Solimano

Solimano is an opera in three acts composed by Johann Adolph Hasse to an Italian-language libretto by Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca. Loosely based on an episode in the life of Suleiman the Magnificent, the opera premiered on 5 February 1753 at the Opernhaus am Zwinger in Dresden. The lavish premiere production was designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena and featured Angelo Amorevoli in the title role.

Solimano
Opera by Johann Adolph Hasse
Angelo Amorevoli as Solimano in the premiere production (costume by Francesco Ponte)
LibrettistGiovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca
Premiere
5 February 1753 (1753-02-05)
Opernhaus am Zwinger, Dresden

Background

Hasse was a favorite of Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria and composed multiple operas for her court in Dresden, beginning with La Spartana generosa performed in 1747 to celebrate her betrothal to Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony. His librettist for Solimano, Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca, was a student and protégé of Metastasio. Migliavacca's libretto was loosely based on the early 17th-century tragedy Il Solimano by Prospero Bonarelli, which in turn was loosely based on an episode in the life of Suleiman the Magnificent who had his eldest son Mustafa killed as a traitor. In the opera Mustafa's name is changed to "Selim" while his younger half-brother and rival Cihangir becomes "Osmino". Roxelana, Suleiman's consort and Osmino (Cihangir)'s mother, was a central character in Bonarelli's play, but she is only alluded to in the opera. Migliavacca also changed the tragic ending. In the opera Suleiman recognizes his folly in believing Selim (Mustafa) to be a traitor and spares his life. The two brothers are reconciled and marry the Persian princesses Narsea and Emira with whom they had fallen in love.[1]

Performance history

Solimano premiered on 5 February 1753 at the Opernhaus am Zwinger. The production designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena with costumes by Francesco Ponte was a lavish spectacle with real horses, camels and elephants on stage and hundreds of extras in addition to the seven main singers and the chorus of soldiers. The final scene, a brilliantly lit Turkish camp at night, had ships sailing on the River Tigris with the hanging gardens of Babylon in the distance. The opera ran for twelve performances, and according to contemporary accounts, the ladies of the Dresden Court paid the Swiss Guards to hold their places in the opera house so they revisit the most spectacular scenes on each evening it was performed.[2] Hasse revised the score when Solimano was revived at the Opernhaus am Zwinger in January 1754.[3] Solimano proved to be Migliavacca's most successful libretto and was subsequently set by several other composers, including Fischietti (1755), Pescetti (1756), Perez (1757), and Galuppi (1760).[1]

The opera received its first performance in modern times on 16 August 1997 at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music in a production conducted by René Jacobs and directed by Georg Quander. Thomas Randle sang the title role with mezzo-soprano Iris Vermillion as Selim. A recording of the performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 the following December.[4] In February 1999 Jacobs conducted the same production at the Berlin Staatsoper to mark the tricentennial of Hasse's birth. On that occasion Thomas Randle reprised the title role while Vivica Genaux sang the role of Selim. In his review of the Berlin performance critic George Loomis wrote: "Hasse's arias emerged as not just musical pleasantries, but also vital studies in character. Intense rhythmic energy conveys Solimano's volatile nature, soothing melodic pathos defines his wrongly accused son, Selim."[5]

Roles
Roles, voive types, premiere cast
Role Voice type[lower-alpha 1] Premiere cast, 5 February 1753[6]
Solimano (Suleiman the Magnificent), Sultan of the Ottoman Empire tenor Angelo Amorevoli
Selim, Solimano's eldest son, born from a previous consort castrato Angelo Maria Monticelli
Osmino, Solimano's younger son, born from his consort, Roxelana castrato Bartolomeo Puttini
Narsea, daughter of the Shah of Persia and a prisoner of the Turks contralto Teresa Albuzzi
Emira, Narsea's sister and fellow prisoner sopranoi Caterina Pilaja
Acomate, General of Solimano's Janissaries castrato Giuseppe Belli
Rusteno, Grand Vizir and Roxelana's son-in-law bass Antonio Fürich
Soldiers, slaves, courtiers, pages, guards

Recordings

There are no complete commercial recordings of Solimano. However Selim's Act 2 aria "Fra quest'ombre" sung by Vivica Genaux can be heard on Decca's Baroque Divas and one of the sinfonias from the opera transcribed for lute can be heard on the Oehms Classics recording Opera for Lute. The Act 1 triumph scene ("Marcia alla Turca" and the soldiers' chorus "Viva il prode, viva il forte") appears on Phoenix Edition's 1001 Nights: Breezes From The Orient performed by the Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choir.[7]

Notes
  1. In the 1997 revival at Innsbruck, the original castrato roles of Selim, Osmino, and Acomate were sung by a mezzo-soprano, a countertenor, and a tenor respectively.[4]
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References
  1. Wolff, Larry (2016). The Singing Turk: Ottoman Power and Operatic Emotions on the European Stage from the Siege of Vienna to the Age of Napoleon, pp. 79–107. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804799652
  2. Yorke-Long, Alan (1954). Music at Court: Four Eighteenth Century Studies, p. 84. Weidenfeld and Nicolson
  3. Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Solimano". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
  4. Innsbruck Festival of Early Music Archives. Solimano Archived 1 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  5. Loomis, George (10 February 1999). "A Grand Solimano in Berlin". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  6. Migliavacca, Giovanni Ambrogio (1753). Solimano, dramma per musica. Stössel (libretto printed for the premiere performance)
  7. OCLC 925379498; OCLC 839079403; OCLC 704992892

Further reading
  • Metastasio, Pietro (1835). Opere di Pietro Metastasio , Vol XXXII, pp. 116–118. C. Mezzana (in Italian). (Letter from Metastasio to Migliavacca dated 13 January 1753 in which he gives a detailed critique of the Solimano libretto)
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