Le pescatrici
Encyclopedia
Le pescatrici Hob.
28/4, is an opera (dramma giocoso
) in three acts by Joseph Haydn
set to a libretto
by Carlo Goldoni
. Originally composed as part of the wedding celebrations of Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg, the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770 in the court theatre at Eszterháza
.
(1768) and Il mondo della luna
(1777). However, Haydn was not the first to use Goldoni's libretto. It had previously been used for operas by Ferdinando Bertoni
(Venice
, 1751) and Niccolò Piccinni
(Rome
1766) and was later used by Florian Leopold Gassmann
(Vienna
, 1771). Haydn composed Le pescatrici as part of the lavish celebrations for the marriage of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy
's niece, Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg to Alois Count Poggi at Eszterháza
where the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770. The roles of Lesbina and Frisellino were first sung by Maria Magdalena Spangler and her husband, Carl Friberth, two prominent court singers at Eszterháza. Carl Friberth may also have had a hand in adapting Goldoni's libretto for Haydn.
A third of the original score was then destroyed in a fire at Esterháza in 1779. It was later reconstructed in 1965 by the Haydn scholar by H.C. Robbins Landon and the composer Karl Heinz Füssl. Since then the opera has had occasional revivals, most notably in Amsterdam
on 15 June 1965; in Paris
on 29 June 1967 when it received its first radio broadcast; in Metz
on 1 February 1985; and at Garsington Opera
in June 1997.
The bicentenary of Haydn's death in 2009 saw several performances of the work. In February 2009, it was performed at the Vienna Kammeroper
. It was also performed by Bampton Classical Opera
in English translation in July of that year, followed by performances in London's Wigmore Hall
in September. The opera received its US premiere in New Brunswick, New Jersey
at the Rutgers University
Nicholas Music Center on 30 October 2009.
and concerns the Prince of Sorrento
's search for Prince Casimiro's rightful heir who had been taken to Taranto as a baby after her father's murder. Two young fisherwomen in the village, Lesbina and Nerina, each believe they might be the missing princess. Although they are engaged to each other's brother (also fishermen), they both dream of marrying a wealthy man and set their caps for Prince Lindoro. The real princess turns out to be the dignified Eurilda, whom everyone had thought was the daughter of the elderly fisherman, Mastriccio. Upon discovering this, Lindoro asks for her hand in marriage and departs for Sorrento with Eurilda and her adopted father. The squabbling pairs of lovers, Lesbina and Frisellino and Nerina and Burlotto are eventually reunited but not before Frisellino and Burlotto embarrass Lesbina and Nerina by disguising themselves as cousins of Prince Lindoro and persuading them to elope.
label in July 2009.
Hoboken-Verzeichnis
The Hoboken-Verzeichnis is the catalogue of over 750 works by Joseph Haydn as compiled by Anthony van Hoboken.Unlike Ludwig von Köchel's catalogue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works, or Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Franz Schubert's works, which are both arranged chronologically by date of...
28/4, is an opera (dramma giocoso
Dramma giocoso
Dramma giocoso is the name of a genre of opera common in the mid-18th century. The term is a contraction of "dramma giocoso per musica" and is essentially a description of the text rather than the opera as a whole...
) in three acts by Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
set to a 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...
by 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...
. Originally composed as part of the wedding celebrations of Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg, the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770 in the court theatre at Eszterháza
Eszterháza
Esterháza is a palace in Fertőd, Hungary, built by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Sometimes called the "Hungarian Versailles", it is Hungary's grandest Rococo edifice.-History:...
.
Background and performance history
Le pescatrici was the second of the three Goldoni libretti that Haydn set to music — the other two were Lo spezialeLo speziale
Lo speziale , Hob. 28/3, is a three act opera buffa by Joseph Haydn, with a libretto by Carlo Goldoni.A love triangle between the poor apprentice Mengone, the rich and assured dandy Volpino, and the local apothecary's ward, Grilletta, Lo speziale is a sidesplitting comedy of great warmth and...
(1768) and Il mondo della luna
Il mondo della luna
Il mondo della luna , Hob. 28/7, is an opera buffa by Joseph Haydn with a libretto by Carlo Goldoni, first performed at Eszterháza, Hungary on 3 August 1777. Goldoni's libretto had previously been set by four other composers, first by the composer Baldassare Galuppi and performed in Venice in the...
(1777). However, Haydn was not the first to use Goldoni's libretto. It had previously been used for operas by Ferdinando Bertoni
Ferdinando Bertoni
Ferdinando Bertoni was an Italian composer and organist.He was born in Salò, and began his music studies in Brescia, not far from his birthplace. Around 1740 he went to Bologna, where he studied till 1745 with the famous music theorist Giovanni Battista Martini...
(Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, 1751) and Niccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure, even to music lovers today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of his day...
(Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
1766) and was later used by Florian Leopold Gassmann
Florian Leopold Gassmann
Florian Leopold Gassmann was a German-speaking Bohemian opera composer of the transitional period between the baroque and classical eras. He was one of the principal composers of dramma giocoso immediately before Mozart....
(Vienna
Vienna
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...
, 1771). Haydn composed Le pescatrici as part of the lavish celebrations for the marriage of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy
Nikolaus Esterházy
Nikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...
