Siroe (Handel)

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Work data
Original title: Siroe, Re di Persia
Title page of the libretto, London 1728

Title page of the libretto, London 1728

Shape: Opera seria
Original language: Italian
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Nicola Francesco Haym
Literary source: Pietro Metastasio , Siroe re di Persia (1725)
Premiere: February 17, 1728
Place of premiere: King's Theater , Haymarket, London
Playing time: 2 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: Seleucia , 628
people
  • Cosroe , King of Persia, in love with Laodice ( bass )
  • Siroe , his first son, in love with Emira ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Medarse , his second son ( old )
  • Emira, Princess of Cambaja , in men's clothing under the name Idaspe, in love with Siroe ( soprano )
  • Laodice, sister of Arasses, in love with Siroe (soprano)
  • Arasse, General of the Persian Army, Siroe's friend (bass)
  • Court, guards, servants, warriors, people

Siroe, Re di Persia (German Siroe, König von Persien , HWV 24) is an opera ( Dramma per musica ) in three acts by Georg Friedrich Händel . Along with Poro and Ezio, it is the first of three Handel operas based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio .

Emergence

After Riccardo Primo , which Handel published in November 1727, Siroe was his second opera for the ninth season of the Royal Academy of Music . He had previously begun to set an opera, Genserico , possibly based on a libretto by one of his London poets, which the latter had created based on the model by Nicolò Beregan (Venice 1669) and the German counterpart by Christian Heinrich Postel (Hamburg 1693) . The thesis advocated by Charles Burney and many biographers up to Friedrich Chrysander that the text of Handel's Genserico was based on the libretto for Flavio Anicio Olibrio by Apostolo Zeno , which the latter had written in 1707 for the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo in Venice , is now considered to be refuted. For unknown reasons, however, Handel abandoned work on the Genserico when he had reached the ninth scene of the first act, and used the music that had already been written for Siroe and Tolomeo , which he was to compose as the third new work this season. In the first act of Siroe , Handel relied on five of the six arias he had composed for the rejected opera. Two he took over unchanged, only with different text, three took the ideas of the template and modified them for the new context. The overture and chorus will find themselves in the Tolomeo : So Handel wasted nothing.

So Handel went to great lengths to save the troubled opera company. After all, he still had the best singers of his time this season: Faustina Bordoni , Francesca Cuzzoni and the castrato Senesino . But on January 29th, The Beggar's Opera by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch in the theater in Lincoln's Inn Fields came on stage as the most important creative swipe at the royal opera house: a biting satire against fine London society and their beloved opera all its artificial contents and forms (such as the obligatory dungeon scene that Haym also inserted into Siroe ). In the male protagonist Maceath, a man who is “potent” in every respect, between two nagging women, the audience could easily recognize Senesino and his two prima donuts. The beggar opera has often been blamed for delivering the fatal blow to the troubled first opera academy. Mrs. Pendarves , a neighbor and admirer of Handel, wrote in a letter to her sister on January 18, 1728:

“Yesterday I was at the rehearsal of the new opera composed by Handel: I like it extremely, but the taste of the town is so depraved, that nothing will be approved of but the burlesque. The Beggar's Opera entirely triumphs over the Italian one. I have not yet seen it, but everybody that has seen it, says it is very comical and full of humor. "

“Yesterday I was in the [general] rehearsal of Handel's new opera: I like it a lot, but the taste of the city is so depraved that nothing is accepted more than the burlesque. The beggar opera completely triumphs over the Italian one. I haven't seen her, but everyone who saw her says that she is very funny and humorous. "

- Mary Pendarves : letter to Ann Granville. London 1728.

