Argippo

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Domenico Lalli, author of the Argippo libretto, which had previously been set as Il gran Mogol by Francesco Mancini (1713).

Argippo is an opera libretto by Domenico Lalli, which in Giovanni Porta's setting premiered in Venice in 1717. Claudio Nicola Stampa's reworked version of the libretto was set as L'Argippo by Andrea Stefano Fiorè [de]. This opera was performed in Milan in 1722.

Antonio Vivaldi's Argippo, RV 697, based on Stampa's version of the libretto, was staged in two different versions in 1730, first in Vienna (RV 697-A), and later in Prague (RV 697-B). The music of both of these versions is lost. Vivaldi's setting of the Argippo libretto partially survives in a pasticcio, RV Anh. 137, which, in the 21st century, was the basis for a reconstruction of the Prague version of Vivaldi's opera.

Libretto[edit]

Domenico Lalli's Il gran Mogol libretto was set by Francesco Mancini, and performed in the Teatro San Bartolomeo, Naples, in December 1713.[1][2] In the next two decades this libretto was set as Argippo by several composers:[3]

  • Setting by Giovanni Porta, performed in 1717 in Venice.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
  • L'Argippo, a setting by Andrea Stefano Fiorè [de] of Claudio Nicola Stampa's reworked version of the libretto, was staged in Milan in 1722.[9][10][11][12]
  • Antonio Vivaldi based his Argippo, RV 697-A, which premiered in Vienna in 1730, on Stampa's adaptation of Lalli's libretto (music lost).[13]
  • Vivaldi used a variant of this libretto for his Argippo, RV 697-B, staged in Prague in the autumn of 1730 (music lost).[3][13][14]
  • Vivaldi's setting of the text based on Lalli's libretto was partially preserved in a pasticcio, Argippo, RV Anh. 137.[13]
  • Another Argippo pasticcio, credited to Antonio Costantini, and based on Lalli's libretto, was performed in the 1733 carnival season in Brno.[15][16][17]

Roles[edit]

Role Porta 1717[6][7] Fiorè 1722[12] Vivaldi 2008 (rec.)[18][19]
Voice t. Cast Cast Voice t. Cast
Argippo, king soprano Valentino Urbani Giuliano Albertini mezzo Veronika Mráčková Fučíková
Tisifaro, mogol tenor Gaetano Borghi Gio. Battista Pinacci baritone Zdeněk Kapl
Zanaida, daughter of Tisifaro alto Diana Vico Vittoria Tesi mezzo Pavla Štěpničková
Osira, wife of Argippo soprano Antonia Gavazzi Anna Guglielmina soprano Jana Bínová-Koucká
Silvero, secretly married to Zanaida alto Gio. Battista Minelli Carlo Scalzi soprano Barbora Sojková
Mesio, in love with Osira bass Antinoro Claudii Maria Antonina Tozzi —

Synopsis[edit]

The opera, in three acts, is set in an Indian royal court and centers around a young princess smitten by a dishonest suitor.[6][12][18][20]

1717–1722[edit]

Porta's setting of Lalli's Argippo libretto was first performed in Venice in 1717.[3][4] Fiorè's setting of Stampa's adaptation of the Argippo libretto was first performed in Milan in 1722.[9]

Porta[edit]

First page of the manuscript score of Giovanni Porta's Argippo (1717).[8]

Porta's Argippo was first performed on 31 October 1717 in Venice, in the Teatro San Cassiano.[7][8] Both the printed libretto (titled L'Argippo: Drama per musica) and the manuscript score (titled Argippo) of this performance survive.[5][6][7][8][21] A four-page dedication by Lalli precedes the text of his libretto.[6] There is no sinfonia (overture) in the score.[7] There are fifteen scenes in the first act, fourteen in the second act, and nine in the last act.[7] The text in the score closely follows the original libretto.[7] The printed libretto contains text variants for nine arias, but it is not known whether these alternative texts were set by Porta.[7]