's niece, Maria Theresa Countess Lamberg to Alois Count Poggi at Eszterháza
Eszterháza
Esterháza is a palace in Fertőd, Hungary, built by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. Sometimes called the "Hungarian Versailles", it is Hungary's grandest Rococo edifice.-History:...
where the opera was first performed on 16 September 1770. The roles of Lesbina and Frisellino were first sung by Maria Magdalena Spangler and her husband, Carl Friberth, two prominent court singers at Eszterháza. Carl Friberth may also have had a hand in adapting Goldoni's libretto for Haydn.
A third of the original score was then destroyed in a fire at Esterháza in 1779. It was later reconstructed in 1965 by the Haydn scholar by H.C. Robbins Landon and the composer Karl Heinz Füssl. Since then the opera has had occasional revivals, most notably in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
on 15 June 1965; in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on 29 June 1967 when it received its first radio broadcast; in Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
on 1 February 1985; and at Garsington Opera
Garsington Opera
Garsington Opera is an annual open air summer opera festival founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams. For twenty one years it was held in the gardens of Leonard Ingrams' home at Garsington Manor in Oxfordshire. Since 2011 the festival is now held in Wormsley Park, the home of the Getty family near High...
in June 1997.
The bicentenary of Haydn's death in 2009 saw several performances of the work. In February 2009, it was performed at the Vienna Kammeroper
Wiener Kammeroper
Wiener Kammeroper is an opera theatre and opera company founded by conductor Hans Gabor. As early as 1948 he initiated the "Vienna Opera Studio" - a company without a theatre of its own...
. It was also performed by Bampton Classical Opera
Bampton Classical Opera
Bampton Classical Opera is an opera company based in Bampton, Oxfordshire specialising in the production of lesser known opera from the Classical period...
in English translation in July of that year, followed by performances in London's Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
in September. The opera received its US premiere in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
at the Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
Nicholas Music Center on 30 October 2009.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast 16 September 1770 |
|---|---|---|
| Lesbina, a fisherwoman, Burlotto's sister and Frisellino's girlfriend | 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... |
Maria Magdalena Spangler |
| Nerina, a fisherwoman, Frisellino's sister and Burlotto's girlfriend | soprano | Barbara Fux-Dichtler |
| Burlotto, a young fisherman | 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... |
Leopold Dichter |
| Frisellino, a young fisherman | tenor | Carl Friberth |
| Eurilda, believed to be the daughter of Mastricco | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
Gertruda Cellini |
| Mastricco, an old fisherman | 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... |
Giacomo Lambertini |
| Lindoro, Prince of Sorrento | bass | Christian Specht |
Synopsis
The story is set in TarantoTaranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
and concerns the Prince of Sorrento
Sorrento
Sorrento is the name of many cities and towns:*Sorrento, Italy*Sorrento, Florida, United States*Sorrento, Louisiana, United States*Sorrento, Maine, United States*Sorrento, Victoria, a township on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia...
's search for Prince Casimiro's rightful heir who had been taken to Taranto as a baby after her father's murder. Two young fisherwomen in the village, Lesbina and Nerina, each believe they might be the missing princess. Although they are engaged to each other's brother (also fishermen), they both dream of marrying a wealthy man and set their caps for Prince Lindoro. The real princess turns out to be the dignified Eurilda, whom everyone had thought was the daughter of the elderly fisherman, Mastriccio. Upon discovering this, Lindoro asks for her hand in marriage and departs for Sorrento with Eurilda and her adopted father. The squabbling pairs of lovers, Lesbina and Frisellino and Nerina and Burlotto are eventually reunited but not before Frisellino and Burlotto embarrass Lesbina and Nerina by disguising themselves as cousins of Prince Lindoro and persuading them to elope.
Recordings
A complete recording of Le pescatrici using the reconstructed score by H.C. Robbins Landon with Olga Geczy conducting the Lithuanian Opera Orchestra was released on the HungarotonHungaroton
Hungaroton was the one and only record and music publisher company in Hungary for about 40 years.Hungaroton was founded in 1951, since then, its only competitors in the Hungarian music market were record labels like Melodiya, Supraphon and Eterna from other socialist countries. Previously called...
label in July 2009.
Sources
- Bampton Classical OperaBampton Classical OperaBampton Classical Opera is an opera company based in Bampton, Oxfordshire specialising in the production of lesser known opera from the Classical period...
, Le Pescatrici. Accessed 4 November 2009. - Casaglia, Gherardo, "Le Pescatrici", Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 4 November 2009 (in Italian).
- Federal Chancellery of Austria, "Haydn-Jahr 09: 'Le pescatrici – The Fisher Girls' at Vienna Chamber Opera House", 16 February 2009. Accessed 4 November 2009.
- Green, Rebecca, "Representing the Aristocracy: The Operatic Haydn and Le pescatrici" in Elaine Rochelle Sisman (ed.), Haydn and his World, Princeton University Press, 1997, pp 154-200. ISBN 0691057990
- Hunter, Mary, "Friberth, Carl", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 3 November 2009), Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription).
- Kennedy, Michael, "Garden guerrillas declare war", Daily Telegraph, 21 June 1997. Accessed 4 November 2009.
- Reich, Ronni, "Rutgers stages 'reconstructed' version of Haydn's 'Le Pescatrici' with Musica Raritana", New Jersey Star-Ledger, 2 November 2009. Accessed 4 November 2009.
- Webster, James, "Haydn, (Franz) Joseph", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription)