L'amore innocente
Encyclopedia
L'amore innocente composed by Antonio Salieri
(1750–1825), is an Italian-language opera
in two acts, stylistically it is a pastoral opera and is very similar to the mid-18th century Roman Intermezzo
. The libretto
was written by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, dancer, poet and stage manager, brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini
.
This opera was the second of Salieri's to be publicly performed, as well as, his second collaboration with Boccherini. This was Salieri's third complete opera.
in 1770. It received its first performance during Carnival that same year at the Imperial Burgtheater in Vienna. In 1772 the opera was premiered in Dresden
. This performance was witnessed by Charles Burney
, and included Angiola Calori in the cast.. Salieri later reused some of the music from this opera in various unnamed ballet scores, as well as one aria in the late opera La Cifra
. Salieri also seems to have continued to revise this opera late into his life; and performances frequently occurred in German translation as Die Lügnerin aus Liebe under the direction of Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann in 1783 in Bonn
and also in Mainz
, Dresden (this time in German), both in 1783, 1785 in Frankfurt
, and Berlin in 1788, and a performance as late as 1793 has been reported. The first modern production was in 1997 in Bolzano.
Summary: The plot revolves around two rural maids, Guidalba the worldly daughter of the village's head Shepherd, Cestone (Basket) and his ward and niece, Despina. Despina is a happy country maiden in love with a local shepherd Despino, Guidalba is also in love with Despino, but is resolved to abandon the Alps and the rustic life for a more exciting life in the city. Guidalba engages in a number of subterfuges to break the romantic tie between Despino and Despina, which until the very end of the opera we are led to believe have succeeded, mainly because Despino is portrayed as utterly clueless and gullible. At the very end, however, Despino and Despina are reunited in love and promise to wed and spend the remainder of their days in the countryside.
" and "pastorale". These details, plus it's very small structure, two acts with only four singers, has lead several scholars to place it within the tradition of Roman Intermezzo. Also unique to this opera is it's choice of setting. Instead of the more typical lush southern Italian placement, L'amore is set in an Alpine village; and very unusually, it is set in the specific village of Klausen, located between Brixen
and Bolzano on the river Eisack
. The village is now part of Italy, but at the time of the opera's composition it was part of the Habsburg
domains.
The work itself consists mainly of Arias and Cavatinas with very few ensembles. Mosel, Salieri's first biographer and the main source for primary information about the composer, praised this short and early work, writing of the libretto he said, "this operetta is distinguished by its simple but attractive plot and the naivete of the language." Further Mosel noted that the music of the work is marked by flowing, pastoral melodies and pleasant tunes. The character of Despina, however, borrows bravura coloratura writing from the opera-seria tradition. Mosel saw this use of coloratura as a weakness and a threat to the opera's musical cohesion. He attributed its use to concessions made to please the lead soprano, Clementina Baglioni, however Braunbehrens sees it as a both within the character of Despina, as a woman who is noble at heart; and perhaps as a naive attempt at local color: yodeling as coloratura. Besides elements of pastoral music, and bravura arias, Salieri and Boccherini also included a catalog aria in the style of Carlo Goldoni
, and falsetto sung by the bass Cestone, for comic effect. Charles Burney gave his opinion of the piece at a performance in Dresden in 1772, writing, "The music was as innocent of design, as the drama and the performance: nothing in the least seducing or inflammatory was to be heard or seen; but all was tranquil, unmeaning, and as truly soporific as a nurse's lullaby." An opposing view of this small work was held by Goethe, in a letter to Charlotte von Stein
dated 5 November 1785 he praised a performance of the opera, calling it charming and recommended that they go together to see it.
In this opera Salieri matured as a composer. Building on his experience from his first staged opera Le donne letterate
; in L'amore Salieri greatly expanded the harmonic and orchestral role of the viola. Mosel further remarks that the composer also used a more active harmonic bass line, and greatly improved his use of modulation within individual numbers of this opera. These compositional advances moved well beyond what was typical for a small scale Italian opera of this period. The public received the opera with applause, and it has been judged a modest success in Vienna at the time of its premier.
with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
, conducted by Ádám Fischer
, Decca 475 100-2) has one related excerpt:
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri was a Venetian classical composer, conductor and teacher born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, but who spent his adult life and career as a faithful subject of the Habsburg monarchy....
(1750–1825), is an Italian-language opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in two acts, stylistically it is a pastoral opera and is very similar to the mid-18th century Roman Intermezzo
Intermezzo
In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...
. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
was written by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, dancer, poet and stage manager, brother of the composer Luigi Boccherini
Luigi Boccherini
Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No...
.
This opera was the second of Salieri's to be publicly performed, as well as, his second collaboration with Boccherini. This was Salieri's third complete opera.
Performance history
Salieri, wrote L'amore innocent in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1770. It received its first performance during Carnival that same year at the Imperial Burgtheater in Vienna. In 1772 the opera was premiered in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. This performance was witnessed by Charles Burney
Charles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
, and included Angiola Calori in the cast.. Salieri later reused some of the music from this opera in various unnamed ballet scores, as well as one aria in the late opera La Cifra
La cifra
La cifra is an opera by Antonio Salieri in two acts, set to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte.The work, a dramma giocoso, is set in Scotland, and was written for Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, the first Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte....