On February 29th, she is already completely desperate:

“The Opera will not survive after this winter [...] I am certain excepting some few, the English have no real taste for music; for if they had, they could not neglect an entertainment so perfect in its kind for a parcel of ballad singers. I am so peevish about it, that I have no patience. "

“The opera will not survive this winter [...] I'm sure: except for a few, the English don't have a good taste for music. If they did, they wouldn't trade the perfect entertainment [of Italian opera] for a bunch of ballad singers. I am annoyed about it and my patience is at the end. "

- Mary Pendarves : letter to Ann Granville. London 1728.

libretto

Pietro Metastasio, Pompeo Batoni, ca.1770

With Siroe , Handel used a libretto for the first time by Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (1698–1782), better known as Pietro Metastasio , which he had written two years earlier. It was only Metastasio's second libretto after his spectacular Roman debut a few years earlier. The soprano Marianna Benti Bulgarelli , known as “La Romanina”, metastasio's bosom friend, had persuaded him to give up his law studies and become a full-time poet and librettist. It was to be an unprecedented career as the outstanding librettist of the opera seria and his 27 operatic poems - set to music by around 260 composers around 850 times - became the epitome of Italian opera and poetry of the 18th century.

"Il mio Siroe è alle stelle" ("My Siroe is flying high"), the then 27-year-old was able to report to his brother Leopoldo from the 1726 Venetian carnival season. Four years after his successful opera debut with Didone abbandonata in Naples (music by Domenico Sarro ), his second libretto Siroe, rè di Persia was premiered in the European opera metropolis - this time with music by Leonardo Vinci . Metastasio was to form a deep and extremely creative friendship with this important co-founder of the Neapolitan opera school , who was almost the same age , but which came to an abrupt end with Vinci's early death in 1730. By then, both had given five other major opera premieres together: Catone in Utica , Semiramide riconosciuta , La contesa de 'numi , Alessandro nell'Indie and Artaserse .

The thoroughly musical structure of the libretti Metastasios is well known: he wrote the individual parts with specific singers in mind, set them to music himself to test their singability, and worked closely with the respective composers during the preparation time for an opera premiere. Everything that makes a “good metastasio” can be found in Siroe , too: The plot - power, “sex and crime” at the Persian royal court around 1500 years ago - is as exciting as a thriller, the various intrigues are extremely sophisticated, the characters fine drawn and lively and absolutely believable in their behavior and needs.

Metastasio was interested in historical characters and their possible significance for the theater audience of his time - not in their role as rulers (as in later works that he conceived for the Viennese court), but as people of personal greatness in their most human environment. And so Siroe has in Metastasio's opera libretto as the most popular but rather self-righteous Crown Prince and the like. a. to fight against the machinations of his wicked brother, the teasing of his lover and the withdrawal of love from his father. "Istruir dilettando il genere umano": "to educate people through entertainment" was the life goal of Metastasios, as he put it in a letter to his close friend Carlo Broschi (the castrato Farinelli ) in 1750 - one of the declared goals of the European Enlightenment.

"Il soggetto dev'essere semplice, tenero, eroico, Romano, Greco o Persiano ancora, non mai Gotico o Longobardo."

"The plot must be simple, soulful and heroic, Roman, Greek or Persian, but by no means Gothic or Lombard."

- Giuseppe Riva : letter to Ludovico Antonio Muratori. London 1725.

The lyricist and diplomatic representative of Modena in London, Giuseppe Riva, wrote in 1725 about the tastes of the London public. Was it he who recommended the “Persian” libretto of the young Metastasio to Handel? In the year of its premiere this had already experienced another musical implementation by Nicola Porpora in Rome (in the presence of the English titular queen Clementina !) And was set to music by Sarro in Naples and - as pasticcio - by Antonio Vivaldi in Reggio nell'Emilia in 1727 . A further 33 settings throughout Europe were to follow and individual excerpts - in particular the aria of Laodice Mi lagnerò tacendo (No. 11) from the second act - were to inspire composers from Mozart to Beethoven to Rossini well beyond Metastasio's death .

Metastasio himself had created a special text version by Siroe for both Porpora and Sarro, and the version set to music by Sarro later than the definitive version and the like. a. included in the complete edition of his works. It probably also served Nicola Francesco Haym as the basis for his adaptation of the textbook to London's “needs”. That meant above all: strict concentration of the plot around the title hero - interpreted by the star castrat Senesino - as well as guaranteeing two equal roles for the two prima donnas Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. Compared to other arrangements by Haym, the changes to Siroe were small in terms of quantity, but nevertheless had devastating consequences for the message of the text. Above all, the massive shortening of the dialogues (recitatives) was significantly at the expense of Metastasio's fine art of characterization and made the figures now stencil-like, their reactions seem unmotivated and sometimes incomprehensible - a flaw that Handel's musical art of characterization was able to compensate on another level.

