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11
Opera Night
W. A. Mozart:
The Impresario.
A. Salieri:
Prima
la Musica e poi le Parole
. (18 September, Rialto
Theatre in Lemesos; 19 September, Markideion
Municipal Theatre, Paphos; 20 September, Stro-
volos Municipal Theatre)
The Impresario
is a comic Singspiel written by
WolfgangAmadeusMozart with aGerman libretto
by Gottlieb Stephanie, an Austrian Schauspieldi-
rektor. Mozart wrote the opera for a musical com-
petition sponsored on 7 February 1786 by Holy
Roman Emperor Joseph II at the Schonbrunn Pal-
ace inVienna – the purpose of the competition was
to pit a German Singspiel against an Italian opera.
Critics have noted that the character and scale of
the overture are similar to those of the overture to
Le Nozze di Figaro
[
The Nights of Figaro
], which
was written at the same time and premiered later
that same year. The competing Italian entry was
Antonio Salieri’s opera buffa,
Prima la Musica,
poi le Parole
[
First the music, and then the words
].
Even though it is a complete work,
the Impresa-
rio
is rather brief, comprising only an overture and
four numbers; it is actually a lengthy topical com-
edy with little relevance to modern audiences. It
is rarely performed with its original libretto, but
rather in adaptations created to present Mozart’s
outstanding music in a more appropriate setting.
Prima la Musica, poi le Parole
is an opera in
one act by Antonio Salieri – the libretto was
written by Giovanni Battista Casti. The title
of the opera is the theme of Richard Strauss’s
opera
Capriccio
, which debates the relative im-
portance of music and drama in opera.
Prima
la Musica, poi le Parole
was first performed
on 7 February 1786 by an Italian troupe at one
end of the orangery in the Schonbrunn Palace
in Vienna. It was commissioned by Joseph II.
The libretto: Count Opizio contracts a new opera
to be ready in four days. The composer has already
created the score, but the poet is suffering from
writers block and attempts to adapt previous vers-
es he has written to the existing music. The com-
poser and poet are interrupted when Eleonora, the
prima donna hired by the Count, enters and dis-
plays her vocal artistry. Together with the poet and
the maestro, she acts out a scene from Giuseppe
Sarti’s
Giulio Sabino
that devolves into a gro-
tesque parody. Eleonora exits, and the librettist and
the composer again wrestle with the problems of
the libretto for the new opera; a lengthy dispute en-
sues between the two men. Tonina, whose charac-
ter is a parody of opera buffa, enters and demands
a role in the new opera. The composer and the li-
brettist quickly concoct a vocal number for her. A
quarrel then erupts between Eleonora and Tonina
over which of them should sing the opening aria
– the scene culminates with Eleonora and Tonina
singing their arias simultaneously. The composer
and the librettist pacify the two women by agree-
ing to juxtapose the seria and buffa styles, thereby
putting an end to their quarrel.
The
Prague Chamber Orchestra Quattro
takes
its name from the Quattro group of eminent com-
posers (Lubos Fiser, Sylvie Bodorova, Otmar
Macha and Zdenek Lukas) who, having seen and
heard the young orchestra at work, decided to
lend the musicians their prestigious name. Early
in 2005 the Orchestra was chosen as Orchestra
in Residence at the Gustav Mahler birthplace at
Kaliste; during its brief existence, it has already
performed at such festivals as “The Young Podi-
um”, “The Unconventional Zizkov Autumn”, the
“Trebic Mozart Celebrations”, the “Prague Melo-
drama Festival” and others. The orchestra has
performed the complete works of Mozart for flute
and orchestra with flautist Hansgeorg Schmeiser
(Head of the Department for wind instruments at
the Vienna Hochschule für Musik and principal of
the Vienna Philharmonic), with preeminent Czech
flautist Jan Ostry, and with harpist Jana Bouskova.
It has also performed Mozart’s
Sinfonia Concer-
tante
with Jan Pospichal, the leader of the Vienna