''Artemisia'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

("dramma per musica") in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer

Francesco Cavalli Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque music, Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverd ...

from a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

written by Nicolò Minato. It was first performed at the

Teatro San Giovanni e San Paolo The Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo (often written as Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo) was a theatre and opera house in Venice located on the Calle della Testa, and takes its name from the nearby Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Built by the ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

on 10 January 1657 and revived in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in 1658,

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

in 1659,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1663 and

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in 1665.

Performance history

The performances included a number of substitution arias, and in the 1656 libretto, next to Erillo's aria "Chiedete e sperate", was noted the instruction "a different aria to be sung every night". ''Artemisia'' was performed by Helios Early Opera in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, in January 2013, the North American premiere of the work.

Synopsis

The story is based on the convention which Cavalli had established in several of his 10 earlier operas with the librettist Faustini. It features two pairs of crossed lovers reunited by a benign monarch, and is a story of love, betrayal, virtue and honour set in the

Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

. It touches on politics, social issues and the moral values of three couples.Hendrik Schulze's essay to accompany the libretto in the Glossa recording.

Recordings

* ''Artemisia'': Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli, Roberta Mameli, Marina Bartoli, La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina, Glossa 2011

References

Notes Sources * Brenac, Jean-Claude
''Le magazine de l'opéra baroque''
website. Retrieved 3 March 2022. * Cavalli, Francesco; Minato, Nicolò, librettist (2013). ''Artemisia'', edited by Hendrik Schulze and Sara Elisa Stangalino. Kassel: Bärenreiter. * Fabris, Dinko (2007). ''Music in Seventeenth-Century Naples: Francesco Provenzale (1624-1704)''. Ashgate Publishing. . * Glover, Jane (1978). ''Cavalli: A Biography''. HarperCollins Distribution Services. . * Rosand, Ellen (2007). ''Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre''. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. . {{Francesco Cavalli Operas Operas by Francesco Cavalli 1657 operas