Lecture and Concert
In his book Opera, Theatrical Culture, and Society in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera, 2012, Anthony R. DelDonna provides a rich study of operatic culture in the Kingdom of Naples in the period of 1775-1800. The book demonstrates how contemporary stage traditions, stimulated by the Enlightenment, engaged with and responded to the changing social, political and artistic contexts of the late eighteenth century in Naples. It focuses on select yet representative compositions from different genres of opera that illuminate the diverse contemporary cultural forces shaping these works and underlining the continued innovation and European recognition of operatic culture in Naples. It also defines how the cultural milieu of Naples -aristocratic and sacred, private and public – exercises a profound yet idiosyncratic influence on the repertory studied, the creation of which could not have occurred elsewhere on the Continent.
The book will be discussed by Anthony R. DelDonna, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, and Pierpaolo Polzonetti, Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame.
IN COLLABORATION WITH GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
DOORS OPEN AT 6:30 AND CLOSE AT 7:00PM PROMPTLY
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LOCATION
Embassy of Italy Auditorium
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
MORE INFO
Program
Selections from Debora e Sisara (1788); Music by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi and libretto by Carlo Sernicola:
Part I; Scena decima: Coro, “Con preghi affrettisi”
Part II; Sinfonia Tempesta
Part II; Marcia, e Coro, “Dagli affanni”
Part II; Scena ultima: Aria con Coro, “Non ha cor”
Part II; Scena ultima: Coro con soli, “Quanto a te dobbiam”
Performers
Modern Musick:
Emily Noel, soprano
Meg Owens, oboe
Risa Browder, violin
Leslie Nero, violin
Annie Loud, viola
John Moran, cello
Georgetown University Chamber Singers:
Frederick Binkholder, Director
Jinsun Cho, accompanist
Joan Abbott
Kate Anthony
Emma Boone
Sue Marie Breden
Mickel Dodd
Peter Hu
Emily Kent
Katherine Landau
Herminio Navia
Eric Nemarich
Alexander Nickol
Zoe Novak
Peter Prindiville
Luke Schafer
Pierpaolo Polzonetti
Pierpaolo Polzonetti is Associate Professor of Music and Liberal Studies. He specializes on opera and eighteenth-century music and culture. His research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS), and the Earhart Foundation. His book, Italian Opera in the Age of the American Revolution (Cambridge University Press 2011) won the Lewis Lockwood book award and his article on Mozart’s Così fan tutte published in Cambridge Opera Journal has received the Einstein Award, both conferred by the American Musicological Society. His first book, Giuseppe Tartini e la musica secondo natura (LIM, 2001) is the winner of the ‘Premio Internazionale Latina di Studi Musicali.’ He is the coeditor of the Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera and is currently working on a book on Love, Food, and Opera.
Anthony Del Donna
Anthony R. DelDonna, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Musicology at Georgetown University. He is a specialist in eighteenth-century topics, in particular Neapolitan music, musicians and culture. Prof. DelDonna’s research has focused primarily on opera, archival studies, performance practice and ballet and been published in journals as Early Music, Eighteenth-Century Music, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Recercare, Studi musicali and Civiltà musicale and in various scholarly collections on eighteenth century music. He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Opera (with Pierpaolo Polzonetti; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) and editor for Genre in Eighteenth-Century Music (Ann Arbor: Steglein Press, 2008). Prof. DelDonna is the co-editor (with Anna Celenza) of the forthcoming book, In Pursuit of a Cultural Mission: the Jesuits and Music (St. Joseph University Press) and a collection of Clarinet and Piano transcriptions by Ferdinando Sebastiani (with Antonio Caroccia for Castejon Music Editions) as well as a forthcoming critical edition of the oratorio Trionfo per l’Assunzione della Santissima Vergine for the series Fondazione Arcadia.
Debora e Sisara – Synopsis
Debora e Sisara (1788) by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi and Carlo Sernicola was among the most widely circulated operas of the late eighteenth century. Sernicola’s libretto is derived from the fourth chapter of the Book of Judges from the Old Testament. The drama centers on the prophetess and judge of the Jewish nation, Debora, whose people have languished in subjugation to Giabino, King of the Canaanites. The instrument of Giabino’s oppression is the chief general and leader of his vast army, Sisara, who subsequent to Debora’s prophesy and direct intervention is routed on the battlefield by Barac, captain of the Israelites. In the aftermath of his defeat, Sisara is haunted by the capture of his son Alcimo and his refusal to listen to the consul of his son and another confidant, Araspe, as well as the complete slaughter of the Canaanite military forces. He seeks comfort and safety in the encampment of the Kenite Aber (who is presented as a friend to Giabino, yet an intermediary of peace) and his wife Giaele. For her part, Giaele has been deeply moved by the presence, actions, and prophesies of Debora such that, seized by an indescribable courage, she enters into the pavilion of Sisara and drives a large tent nail through his head with a hammer while he is sleeping. This action initiates an extended conclusion to the drama, in which Alcimo, upon seeing the corpse of his father, will take his own life in full view of the audience and a large chorus of Israelites, who sing of their victory, freedom, God’s benevolence, and the divinely inspired leadership of Debora.
Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi
Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (1728-1804) was among the most prolific and successful composers of the late eighteenth century. A native to Massa-Carrara, he was sent to Naples and educated in the Santa Maria di Loreto Conservatory as a pupil of the famed composer Francesco Durante. Guglielmi’s works were widely acclaimed and he rivaled Paisiello and Cimarosa on the tragic and heroic stages of Italy. Guglielmi also passed six years in London as the Director and composer in residence of the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket. Debora e Sisara (1788) was his most renowned composition, which lead to his appointment as the maestro di cappella at the Vatican for which he contributed a large quantity of sacred music. The wide distribution of his compositions underlines the achievements of his career.
Carlo Sernicola
There is little documentary evidence regarding the life, activities and identity of the poet Carlo Sernicola. The scholar Franco Piperno claims, based on print sources in Rome, that he was known in Arcadian circles as “Arimedonte Parmeniate.” Based on the dates of his libretti, Sernicola was active at the court of Ferdinand IV in the period 1787–95, contributing only a handful of works, including La distruzione di Gerusalemme (azione sacra 1787, music by Giuseppe Giordani), Giunone Lucina (cantata 1787; music by Paisiello), I matrimoni per fanatismo (dramma giocoso 1788; music by Anfossi), Il Rinaldo (dramma per musica 1788; music by Skokov), Gionata, (azione sacra 1792; music by Nicola [sic] Piccinni), Sofronia ed Olindo (azione tragica 1793; music by Gaetano Andreozzi), and Gli Orazi (azione tragica 1795; music by Nicola Zingarelli).
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