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Reminiscence and Recall in Three Early Settings of Metastasio's Alessandro nell' Indie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1982

Graham Cummings
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Extract

Musical reminiscence or recall of the type that became familiar in nineteenth-century opera was not a common feature of the late Baroque opera seria. Any instances of musical recall that do occur seem to fall into one of two categories: firstly, those where a musical motive, with a particular association, is used to link a series of musical ‘numbers’; secondly, those instances where the repetition of a text later in a scene or act prompts a repeat, or partial repeat of the original music. From amongst the vast corpus of eighteenth-century Italian librettos, Metastasio's Alessandro nell' Indie (1729) is one such piece that contains a notable instance of textual repetition used for the purpose of increasing dramatic conflict. I am not the first to comment on the unusual qualities of this libretto. Several notable scholars, including Friedrich Chrysander, Michael Robinson and Winton Dean, have drawn attention to the musical reminiscences that portions of this libretto have engendered, particularly in settings by Leonardo Vinci and G. F. Handel. Yet there has been little attempt to explain this particular phenomenon in musico-dramatic terms, nor to compare the approaches of such diverse composers as Vinci, Handel and Hasse to the problems that the textual recall produces. This, then, is the purpose of my paper.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 109 , 1982 , pp. 80 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

1 Winton Dean, Handel and the Opera Seria (London, 1970), 176: ‘Several of Handel's operas show a primitive leitmotive technique, or at least the recall of earlier music to make a dramatic point’. Of the examples that Winton Dean lists (pp. 173–6), the following fall into this first category: Arianna in Creta (1734), 2, i-ii: structural unity of four numbers by the repetition of a particular ritornello; Giustino (1737), 1, iv-v: structural unity of six numbers by the repetition of a particular motive.Google Scholar

2 Winton Dean, op. cit., 176–7, lists five examples from Handel's operas which seem to fall into this second category: Silla (1713), 3, vii, viii; Alessandro, (1726), 2, ii; Riccardo Primo, Re d'Inghilterra (1727), 2, i, ix; Poro, Re dell'Indie (1731), 1, v, vi, xii; Imeneo (1740), 3, v, vi, sc. ult.Google Scholar

3 Friedrich Chrysander, G. F. Händel (2nd edn., Leipzig, 1919), ii, 244–5.Google Scholar

4 Michael F. Robinson, Naples and Neapolitan Opera (Oxford, 1972) 132–3.Google Scholar

5 Winton Dean, op. cit., 141, 176.Google Scholar

6 Reinhard Strohm, ‘Metastasio's Alessandro nell’ Indie und seine frühesten Vertonungen', Probleme der Hāndelschen Oper, Report of the Conference at the 30th Handel Festival of the German Democratic Republic (1981) at Halle (Martin-Luther-Unjversität, Halle-Wittenberg, 1982), 55.Google Scholar

7 Cherubini, Alessandro nell' Indie, T. Nuova Regio Ducale, Mantua, Spring 1784.Google Scholar

8 Vinci, L., Alessandro nell' Indie, score (copy), GB-Lbm RM 23 c 8–10; libretto, GB-Lbm 905.k.6(2). G F. Handel, Poro: score (autograph), GB-Lbm R 20 b 13; libretto, GB-Lbm 639.d.19(2). J. A. Hasse, Cleofide, score (copy, no autograph survives), D-Dlb Mus. 2477/F/9; libretto, D-W cat. 14 no. 450.Google Scholar

9 The river Hydaspes is the modern Jhelum, one of the five tributaries of the Indus.Google Scholar

10 Michael F. Robinson, op. cit., 133.Google Scholar

11 Alberto Cametti, ‘Leonardo Vinci e i suoi drammi in musica al Teatro della Dame (1724–30)’, Musica d'oggi, vi (1924), 298. Travestied castrates were common in Roman opera between 1673 and 1798: ‘Pope Innocent XI … confirmed the ban on actresses as far as his temporal dominions were concerned in 1673, and with a few backslidings early on, this ban continued in force until 1798’ (Angus Herriot, The Castrati in Opera (London, 1956), 25–6).Google Scholar

12 The score of Vinci's Alessandro nell' Indie (GB-Lbm RM 23 c 8–10) that I have used a a copy. In the duet the two characters are not named. I am assuming, therefore, that Vinci would have followed Metastasio's directions here, as elsewhere.Google Scholar

13 Faustina Bordoni and J. A. Hasse were married in Venice in June 1731 (Frederick L. Millner, The Operas of Johann Adolf Hasse (UMI Research Press, Studies in Musicology, no. 2, 1979), 4).Google Scholar

14 Frederick L. Millner, op. cit., 7.Google Scholar

15 On the death of Haym in August 1729, Giacomo Rossi became the librettist-secretary of the second Royal Academy of Music However, the only name on the tide page of the libretto of Poro is that of Samuel Humphreys (the second, or English secretary to the R.A.M.) who supplied the English translation.Google Scholar

16 The character ‘Timagene’ is a general in Alessandro's army, and his secret enemy. The role was sung by Giovanni Commano, an Italian bass with a rather inadequate voice. Handel clearly decided not to waste time and effort on a sub-standard voice. However, the elimination of these scenes detracts from the dramatic power of the original, since it removes some of the clear explanation of the motivation for Timagene's treachery towards Alexander which is an essential feature of the plot.Google Scholar

17 La superbia d'Alessandro (Mauro) set by Steffani for Hanover, 1630.Google Scholar

18 GB-Lbm RM 20 d 2, ff. 26–27v.Google Scholar

19 Autograph score, GB-Lbm RM 20 b 13, ff. 21–22v, conducting score, D-Hs, M A/1042, ff. 35v-37v.Google Scholar

20 Charles Burney, A General History of Music (1789, repr. New York, 1957), ii, b. 4, 768.Google Scholar

21 Reinhard Strohm, op. cit., trans. Helen Hale, 42.Google Scholar

22 Hasse was certainly in Naples at the beginning of November 1729, when his opera Tigrane was performed (4 Nov. 1729, Teatro San Bartolomeo). He was invited to produce his first opera for Venice for the carnival season of 1730. He composed Artaserse, a setting of a new libretto by Metastasio. This was Hasse's first attempt at setting one of this poet's texts, although it was altered by Giovanni Boldini. There seems to have been an element of rivalry between Hasse and Vinci since the official setting of Metastasio's Artaserse by Vinci for Rome, and Hasse's setting for Venice, appeared in the same month; i.e., Vinci, Artaserse T. delle Dame, Rome, 4 Feb. 1730; Hasse, Artaserse, S. Giovanni Grisostomo, Venice, ? Feb. 1730. Cf. Millner, op. cit., 4, 289, 314.Google Scholar

23 Reinhard Strohm, loc. cit.Google Scholar

During the course of the lecture musical illustrations from the nine arias and duets by Vinci, Handel and Hasse were heard. These were performed by Mary Coles (soprano), Patricia Hamilton (soprano), Richard Hill (counter tenor) and Prabhu Singh (piano). The author wishes to express his gratitude to these performers, and also to Phil Ellis for making the recordings.Google Scholar