Il Pompeo

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Il Pompeo
Opera by Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti 2.jpg
The composer as a young man
Librettist Nicolò Minato
LanguageItalian
Premiere
25 January 1683 (1683-01-25)
Teatro di Palazzo Colonna, Rome

Il Pompeo is a dramma per musica in three acts by composer Alessandro Scarlatti. Written in 1682 when Scarlatti was 22 years old, it was his fourth opera and first dramatic work on a serious and grand subject. The opera uses an Italian language libretto by Nicolò Minato which had previously been used by Francesco Cavalli for his 1666 opera Pompeo Magno . The work premiered at the Teatro di Palazzo Colonna in Rome on 25 January 1683. [1]

Dramma per musica is a libretto. The term was used by dramatists in Italy and elsewhere between the late-17th and mid-19th centuries. In modern times the same meaning of drama for music was conveyed through the Italian Greek-rooted word melodramma. Dramma per musica never meant "drama through music", let alone music drama.

Alessandro Scarlatti Italian composer

Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti was an Italian Baroque composer, known especially for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.

Opera artform combining sung text and musical score in a theatrical setting

Opera is a form of theatre in which music has a leading role and the parts are taken by singers, but is distinct from musical theater. Such a "work" is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor.

Roles

Role [2] Voice type [2] Premiere cast
25 January 1683
Pompeo tenor
Giulio Cesare bass
Giulia, daughter of Giulio Cesare contralto castrato travesti
Scipione Servilio, loved by Giulia soprano castrato
Mitridatetenor
Issicratea, Mitridate's wifesoprano castrato travesti
Sesto, son of Pompeoalto castrato
Claudio, son of Giulio Cesaresoprano castrato
Harpalia, Issicratea's slavesoprano castrato travesti
Farnace, son of Mitridatesoprano castrato

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References

  1. Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Pompeo, 25 January 1683" . L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
  2. 1 2 Boyd, Malcolm (1997) [1992]. Stanley Sadie, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol.3. London: Macmillan Reference Limited. p. 1055. ISBN   1-56159-228-5.