Ciro in Armenia
{{Short description|Opera by Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini}}
{{Infobox opera
| name = Ciro in Armenia
| composer = Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini
| image = Ciro title page.jpg
| image_upright = 1.2
| caption = Title page of the libretto
| translated_name =
| librettist = Pinottini
| language = Italian
| based_on = work by Umberto Manferrari and G. Manfredi
| premiere_date = {{Start date|1753|12|26|df=y}} (Carnival season)
| premiere_location = Teatro Regio Ducale, Milan
}}
Ciro in Armenia is a dramma per musica or opera in three acts by composer Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini. The work premiered in Milan on 26 December 1753 at the Teatro Regio Ducale.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cj5yBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA271|title=A Chronology of Western Classical Music 1600–2000|author=Jon Paxman|publisher=Music Sales Group|year=2014|page=271|isbn=9781783231218}}{{cite book|page=184|title=A Biography of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Eighteenth-century Woman Mathematician: With Translations of Some of Her Work from Italian Into English|author=Antonella Cupillari|title-link=A Biography of Maria Gaetana Agnesi|author-link= Antonella Cupillari |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press|year=2007|isbn=9780773452268}} The work uses an Italian language libretto by the composer which is based on a work by Umberto Manferrari and G. Manfredi.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDTk2kD7U9UC&pg=PA8|title=Say Can You Deny Me: A Guide to Surviving Music by Women from the 16th Through the 18th Centuries|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|author=Barbara Garvey Jackson|page=9|year=1994|isbn=9781557283030}}
Background
Pinottini was one of the earliest female Italian opera composers, and this opera was considered her finest achievement.{{cite book|author=Alfred Loewenberg|title=Annals of opera, 1597–1940|page=114|publisher= W. Heffer & Son|year=1943}} Pinottini had previously composed two other operas; the first of which, II Restauro di Arcadia, also premiered at the Teatro Regio Ducal in 1747.Sven Hansell, Robert L. Kendrick. "Maria Teresa Agnesi", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed January 25, 2016)
The complete score of Ciro in Armenia was preserved in Dresden, but was transferred by the Red Army during World War II to Russia. Today it is owned by the Russian State Library in Moscow. Parts from the opera survive also in the collection of the library at the Milan Conservatory, some of which have been recorded. {{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41474557 | title=[Ciro in Armenia]|via=worldcat.org| oclc=41474557|accessdate=January 26, 2016}} Tom Service, music critic for The Guardian, included the work is his 2015 list of the 10 best operas written by women composers.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2015/mar/06/10-best-operas-by-women|title=The 10 best operas by women|author=Tom Service|date=March 6, 2015|work=The Guardian}}
Roles
The information in this section is taken from the published libretto.
| class="wikitable"
!Role !Voice type !Premiere cast, 26 December 1753 |
| Ciro (Cyrus the Younger of Persia)
| |Domenico Luino |
| Semira, Ciro's sister
| |Camilla Mattei |
| Araspe, Ciro's general
| |Antonio Priori |
| Arsace, King of Armenia
| |Litterio Ferrari |
| Tigrane, son of Arsace
| |Giovanni Tedeschi |
| Palmide, princess of Phrygia, affianced to Tigrane.
| |Colomba Mattei |
Synopsis
The story is elaborated (unhistorically) from Xenophon's account in his Anabasis of Cyrus the Younger's campaign in 401 BC. The plot centres on the plans of Ciro (Cyrus) to wage war against Assyria in league with the Medes. However the King of Armenia, formerly a vassal of the Medes, changes allegiance to side with the Assyrians, prompting Cyrus to invade Armenia. Cyrus quickly overwhelms the Armenians. Tigrane, son of the Armenian King Arsace, was a childhood friend of Ciro and persuades him generously to forgive Arsace, allowing the marriage of Tigrane with the Phrygian princess Palmide.Libretto, pp. 7–9. See 'External links'. Arsaces and Tigranes were both names of a number of Armenian kings, but no rulers with these names were on the throne at the time when the story is set.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=LFix63VOTwwC&dq=Ciro+in+Armenia&pg=PA11 Libretto] in Google Books.
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Category:Italian-language operas
Category:Operas set in Armenia
Category:Cultural depictions of ancient Persian people
Category:Cultural depictions of kings