La fiera di Venezia

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Opera dates
Original title: La fiera di Venezia
Shape: Commedia per musica
Original language: Italian
Music: Antonio Salieri
Libretto : Giovanni Gastone Boccherini
Premiere: January 29, 1772
Place of premiere: Vienna, Burgtheater
Playing time: about 3 hours
Place and time of the action: Venice
people
  • Falsirena, daughter of Grifagnos ( soprano )
  • Grifagno, old selfish fool ( bass )
  • Calloandra, Vicentine Marchesa, fiancee Ostrogotos ( old )
  • Ostrogoto, rich and lavish duke, in love with Falsirena ( tenor )
  • Belfusto, lover ("amante corrisposto") and false cousin Falsirenas (bass)
  • Rasojo, innkeeper, lover of Cristallina (tenor)
  • Cristallina, trader and trader (soprano)
  • Cecchino, son of a cook

La fiera di Venezia (Eng. The market square in Venice ) is a commedia per musica in three acts by Antonio Salieri based on a text by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini . The first performance took place on January 29, 1772 in the Vienna Burgtheater .

The great success of the premiere was followed by numerous other productions on various German stages, then the work was also performed abroad in various translations (including into Russian and Danish) and arrangements. Performances can be traced back to 1821 throughout Europe .

The theater almanac of Vienna, for the year 1773, writes:

"[...] the music from Mr. Salieri, which is excellently set and delighted the audience. This Singspiel received the most complete applause from the audience, which could not get enough of it. [...] This Singspiel was very popular for a long time because of the excellent music and its alternating acting. "

- Theater almanac of Vienna, for the year 1773

In particular, the charming Venetian local color, which Salieri illustrates with music that is extremely effective on the stage, contributed a lot to the opera's success. In the arias Salieri shows his great instrumental skills by repeatedly decoupling individual instruments from the relatively small orchestra and combining them with the singing voices. A prime example of this is the aria of Calloandra “Vi sono sposa e amante” from the third act, in which the virtuoso voice vies with a solo flute and a solo oboe.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father Leopold was very critical of the piece in November 1785 (thirteen years after the premiere!): “[...] La Fiera di Venezia vom Salieri, which hurts me; because it is, in the act of music, full of the most whipped, meanest thoughts, old-fashioned, forced and very devoid of harmony: the only finals are still bearable: […] “The son, on the other hand, seemed to have a different opinion to have been: as early as autumn 1773 he wrote six variations for piano in G major on the theme of Mio caro Adone from the finale to the second act of Salieri's opera (KV 180).

Like many operas by Salieri, who was still considered one of the most important and innovative composers of his time at the end of the 18th century, La fiera di Venezia is hardly performed any more these days.

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