''L'Egisto, ovvero Chi soffre speri'' ('Egisto, or Who suffers may hope') is a

1637 Events January–March * January 5 – Pierre Corneille's tragicomedy '' Le Cid'' is first performed, in Paris, France. * January 16 – The siege of Nagpur ends in the modern-day Maharashtra state of India, as Kok Shah, the ...

''commedia musicale'', a type of early Italian

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

, in a prologue and three acts with music by Virgilio Mazzocchi (and, in its

1639 Events January–March * January 19 – Hämeenlinna () is granted privileges, after it separates from the Vanaja parish, as its own city in Tavastia. *c. January – The first printing press in British North America is ...

revision,

Marco Marazzoli Marco Marazzoli (1602? – 26 January 1662) was an Italian priest and Baroque music composer. Early life Born at Parma, Marazzoli received early training as a priest, and was ordained around 1625. He moved to Rome in 1626, and entered the se ...

) and 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 ...

Giulio Rospigliosi Pope Clement IX (; ; 28 January 1600 – 9 December 1669), born Giulio Rospigliosi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 20 June 1667 to his death in December 1669. Giulio Rospigliosi was born into the noble Ro ...

(the future Pope Clement IX), based on

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so ...

's '' Il decamerone'' ( Fifth day, ninth tale).Murata 1992."''Argomento et allegoria della comedia musicale intitolata Chi soffre speri''" (scenario in Italian, Rome, 1637)
Digital copy
at Google Books.

Performance history

The opera was first performed on 12 February 1637 at the

Palazzo Barberini The Palazzo Barberini () is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome. History Around 1549 Cardinal ...

in RomeMurata 1992. with the title ''Il falcone''Witzenmann 2001. or ''Chi soffre speri'' and presented at least five more times.Lewis 1990, p. 15. A revised version, a collaboration with (and with

intermedi The intermedio (also intromessa, introdutto, tramessa, tramezzo, intermezzo, intermedii), in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance, which was performed between the acts of a play to celeb ...

composed by)

, was performed on 27 February 1639 at the nearby Teatro Barberini, with the title ''L'Egisto, ovvero Chi soffre speri'', and repeated at least four times. The surviving scores are the revised version dating from 1639. In 2007, Barbara Nestola reported there was a manuscript copy of the 1639 score in the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. This finding is considered strong evidence that the ''Egisto'' performed at the

Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre Palace, Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Ca ...

in Paris on 13 February 1646 at the instigation of

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

was not, as long believed, Francesco Cavalli's opera ''L'Egisto'', but actually Mazzocchi and Marazolli's ''L'Egisto, ovvero Chi soffre speri''. Nestola suggests that the opera was performed a few days after

Antonio Barberini Antonio Barberini (5 August 1607 – 3 August 1671) was an Italian people, Italian Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reims, Archbishop of Reims, military leader, patron of the arts a ...

arrived in Paris, after he and his family fled Rome subsequent to the death of

Pope Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...

. A modern revival was performed in 1970 under the title ''Il falcone ovvero Chi soffre speri'' at the Swedish Vadstena Academy. An audio excerpt was released on CD as part of an anthology of 17th-century operatic music.

Genre

''Chi soffre speri'' has often been described as the "first comic opera", and, although it is one the earliest operas with comic elements for which the music has survived, whether it is actually a comedy, rather than, for instance, a sentimental

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

, has been disputed. The librettist added to the Boccaccio story an "allegorical framework", made explicit in the prologue with roles for Otio (“Idleness”), Voluttà ("Voluptuousness") and Virtù (“Virtue”). He also inserted into the opera and the intermedi stock, masked ''

commedia dell'arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...

'' characters using dialect, such as the

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and High ...

Coviello and the

Bergamasque The Bergamasque dialect is the western variant of the Eastern Lombard group of the Lombard language. It is mainly spoken in the province of Bergamo and in the area around Crema, in central Lombardy. Bergamasque has official status in the p ...

Zanni Zanni (), Zani or Zane is a character type of commedia dell'arte best known as an astute servant and a trickster. The Zanni comes from the countryside and is known to be a "dispossessed immigrant worker".Rudlin, John. ''Commedia dell'arte: An A ...

. Moschino, another ''commedia'' role, is unmasked.Witzenmann 2001; Wilbourne 2016, pp. 109–129. Comic servants appear in 20 of the 35 scenes of the opera. The lack of a chorus is also characteristic of the comic genre. In the 1639 revision, comic characters dominate the first two intermedi, particularly the second, ''La fiera di Farfa'', which is essentially a scenic

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

for ten voices that depicts shopkeepers selling their wares. During a dance near the end, a fracas breaks out which subsides as the market closes with the setting sun, a theatrical effect devised by

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...

. The use of the term "comedia musicale" in the printed score might go back to

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'' (completed 1320), merely addressing a happy ending story.

Roles

Synopsis

The impoverished Egisto is in love with the young widow Alvida. She rejects his advances unless he destroys the things dearest to him: a tower he has inherited and his favourite

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

. He does so and Alvida is so impressed by the strength of his love that she marries him. In the ruins of the tower they find buried treasure and a heliotrope which cures Alvida's desperately ill son. In a sub-plot, Lucinda, who is in love with Egisto, disguises herself as a man. She comes near to killing herself when Egisto rejects her but in the end it turns out that she is Egisto's long-lost sister.

References

Sources

* Brenac, Claude
"''Il falcone''/''Chi soffre, speri''/''L'Egisto''"
Opéra Baroque website. * Carter, Tim (1994). "The Seventeenth Century", pp. 1–46, in ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera'', edited by Roger Parker. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Dixon, Graham (1993). "Virgilio Mazzocchi", p. 642, in ''The Viking Opera Guide'', edited by

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English media personality, actress and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent competition show '' Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the national ''H ...

. London: Viking. * Lewis, Susan Gail (1995). "Chi soffre speri"'' and the Influence of the ''Commedia dell'Arte'' on the Development of Roman Opera'', thesis for The University of Arizona. ProQuest Dissertations Express, publication ID:
1376044
(digital copy available). * Murata, Margaret (1980). ''Operas for the Papal Court with Texts by Giulio Rospigliosi'', two volumes, dissertation for The University of Chicago. ProQuest Dissertations Express, publication ID

(digital copy of vols 1 & 2 available). * Murata, Margaret (1992)
"''Chi soffre speri'' "
vol. 1, pp. 847–849, in ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', four volumes, edited by

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...

. London: Macmillan. . * Nestola, Barbara (2007). "L''Egisto'' fantasma di Cavalli: nuova luce sulla rappresentazione parigina dellEgisto ovvero Chi soffre speri'' di Mazzocchi e Marazzoli (1646)". ''Recercare'' , vol. 19, no. 1/2 (2007), pp. 125-146. . * V., M
"''Chi soffre speri''"
''Dizinario dell'Opera'', Del Teatro website (in Italian). * Wilbourne, Emily (2016). ''Seventeenth-Century Opera and the Sound of the Commedia dell'Arte''. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. . * Witzenmann, Wolfgang (2001)
"Mazzocchi, Virgilio"
in

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 t ...

External links

"''Argomento et allegoria della comedia musicale intitolata Chi soffre speri''"
(scenario in Italian, 1639) at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

''Il falcone''
Opéra Baroque website {{authoritycontrol Italian-language operas Operas by Virgilio Mazzocchi Operas by Marco Marazzoli Operas 1637 operas