Mayr - L'amor coniugale - title page of the libretto - Venice 1805

''L'amor coniugale'' (Conjugal Love) 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 ...

in one act by

Simon Mayr Johann(es) Simon Mayr (also spelled Majer, Mayer, Maier), also known in Italian as Giovanni Simone Mayr or Simone Mayr (14 June 1763 – 2 December 1845), was a German composer. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the ...

set to an Italian

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 ...

Gaetano Rossi Gaetano Rossi (; 18 May 1774 – 25 January 1855) was an Italian opera librettist for several of the well-known ''bel canto''-era composers including Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Saverio Mercadante in Italy and Giacomo Meyerbeer in on ...

. It premiered at Padua's Teatro Nuovo on 26 July 1805.

Background and performance history

Like Beethoven's ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with ...

'', the libretto of ''L'amor coniugale'' is based on

Jean-Nicolas Bouilly Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (24 January 1763 – 14 April 1842) was a French playwright, librettist, children's writer, and politician of the French Revolution. He is best known for writing a libretto, supposedly based on a true story, about a woman who ...

's French libretto for

Pierre Gaveaux Pierre Gaveaux (9 October 1761 – 5 February 1825) was a French operatic tenor and composer, notable for creating the role of Jason in Cherubini's ''Médée'' and for composing '' Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal'', the first operatic version of t ...

's 1798 opera '' Léonore, ou l'amour conjugal''. Unlike ''Fidelio'' which focuses on the struggle for political liberty, Mayr's opera, also known as ''Il custode di buon cuore'' (The Good-hearted Jailer) and described in its libretto as a ''farsa sentimentale'', focuses more on the interpersonal relationships between the protagonists and contains comic elements.Lindner, Thomas
Liner notes: ''L'amor coniugale''
(English version by Neil Coleman),

Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 1 ...

8660198. Rossi condensed Bouilly's two-act libretto into one act containing 19 scenes and changed the setting from the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

to 17th century Poland. ''L'amor coniugale'' premiered at the Teatro Nuovo in Padua on 26 July 1805 in a double bill with the premiere of ''La donna di spirito''. It was then performed the following September at the

Teatro San Benedetto The Teatro San Benedetto was a theatre in Venice, particularly prominent in the operatic life of the city in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It saw the premieres of over 140 operas, including Rossini's ''L'italiana in Algeri'', and was the th ...

in Venice. Although rarely performed now, it was revived at the

Teatro Donizetti The Teatro Donizetti is an opera house in Bergamo, Italy. Built in the 1780s using a design by architect Giovanni Francesco Lucchini, the theatre was originally referred to as either the Teatro Nuovo or Teatro di Fiera. The first opera to be mo ...

in Bergamo in November 1984 conducted by

Bruno Moretti Bruno Moretti (born 1957) is an Italian composer, pianist, and conductor. He has composed ballet music (as well as theatre, cinema and television music) working in collaboration with the choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti. He is also an accompanist ...

and in Germany at the 2004

Rossini in Wildbad Rossini in Wildbad is a bel canto opera festival in Bad Wildbad, Baden-Württemberg, specialising in the lesser-known operas of Gioachino Rossini and his contemporaries. The festival commemorates a stay by Rossini at the town's spa in 1856, which ...

Festival conducted by Christopher Franklin. The Wildbad performance used a revised score by Arrigo Gazzaniga and was issued by the

label.

Roles

Recordings

*Mayr: ''L'amor coniugale'' – live recording from the 2004 Rossini festival in Wildbad, Germany, with Christopher Franklin conducting the Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra. Label:

8660198 *Mayr: ''L'Amor Conjugale'' – recorded at the

opéra de Massy This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...

, France, 2021, with

David Stern David Joel Stern (September 22, 1942 – January 1, 2020) was an American lawyer and business executive who was the commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1984 to 2014. Stern oversaw NBA basketball's growth into one of ...

conducting Opera Fuoco. Label:

Aparté Aparté is a French classical music record label founded in 2010 by Nicolas Bartholomée, director of Little Tribeca recording studios. Bartholomée had earlier founded the recording studio Musica Numeris in the late 1980s, and the Ambroisie labe ...

AP267

References

External links

*
Work details and performance history
corago.unibo.it

Libretto
by

for '' Léonore, ou l'amour conjugal'' (on which ''L'amor coniugale'' is based) {{DEFAULTSORT:Amor coniugale, L' Operas by Simon Mayr Italian-language operas 1805 operas Rescue operas One-act operas Operas Libretti by Gaetano Rossi