Perhaps the word of Metastasio's success had got around to London and the situation at the academy and the expectations of the London public in terms of quality and novelty prompted the academy management to persuade Handel to abandon the Genserico and take on the Siroe . In any case, Haym, one of the Academy's two in-house librettists alongside Paolo Antonio Rolli , was commissioned to edit the textbook Metastasios. In addition to shortening the recitatives, he rearranged some scene complexes, deleted several arias and replaced others with his own poems.

At the beginning of February the score was finished and Handel noted “Fine dell 'Opera | GF Trade | London. February. 5. 1728 ”at the end of his writing, the first performance took place on February 17th in the King's Theater on Haymarket.

Title page of the libretto, Braunschweig 1730

Cast of the premiere:

Siroe had a respectable eighteen performances, and so on March 19th Mrs. Pendarves was able to write to her sister, somewhat relieved:

“Operas are something mended within this fortnight; they are much fuller than they have been any time this winter. "

"The operas have been much more popular in the last fortnight than at any other time this winter."

- Mary Pendarves : letter to Ann Granville. London 1728.

Despite this slight surge in popularity, Handel never returned Siroe to the stage. He immediately began composing the third new opera for the season, Tolomeo . The first opera academy finally closed its doors in mid-1728. Siroe appeared again in August 1730 and on February 9, 1735 under the musical direction of Georg Caspar Schürmann on the repertoire of the Braunschweig Theater and then disappeared for almost 200 years, to be in German at Christmas 1925 in Gera (text version and musical direction: Ralph Meyer) to be performed again. The first revival in Italian and in historical performance practice took place on November 1, 1990 in the Merkin Concert Hall in New York with the Brewer Original Instrument Orchestra under the musical direction of Rudolph Palmer.

action

Sassanid relief Taq-e-Bostan - one of the oldest cataphracts - representations. Chosrau II, framed by the deities Ahura Mazda and Anahita, is presumably shown above.

Historical and literary background

The story of the Persian great king Chosrau II from the Sassanid dynasty , who ruled from 590 to 628, who wanted his second-born son Merdanschah from his marriage to Shirin to be his successor and therefore from his first-born son Kavadh II Shiruya from a previous marriage has been passed down not only in Arabic chronicles, but also in historiographical writings of the West since the anonymous Eastern Roman Chronicon Paschale , written around 630 . The love between Chosrau and Schirin was also known from numerous literary works such as the epic Chosrau and Schirin by the Persian poet Nezami from around 1200 and the fairy tales from the Arabian Nights . The succession conflict occurs in the city of Seleukia . The whole thing is embedded in a love story in which Emira, disguised as a man, who lives at the Persian court, and the mistress of King Laodice are involved.

first act

In a battle, Cosroe, the king of Persia, killed Asbite, the king of Cambaja, and exterminated his entire family. Only Emira, Asbite's daughter, survived. She now seeks revenge and therefore lives under the name Idaspe disguised as a man at the Persian court.

Emira's secret lover is Cosroe's son, Crown Prince Siroe. He is the only Emira's real identity to know. Emira demands from Siroe to support her plans for revenge against his father. When Siroe refuses, however, Emira rejects his love. Laodice, the king's mistress, is also in love with the crown prince. Therefore, Emira claims to Laodice that Siroe would reciprocate Laodice's love, but she actually receives a rebuff from him. Laodice now plans to tell the king that his son tried to seduce her.

Siroe tries to warn his father about the murder plot planned by Emira. So that he doesn't expose Emira, he uses an anonymous letter. Laodice tells the king that his son raped her. Siroe's brother Medarse finds the anonymous letter. In order to oust his brother as heir to the throne, he poses with the father as the author of the letter. But now Siroe reveals, without revealing to Emira, that he is the real writer of the letter.

Second act

Siroe is fed up with Emira's hate attacks and Laodice's advances. He draws his sword to kill himself. When his father arrives, however, he believes that Siroe wants to kill Emira. Cosroe has his son captured.

