Semiramide riconosciuta (Handel)

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Work data
Original title: Semiramide riconosciuta
Title page of the libretto, London 1733

Title page of the libretto, London 1733

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: Leonardo Vinci , Johann Adolf Hasse a . a., editing: Georg Friedrich Händel
Libretto : Pietro Metastasio , Semiramide riconosciuta (Rome 1729)
Premiere: October 30, 1733
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Place and time of the action: Babylon , in mythical times
people
  • Semiramide , an Egyptian princess, in men's clothing King Nino of Assyria , in love with Scitalce ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Tamiri, a Bactrian princess, in love with Scitalce (soprano)
  • Scitalce, a prince from India, in love with Semiramide (soprano)
  • Mirteo, Semiramid's brother, but not recognized by her, in love with Tamiri ( soprano )
  • Ircano, a Scytian prince, in love with Tamiri ( alto )
  • Sibari, a former lover of Semiramides, her confidante (soprano)

Semiramide riconosciuta or Semiramis , dt. The recognized Semiramis ( HWV A 8 ) is a dramma per musica in three acts. The piece, based on Leonardo Vinci 's opera of the same name, is an arrangement by Georg Friedrich Handel and the first pasticcio of three in the 1733/34 season at the London Theater am Haymarket .

Emergence

Less than a month after the last performance of the Orlando on May 5, 1733, the famous castrato Senesino left Handel's ensemble, after having worked with a competing opera company that was being planned on June 15, 1733 and soon as an opera of the Nobility ("Adelsoper") should become known, had negotiated a contract. Identical June 2 press releases from The Bee and The Craftsman state :

“We are credibly inform'd that one day last week Mr. H – d – l, Director-General of the Opera-House, sent a Message to Signior Senesino, the famous Italian Singer, acquainting Him that He had no earlier Occasion for his service; and that Senesino reply'd the next day by a letter, containing a full resignation of all his parts in the Opera, which He had performed for many years with great applause. "

“As we know from a reliable source, Mr. Handel, the general manager of the opera house, sent the famous Italian singer Signor Senesino a message last week informing him that he has no further use for his services; and that Senesino replied by letter the next day that he was giving up all of his roles in the opera, which he had played with great applause for many years. "

- The Bee. June 1733.

Senesino joined almost all of Handel's other singers: Antonio Montagnana , Francesca Bertolli and the Celestina . Only the soprano Anna Maria Strada del Pò remained loyal to Handel. After returning from Oxford from a successful concert series in July 1733, Handel wrote a new opera, Arianna in Creta , for the coming season and prepared three pasticci with music by the more “modern” composers Vinci and Hasse , perhaps for the competing one Adelsoper and their musical boss Porpora to beat at their own arms.

Meanwhile, London was eagerly awaiting the new opera season, as Antoine-François Prévost d'Exiles, author of the famous novel Manon Lescaut , writes in his weekly Le Pour et le Contre (The pros and cons) :

«L'Hiver (c) approche. On scait déja que Senesino brouill're irréconciliablement avec M. Handel, a formé un schisme dans la Troupe, et qu'il a loué un Théâtre séparé pour lui et pour ses partisans. Les Adversaires ont fait venir les meilleures voix d'Italie; ils se flattent de se soûtenir malgré ses efforts et ceux de sa cabale. Jusqu'à présent ìes Seigneurs Anglois sont partagez. La victoire balancera longtems s'ils ont assez de constance pour l'être toûjours; mais on s'attend que les premiéres représentations décideront la quereile, parce que le meilleur des deux Théâtres ne manquera pas de reussir aussi-tôt tous les suffrages. »

"The winter is coming. The reader is already aware that there was a final break between Senesino and Handel, and that the former sparked a split in the troupe and leased his own theater for himself and his followers. His opponents got the best votes from Italy; they have enough pride to want to continue despite the machinations of Senesino and his clique. The English nobility is currently split into two camps; neither of the two parties will be victorious for a long time if they all stick to their point of view. But it is expected that the first performances will put an end to the dispute, because the better of the two theaters will inevitably attract everyone's support. "

- Antoine François Prévost : Le Pour et le Contre. Paris 1733.

