''Motezuma'' is an in three acts by

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 com ...

set to a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) 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 th ...

by that is based on Spanish histories and chronicles about the Aztec ruler

Moctezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin . ( – 29 June 1520), retroactively referred to in European sources as Moctezuma II, and often simply called Montezuma,Other variant spellings include Moctezuma, Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma, Motē ...

Performance history

The opera was first performed at the

Teatro della Pergola The Teatro della Pergola (), sometimes known as just La Pergola, is a historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name. It was built in 1656 under the p ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

on 23 January 1771. It was the second of the composer's three operas produced in Florence, in this case at a time of intense activity as a composer in the city. The chronological setting of the opera in the early sixteenth century was unusually late for its day, when serious operas in Italian were typically set in ancient times, and rarely in a time period later than the European

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The libretto was first set for a lavish production in 1765 at the Teatro Regio in Turin with music by

Gian Francesco de Majo Gian Francesco de Majo (24 March 1732 – 17 November 1770) was an Italian composer. He is best known for his more than 20 operas. He also composed a considerable amount of sacred works, including oratorios, cantatas, and masses. Life and ca ...

. It is unlikely that the Florence production was equally sumptuous, and the cast was not particularly distinguished, although it was an interesting one for the dominance of male singers (it was generally only in Rome, where women were forbidden to appear on stage, that casts would feature so many male singers). ''Motezuma'' was the first of the composer's operas to be revived in modern times (for a performance in Prague in 1931). It was likely the exotic setting and the availability of a score of the opera in Vienna, that made it so attractive for revival at that time, perhaps as a response to a trend in German-speaking lands in the 1920s to revive works by pre-Romantic German composers such as

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...

. A revival in

Znojmo Znojmo (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The hi ...

took place in summer 2011.

Roles

Vocal set pieces

Act 1

*Scene 2 – Accompanied recitative for Motezuma, "Dove son? Che m'avvene?," with cavatina, "Ah, numi tiranni" *Scene 2 – Aria of Lisinga, "So che non cangio stato" *Scene 3 – Aria of Motezuma, "Cara fiamma del mio seno" *Scene 4 – Aria of Guacozinga, "Nel mar di tanti affanni" *Scene 6 – Aria of Cortes, "Rammenta al tuo sovrano" *Scene 9 – Aria of Teutile, "Di fieri sdegni armato" *Scene 11 – Aria of Guacozinga, "Ah no, arresta, o caro" *Scene 12 – Aria of Motezuma, "A morir se mi condanna"

Act 2

*Scene 2 – Aria of Cortes, "A mio danno in vano" *Scene 4 – Aria of Lisinga, "Mi scordo lo scempio" *Scene 5 – Aria of Pilpatoe, "Pensa che dell'impero" *Scene 7 – Aria of Motezuma, "Cara che torna in pace" *Scene 8 – Aria of Guacozinga, "Frena l'insano orgoglio" *Scene 10 – Aria of Teutile, "Scherza il nocchier"
*Scene 13 – Aria of Cortes, "Perche ogn'ombra ti parta dal core" *Scene 14 – Duet for Guacozinga and Motezuma, "Ah, se mi sei fedele"

Act 3

*Scene 3 – Aria of Teutile, "Non lasci le sponde" *Scene 4 – Aria of Lisinga, "M'ingombra d'orrore" *Scene 9 – Aria of Cortes, "Basta il mio brando solo" *Scene 10 – Aria of Motezuma, "Vorrebbe il core sperar la calma" *Scene 11 – Accompanied recitative for Guacozinga, "Eccomi sola al fine" *Scene 11 – Aria of Guacozinga, "Ombre dolenti"

Recordings

The only complete video recording was made in 2011 in Znojmo. Motezuma's aria "Cara che torna in pace" is available in an anthology recorded by the Czech soprano Zdena Kloubová. The recording is Panton 81 1044-2231 (1992) with the Benda Chamber Orchestra, Miroslav Hrdlička, conductor. The overture to Mysliveček's ''Motezuma'' 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).