''Flavio Crispo'' is a 1720 opera by Dresden kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen concerning Flavius Crispus, son of the Emperor

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

The opera was never performed due to an incident where the star

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 ...

singer

Senesino Francesco Bernardi (; 31 October 1686 – 27 November 1758), known as Senesino ( or traditionally ), was an Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel. He was ...

tore up the music for one of his arias and cast it at the composer's feet. The incident was witnessed by Baron von Mordaxt, Protector of the King's Music who reported it to Friedrich August I, leading to the three Italian singers involved being dismissed and the opera cancelled. Senesino may have wanted to escape from the contract due to a more attractive offer from Handel, who the previous year had attempted to recruit the castrato to his company in London. Senesino was quickly hired by the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

and spent the next 16 years in London. Heinichen never composed another opera for Dresden.Goldberg: Early Music Magazine - Volumes 47-49 - 2007 -Page 52 "Heinichen was also active in Dresden, where he composed both instrumental and sacred music; he wrote but a single opera, Flavio Crispo (1720) for the court of the Elector of Saxony. The score of the work, which was never staged, has survived."

Recording

*''Flavio Crispo'' Leandro Marziotte - as Flavio, Dana Marbach - as Elena, English princess at the court, Alessandra Visentin -

Fausta Flavia Maxima Fausta ''Augusta'' (died 326 AD) was a Roman empress. She was the daughter of Maximian and wife of Constantine the Great, who had her executed and excluded from all official accounts for unknown reasons. Historians Zosimus and ...

, Silke Gäng - as Imilee, Nina Bernsteiner - Gilimero, Tobias Hunger - Massenzio, Ismael Arronitz - Constantino, Il Gusto Barocco, Jörg Halubek CPO 2018

References

{{reflist 1720 operas Operas