Handel and Heidegger hastily put together a new troupe and a new repertoire. Margherita Durastanti , now a mezzo-soprano, over three decades earlier in Italy Handel's prima donna , in the early 1720s - before the great times of Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni - the mainstay of the Royal Academy of Music , returned from Italy, although she was her last appearance the season ended on March 17, 1724 with the sung lines of an English cantata:

"But let old Charmers yield to new, Happy Soil, adieu, adieu."

"But let the old wizards give way to the new one, good-bye, good-bye, lucky soil!"

- The Daily Journal. March 18, 1724.

Due to the almost complete change of his ensemble, Handel had very little time to prepare for the new season. Then there were the oratorios in Oxford, which kept him busy throughout July. It can be assumed that he had planned the new season earlier without suspecting that his singers would be terminated, because the five-year contract he had signed with Heidegger in 1729 was still running, albeit in his own last year. It is possible that the pasticcio Semiramide was already finished, because in recent years he had always brought out one pasticcio per season. But now the new situation demanded that Handel had to produce more operas than he had done in recent years. This is certainly how the other two pasticci of the season, Caio Fabbricio and Arbace, were created . It can be assumed that the scores of the two very popular operas by Hasse and Vinci were available in London.

At the beginning of the season, Handel had his entire new line of singers. Two new castrato, Carlo Scalzi and Giovanni Carestini , had been committed, and so was Handel on October 30, the birthday of King George (one day, usually with a royal ball in the St James's Palace was committed), with riconosciuta Semiramide the Open season: two months ahead of his competitors, although he had new singers, while the aristocratic opera had his old troupe. This time, however, the entire court decided to visit the opera, even the Prince of Wales was present, although he otherwise openly supported the aristocratic opera. A first tactical victory for Handel. But the second evening was less favorable, as we learn from Lady Bristol , who wrote to her husband:

“I am just come home from a dull empty opera, tho 'the second time; the first was full to hear the new man, who I can find out to be an extream good singer; the rest are all scrubbs except old Durastante, that sings as well as ever she did. "

“I have just returned home from a boring, empty opera, even though this was only the second performance. The first one was sold out because everyone wanted to hear the new man [Carestini] whom I can call an extremely good singer; the rest are all rubbish apart from good old Dura aunt who sings as well as she always did. "

- Lady Bristol : letter to Baron Hervey . London 3rd November 1733.

It is unclear whether Lady Bristol meant that Semiramide was artistically boring - although Handel tried to meet current tastes by choosing the arias - or whether she lacked an interesting conversation with other viewers.

Cast of the premiere

The question arises as to why Handel brought so many operas by other composers onto the stage instead of his own. After the opening of the season with Semiramide there was a resumption of his Ottone (November 13th) and Hasses Caio Fabbricio (December 4th). But his answer to Porpora's Arianna in Nasso (January 1, 1734) at the aristocratic opera was not his own Arianna - although it was long since completed - but Vinci's Arbace on January 5. He deliberately wanted to oppose Porpora's new music and the current taste of the aristocratic opera, not his, but the modern, melody-dominated and less contrapuntal spelling of the "opposing" camp, and their most popular chants of recent years. But Handel's calculation does not seem to have worked out completely on this point, because only Arbace - under the original title Artaserse it was soon Italy's most popular operatic subject - had made a certain impression with eight performances, while Semiramide and Caio only had four performances each . The hopes of being able to keep the competition in check with their own weapons were therefore disappointed. Handel's supporters were fixated on his compositions, while those whom he hoped to win with the music of the new Italians stayed away, not least out of loyalty to the competition.