In 1722, Porta's opera was re-staged in Venice, this time in the Teatro San Moisè.[9][22] Also for this production, Lalli wrote a dedication in the printed libretto.[22]

Fiorè[edit]

L'Argippo was staged in the Regio Ducal Teatro in Milan in honour of the 31st birthday of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empress, which fell on 28 August 1722. The dedication, dated 27 August 1722 in the extant libretto, was written by Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio and addressed at Girolamo di Colloredo-Waldsee [it], who was the then-time Austrian governor of the Duchy of Milan. Stampa added an introduction to this revised version of Lalli's libretto, which was set by Fiorè.[10][11][12]

The libretto describes three stage settings for the fourteen scenes of the first act, while the second act (twelve scenes) and the third act (eleven scenes) each have two different stage settings. A reprint of the libretto was published in 2018.[12][23]

Vivaldi's RV 697, pasticcios and a reconstruction[edit]

Basis for "Gelido in ogni vena" aria of RV 697
Vivaldi's L'inverno (Winter), First movement, Allegro non molto (3:18)
Performed by the United States Air Force Band
Problems playing this file? See media help.

In a letter he wrote in 1737, Vivaldi mentions he had been called to Vienna: according to Michael Talbot, this was likely on invitation by the Theater am Kärntnertor where the first version of his Argippo, RV 697, was presented as an intermezzo in 1730.[24] Later that year, a somewhat more extended version of this opera was performed by a company of mostly Italian performers in Franz Anton von Sporck's private theatre in Prague.[13][25] A few years later, this Italian ensemble performed in Regensburg, where a score with at least six arias from Vivaldi's Argippo was recovered.[26][13]

1730[edit]

Two closely related German versions of the Argippo libretto were published in 1730:[13][15]

  • one for a performance in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, translated by Heinrich Rademin;[27]
  • a more extended one for the Sporck Theater in Prague.[14]

Both contain an aria titled "Gelido in ogni vena", on a text extracted from Metastasio's Siroe, re di Persia libretto, and which Vivaldi had for instance also inserted in his Farnace opera, there based on music from his L'Inverno concerto.[9][28][29] The libretto variants were based on Stampa's adaptation of Lalli's text, but were transmitted without their respective settings.[13] Only the Prague libretto names Vivaldi as composer: because of the similarities between both texts Vivaldi is however considered the composer in both cases.[13][28] The Vienna version, which was probably performed before the Prague version, received the RV 697-A number, and RV 697-B was assigned to the opera performed in the Sporck Theater.[13]

Pasticcios[edit]

RV Anh. 137 is an Argippo pasticcio that survives in two manuscripts:

This pasticcio contains at least six arias by Vivaldi.[13]

Another Argippo pasticcio was performed in Brno in 1733.[15][16][17] The libretto of this production survives without music: as a pasticcio it may have contained arias by Vivaldi.[33]

