''Demetrio'' is an eighteenth-century Italian

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 ...

in 3 acts by the Czech composer

Josef Mysliveček Josef Mysliveček (9 March 1737 – 4 February 1781) was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant comp ...

. It was the composer's first setting of 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 ...

by the Italian poet

Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of ''opera seria'' libretti. Early life Me ...

that was first performed in 1731, one of the most popular of the Metastasian librettos in Mysliveček's day. For a performance in the 1770s, it would only be expected that a libretto of such age would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste. The cuts and changes in the text made for the 1773 performance of Mysliveček's opera are not attributable. All of Mysliveček's operas are of the serious type in Italian language referred to as

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

Performance history

The opera was first performed at the Teatro Nuovo in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

on 24 May 1773. It was commissioned to serve as the first opera to be played in a newly constructed theater in the city,A collection of essays centered around the Pavia performance of Mysliveček's ''Demetrio'' of 1773 is found in Mariateresa Dellaborra, ed., '' "Il ciel non soffre inganni": Attorno al Demetrio di Mysliveček, "Il Boemo" '' (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2011). and it was considered to be a great honor for Mysliveček to compose the inaugural opera. The organizers were able to attract only one distinguished singer for the cast, however: the

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Lucrezia Aguiari Lucrezia Aguiari (sometimes spelled Agujari) (1743/46 in Ferrara – 18 May 1783 in Parma) was an Italian coloratura soprano. She possessed an unusually agile voice with a large vocal range that spanned slightly more than three and a half octave ...

, whose name has been linked romantically to Mysliveček's erroneously in earlier musicological literature. Her aria "Agitata in tanti affanni" was widely disseminated in late eighteenth-century aria collections.

Roles

Vocal set pieces

Act I, scene 1 - Aria of Olinto, "Di quell'ingiusto sdegno"
Act I, scene 2 - Aria of Cleonice, "Fra tanti pensieri"
Act I, scene 3 - Aria of Barsene, "Non ti lagnar del fato"
Act I, scene 4 - Aria of Fenicio, "Ogni procella infida"
Act I, scene 5 - Aria of Cleonice, "Se non posso su quel trono" non-Metastasian text
Act I, scene 6 - Aria of Fenicio, "Il ciel rispetta il soglio"
Act I, scene 7 - Aria of Alceste, "Scherza il nocchier talora"
Act I, scene 9 - Duet for Cleonice and Alceste, "D'un amoroso accento" non-Metastasian text Act II, scene 2 - Aria of Alceste, "Dal suo gentil sembiante" non-Metastasian text
Act II, scene 3 - Aria of Mitrane, "Dice che t'è fedele"
Act II, scene 4 - Aria of Cleonice, "Nacqui agli affanni in seno"
Act II, scene 5 - Aria of Fenicio, "Alme incaute che torbide ancora"
Act II, scene 6 - Aria of Barsene, "So che per gioco"
Act II, scene 7 - Aria of Olinto, "Non fidi al mar che freme"
Act II, scene 9 - Aria of Alceste, "Non so frenare il pianto"
Act II, scene 11 - Aria of Cleonice, "Agitata in tanti affanni" non-Metastasian text Act III, scene 1 - Aria of Cleonice, "Io so qual pena sia"
Act III, scene 2 - Aria of Alceste, "Quel labbro adorato"
Act III, scene 3 - Aria of Olinto, "Mi chi m'oltraggia" non-Metastasian text
Act III, scene 4 - Aria of Fenicio, "Giusti Dei da voi non chiede"
Act III, scene 5 - Aria of Barsene, "Semplicetta tortorella"
Act III, scene 6 - Chorus, "Quando scende in nobil petto"

Recordings

*The overture to Mysliveček's ''Demetrio'' of 1773 is included in a collection of symphonies and overtures by the composer recorded by the L'Orfeo Barockorchester, Michi Gaigg, conductor, CPO 777-050 (2004).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demetrio Italian-language operas Operas by Josef Mysliveček 1773 operas Opera seria Operas

Performance history

Roles

Vocal set pieces

Recordings

See also

References