The first revival of Handel's pasticcio, also in the original language and historical performance practice , was on September 23, 2013 in the Vienna Chamber Opera with the Bach Consort Vienna and under the musical direction of Alan Curtis .

Libretto and plot

The complex subject matter goes back to some of the seventeenth-century Venetian operas. The libretto Semiramide riconosciuta is the sixth work by Pietro Metastasio , who later became the imperial court poet of Charles VI. It is the second of four opera libretti that he wrote for the Teatro delle Dame in Rome before going to Vienna. The others are Catone in Utica (1728), Alessandro nell'Indie (1729) and Artaserse (1730). All four operas were set to music for the first time by Leonardo Vinci . Semiramide was premiered with his music in the carnival season on January 6, 1729 and Metastasio allowed Nicola Porpora to set the libretto to music in the same year, and so the opera was released on December 26, 1729 at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice.

music

Of all the pasticci arranged by Handel, Semiramide has the least agreement with the musical template on which it is based. This is largely due to the fact that Handel this time did not have a complete score of the opera by Vinci, but rather a collection of arias that lacked the instrumental pieces, choirs, recitatives and, moreover, two arias that lead directly into a recitative. At the request of the singers, most of the arias in the original were thrown overboard in favor of those by Francesco Corselli , Francesco Feo , Johann Adolf Hasse, Leonardo Leo , Giovanni Porta , Domenico Sarro and from other Vinci operas. In addition to reducing the number of arias, these were also shortened by strokes within the musical course. The main role in Semiramide was not sung by Strada, but by Margherita Durastanti, presumably because the imperious character of this role, which is largely disguised as a man, matched the latter particularly well. In the last scene, Handel again incorporated a “Last Song” Un 'aura placida (No. 27) by Porta, this time for Primo Uomo Giovanni Carestini. The latter, who took on a role that Vinci had designed for a tenor, only sang arias from his own repertoire, while Strada probably found all the original arias unacceptable, except for one that Vinci had written for the young castrato Pietro Morigi . Although Vinci had composed the role of Mirteo for Scalzi, Handel had to transpose his arias and, in one case, even replace them with another, because his degree had fallen significantly since 1729. His arias were first set down a tone, then a minor third, and finally, in a third step, a major third.

When the role of Ircano was still intended for bassist Gustav Waltz , who then left at the last minute, Handel took the unusual step and composed his aria Saper bramate (No. 14) completely. The role of Ircano by Metastasio and Vinci for the castrato Gaetano Berenstadt , known for his stormy demeanor, was previously conceived as rough, presumptuous and quite absurd . Handel now revised this aria, in which Ircano refuses to explain himself to everyone else, presumably also to make Waltz's contributions comic. In the first place, however, this rewriting was necessary in order to conclusively convert the octave transposition from the alto to the bass register. We see an example that simply shifting the singing voice down an octave (as is often the case with castrati roles in our opera houses today) was no artistic solution for Handel. In many places he changed the basso continuo and moved the first violin part down an octave. The second leave their original voice in the vocal passages and play in unison with the first violins. When the singer began, the violas could no longer continue playing “al'ottava col basso” (in the octave with the basso continuo) and were simply left out. However, beyond these necessary adjustments, Handel went much further: he often changed the contours of the melody and the continuo, not simply by the two-part structure, but also to maintain the motivic unity and replaced two large sections, which in Vinci were motifically independent are by repeating passages. He structurally improved the contrast between the first and second lines of the text, which Vinci had left to the singer, by transferring a contrasting unison group into the second part. An additional fermata and the repetition of the last words, followed by a ritornello show that the singer should be given the opportunity to add a cadenza, which was not possible with Vinci. The final ritornello, which is brand new, brings a piano passage which, remarkably, musically questions Vinci's entire conception of the aria: chromatic harmonies, repeated pedal tones and tied dotted quarters belong to the world of the siciliano aria, as we do from many others Know jobs at Handel. The middle section is also very close to the Siciliani of his own works. Here it is furthest from the original. Obviously he initially had the simple intention of writing a transposition of the aria, but the further he delved into it, the more his own personality came to light and it was more convenient for him to compose again than a harmonious arrangement of someone else's music do.

