Ezio (Mysliveček, 1775)
Template:Mysliveček operas Ezio is an eighteenth-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It was the composer's first setting of a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio that was first performed in 1728, one of the most popular of the Metastasian librettos in Mysliveček's day. The story is based on incidents from the lives of the 5th-century Roman emperor Valentinian III and his general Aetius. 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 1770 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.
Performance history
The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 30 May 1775 in honor of the nameday of Ferdinand, the king of Naples.[1] It was the last of a brilliant series of four operas composed by Mysliveček for the Teatro San Carlo between the years 1773-75, the last two commissions made possible by the failure of Johann Christian Bach to make good on a commitment to the management of the theater. Ezio (and all three of the other operas from this series) were very well received by the Neapolitan musical public. The cast was distinguished, as would expected at the San Carlo; it included the great castrato Gaspare Pacchierotti.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 30 May 1775, Teatro San Carlo, Naples |
|---|---|---|
| Valentiniano III, emperor of Rome, in love with Fulvia | soprano castrato | Giuseppe Benedetti |
| Fulvia, daughter of Massimo, a Roman patrician, in love with Ezio and betrothed to him | soprano | Anna de Amicis-Buonsollazzi |
| Ezio, general of the imperial armies, in love with Fulvia | soprano castrao | Gaspare Pacchierotti |
| Onoria, sister of Valentiniano, secretly in love with Ezio | soprano | Elisabetta Ranieri |
| Massimo, Roman patrician, father of Fulvia, confidant and secret enemy of Valentiniano | bass | Argangelo Cortoni |
| Varo, prefect of the Praetorian guard, friend of Ezio | tenor | Nicola Lancelotti |
See also
References
- ^ Detailed documentation concerning the Naples performance of Mysliveček's Ezio of 1775 is found in Daniel E. Freeman, Josef Mysliveček, "Il Boemo" (Sterling Heights, Mich.: Harmonie Park Press, 2009).