''Camilla'' was an opera first performed at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

in London on 30 April 1706. The libretto was based on ''Il Trionfo di Camilla, regina de' Volsci'' by Silvio Stampiglia, translated into English verse by Owen Swiny,

Peter Motteux Peter Anthony Motteux (born Pierre Antoine Motteux ; 25 February 1663 – 18 February 1718) was a French-born English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the ...

, or others. Authorship of the music for the original is attributed variously to

Giovanni Bononcini Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini) (18 July 1670 – 9 July 1747) (sometimes cited also as Giovanni Battista Bononcini) was an Italian Baroque composer, cellist, singer and teacher, one of a family of string players and composers. He was a rival ...

and to his brother Marc Antonio. Music for the London version was adapted by Nicola Haym. The opera was the first to be sung in a mixture of English and Italian, and it was one of the first London operas in which the

castrato A castrato (Italian; : castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrino ...

Nicolò Grimaldi (known as Nicolini) performed. There were three separate productions of ''Camilla'' in London which together had 111 or 112 performances from 1706 to 1728, making it the most popular and successful work of its period, after ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of sati ...

''.

Roles and plot

The story is based very loosely on the mythological figure of Camilla in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

''. The characters are: Camilla, heiress to the throne of the Volscians, disguised as Dorinda, a shepherdess (soprano); Prenesto, prince of Latium (soprano); Latinus, king of Latium (tenor); Lavinia, his daughter, (soprano);

Turnus Turnus () was the legendary King of the Rutuli in Roman history, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas in Virgil's ''Aeneid''. According to the ''Aeneid'', Turnus is the son of Daunus and the nymph Venilia and is brother of the nymph ...

, king of the Rutuli, disguised as Armidoro, a Moorish slave (soprano); Metius, confidant of Camilla (tenor); Linco, servant of Camilla (bass); Tullia, Lavinia's maid (tenor); and a Hunter (tenor). Act I: Camilla, disguised as a shepherdess, is hiding in the Volscian countryside and plans to overthrow the usurper King Latinus from the throne that is rightfully hers. A group of hunters arrives and one of their number, Prenesto, son of Latinus, is menaced by a boar. When Camilla shoots down the boar, he falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Lavinia, sister of Prenesto, is concealing her lover the enemy king

in the palace, disguised as a slave. King Latino presses her to find a husband. Prenesto gives Camilla access to Latino's entourage where, allied with Metius, she plots to overthrow the king. Act II: Amorous intrigues and political conspiracies continue. Before the statues of her ancestors, Camilla swears revenge against Latinus and turns to the people to stir up the struggle. Meanwhile, Turnus, observed by Latinus, brings Lavinia poison and a dagger, offering her a choice of deaths as a way out of her impasse. However, unable to kill her himself, he confesses his real identity to Latinus, offering his own life in exchange for hers. Moved by this appeal, Latinus accepts him as a son-in-law. Act III: Latinus and Turnus ally themselves against Camilla, whose identity is meanwhile discovered by Lavinia's maid. Taken prisoner, she is freed by Prenesto, who continues to love her despite the hatred between their families. During a banquet a popular uprising is announced: Camilla and her allies defeat the troops of the Latin king. Love triumphs over political rivalry and marriage between Camilla and Prenesto ends the discord.

Performance history

The adaptation by McSwiney and Haym cut as much of the

recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...

as possible from libretto, as this was an unfamiliar form in English and difficult to write as effectively as in Italian. While the first performances were entirely in English, some sections were turned back into Italian to accommodate foreign singers, so that the performances took place in a changing mix of two languages. The original cast was: Holcomb (Prenesto), Hughs (Turnus), Lewis Ramondon (Metius), Richard Leveridge (Linco), Catherine Tofts (Camilla), Joanna Maria Lindelheim (Lavinia), and Mrs Lyndsey (Tullia). From December 6, 1707 the cast changed and performances were staged in a mix of Italian and English. The role of Turnus was taken by Valentino Urbani (Valentini), of Lavinia by Joanna Maria Lindelheim, and of Prenesto by Margherita de l'Épine. The other roles were sung in English by Purbeck Turner (Latinus), Littleton Ramondon (Metius), Richard Leveridge (Linco), Catherine Tofts (Camilla) and Mary Lindsey (Tullia). From February 7, a new castrato, Giuseppe Cassani, took over the role of Metius. He was extremely unpopular and audiences hissed him and did not appear after February 10. Ramondon replaced him, presumably in English, from February 21. On 25 January 1709 Nicolini Grimaldi (Nicolini) took over the role of Prenesto, and Catherine Tofts the role of Camilla. There were nine performances in the first season, 21 the following season, and fourteen the one after. It was revived with (with Bononcini's original score rather than Haym's adaptation) in 1717, 1719 and 1726–28. The opera was so popular that five editions of the libretto were published by

Jacob Tonson Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the Elder (12 November 1655 – 17 March 1736), was an eighteenth-century English bookseller and publisher. Tonson published editions of John Dryden and John Milton, and is best known for hav ...

in 1726 alone. It was performed at court for the birthday of Queen Anne in February 1707. The original Italian opera by Stampiglia and Bononcini's premiered in Naples at the Teatro di S Bartolomeo on 27 December 1696. It went in to become the most successful work of its period; the libretto was used in 38 known productions before 1767. Bononcini's score was substantially used in 27 of these while there were 38 settings by other composers including Leo, Vinci (Parma 1725) and Porpora.

References

External links

digital copy of the libretto for ''Camilla''digital copy of the score for ''Camilla''
{{Authority control Opera in England Italian-language operas English-language operas 1706 operas Operas Operas by multiple composers Operas by Giovanni Bononcini Operas based on the Aeneid