Unfortunately, another aria that was intended for Waltz in the third act is lost. It was initially suspected that Waltz was ill. A more likely explanation is that Handel had to share his bassist with Johann Friedrich Lampe from Drury Lane Theater , who was working on a revival of his burlesque The Opera of Operas or Tom Thumb the Great , which starred Waltz on November 7th Grizzle should have its premiere. So the plans for the part of Ircano had to be changed so that the original position of the part could be retained and a singer, Maria Caterina Negri, could be occupied. Her original part (Sibari) also had to be edited again for her sister Rosa.

One of the arias Maria Caterina Negri brought with her when she took on the role was from Hasse's Cajo Fabricio (Rome 1732), but that appears to have been a private copy of the Negri and was not from the score of the Hasse opera by Charles Jennens which Handel then used a few weeks later to prepare his pasticcio Caio Fabbricio . In Sibari's aria Pensa ad amare (No. 6), Handel added a violin part to the vocal part of the director's score, now in the Hamburg State and University Library . There is no doubt that the copy of this aria brought by Rosa Negri was incomplete.

Instead of the missing overture, Handel uses the one for Vinci's Artaserse (Rome 1730), an opera that he would later use as the basis for his pasticcio Arbace . In the second scene of the second act there is a choir and a ballet based on Vinci's model, which are introduced in the recitative by the words ognuno la mensa onori, e intanto misto risuoni a liete danze il canto . Handel corrected this in perfect Italian: ... e intanto sciolga ognuno la lingua in dolce canto , which made it possible to omit the ballet. But then the chorus also turned out to be too much and its stroke was made possible by ending the recitative with the words ... la mensa onori . Instead of the choir, he used a short sinfonia that had already been used for his Pasticcio Venceslao (1731), so that all that was left of Metastasio's and Vinci's great banquet scene was this unpretentious instrumental piece, which some (e. B. Strohm ) is a composition by Handel, but according to another opinion (e.g. Roberts ) it is by no means his piece. The final chorus, to which Metastasio's text does not really fit, could not be identified either. In the short choir earlier in the same scene, which cheers Semiramide as queen and which later forms the eight-bar ritornello of the final chorus, Handel later redesigned the bass part so that it could be sung by a tenor (Rochetti?) Instead of a bass (Waltz) .

When writing the new recitatives, Handel oriented himself very much towards the dramatic and powerful text Metastasio, as in the opening scene, which unfolds entirely in the recitative, and the confrontation between Semiramide and Scitalce at the end of the second act. They are drawn so finely as seldom in the recitatives of his own operas. What is also new in the last scene is that Mirteo reads Sibari's decisive letter without any accompaniment, only occasionally commented on by chords.

Handel and the pasticcio

The pasticcio was a source for Handel, of which he made frequent use at this time, as the competitive situation with the aristocratic opera put him under pressure. They were nothing new in London or on the continent, but Handel had only released one in previous years, L'Elpidia, ovvero Li rivali generosi in 1724. Now he delivered seven more within five years: Ormisda in 1729/30, Venceslao 1730/31, Lucio Papirio dittatore in 1731/32, Catone 1732/33, and now no less than three, Semiramide riconosciuta , Caio Fabbricio and Arbace in 1733/34. Handel's working method in the construction of the pasticci was very different, but all materials are based on libretti by Zeno or Metastasio , which are familiar in the European opera metropolises and which many contemporary composers had adopted - above all Leonardo Vinci , Johann Adolph Hasse , Nicola Porpora , Leonardo Leo , Giuseppe Orlandini and Geminiano Giacomelli . Handel composed the recitatives or adapted existing ones from the chosen template. Very rarely did he rewrite an aria, usually in order to adapt it to a different pitch and tessit . Wherever possible, he included the repertoire of the singer in question in the selection of arias. Most of the time the arias had to be transposed when they were transferred from one context to another or transferred from one singer to another. They also got a new text by means of the parody process . The result didn't always have to make sense, because it was more about letting the singers shine than producing a coherent drama. Aside from Ormisda and Elpidia , which were the only ones who saw revivals, Handel's pasticci weren't particularly successful, but like revivals, they required less work than composing and rehearsing new works and could be used well as stopgaps or season starters or step in, when a new opera, as was the case with Partenope in February 1730 and Ezio in January 1732, was a failure. Handel pasticci have one important common feature: the sources were all contemporary and popular materials that had been set to music in the recent past by many composers who set in the “modern” Neapolitan style. He had introduced this with the Elpidia of Vinci in London and later this style merged with his own contrapuntal working method to the unique mixture that permeates his later operas.

