Arianna in Nasso (Porpora)

Last updated
Nicola Antonio Porpora Nicola Antonio Porpora.jpg
Nicola Antonio Porpora

Arianna in Nasso is a 1733 opera by Nicola Porpora to a libretto by Paolo Rolli, chief conductor of the Opera of the Nobility.

Contents

Background

The choice of the subject of Ariadne was a challenge to Handel, whose Arianna in Creta was completed by 5 October 1733. [1] Handel's Arianna in Creta was based on Pietro Pariati's much-set Arianna e Teseo, in the later of two versions by Leonardo Leo (1729). This was a libretto which Porpora himself had also used for his own Arianna e Teseo (1721). [2] Handel's choice of libretto obliged Porpora to turn to Rolli's libretto which was modeled not on Pariati but on Stampa's libretto to Giovanni Porta's dramma pastorale, Arianna. [3] [4]

Musical numbers

Act 1
Overture
Allegro
Scene 1: Ahi! Che langue oppresso il core (Arianna)
Scene 1: L'un minaccia, l'altra alletta (Arianna)
Scene 1: Ahi! Che langue (Arianna)
Scene 2: Cadete a colpi d'Ateniese braccio (Teseo)
Scene 2: Aria: Ho vinto, ma non gia (Teseo)
Scene 3: Figlio d'Ixion, Re dei Lapiti (Piritoo)
Scene 3: Aria: Piu l'impresa perigli n'appresta (Piritoo)
Scene 4: Ecco la piu opportuna aita (Onaro)
Scene 4: Aria: Orgogliose procellose (Onaro)
Scene 5: So che il tuo sol valor (Piritoo)
Scene 5: Aria: Pensat'a vendicar (Antiope)
Scene 6: Grazie a te dello scampo (Teseo)
Scene 6: Aria: Nume che reggi il mare (Teseo)
Scene 7: Il tuo dolce mormorio (Arianna)
Scene 7: Recitative: Lieto ritorno all'alma mia (Teseo)
Scene 7: Aria: D'aura gioconda (Onaro)
Scene 7: Recitative dopa l'aria: Di dolcissimi affetti (Teseo)
Scene 7: Duet: In amoroso petto (Arianna, Teseo)
Act 2
Scene 1: Cotesto e il padiglion (Antiope)
Scene 1: Aria: Gia lo so (Antiope)
Scene 2: Misera! Che ascoltai (Arianna)
Scene 2: Aria: Va', mancator di fe (Arianna)
Scene 3: Egli e desso (Piritoo)
Scene 3: Aria: Giurasti fede (Antiope)
Scene 3: Aria: A contesa di due belle (Piritoo)
Scene 4: Ragione e onor vogliono (Arianna)
Scene 4: Aria: Un altro oggetto puo (Teseo)
Scene 4: Recitative: Agitata alma mia (Arianna)
Scene 4: Aria: Miseri sventurati (Arianna)
Scene 6: Onaro qui venir m'impose (Teseo)
Scene 6: Recitative: Teseo, gia tutte a scolorir le cose (Nume Libero)
Scene 6: Aria: Numi, vi cedo (Teseo)
Act 3
Scene 1: Gran nume Semeleo (Arianna)
Scene 1: Aria: Rendera l'amore all'alma (Onaro)
Scene 2: Si, me ne andro ramingo (Teseo)
Scene 2: Aria: Vivere senza te (Antiope)
Scene 3: Vien fido amico (Teseo)
Scene 3: Aria: Altro da te non bramo (Teseo)
Scene 3: Aria: Fra nuove imprese (Piritoo)
Scene 4: Io son la sola (Arianna)
Scene 4: Duet: Vieni, parti (Antiope, Teseo)
Scene 5: Si, caro ti consola (Arianna)
Scene 5: Aria: Celeste forza (Arianna)
Scene 5: Evoe, Evoe (Coribanti, Baccanti)

Related Research Articles

<i>Giulio Cesare</i> Opera by George Frederic Handel

Giulio Cesare in Egitto, commonly known as Giulio Cesare, is a dramma per musica in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724. The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym who used an earlier libretto by Giacomo Francesco Bussani, which had been set to music by Antonio Sartorio (1676). The opera was a success at its first performances, was frequently revived by Handel in his subsequent opera seasons and is now one of the most often performed Baroque operas.

