Opera of the Nobility

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The Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater, where the Nobility Opera first played

The Opera of the Nobility or Nobility Opera (German Opera of the nobility was one of 1733 existing to 1737 opera company, the noble of the group on June 15, 1733 people, led by the nobility opera or short) Prince of Wales was established to to compete against the (second) Royal Academy of Music under the direction of Georg Friedrich Handel . The latter, in turn, was supported by the prince's father, King George II, and his wife Caroline .

origin

The Prince of Wales and the anti-German faction of the English nobility, which supported the aristocratic opera, tried to gain a foothold against the German court by attacking the foreigner Handel. In doing so, they gave little thought to the paradox of the situation: the nationalist faction fought with the weapon of the foreign Italian opera and also called on the help of foreigners such as Johann Adolph Hasse , a German working abroad ( Italy ) like Handel .

The second venue of the aristocratic opera: The King's Theater (painting by William Capon, 1783)

The Italian composer Nicola Porpora was offered the position of musical director. The Irish art dealer and impresario Owen Swiny was supposed to attract talent from Italy. The aristocratic opera gained a prominent cast through the change of the popular singer Senesino , who left Handel's academy in a dispute with Handel. He also brought Handel's other singers ( Antonio Montagnana , Francesca Bertolli , Francesca Cuzzoni and Celeste Gismondi ) to join him in the aristocratic opera, which is why it was occasionally called "Senesino's opera" afterwards.

Act

After it became known that Handel's opera Arianna in Creta, planned for the coming season, was based on the arrangement of a libretto by Pietro Pariati ( Arianna e Teseo ), which Porpora had already set to music, Paolo Antonio Rolli immediately wrote a sequel. The new opera Arianna in Nasso opened the season at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater on December 29, 1733, four weeks before Handel was able to present his Arianna on January 26, 1734 at the King's Theater . Nevertheless, this did not bring the season 1733/34 any success. Although towards the end of the season the famous castrato singer Farinelli (for a pasticcio with parts of the opera Artaserse von Hasse and insertions by Farinell's brother Riccardo Broschi ) could still be hired and thus financially supported the company.

This season 's Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater was operated by John Rich , the builder of the Theater Royal in Covent Garden . The Theater Royal was now the very house that Handel moved into when he had to give up his previous parent house, the King's Theater, as a five-year lease came to an end. The King's Theater, in turn, was given to the Opera of the Nobility by Johann Jacob Heidegger from 1734 .

However, since there was no market for two competing opera houses in London, a ruinous competition ensued. The two opera companies not only divided the London opera audience into two camps, but also the royal family. The Prince of Wales, Friedrich Ludwig von Hanover, sponsored the aristocratic opera. Handel's master student Princess Anne, on the other hand, passionately sided with Handel.

Decline

In 1736 the composer Giovanni Pescetti succeeded Porpora as musical director of the aristocratic opera. and mainly produced pasticcios here (including Sabrina , Arsace ), but their decline could no longer be stopped. Handel's opera academy also went bankrupt at the same time and also marked the end of his operatic career. The remnants of the two companies reunited for the 1737/38 season at the King's Theater. In 1741 the Earl of Middlesex founded a second Opera of the Nobility together with seven other nobles, which then worked for three years at the King's Theater.

literature

  • Donald Jay Grout and Hermine Weigel Williams A short history of opera (Chapter 11: Masters of the Early Eighteenth Century), Columbia University Press 2003

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry on Nobility Opera in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
  2. ↑ Manfred Bukofzer : Music in the Baroque Era , New York 1947, p. 351 online as PDF 30 MB p. 351 (325)
  3. ^ John Walter Hill: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians - 'Pescetti, Giovanni Battista.', Second Edition, Macmillan Publishers, London 2001