orchestra

Two oboes , two horns , two trumpets , timpani , strings, basso continuo ( violoncello , lute , harpsichord ).

literature

  • Reinhard Strohm : Handel's pasticci. In: Essays on Handel and Italian Opera , Cambridge University Press 1985, Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-26428-0 , pp. 183 ff. (English).
  • Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Instrumental music, pasticci and fragments. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 3 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7618-0716-3 , p. 376 f.
  • Kurt Sven Markstrom: The Operas of Leonardo Vinci, Napoletano. (1993) Opera Series No. 2, Pendragon Press, Hillsdale 2007, ISBN 978-1-57647-094-7 .
  • John H. Roberts: Semiramide riconosciuta. In: Annette Landgraf and David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia , Cambridge University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 , pp. 579 f. (English).
  • Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006. Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 . P. 128 ff. (English).
  • Pietro Metastasio : Semiramis. Riconosciuta. Drama. Da rappresentarsi nel Regio Teatro d'Hay-Market. Reprint of the libretto from 1733, Gale Ecco, Print Editions, Hampshire 2010, ISBN 978-1170-47542-3 .
  • Steffen Voss : Pasticci: Semiramide riconosciuta. In: Hans Joachim Marx (Hrsg.): The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes: The Handel Lexicon. (Volume 6), Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, ISBN 978-3-89007-552-5 , p. 559.

Web links

Commons : Semiramide riconosciuta  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Editing management of the Halle Handel Edition: Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 208.
  2. ↑ a b David Vickers: Handel. Arianna in Creta. Translated from the English by Eva Pottharst. MDG 609 1273-2, Detmold 2005, p. 30.
  3. ↑ Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006. Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 . P. 133.
  4. ↑ a b Edition management of the Halle Handel Edition: Documents on life and work. In: Walter Eisen (Hrsg.): Handel manual: Volume 4. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985, ISBN 3-7618-0717-1 , p. 225.
  5. ↑ a b c Christopher Hogwood: Georg Friedrich Handel. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch 2655). Translated from the English by Bettina Obrecht. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-458-34355-5 , p. 202 ff.
  6. ↑ Commerce Reference Database . ichriss.ccarh.org. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Reinhard Strohm : Handel's pasticci. In: Essays on Handel and Italian Opera , Cambridge University Press 1985, Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-26428-0 , pp. 183 ff. (English).
  8. ↑ a b c Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Instrumental music, pasticci and fragments. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 3 , Deutscher Verlag für Musik , Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7618-0716-3 , p. 376 f.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g John H. Roberts: Semiramide riconosciuta. In: Annette Landgraf and David Vickers: The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia , Cambridge University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-88192-0 , pp. 579 f. (English)
  10. ↑ Steffen Voss: Pasticci: Semiramide riconosciuta. In: Hans Joachim Marx (ed.): The Handel Handbook in 6 volumes: The Handel Lexicon , (Volume 6), Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2011, ISBN 978-3-89007-552-5 , p. 559.
  11. ↑ Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006. Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 . P. 128 f.