<i>Opera seria</i> Style of Italian opera

Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as something of a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte.

Nicola Porpora Italian composer (1686–1768)

NicolaAntonio Porpora was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli. Other students included composers Matteo Capranica and Joseph Haydn.

<i>Teseo</i>

Teseo is an opera seria with music by George Frideric Handel, the only Handel opera that is in five acts. The Italian-language libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Philippe Quinault's Thésée. It was Handel's third London opera, intended to follow the success of Rinaldo after the unpopular Il pastor fido.

<i>Arianna in Creta</i>

Arianna in Creta is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was adapted by Francis Colman from Pietro Pariati's Arianna e Teseo, a text previously set by Nicola Porpora in 1727 and Leonardo Leo in 1729.

<i>LArianna</i> Opera by Claudio Monteverdi

L'Arianna is the lost second opera by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. One of the earliest operas in general, it was composed in 1607–1608 and first performed on 28 May 1608, as part of the musical festivities for a royal wedding at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. All the music is lost apart from the extended recitative known as "Lamento d'Arianna". The libretto, which survives complete, was written in eight scenes by Ottavio Rinuccini, who used Ovid's Heroides and other classical sources to relate the story of Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus on the island of Naxos and her subsequent elevation as bride to the god Bacchus.

Carlo Francesco Pollarolo Italian composer

Carlo Francesco Pollarolo was an Italian composer, organist, and music director. Known chiefly for his operas, he wrote a total of 85 of them as well as 13 oratorios. His compositional style was initially indebted to the opera tradition of Giovanni Legrenzi and Carlo Pallavicino, but he moved beyond this style with innovations to the compositional structure of the aria characterized by expanded forms and orchestral elaborations. His early work used three part strings in the Legrenzi and Pallacino tradition of orchestration, but his mid and later works had developed into a richer orchestration of five strings parts and expanded instrumentation of brass and woodwinds. He was the first Venetian opera composer and one of the earliest Italian composers to use the oboe in his opera orchestrations.

Giuseppe Maria Orlandini Italian composer

Giuseppe Maria Orlandini was an Italian baroque composer particularly known for his more than 40 operas and intermezzos. Highly regarded by music historians of his day like Francesco Saverio Quadrio, Jean-Benjamin de La Borde and Charles Burney, Orlandini, along with Vivaldi, is considered one of the major creators of the new style of opera that dominated the second decade of the 18th century.

The Opera of the Nobility was an opera company set up and funded in 1733 by a group of nobles opposed to George II of Great Britain, in order to rival the (Second) Royal Academy of Music company under Handel.

Geminiano Giacomelli Italian composer (1692-1740)

Geminiano Giacomelli was an Italian composer.

Andrea Adolfati was an Italian composer who is particularly remembered for his output of opera serias. His works are generally conventional and stylistically similar to the operas of his teacher Baldassare Galuppi. Although his music largely followed the fashion of his time, he did compose two tunes with unusual time signatures for his day: an air in 5
4
meter and another in 7
4
meter.

Antonio Maria Mazzoni was an Italian composer.

<i>Il trionfo di Clelia</i> (Mysliveček)

Il trionfo di Clelia is an 18th-century Italian opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio. It was common in the 1760s for composers to set Metastasian texts written decades before. Exceptionally, the text for Il trionfo di Clelia, first produced in Vienna in 1762, was almost new when Mysliveček was commissioned to compose his setting for Turin, and all of the aria texts used for his setting derive from the original libretto. This opera belong to the serious type in Italian language referred to as opera seria.