. Salieri also seems to have continued to revise this opera late into his life; and performances frequently occurred in German translation as Die Lügnerin aus Liebe under the direction of Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann in 1783 in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and also in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, Dresden (this time in German), both in 1783, 1785 in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, and Berlin in 1788, and a performance as late as 1793 has been reported. The first modern production was in 1997 in Bolzano.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, Carnival, 1770 (Conductor: Antonio Salieri (most likely) ) |
|---|---|---|
| Despino, A Shepherd in love with Despina |
tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
|
| Despina, Niece of Cestone also his pupil |
soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Clementina Baglioni |
| Cestone, (Basket) Head Shepherd of the Village, father of Guidalba |
bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
|
| Guidalba, Daughter of Cestone, also in love with Despino |
soprano | |
Synopsis
- Time: the 18th century
- Place:the village of Klausen in the County of TyrolCounty of TyrolThe County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
.
Summary: The plot revolves around two rural maids, Guidalba the worldly daughter of the village's head Shepherd, Cestone (Basket) and his ward and niece, Despina. Despina is a happy country maiden in love with a local shepherd Despino, Guidalba is also in love with Despino, but is resolved to abandon the Alps and the rustic life for a more exciting life in the city. Guidalba engages in a number of subterfuges to break the romantic tie between Despino and Despina, which until the very end of the opera we are led to believe have succeeded, mainly because Despino is portrayed as utterly clueless and gullible. At the very end, however, Despino and Despina are reunited in love and promise to wed and spend the remainder of their days in the countryside.
The Structure, Genre and Critical Reception of the Music of L'amore innocente
This opera by Salieri and Boccherini, was written in the pastoral tradition, the printed libretto for the premier in Vienna carries the description "pastorale per musica", and Salieri's autograph score uses the term "operettaOperetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
" and "pastorale". These details, plus it's very small structure, two acts with only four singers, has lead several scholars to place it within the tradition of Roman Intermezzo. Also unique to this opera is it's choice of setting. Instead of the more typical lush southern Italian placement, L'amore is set in an Alpine village; and very unusually, it is set in the specific village of Klausen, located between Brixen
Brixen
Brixen is the name of two cities in the Alps:*Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy*Brixen im Thale, Tyrol, AustriaBrixen may also refer to:*Bishopric of Brixen, the former north-Italian state....
and Bolzano on the river Eisack
Eisack
The Eisack is a river in Northern Italy, the second largest river in South Tyrol. Its source is near the Brenner Pass, at an altitude of about 1990 m above sea level. The river draws water from an area of about 4,200 km². After about 96 km, it joins the Adige river south of Bolzano. At first the...
. The village is now part of Italy, but at the time of the opera's composition it was part of the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
domains.
The work itself consists mainly of Arias and Cavatinas with very few ensembles. Mosel, Salieri's first biographer and the main source for primary information about the composer, praised this short and early work, writing of the libretto he said, "this operetta is distinguished by its simple but attractive plot and the naivete of the language." Further Mosel noted that the music of the work is marked by flowing, pastoral melodies and pleasant tunes. The character of Despina, however, borrows bravura coloratura writing from the opera-seria tradition. Mosel saw this use of coloratura as a weakness and a threat to the opera's musical cohesion. He attributed its use to concessions made to please the lead soprano, Clementina Baglioni, however Braunbehrens sees it as a both within the character of Despina, as a woman who is noble at heart; and perhaps as a naive attempt at local color: yodeling as coloratura. Besides elements of pastoral music, and bravura arias, Salieri and Boccherini also included a catalog aria in the style of Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty...
, and falsetto sung by the bass Cestone, for comic effect. Charles Burney gave his opinion of the piece at a performance in Dresden in 1772, writing, "The music was as innocent of design, as the drama and the performance: nothing in the least seducing or inflammatory was to be heard or seen; but all was tranquil, unmeaning, and as truly soporific as a nurse's lullaby." An opposing view of this small work was held by Goethe, in a letter to Charlotte von Stein
Charlotte von Stein
Charlotta Ernestina Bernadina von Stein was a lady-in-waiting at the court in Weimar and a close friend to both Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose work and life were strongly influenced by her.-Childhood:Charlotte′s parents were Hofmarschall Johann Wilhelm Christian von...
dated 5 November 1785 he praised a performance of the opera, calling it charming and recommended that they go together to see it.
In this opera Salieri matured as a composer. Building on his experience from his first staged opera Le donne letterate
Le donne letterate
Le donne letterate composed by Antonio Salieri , is an Italian opera in three acts, stylistically it is an opera buffa and is very similar to the mid-18th century librettos of Carlo Goldoni...
; in L'amore Salieri greatly expanded the harmonic and orchestral role of the viola. Mosel further remarks that the composer also used a more active harmonic bass line, and greatly improved his use of modulation within individual numbers of this opera. These compositional advances moved well beyond what was typical for a small scale Italian opera of this period. The public received the opera with applause, and it has been judged a modest success in Vienna at the time of its premier.
Noted arias
- "Ah se foss'io smarrito" - Despina in Act I, with extended oboe solo, later prepared for insertion in the opera Il mondo alla rovescia, but left out of the final score.
- "Non vo' gia che vi suonino" - Guidalba in Act II, later reworked and inserted in La Cifra.
Recordings
There is no known studio recording of the complete opera, however, The Salieri Album, (Cecilia BartoliCecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best-known for her interpretation of the music of Mozart and Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music...
with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is a British period instrument orchestra. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, associate orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and has its headquarters at Kings Place...
, conducted by Ádám Fischer
Ádám Fischer
Ádám Fischer is a Hungarian conductor of Jewish family origin. He is the general music director of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, with which he has recorded the complete Haydn symphonies for the Nimbus label, the first digital recording of the cycle...
, Decca 475 100-2) has one related excerpt:
- "E voi da buon marito … Non vo’ gia che vi suonino" (Lisotta's recitative and aria from Act I) from La Cifra - this is the reworked version of Guidalba's aria,"Ah se foss'io smarrito" from Act II of L'amore innocente.
External links
- Article on the Roman Intermezzo, by John Rice, 2008