''Demetrio'' is an eighteenth-century Italian

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 libre ...

in 3 acts by the Czech composer

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 co ...

. It was the composer's second setting of a libretto by the Italian poet

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 M ...

that was first performed in 1731, one of the most popular of the Metastasian librettos in Mysliveček's day. For a performance in the 1770s, it would only be expected that a libretto of such age would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste. The cuts and changes in the text made for the 1779 performance of Mysliveček's opera are not attributable. All of Mysliveček's operas are of the serious type in Italian language referred to as

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called '' dramma per musica'' or '' melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to a ...

Performance history

The opera was first performed at the

Teatro San Carlo The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent t ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

on 13 August 1779 in honor of the birthday of the queen of Naples,

Maria Carolina Maria Carolina Louise Josepha Johanna Antonia (13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814) was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. As ''de facto'' ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the ...

.Detailed documentation concerning the Naples performance of Mysliveček's ''Demetrio'' of 1779 is found in Daniel E. Freeman, ''Josef Mysliveček, "Il Boemo"'' (Sterling Heights, Mich.: Harmonie Park Press, 2009). It was the last of the nine operas composed by Mysliveček for the Teatro San Carlo between the years 1767–1779, more than by any other composer during the same period. It was only a modest success, however, and its run was interrupted by an eruption of the

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

Mount Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma- stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of ...

. The cast was not particularly distinguished for a production at the San Carlo, but it did include the

castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due ...

Domenico Bedini, who would later appear in

Wolfgang Amadeus 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. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

's opera ''

La clemenza di Tito ' (''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an ''opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. It was started after most of ' (''The Magic Flute''), the last ...

'' in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in 1791.

Roles

Vocal set pieces

Act I, scene 1 - Aria of Cleonice, "Fra tanti pensieri"
Act I, scene 2 - Aria of Fenicio, "Se fecondo, e vigoroso"
Act I, scene 3 - Aria of Alceste, "Scherza il nocchier talora"
Act I, scene 4 - Aria of Olinto, "Che mi giova l'onor della cuna"
Act I, scene 5 - Aria of Barsene, "Dal labbro che t'accende"
Act I, scene 7 - Duet for Cleonice and Alceste, "Ah, se di te mi privi" Act II, scene 1 - Aria of Olinto, "È la fede degli amanti"
Act II, scene 2 - Aria of Mitrane, "Dice che t'è fedele"
Act II, scene 5 - Aria of Cleonice, "Nacqui agl'affanni in seno"
Act II, scene 6 - Aria of Fenicio, "Alme incaute che torbide ancora"
Act II, scene 7 - Aria of Barsene, "So che per gioco"
Act II, scene 8 - Aria of Olinto, "Non fidi al mar che freme"
Act II, scene 10 - Aria of Alceste, "Non so frenare il pianto"
Act II, scene 12 - Aria of Cleonice, "Mi parea del porto in seno" non-Metastasian text Act III, scene 1 - Aria of Cleonice, "Io so qual pena sia"
Act III, scene 2 - Aria of Alceste, "Quel labbro adorato"
Act III, scene 3 - Aria of Fenicio, "Giusti Dei da voi non chiede"
Act III, scene 4 - Aria of Barsene, "Semplicetta tortorella"

Score

The complete score of Mysliveček's ''Demetrio'' of 1779 is available for study online on the Italian website Internet Culturale in the form of a reproduction of a manuscript once in the possession of the Teatro San Carlo of Naples.

References

External links