<i>Atide</i>

Atide is an opera in three acts by Josef Mysliveček set to a libretto by Tomaso Stanzani that is based on Greek legends about Atys, an ancient king of Lydia. Stanzani's libretto is based on an earlier libretto by Philippe Quinault that was originally set by Jean-Baptiste Lully as Atys in 1676. The opera Atide belong to the serious type in Italian language referred to as opera seria.

Carlo Scalzi Italian opera singer

Carlo Scalzi was an Italian castrato who had an active performance career in major opera houses in Italy from 1718-1738. He was also heard in London in 1733–1734 where he notably created the role of Alceste in the world premiere of George Frideric Handel's Arianna in Creta. The librettist Pietro Metastasio described Scalzi as a "very unique (sic) singer" and likened his voice to that of the famous castrato Farinelli.

Pietro Pariati was an Italian poet and librettist. He was initially secretary to Rinaldo d'Este (1655–1737), Duke of Modena. Then from 1699 to 1714, he made his living as a poet in Venice, initially writing librettos with Apostolo Zeno, then independently. Then finally from 1714-1729 he was Metastasio's predecessor at the Vienna court of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.

<i>La festa dImeneo</i>

La festa d'Imeneo is a serenata by Nicola Porpora, with a libretto by Paolo Rolli. It was premiered at the King's Theatre on 4 May 1736 by the Opera of the Nobility to mark the marriage of Porpora's patron Frederick, Prince of Wales to Augusta of Saxe-Gotha on 27 April that year. The lead role was sung by Senesino, but it proved unsuccessful in the face of Handel's Atalanta, premiered later that month to mark the marriage. Imeneo's opening aria, "Vaghi amori", has been recorded occasionally.

Celeste Gismondi, originally known as Celeste Resse and nicknamed La Celestina, was an Italian soprano opera singer, who performed a major role in the première of some works by George Frideric Handel, including Orlando.

<i>Polifemo</i> (opera)

Polifemo is an opera in three acts by Nicola Porpora with a libretto by Paolo Rolli. The opera is based on a combination of two mythological stories involving the cyclops Polyphemus: His killing of Acis and his blinding by Ulysses.

References

  1. Essays on Handel and Italian Opera, Reinhard Strohm (1985) p. 183 ISBN   0521264286 "Porpora was now chief conductor of the Opera of the Nobility and his setting of a new drama by Rolli on the subject of Ariadne (Arianna in Nasso) was a deliberate challenge to Handel, whose Arianna was already completed on 5 October 1733. The very fact of Handel's having anticipated him obliged Porpora to set a different Ariadne text, although a comparison of his two scores suggests ..."
  2. Con Che Soavità: Studies in Italian Opera, Song, and Dance, 1580-1740 ISBN   0198163703 Iain Fenlon, Tim Carter, Nigel Fortune (1995) "Only two operas were given, but both settings were commissioned from Neapolitan composers. The libretto of Porpora's Arianna e Teseo, in autumn, was a reworking of Pietro Pariati's Teseo in Creta (1715, Vienna) following, with slight alterations, a revision made by an unknown librettist for the Teatro S. Bartolomeo in Naples in 1721. Here, Leonardo Leo had arranged the music as a pasticcio , with many arias of his own, and in 1729 he returned to the libretto, giving it a new setting all ..."
  3. Helen M. Greenwald The Oxford Handbook of Opera 2014 ISBN   0195335538 p. 148: "Rolli's libretto is modeled not on Pariati but on Stampa's libretto to Giovanni Porta's dramma pastorale, Arianna"
  4. Colin Timms, Bruce Wood Music in the London Theatre from Purcell to Handel ISBN   1108124569 (2017) "It should be remembered that the choice of Arianna in Creta was not necessarily influenced by royal wishes (Handel found the libretto most probably in Rome in early 1729) and that Nicola Porporaʼs opera Arianna in Nasso was a spin-off from it not vice versa.