Romolo ed Ersilia (Hasse)

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Work data
Title: Romolus and Ersilia
Original title: Romolo ed Ersilia
Title page of the libretto, Innsbruck 1765

Title page of the libretto, Innsbruck 1765

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: Johann Adolf Hasse
Libretto : Pietro Metastasio
Premiere: August 6, 1765
Place of premiere: Court theater in Innsbruck
Playing time: 2 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: Rome , around 765 BC Chr.
people
  • Romolo , the founder and first ruler of Rome, loves Ersilia
  • Ersilia , a Sabine woman, daughter of Curzio and princess of the Antemnati
  • Valeria , a second Sabine woman, Ersilia's friend; loves acronte
  • Ostilio , Roman patrician, friend and advisor to Romolo; loves Valeria
  • Curzio , Prince of Antemnati, who were enemies of Rome, father of Ersilias
  • Acronte , prince of the Ceninesi who were also enemies of Rome, womanizer, once and again lover of Valeria

Romolo ed Ersilia is a Baroque opera in three acts , which the Austrian Empress Maria Theresia to the wedding of her son Archduke Leopold with the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain at the librettist of Baroque opera seria Pietro Metastasio and the famous German Baroque composer Neapolitan school Johann Adolf Hasse commissioned .

prehistory

Johann Adolf Hasse was a highly esteemed German baroque composer during his lifetime and - after long successful years in Italy, especially Naples and Venice - was responsible for almost three decades for the rich musical life of the Saxon electors and kings of Poland in Dresden (and the surrounding area) and Warsaw. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756 and the accompanying occupation of Dresden by the Prussians, not only did the court leave Dresden, but of course the majority of the artistic ensemble as well. Hasse and his wife Faustina initially moved their center of life back to Italy, but then came in contact with the Imperial Court in Vienna again and again. There were neither he, whose operas had already been performed there in the 1720s (without this having to mean that Hasse had been specially commissioned to do so), nor his wife Faustina Bordoni (who made a long guest appearance there in 1726 and at least with the Imperial envoy in Venice stayed in contact) unknown. Much closer than the relationship with Empress Maria Theresa was the contact with the Imperial Court Poet Pietro Metastasio, the librettist of the baroque opera seria of the 18th century, whose almost all works Hasse had set to music (not always the first) and with whom he was in correspondence was standing.

As part of the wise marriage policy of the House of Habsburg, their son Archduke Leopolds was supposed to marry the Spanish king's daughter Maria Ludovica of Spain in 1765 , and this time Vienna itself was chosen as the wedding city, but the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck . This went hand in hand with a comprehensive renovation of the Innsbruck Hofburg, including the entire city (e.g. the installation of street lighting), and even more a quasi-restoration of the Innsbruck Court Opera. As one of the numerous festivities surrounding this wedding, a festival opera was commissioned from Metastasio and Hasse.

libretto

As a subject, Metastasio chose something very appropriate: namely, the attempts at pacification of Romolus, the legendary founder and first ruler of Rome, with the peoples living around Rome by marrying them. Although the myth of the robbery of the Sabine women, which forms the background of the plot, was about correcting the shortage of women in Rome, which was caused by the fact that too many male refugees and newcomers were in Rome, Metastasio's libretto otherwise agrees with the myth : one by one the Sabine women are said to have been convinced.

action

The opera begins with a Roman-Sabine mass wedding and a corresponding cheering choir for both fruitful and peaceful binational marriages. In addition to Romolus, observers of this spectacle are two Sabine women: Valeria and the aloof Ersilia, who categorically refuses to marry Romolus. Romolus' refusal to marry, of course, comes less from Ersilia herself than from her father, one of Rome's enemies. He had categorically forbidden his daughter to marry a Roman, and in the course of the opera, increasingly to the annoyance of the daughter, he stayed with this categorical refusal, which was based on a generally negative attitude and not on personal acquaintance with Romans or Romolus in the Special.

