Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura ("The Love of a Shade and the Jealousy of an Aura"), also known as Narciso ("Narcissus"), is an opera in three acts composed by Domenico Scarlatti to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece. It premiered in Rome in January 1714 at the private theatre of Maria Casimira of Poland who had commissioned the work. The libretto is based on two fables from Ovid's Metamorphoses : Echo and Narcissus (Book III) and Cephalus and Procris (Book VII). [1]
Queen Maria Casimira had taken up residence in Rome in 1699 following the death of her husband Jan III Sobieski and her subsequent exile from Poland. Once in Rome she set up a court and became an active figure the city's musical life. In 1709, Domenico Scarlatti succeeded his father Alessandro as her court composer. His librettist, Carlo Capece, was her private secretary and court poet. Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura premiered at Maria Casimira's private theatre in the Palazzo Zuccari in January 1714 and proved to be the last of the several operas which Scarlatti had composed for her. Five months after the premiere, she departed for France, leaving a string of debts behind her. [2]
In addition to Scarlatti's opera, the 1714 Carnival opera season in Rome saw the premieres of Caldara's Tito e Berenice (also with a libretto by Capece) and Gasparini's Lucio Papirio (with a libretto by Antonio Salvi). These two were the result of a competition set by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a prominent patron of the arts in Rome. Two rival academies, the Accademia degli Arcadi and the Accademia dei Quirini, were each to sponsor an opera to be performed in the newly renovated Teatro Capranica. Ottoboni would give a generous gift to the academy which had produced the best one. According to a French correspondent at the time, Tito e Berenice had considerably less success with the audiences than Lucio Papirio, but the best opera presented that season was actually Amor d'un'ombra e gelosia d'un'aura. [3]
A revised version of the opera with the addition of two arias and two duets composed by Thomas Roseingrave opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 30 May 1720 under the title Narciso. Roseingrave also published the overture and arias of the opera, the only vocal music of Scarlatti that was printed in his lifetime. [4] Capece's original libretto was adapted for the London performance by Paolo Antonio Rolli who eliminated the role of Nicandro. While the cast for the Rome premiere is unknown, the principal roles in the London performance were taken by Margherita Durastanti (Narciso), Anastasia Robinson (Eco), Benedetto Baldassari (Cefalo), and Ann Turner Robinson (Procri). [5]
The Haymarket Theatre Narciso proved to be the last time one of Scarlatti's operas was performed in his lifetime. The discovery of a copy of the manuscript score in the library of Friedrich Chrysander led to several late 20th and early 21st century revivals. [6] A version using the voices of opera singers but with the characters portrayed on stage by marionettes was produced in 2002 at the Besançon International Music Festival. [7]
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti, was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas. He spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families.
Bernardo Pasquini was an Italian composer of operas, oratorios, cantatas and keyboard music. A renowned virtuoso keyboard player, he was one of the most important Italian composers for harpsichord between Girolamo Frescobaldi and Domenico Scarlatti, having also made substantial contributions to the opera and oratorio.
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Thomas Roseingrave, like his father Daniel Roseingrave, was an English-born Irish composer and organist.
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Antonio Salvi was an Italian physician, court poet and librettist, active mainly in Florence, Italy. He was in the service of the grand-ducal court of Tuscany and the favourite librettist of Prince Ferdinando de' Medici. Salvi was one of the developers of the opera seria.
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Tito e Berenice is an opera in three acts composed by Antonio Caldara to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece. It premiered on 10 January 1714 at the Teatro Capranica in Rome. The story centers on the love affair between Berenice of Cilicia and the future Roman Emperor Titus. The libretto borrows from earlier plays on the same subject by Corneille and Racine (Bérénice), both of which premiered in 1670 and took as their starting point Suetonius's brief account of the love affair in De vita Caesarum.
The Teatro Capranica is a theatre situated at 101 Piazza Capranica in the Colonna district of Rome. Originally constructed in 1679 by the Capranica family and housed in the early Renaissance Palazzo Capranica, it was the second public theatre to open in Rome. It was the site of many premieres of Baroque operas including Caldara's Tito e Berenice, Scarlatti's Griselda, and Vivaldi's Ercole su'l Termodonte. The Capranica ceased operating as a full-scale theatre and opera house in 1881 and in 1922 was converted into a cinema. Following the closure of the cinema in 2000, it has functioned on a hire basis as a conference and performance venue.
Sebastiano Biancardi, known by the pseudonym Domenico Lalli, was an Italian poet and librettist. Amongst the many libretti he produced, largely for the opera houses of Venice, were those for Vivaldi's Ottone in villa and Alessandro Scarlatti's Tigrane. A member of the Accademia degli Arcadi, he also wrote under his arcadian name "Ortanio". Lalli was born and raised in Naples as the adopted son of Fulvio Caracciolo but fled the city after being implicated in a bank fraud. After two years wandering about Italy in the company of Emanuele d'Astorga, he settled in Venice in 1710 and worked as the "house poet" of the Grimani family's theatres for the rest of his career. In addition to his stage works, Lalli published several volumes of poetry and a collection of biographies of the kings of Naples. He died in Venice at the age of 62.
Ifigenia in Aulide may refer to:
Telemaco, ossia L'isola di Circe is a 1718 opera by Alessandro Scarlatti to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece, court poet to Queen Maria Casimira of Poland, living in exile in Rome, for the Teatro Capranica in Rome, where it was premiered during the carnival season. The opera was revived in 2005 by the Schwetzingen Festival and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
Tolomeo e Alessandro, ovvero la corona disprezzata is an Italian-language opera by Domenico Scarlatti to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece which premiered in Rome on 19 January 1711 at the Palazzo Zuccari, with scenery by Filippo Juvarra. It was second of the seven operas composed by Domenico for the Polish queen Maria Casimira Sobieski, following his pastorale in three acts La Silvia of 27 January 1710.
Carlo Sigismondo Capece was an Italian dramatist and librettist. Capece was court poet to Queen Maria Casimira of Poland, who was living in exile in Rome, and is best remembered today for the libretto of La resurrezione a sacred oratorio by George Frideric Handel. He also provided the Libretto for operas including Domenico Scarlatti's Tolomeo e Alessandro (1711) and Ifigenia in Aulide (1714), as well as Caldara's Tito e Berenice (1714).
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