Argippo

Libretto#

Domenico Lalli’s Il gran Mogol libretto was set by Francesco Mancini, and performed in the Teatro San Bartolomeo, Naples, in December 1713. In the next two decades this libretto was set as Argippo by several composers: * Setting by Giovanni Porta, performed in 1717 in Venice. * L’Argippo, a setting by of Claudio Nicola Stampa’s reworked version of the libretto, was staged in Milan in 1722. * Antonio Vivaldi based his Argippo, RV 697-A, which premiered in Vienna in 1730, on Stampa’s adaptation of Lalli’s libretto (music lost). * Vivaldi used a variant of this libretto for his Argippo, RV 697-B, staged in Prague in the autumn of 1730 (music lost). *Vivaldi’s setting of the text based on Lalli’s libretto was partially preserved in a pasticcio, Argippo, RV Anh. 137. * Another Argippo pasticcio, credited to Antonio Costantini, and based on Lalli’s libretto, was performed in the 1733 carnival season in Brno.

Synopsis#

The opera, in three acts, is set in an Indian royal court and centers around a young princess smitten by a dishonest suitor.

1717–1722#

Porta’s setting of Lalli’s Argippo libretto was first performed in Venice in 1717. Fiorè’s setting of Stampa’s adaptation of the Argippo libretto was first performed in Milan in 1722.

Porta#

Porta’s Argippo was first performed on 31 October 1717 in Venice, in the Teatro San Cassiano. A four-page dedication by Lalli precedes the text of his libretto. Also for this production, Lalli wrote a dedication in the printed libretto.

Fiorè#

L’Argippo was staged in the Regio Ducal Teatro in Milan in honour of the 31st birthday of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empress, which fell on 28 August 1722. The dedication, dated 27 August 1722 in the extant libretto, was written by Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio and addressed at , who was the then-time Austrian governor of the Duchy of Milan. Stampa added an introduction to this revised version of Lalli’s libretto, which was set by Fiorè.

Vivaldi’s RV 697, pasticcios and a reconstruction#

In a letter he wrote in 1737, Vivaldi mentions he had been called to Vienna: according to Michael Talbot, this was likely on invitation by the Theater am Kärntnertor where the first version of his Argippo, RV 697, was presented as an intermezzo in 1730. Later that year, a somewhat more extended version of this opera was performed by a company of mostly Italian performers in Franz Anton von Sporck’s private theatre in Prague. A few years later, this Italian ensemble performed in Regensburg, where a score with at least six arias from Vivaldi’s Argippo was recovered.

1730#

Two closely related German versions of the Argippo libretto were published in 1730: * one for a performance in the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, translated by Heinrich Rademin; * a more extended one for the Sporck Theater in Prague. The libretto variants were based on Stampa’s adaptation of Lalli’s text, but were transmitted without their respective settings. Only the Prague libretto names Vivaldi as composer: because of the similarities between both texts Vivaldi is however considered the composer in both cases. The Vienna version, which was probably performed before the Prague version, received the RV 697-A number, and RV 697-B was assigned to the opera performed in the Sporck Theater.

Pasticcios#

RV Anh. 137 is an Argippo pasticcio that survives in two manuscripts: * A complete score, Mus.ms 245 of the . * An extract of 19 arias of this pasticcio, the score of which is preserved at the in Regensburg (D-Rtt Prota 4). This pasticcio contains at least six arias by Vivaldi. Another Argippo pasticcio was performed in Brno in 1733. ! rowspan=“2” Other Vivaldi - ! sc style=“background: #E3F6CE;” I, 1 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Se lento ancora il fulmine - I sc2 Rege son che combattuto Hasse colspan=“3” style=“text-align: center;” — - style=“background: #E3F6CE;” I sc3 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Del fallire il rimorso style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Vivaldi style=“background: #E3F6CE;” I, 2 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Del fallire il rimorso - I sc4 Anche in mezzo a perigliosa Galeazzi I, 3 Tuona spesso all’aer cieco - I sc5 Qual disarmata nave Pescetti I, 4 Vidi appena un sol baleno - I sc6 Dov’è la morte per me Pescetti I, 5 Non v’è perdono - II sc1 Che gran pena trafigge Hasse II, 1 Del giusto mio dolore - II sc2 Non temer e dati pace ? II, 2 Chi quel Timor condanna - II sc3 Bell’idolo amato Porpora colspan=“3” style=“text-align: center;” — - style=“background: #E3F6CE;” II sc4 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Un certo non so che style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Vivaldi style=“background: #E3F6CE;” II, 3 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Un certo non so che - II sc5,6 colspan=“2” style=“text-align: center;” — II, 4 Io vorrei col sangue, e vita - style=“background: #E3F6CE;” II sc7 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Io son rea dell’onor mio style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Vivaldi style=“background: #E3F6CE;” II, 5 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Io son rea dell’onor mio - II sc8 A piedi miei svenato ? II, 6 Suole ancora lamentarsi - II sc 9 Da più venti combattuta Galeazzi colspan=“3” style=“text-align: center;” — - III sc1 Mi sento nel core un raggio Pescetti III, 1 Mi sento nel core - style=“background: #E3F6CE;” III sc2 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Vado a morir per te style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Fiorè style=“background: #E3F6CE;” III, 2 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Vado a morir per te - III sc3 Vi sarà stella clemente Pescetti style=“background: #E3F6CE;” III, 3 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Gelido in ogni vena style=“background: #E3F6CE;” RV 711-D/II:6 III, 4 L’incerto tuo pensiere - III sc5 Se la bella tortorella ? III, 5 Un pensiero - III sc6 colspan=“2” style=“text-align: center;” — style=“background: #E3F6CE;” III, 6 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” In bosco romito style=“background: #E3F6CE;” RV 702-B/III:7 - style=“background: #E3F6CE;” III sc7 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Che farai perdonerai style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Vivaldi style=“background: #E3F6CE;” III, 7 style=“background: #E3F6CE;” Che farai? Perdonerai

Recovering Argippo music#

In 2008 Ondřej Macek presented his reconstruction of Vivaldi’s Argippo, which he had based on extant librettos, on the Vivaldi arias in the Regensburg pasticcio score—which he had recovered two years earlier—, and on other music the Venetian composer had written around 1730. Macek performed this opera with the Hofmusici Baroque Ensemble, first in Prague, and later in Venice. Argippo Resurrected is a 2009 Czech documentary about Macek’s recovery, reconstruction and performance of Vivaldi’s Argippo music. The full version of the RV Anh. 137 pasticcio was recovered in Darmstadt, where it had previously been classified under an erroneous title, and misattributed to Ernst Christian Hesse. A digitized facsimile of this score was made available on the website of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt.

References#

Notes Sources * * * *

External links#

• Vivaldi’s Prague opera Argippo revival. Interview with Ondřej Macek (in Czech) *