Palmira, regina di Persia
| Opera dates | |
|---|---|
| Original title: | Palmira, regina di Persia |
Anton Radl's stage design for a performance in Frankfurt (1852) |
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| Shape: | Dramma eroicomico |
| Original language: | Italian |
| Music: | Antonio Salieri |
| Libretto : | Giovanni De Gamerra |
| Literary source: | Désiré Martin |
| Premiere: | October 14, 1795 |
| Place of premiere: | Vienna, Kärntnertortheater |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Tauris , the ancient Ekbatana |
| people | |
Palmira, regina di Persia (dt. Palmira, Queen of Persia ) is a heroic-comic opera (it. "Dramma eroicomico") in two acts by Antonio Salieri based on a text by Giovanni De Gamerra based on Désiré Martins La princesse de Babylone . The first performance took place on October 14, 1795 in the Vienna Kärntnertortheater .
After his great success in Paris with Les Danaïdes and Tarare , Salieri was to write the five-act opera La princesse de Babylone for the Parisian stage in 1789 . The librettist Désiré Martin wrote the text based on Voltaire 's play of the same name. However, the horrors of the French Revolution made Salieri deviate from his travel plans, and so it remained with plans and sketches for this work. Years later, Salieri remembered the text and left it to the poet Giovanni De Gamerra, who turned it into a two-act "Dramma eroicomico".
Palmira was already a huge success at the premiere - not least thanks to the opulent décor (including a camel on stage) and the oriental subject. As quickly as it had happened with Salieri's Axur, re d'Ormus , the work was soon re-enacted across Europe; Numerous translations into German and Polish as well as various piano reductions speak for the great popularity that this opera enjoyed.
Paraphrases and arrangements
Many composers varied and paraphrased parts of the work, for example Ignaz Moscheles used a march from the first act in his Impromptu martial op.65 . Various arrangements of the opera for chamber ensemble have also been preserved, including a version by clarinetist Anton Stadler for three basset horns .
The a cappella quartet for male voices Silenzio facciasi achieved particular fame among contemporaries : Salieri himself used it in a purely instrumental version for his wind octet Armonia per un tempio della notte and with the new text “Notte placida e tranquilla” for his wedding cantata for Emperor Franz II / I. (1808). Other composers and various publishers also worked on this vocal piece. There is even a version from France for the worship service under the title Veille sur tes enfants! known. In Freemason circles, the piece was also given new text and sung at meetings.
Another example of the great popularity of this opera is the appearance of the parody Die Travestierte Palmyra by Franz Xaver Gebel at the Vienna Theater in Leopoldstadt in 1813.
Appreciation of the work by contemporaries
In his correspondence between 1797 and 1799 , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spoke enthusiastically about the work several times. He spoke to Schiller about the splendid décor and the successful staging of the opera.
The composer Conradin Kreutzer heard the work in Vienna in 1804 and recognized his calling as a theater composer in his enthusiasm for the piece.
Bettina von Arnim reported enthusiastically about a visit to the opera in Clemens Brentano's Spring Wreath from Youth Letters (1844).
Web links
- Palmira, regina di Persia (Antonio Salieri) in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna
- Libretto (Italian), Vienna 1795. Digitized version of the Berlin State Library
- La princesse de Babylone in Gallica by Désiré Martin after Voltaire (French)