Arias in RV Anh. 137 and RV 697 (text matches highlighted)
RV Anh. 137[31] RV 697[34] Other
Vivaldi[9]
sc[30] Aria[32] Composer # Aria
I sc1 Se lento ancora il fulmine Vivaldi[35] I, 1 Se lento ancora il fulmine
I sc2 Rege son che combattuto Hasse[36][37] —
I sc3 Del fallire il rimorso Vivaldi[38] I, 2 Del fallire il rimorso
I sc4 Anche in mezzo a perigliosa Galeazzi[39] I, 3 Tuona spesso all'aer cieco
I sc5 Qual disarmata nave Pescetti[40] I, 4 Vidi appena un sol baleno
I sc6 Dov'è la morte per me Pescetti[41] I, 5 Non v'è perdono
II sc1 Che gran pena trafigge Hasse[42] II, 1 Del giusto mio dolore
II sc2 Non temer e dati pace ?[43] II, 2 Chi quel Timor condanna
II sc3 Bell'idolo amato Porpora[44] —
II sc4 Un certo non so che Vivaldi[45] II, 3 Un certo non so che
II sc5,6 — II, 4 Io vorrei col sangue, e vita
II sc7 Io son rea dell'onor mio Vivaldi[46] II, 5 Io son rea dell'onor mio
II sc8 A piedi miei svenato ?[47] II, 6 Suole ancora lamentarsi
II sc[9] Da più venti combattuta Galeazzi[48] —
III sc1 Mi sento nel core un raggio Pescetti[49] III, 1 Mi sento nel core
III sc2 Vado a morir per te Fiorè[50] III, 2 Vado a morir per te
III sc3 Vi sarà stella clemente Pescetti[51] III, 3 Gelido in ogni vena RV 711-D/II:6[29]
III sc4 Se d'un amor tiranno Vinci[52] III, 4 L'incerto tuo pensiere
III sc5 Se la bella tortorella ?[53] III, 5 Un pensiero
III sc6 — III, 6 In bosco romito RV 702-B/III:7[54]
III sc7 Che farai perdonerai Vivaldi[55] III, 7 Che farai? Perdonerai

Recovering Argippo music[edit]

In 2008 Ondřej Macek presented his reconstruction of Vivaldi's Argippo, which he had based on extant librettos, on the Vivaldi arias in the Regensburg pasticcio score—which he had recovered two years earlier—, and on other music the Venetian composer had written around 1730.[18][26][56] Macek performed this opera with the Hofmusici Baroque Ensemble, first in Prague, and later in Venice.[18][26] A live recording of the Venice performance, which with inclusion of sinfonias derived from Vivaldi concertos lasts around two hours, was issued on CD in 2009.[18][19][57] Argippo Resurrected is a 2009 Czech documentary about Macek's recovery, reconstruction and performance of Vivaldi's Argippo music.[58]

The full version of the RV Anh. 137 pasticcio was recovered in Darmstadt, where it had previously been classified under an erroneous title, and misattributed to Ernst Christian Hesse.[30] A digitized facsimile of this score was made available on the website of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt.[31]

Further reading[edit]

  • Pegah, Rashid-S. (2011). "Ein Argippo-Pasticcio". Studi Vivaldiani. 11: 63–76.
  • Strohm, Reinhard (2008). "Argippo in 'Germania'". Studi Vivaldiani. 8: 111–127.

References[edit]

