the opera by Domenico Cimarosa, Naples 1782 as digitized version in the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Don Neville: Eroe cinese, L '. 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).
- ↑ December movies in Shanghai China at visitshanghaicity.com , accessed November 3, 2014.
- ↑ Jeffrey Ching: Foreword to the libretto of the opera Das Waisenkind (English) , accessed on April 17, 2016.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Giuseppe Bonno) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Giuseppe Bonno) at operabaroque.fr , accessed on February 1, 2015.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (anonymous) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (David Perez) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Baldassare Galuppi) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Johann Adolph Hasse) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ↑ a b L'eroe cinese (Johann Adolf Hasse) at operabaroque.fr , accessed on February 1, 2015.
- ↑ L'eroe cinese by Johann Adolph Hasse , performance dates and link to the audio file on Youtube on operabaroque.fr , accessed on November 3, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Nicolò Conforti) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (anonymous) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ↑ L'eroe cinese (Francesco Antonio Uttini) at the opening night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres , Stanford University, accessed October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Gregorio Ballabene) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Gaetano Piazza) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ↑ L'eroe cinese (Tommaso Giordani) at the opening night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres , Stanford University, accessed October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Antonio Sacchini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ List of stage works by Giovanni Francesco de Majo based on the MGG at Operone, accessed on September 29, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Girolamo Mango) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Giuseppe Colla) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ↑ Narbale (Ferdinando Bertoni) in Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Anton Adam Bachschmidt) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Anton Bachschmidt) at opening night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres , Stanford University, accessed October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Raniero Checchi) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Venanzio Rauzzini) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.
- ↑ Lars E. Troide, Stewart J. Cooke: The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney: Volume V, 1782-1783. McGill-Queen's Press, 2012, p. 36 ( preview on Google Books )
- ^ L'eroe cinese (Domenico Cimarosa) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna , accessed on October 31, 2014.