Emira's assassination attempt on Cosroe fails because Medarse is able to prevent it. Emira succeeds in convincing Medarse of her innocence with skilful compliments. Medarse is convinced of his father's favor and believes that he is aiming to take over the throne. Cosroe, on the other hand, promises Siroe the throne and the marriage to Laodice. But he has to name the conspirators to his father. Otherwise Cosroe will want to kill him. Siroe is silent, however.

Laodice now asks Emira, disguised as Idaspe, to convince the king that he will let Siroe live. However, this request is in vain.

Third act

Coin siroes

The king orders Siroe's execution. General Arasse once again asks Cosroe to spare Siroe. However, Arasse's requests remain unsuccessful. He then apparently bows to the execution order. In desperation, Laodice confesses her lie. Emira and Laodice beg the king for Siroe's life. Finally Cosroe can be persuaded to pardon Siroe.

At that moment Arasse brings the news of Siroe's death. Emira is beside herself with hatred. She reveals her true identity and assures King Siroe's innocence. Arasse now reveals to Emira that he only had Siroe executed for pretense. Emira also learns that Medarse wants to kill his brother. At the right moment, she can prevent the attack.

Siroe forgives Medarse. Siroe also demands that Emira give up her hatred of Cosroe. In the end, Cosroe agrees to Siroe's wedding to Emira. He hands the throne over to his son Siroe.

music

This work, which quickly disappeared from the repertoire and has never really appeared in the record catalogs, contains numerous qualities, composed, as usual, on a template-like libretto with in principle interchangeable persons and locations, which is of course useful in terms of evoking affects. The quality of this music, its abundance and the wealth of thought in the melody as in the accompaniment, was admittedly the most obstacle to its dissemination a few years after its creation. The “new school” found music too taught, Metastasio himself will have been of this opinion; how there is no doubt that he himself found in Johann Adolph Hasse a far better musical interpreter than in Handel.

The English music traveler and chronicler Charles Burney writes about the final movement of the overture, a gigue, one of Handel's most successful perpetuum mobile movements

“[…] And the jig was always a favorite as long as movements in that measure were in fashion. Handel himself seems to have been not insensible to its merit, for I heard him play it by memory as a lesson at Mrs. Cibber's, with wonderful neatness and spirit near twenty years after it was composed. "

“[…] And the jig was very popular as long as sentences of this kind remained in use. Handel himself does not seem to have been insensitive to their recognition, because twenty years after their composition I heard him play it from memory with Mrs. Cibber as an exercise, with wonderful precision and liveliness. "

- Charles Burney : A General History of Music. London 1789.

Chi è più fedele ritrova pene (No. 8) and Or mi perdo di speranza (No. 9), at the end of the first act, are the arias taken unchanged from the Genserico fragment. In Handel's handwriting, eight pages suddenly appear here with completely different words and people, without any connection with the preceding. On this inserted fragment the names Olibrio, Placidia, Eudossia, Genserico and a few others are noted. Handel's original has no slur count, with the exception of the first three slurs of the third act; however, the strange fragment is designated as arches 4 and 5. A comparison showed that the text comes from a Genserico libretto. From this it was concluded that Handel wanted to compose this opera first and had at least reached the sixth arc when he decided on Siroe . The earlier text of both arias has been partially or completely deleted and the new text (by Haym) has been written over it. Also D'ogni amator la fede (no. 3) comprises material from Genserico , from which was now one of the finest songs for Faustina. Had the two other arias not by chance fit so well into the new context and thereby made a new copy unnecessary, we would probably not have heard of his arrangement of the Genserico . The fact that the original version of the third aria is included is particularly interesting, because it is not only simply borrowed, but has been significantly redesigned for Faustina and completely redesigned; It is therefore instructive and remarkable not only as a remnant of an unknown and unfinished work, but also as a musical variant.

Burney's claim that Handel wrote Siroe in a very hurry and therefore included the music of the unfinished opera Genserico in it does not quite stand up to scrutiny. Parts of this fragment can be found in the autographs of Siroe and Tolomeo , but to a relatively small extent. The part of the Genserico music in the Siroe score is limited to the three mentioned arias. In addition, the two arias Se il mio paterno amore (No. 2) and Se il labbro amor (No. 4) are based on melodic suggestions from Genserico . But the vast majority of the Siroe score was written down by Handel continuously. Only for the arias Vedeste mai sul prato (No. 7) and Ch'io mai vi possa (No. 25) did he decide to replace the originally planned version with a new composition and to delete the drafts that were already quite advanced.