Notes

  1. ^ Il gran Mogol : drama per musica / di Domenico Lalli ; da rappresentarsi nel Teatro di S. Bartolomeo nel giorno 26. di decembre 1713 ; dedicato alla grandezza impareggiabile dell'Eccellentiss. signor conte VVirrico di Daun, vicerè, e capitan generale in questo regno di Napoli, &c. at Trove website.
  2. ^ Carlo Antonio de Rosa marchese di Villarosa (1840). Memorie dei compositori di musica del regno di Napoli: raccolte dal marchese di Villarosa. Naples: Stamperia reale, p. 110.
  3. ^ a b c d Freeman, Daniel E. (1992). The Opera Theater of Count Franz Anton Von Sporck in Prague. Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pendragon Press. ISBN 0945193173, p. 166
  4. ^ a b Talbot 2011, p. 92.
  5. ^ a b LCCN 2010-665737 – Lalli's 1717 libretto: digitized version at LoC website
  6. ^ a b c d e L'Argippo – Porta, Giovanni ; Lalli, Domenico – 1717 at Munich Digitization Center website
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h RISM 212008590
  8. ^ a b c d Mus.2444-F-1 at Saxon State and University Library Dresden website
  9. ^ a b c d e Spáčilová 2013, p. 9.
  10. ^ a b Domenico Pietropaolo, Mary Ann Parker (2011). The Baroque Libretto: Italian Operas and Oratorios in the Thomas Fisher Library at the University of Toronto. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442641631, pp. 186–187
  11. ^ a b OCLC 80013708, 224588524, 977629906
  12. ^ a b c d e Claudio Nicola Stampa, after Domenico Lalli (1722). L'Argippo; drama per musica, da rappresentarsi nel Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano, in occasione di celebrarsi il giorno natalizio della cesarea cattolica Maestà di Elsabetta Cristina, imperatrice, regina delle Spagne, &c., &c. Milan: Giuseppe Richino Malatesta. (also LCCN 2010-665645 – digitized version at LoC website)
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Talbot 2011, p. 25.
  14. ^ a b Freeman, Daniel E. (1995). "Antonio Vivaldi and the Sporck Theater in Prague", pp. 117–140 in Janáček and Czech Music: Proceedings of The International Conference (St. Louis 1988). Pendragon Press. ISBN 094519336X, pp. 122, 129.
  15. ^ a b c Spáčilová 2013, p. 21.
  16. ^ a b Spáčilová 2016, p. 260.
  17. ^ a b Argippo: Antonio Costantini at operadata.stanford.edu
  18. ^ a b c d e Vivaldi: Argippo – English Libretto at Dynamic website.
  19. ^ a b Vivaldi: Argippo at www.musicweb-international.com
  20. ^ Argippo at operabaroque.fr
  21. ^ RISM 900011235
  22. ^ a b L'Argippo – Porta, Giovanni ; Lalli, Domenico – 1722 at Munich Digitization Center website
  23. ^ Andrea Stefano Fiorè [de] (2018). L'Argippo: Drama per Musica, da Rappresentarsi Nel Regio Ducal Teatro di Milano, in Occasione di Celebrarsi IL Giorno Natalizio della Cesarea Cattolica Maestà di Elsabetta Cristina Imperatrice, Regina Delle Spagne, &C., &C. Forgotten Books. ISBN 9780364395523, 9780364868973
  24. ^ Talbot 2011, pp. 25, 184.
  25. ^ Spáčilová 2013, pp. 12, 21.
  26. ^ a b c Rob Cameron (3 May 2008). Vivaldi work revived 278 years on. BBC News
  27. ^ Musicalisches Zwischen-Spiel, Genannt: Der Argippo – In Welscher Sprach vorzustellen Auf dem Von Ihro Röm. Kayserl. und Königl. Cathol. Majest. Privilegirten Theatro in Wienn, Verteutscht von Rademin at gso.gbv.de
  28. ^ a b Spáčilová 2014, p. 143.
  29. ^ a b RISM 212006277
  30. ^ a b c RISM 450002605
  31. ^ a b c Mus Ms 245 at Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt [de] website
  32. ^ a b RISM 450010697
  33. ^ Spáčilová 2013, pp. 15–20.
  34. ^ Antonio Vivaldi: Argippo at AllMusic website
  35. ^ RISM 450027083
  36. ^ RISM 450027084
  37. ^ RISM 190012050
  38. ^ RISM 450027085
  39. ^ RISM 450027086
  40. ^ RISM 450027087
  41. ^ RISM 450027088
  42. ^ RISM 450027089
  43. ^ RISM 450027090
  44. ^ RISM 450027091
  45. ^ RISM 450027092
  46. ^ RISM 450027093
  47. ^ RISM 450027094
  48. ^ RISM 450027095
  49. ^ RISM 450027096
  50. ^ RISM 450027097
  51. ^ RISM 450027098
  52. ^ RISM 450027099
  53. ^ RISM 450027100
  54. ^ RISM 212006265
  55. ^ RISM 450027101
  56. ^ David Randall (4 May 2008). Vivaldi's long-lost opera returns to Prague after 278 years: After hunting the missing manuscript down in a German archive, Czech conductor revives 'Argippo'. The Independent.
  57. ^ Hofmusici Baroque Ensemble / Ondrej Macek / Barbora Sojková – Antonio Vivaldi: Argippo at AllMusic website
  58. ^ Argippo Resurrected at dokweb.net

Sources

External links[edit]

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