''La danza'' (''The Dance'') 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 ...

by the

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

. The title page describes it as a ''componimento drammatico pastorale'' ("dramatic pastoral composition") in one act.Article by

Julian Rushton Julian Gordon Rushton (born 22 May 1941) is an English musicologist, born in Cambridge. He has contributed the entry on Mozart in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and several other articles in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ...

in ''The Viking Opera Guide'', ed.

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Brea ...

(Viking, 1993), p. 372. It was first performed at

Laxenburg __NOTOC__ Laxenburg (Central Bavarian: ''Laxnbuag'') is a market town in the district of Mödling, in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Located about south of the Austrian capital Vienna, it is chiefly known for the Laxenburg castles, which, be ...

near Vienna on 5 May 1755.

Performance history

The opera was written to celebrate the eighth birthday of Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' (in her own right). ...

's son

Leopold Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

and first performed at Laxenburg on 5 May 1755. ''La danza'' was used as the prologue to ''Le grand Ballet des bergers'' (''The Great Ballet of the Shepherds''), a ballet with music by

Josef Starzer Joseph Johann Michael Starzer (1726 – 22 April 1787) was an Austrian composer and violinist of the pre- classical period. He was active in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Vienna. Starzer contributed to the formation of the Vienna Tonkünstler-So ...

Pietro 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 ...

had originally written the opera's Italian-language

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 ...

for the composer

Giuseppe Bonno Giuseppe Bonno (29 January 1711 – 15 April 1788) Michael Lorenz gives his first name as "Joseph" because Emperor Joseph I was his godfather; Lorenz also asserts that Bonno was born on 30 JanuaryHaydn Singing at Vivaldi's Exequies: An Ineradic ...

in 1744. He revised the text for Gluck, including two new arias. The opera may have been reprised on 30 May 1755 at Laxenburg. There is no record of any further performance until 1987, when it appeared at the

Teatro Comunale di Bologna The Teatro Comunale di Bologna is an opera house in Bologna, Italy. Typically, it presents eight operas with six performances during its November to April season. While there had been various theatres presenting opera in Bologna since the early 1 ...

.''La danza''
in ''Gluck Gesamtausgabe'',

Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur The Academy of Sciences and Literature (german: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz, AdW Mainz) is a scientific academy in Mainz, Germany. It was established in 1949 on an initiative of Alfred Döblin. The academy's goal is to s ...

, Mainz

Roles

Synopsis

As the sun sets, the shepherd Tirsi says farewell to his beloved Nice, who is leaving to take part in a dance. Tirsi reveals he is jealous of Nice's other admirers. The lovers argue but in the end they swear to be true to one another.

Musical numbers

Apart from the opening

sinfonia Sinfonia (; plural ''sinfonie'') is the Italian word for symphony, from the Latin ''symphonia'', in turn derived from Ancient Greek συμφωνία ''symphōnia'' (agreement or concord of sound), from the prefix σύν (together) and ϕωνή (sou ...

, the score contains five musical numbers: # Aria: "Va: della danza è l'ora" # Aria: "Se tu non vedi" # Aria: "Che ciascun per te sospiri" # Aria: "Che chiedi? che brami?" # Duet: "Mille volte, mio tesoro"

Recording

*''La danza'' (with ''La corona'') Ewa Ignatowicz (Nice), Kazimierz Myrlak (Tirsi), Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Tomasz Bugaj (Orfeo, 1988)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danza, La Operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck Italian-language operas Operas 1755 operas