(First the music and then the words) is an opera in one act by Antonio Salieri to 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 Giovanni Battista Casti. The work was first performed on 7 February 1786 in Vienna, following a commission by the Emperor Joseph II."Salieri: ''Prima la musica e poi le parole''"
by Jane Schatkin Hettrick at ''Opera Today'', 19 February 2008 The opera (more specifically, a ') was first performed at one end of the orangery of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna by an Italian troupe; simultaneously,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's '' Der Schauspieldirektor'' was staged at the other end. The title of the opera is the theme of

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

's opera '' Capriccio'' which debates the relative importance of music and drama in opera.

Roles

Synopsis

Count Opizio contracts a new opera to be written to be ready in four days. The composer has already created the score, but the poet is suffering from writer's block and resorts to trying to adapt previous verses he has written to the existing music. The composer and poet are interrupted when Eleonora, the prima donna hired by the Count, enters and delivers a sample of her vocal artistry. Together with the Poet and the Maestro, she acts out a scene from Giuseppe Sarti's ''

Giulio Sabino ''Giulio Sabino'' ("Julius Sabinus") is a ''dramma per musica'' (opera seria) in three acts by Giuseppe Sarti. The libretto was by Pietro Giovannini. The opera, staged in six or seven European countries at the end of the 18th century, was the sub ...

'' that devolves into a grotesque parody. Eleonora exits, and the librettist and the composer again wrestle with the problems of the libretto for the new opera in which a lengthy dispute between the two men ensues. Tonina (whose character is a parody of opera buffa) enters and demands a role in the new opera. The composer and the librettist quickly concoct a vocal number for her. A quarrel then erupts between Eleonora and Tonina over which of them should sing the opera's opening aria. The scene culminates in having both sing their arias simultaneously. The composer and the librettist are able to pacify the two ladies by agreeing to a juxtaposition of the seria and buffa styles, thereby putting a conciliatory end to their quarrel.

Recordings

References

Sources

* John A. Rice: "''Prima la musica e poi le parole''", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'' ed L. Macy (accessed 28 May 2007)
grovemusic.com

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Autograph score
at the Austrian National Library {{authority control Italian-language operas Operas by Antonio Salieri 1786 operas Operas One-act operas