Program Notes: The Battle of the Comic Operas
Featuring singers from Opera at Longy (Donna Roll, artistic director)
March 12 and 14, 2004
Salieri: Prima la Musica, Poi le Parole (First the Music, Then the Words)
Mozart: Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), K.486 Komödie mit Musik in one act
The play and movie Amadeus, delightful and moving as they are, took many liberties with history. But one thing they accurately portrayed was the musical rivalry between Italian and German: the composers, the performers, and the languages themselves. This rivalry was light-heartedly put to the test at the whim of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II when he asked Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart each to write a short opera in their respective languages as an after-dinner entertainment for the visiting Governor-General of the Netherlands. The state reception was to be given on February 7, 1786. The two pieces were performed at opposite ends of the Orangerie of the Imperial palace at Schönbrunn, Mozart’s preceding Salieri’s.
It was not, by the way, as if Mozart had not already had an opportunity to demonstrate the merit of German as an operatic language — his masterpiece The Abduction of the Seraglio had been produced in Vienna in 1782. After that, however, he returned to Italian libretti, beginning and then abandoning two comedies, L’Oca del Cairo (The Goose of Cairo) and Lo sposo deluso (The Deluded Spouse), before arriving at his magnificent Marriage of Figaro. It was while he was working on that great score that the occasion arose for The Impresario. The emperor conceived the program and even chose the subject of the German opera himself. The libretto for it was written by Gottlieb Stephanie, who had also been the author of Abduction from the Seraglio. Salieri’s libretto was composed by Gian Battista Casti. (Opera at Longy will perform both works in English translation.)
Both are operas about opera and opera singers. Salieri’s is actually styled a Divertimento teatrale (theatrical divertimento), while Mozart’s is a Singspiel or “play with music.” The subject of Salieri’s offering can be summarized in the title, Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the Music, then the Words). (Richard Strauss was to deal with this same question more than a century-and-a-half later in his opera Capriccio.) Art consciously imitates life here, as the fictional Count has commissioned an opera to be performed at a banquet. In an unexpected twist, though, the composer (maestro di cappella) is not advocating his own music, but rather an anonymous score he has found among some old manuscripts. The court poet takes umbrage at the thought that he must now write words to match the already existing music. The two also argue about the choice of which soprano will take the prima donna rôle. The poet argues for a singing actress, the composer for an acting singer. In the end, a compromise is reached, as the ladies agree to share the part, one taking the comic scenes, the other the tragic.
In The Impresario, the title character (who, perhaps appropriately, has a speaking rôle only) is auditioning two potential leading ladies. Madame Herz (Mrs. Heart) sings a pathetic arietta about parting lovers, and Mlle Silberklang (Miss Silversound) essays a happy rondo about joining lovers. There follows a heated altercation between the two women, each of whom proclaims herself the “first singer” (prima donna), while the tenor, M. Vogelsang (Mr. Birdsong) tries to mediate. The concluding quartet has the characters subduing their egos, at least ostensibly, in deference to Art, except that the last to appear, M. Buff (Mr. Buffoon), having failed to get the message, announces himself as the principal comic baritone, “as everyone can plainly see.”