His daughter Ersilia is the real main character of the opera, at least musically. Anna Lucia De Amicis , who originally interpreted the role, must have been a very talented lady with impressive vocal skills. In any case, their arias make highly acrobatic demands.

Her friend Valeria, a traumatized Sabine woman, came to Rome with Ersilia. Her trauma is based on her unhappy love for Acronte, an enemy of Rome and Romolo, who - besides his hostility to Rome - probably chases after aprons. On the one hand, Valeria cannot get away from Acronte, but on the other hand she is also unwilling to sit on Acrontes flattery and appeasement attempts, but lyrically gives plenty of paroli. Her aria of desperation on the subject of "I hate betrayal, but I hate the traitor" in the first act ("Si, m'inganni, e pure, oh Dio", I, 8) and even more her aria of knowledge that falling in love is quick , but it takes a long time to get over a disappointed or ended love (“un istante al cor talora basta sol per farsi amante”, III, 6), are true highlights of the opera.

Acronte remains the only villain in this piece (and sang, note, not bass, as usual, but soprano!): After Romolus gives him freedom (much to their displeasure and amazement), who is brought before him for condemnation , he has nothing better to do than insult and threaten Romolus. This tremendous aria of revenge on Romolo (“Sprezzami pur per ora”, II, 7) is also a great success for Hasse and was obviously written specifically for a talented castrato. In the battle that soon followed, Acronte was killed by Romolo and his body was brought with him from the battle.

While the pacification of one of the enemies led by Acronte, who are named in the play Cerenesi, takes place militarily, Romolus tries to come to an understanding with Ersilia's father Curzio, despite his categorical refusal. Until shortly before the end, however, Curzio is a second villain in the play, not only forcing his people into an inevitable armed conflict with Rome, but also refusing his daughter, who is more and more in love, to agree to the actually very welcome marriage bond with Romolus. Only when he was picked up during the kidnapping of Ersilias and brought before Romolus, awaiting his death sentence, but was generously released and let go, did he “convert” him: he renounced the war with Rome and gave Romolus his - happy - daughter Woman.

One last subplot and character remains to be named: Ostilio, Roman patrician, friend of Romolus'. He's actually in love with Valeria. Since Romolus is rather affected by Ersilia's refusal to marry him and is inhibited to act, he asks Ersilia that if she cannot marry Romolus, she should at least suggest that he should marry her friend Valeria. He, too, wants to give up his love generously, which Valeria (although she doesn't want him at all) now viciously comments. In the end, the two main characters have found each other and celebrate their wedding. The people's choir wishes the bride and groom all the best or turns to the gods in a pleading, they may "make the days of such a noble couple rich in bliss, because in heaven itself the bond of hearts was tied".

The first performance in 1765

The first performance took place on the occasion of Leopold's marriage to Maria Ludovica on August 6, 1765 in the newly renovated Hofoper in Innsbruck and was repeated twice. The roles were filled as follows:

Modern performances

The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music brought the wedding opera, which premiered in their city, back to the stage almost 250 years later, in August 2011. They sang:

  • Romolo - Marina de Liso
  • Ersilia - Eleonora Buratto
  • Valeria - Robin Johannsen
  • Ostilio - Netta Or
  • Curzio - Johannes Chum
  • Acronte - Paola Gardina

Café Zimmermann played as an orchestra. Attilio Cremonesi was the musical director, Aniara Amos directed .

The premiere on August 26, 2011 was recorded by the ORF Ö1 cultural radio and broadcast in full on August 27, 2011.

literature

  • Roland Dieter Schmidt-Hensel: La musica è del Signor Hasse detto il Sassone… Volume I: Presentation. V&R Unipress 2006, p. 102 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hasse's "Romulo et Ersilia". Program information from the station Ö1 for broadcast on August 27, 2011 , accessed on May 12, 2019.