Prima la musica e poi le parole
{{short description|Opera by Antonio Salieri}}
{{Infobox opera
| name = {{lang|it|Prima la musica e poi le parole}}
| composer = Antonio Salieri
| image = Antonio Salieri 2.jpg
| image_upright = 1.1
| alt =
| caption = Antonio Salieri, 1802 engraving
| translated_name =
| librettist = Giovanni Battista Casti
| language = Italian
| based_on =
| premiere_date = {{Start date|1786|02|07|df=y}}
| premiere_location = Orangery of Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna
}}
{{Lang|it|Prima la musica e poi le parole}} (First the music and then the words)Also called {{Lang|it|Prima la musica, poi le parole}} is an opera in one act by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti. The work was first performed on 7 February 1786 in Vienna, following a commission by the Emperor Joseph II.[http://www.operatoday.com/content/007566print.html "Salieri: Prima la musica e poi le parole"] by Jane Schatkin Hettrick at Opera Today, 19 February 2008 The opera (more specifically, a {{Lang|it|divertimento teatrale}}) was first performed at one end of the orangery of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna by an Italian troupe; on the same occasion, Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor was staged at the other end.
The title of the opera is the theme of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio which debates the relative importance of music and drama in opera.
The autograph manuscript of the opera is preserved in the Austrian National Library.[https://digital.onb.ac.at/RepViewer/viewer.faces?doc=DTL_9504248&order=1&view=SINGLE Autograph score], Austrian National Library
Roles
| class="wikitable"
|+{{sronly|Roles, voice types, premiere cast}} !Role !Premiere cast, 7 February 1786 |
| Eleonora, a prima donna |
| The composer
|bass |
| The poet
|bass |
| Tonina, a comic singer
|soprano |
Synopsis
Count Opizio contracts a new opera to be written to be ready in four days. The composer has already created the score, but the poet is suffering from writer's block and resorts to trying to adapt previous verses he has written to the existing music. The composer and poet are interrupted when Eleonora, the prima donna hired by the Count, enters and delivers a sample of 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 grotesque parody. Eleonora exits, and the librettist and the composer again wrestle with the problems of the libretto for the new opera in which a lengthy dispute between the two men ensues. Tonina (whose character is a parody of opera buffa) enters and demands a role in the new opera. The composer and the librettist quickly concoct a vocal number for her. A quarrel then erupts between Eleonora and Tonina over which of them should sing the opera's opening aria. The scene culminates in having both sing their arias simultaneously. The composer and the librettist are able to pacify the two ladies by agreeing to a juxtaposition of the seria and buffa styles, thereby putting a conciliatory end to their quarrel.
Recordings
References
Further reading
- {{Cite Grove|last=Rice|first=John A.|author-link=John A. Rice (musicologist)|title=Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the Music and then the Words)|date=1992|id=O008592|ref=none}}
External links
- [https://digital.onb.ac.at/RepViewer/viewer.faces?doc=DTL_5771271&order=1&view=SINGLE Copyist's manuscript], Austrian National Library
- [https://www.loc.gov/item/2011563587/ Libretto], Library of Congress
- [http://www.librettidopera.it/primamus/primamus.html Libretto], librettidopera.it
- {{YouTube|1zmUcNi_lJs|Complete performance}}, Federico Maria Sardelli conducting Orchestra Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Malibran, Venice 2020
{{Antonio Salieri}}
{{Portal bar|Opera}}
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Category:Italian-language operas