Success & Criticism

“It might be supposed that the conjunction of the age's greatest opera composer with its most successful librettist, a master of language and a fine poet to boot, would have outstandingly fruitful results. But while all three of their joint operas contain magnificent music, none ranks with Handel's masterpieces of 1724-25 and 1734-35 (though Poro comes near it). The divergence of temperament was too wide. Metastastio, as befits a cleric, wrote with an edifying purpose. As Caesarian poet at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor for half a century, he was to dictate rules of conduct and lay down standards for public and private life and maintenance of the status quo. Already in his early librettos moral issues are liable to take precedence over human values. He moves his characters like pieces on a chessboard, […] so that they run the risk of declining into abstractions. In all this his approach was the antithesis of Handel's. It is no matter for surprise that after setting three of his librettos Handel abandoned him, just as his reputation was reaching its peak of popularity, for the wilder slopes of Ariosto's world of magic and romance. "

“One might assume that forging a connection between the greatest opera composer of the age and its most successful librettist, a master of language and a fine poet, would have extraordinarily fruitful results. But while all three of their joint operas [ Siroe , Poro and Ezio ] contain great music, none of Handel's masterpieces from 1724-25 and 1734-35 (although Poro comes close) is comparable. The divergence of the temperaments of both masters was too great. Metastastio wrote, as befits a clergy, for an edifying purpose. As 'poeta Cesareo' at the court of the Roman-German Emperor Charles VI. For half a century, it was his job to describe rules of conduct and standards for public and private life, as well as the maintenance of the [social] status quo . Even in his early libretti, moral questions take precedence over human values. He moves his pieces like on a chessboard, [...] so that they run the risk of becoming abstract. In all of this, his approach was the antithesis of Handel. It is not surprising that after the production of three of his librettos, Handel turned away from him, just as his reputation was peaking in popularity, to turn to the wilder slopes of Ariosto's world of magic and romance. "

- Winton Dean : Handel's Operas, 1726–1741. London 2006.

orchestra

Two oboes , strings, basso continuo (violoncello, lute, harpsichord).

Discography

  • Newport Classic NCD 60125-3 (1989): John Ostendorf (Cosroe), D'Anna Fortunato (Siroe), Steven Rickards (Medarse), Julianne Baird (Emira), Andrea Matthews (Laodice), Frederick Urrey (Arasse)
Brewer Baroque Chamber Orchestra; Dir. Rudolph Palmer (161 min)
Capella Coloniensis; Dir. Andreas Spering (151 min, recitatives shortened)

literature

Web links

Commons : Siroe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Friedrich Chrysander: GF Handel. Second volume. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1860, p. 180 f.
  2. ↑ Winton Dean: Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006, Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , pp. 91, 100.
  3. ^ Editing 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. 157.
  4. ↑ Christopher Hogwood: Georg Friedrich Handel. A biography (= Insel-Taschenbuch 2655). Translated from the English by Bettina Obrecht. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2000, ISBN 3-458-34355-5 , p. 160.
  5. ↑ a b Handel Reference Database 1728
  6. ↑ handelhouse.org
  7. ↑ a b c d e Sabine Radermacher: "... how Senesino got a cold ..." Metastasios "Siroe" in London. Forum Old Music Cologne
  8. ^ Editing 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. 135.
  9. ^ A b Bernd Baselt : Thematic-systematic directory. Stage works. In: Walter Eisen (Ed.): Handel Handbook: Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-7618-0610-8 (Unchanged reprint, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-0610-4 ) , P. 311.
  10. ^ Silke Leopold: Handel. The operas. Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel 2009, ISBN 978-3-7618-1991-3 , p. 289.
  11. ^ Charles Burney: A General History of Music: from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. Vol. 4. London 1789, faithful reprint: Cambridge University Press 2010, ISBN 978-1-1080-1642-1 , p. 330.
  12. ↑ Winton Dean: Handel's Operas, 1726-1741. Boydell & Brewer, London 2006, Reprint: The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2009, ISBN 978-1-84383-268-3 , p. 92.