Le feste d'Apollo

The work#

The prologue and three acts are as follows:

Prologue#

The Italian libretto is by Carlo Gastone della Torre di Rezzonico (1742-1796). A group of young Athenian men and women, led by Anfrisio and Arcinia, gather to celebrate the festival of Apollo. The priest of Apollo reveals the god has sent him a vision which promises a flourishing future for the Duke of Parma and his bride.

Bauci e Filemone#

The libretto, by Giuseppe Maria Pagnini (1737–1814), is based on the myth of Baucis and Philemon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Pagnini’s version, Baucis and Philemon are not an old married couple but a pair of young lovers. The king of the gods, Jupiter, visits the world of mortals disguised as a traveller from Crete, intending to punish mankind for its wickedness. However, when he visits the countryside of Phrygia, Baucis and Philemon warmly welcome him to their cottages. Jupiter reveals his true identity and officiates at the wedding of the couple. He tells them they will live together as priests in his temple and when they die they will become demi-gods and protectors of the region. Bauci’s aria “Il mio pastor tu sei” in the third scene is notable for containing several top Gs - higher than Mozart’s notoriously famous aria for the Queen of the Night.

Aristeo#

The libretto, by Giuseppe Pezzana (1735–1802), is loosely based on the myth of Aristaeus taken from Virgil’s Georgics, Book Four. Aristaeus, the son of the nymph Cyrene, had been in love with Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, but as he pursued her she had trodden on a snake and died from its venomous bite. To punish Aristaeus, the wood nymphs kill his bees and make him fall in love with the nymph Cydippe, who rejects his advances on the orders of Aristaeus’s mother. Aristaeus visits Cyrene in despair and begs for her help. She tells him his sufferings are a result of what he has done to Orpheus and Eurydice and tells him to sacrifice to their shades and the wood nymphs. Aristaeus does so and the gods are appeased. New swarms of bees issue from the carcasses of bulls Aristaeus has slain and Cyrene gives Cydippe to Aristaeus in marriage. This act includes a bravura aria which Gluck had originally composed for Il Parnaso confuso. This aria was later incorporated into Act 1 of Orphée et Euridice, the 1774 Paris revision of Orfeo ed Euridice, as “L’espoir renaît dans mon âme”.

Orfeo#

This is a reworking of Orfeo ed Euridice, which had first been performed in Vienna in 1762, with a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi.

Recording#

• Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques recorded two of the acts (Aristeo and Filemone e Bauci) under the title Philémon et Baucis (Ambroisie, 2006)

References#

;Notes ;Sources *Booklet notes to the Rousset recording *Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. *Pesqué, Emmanuelle and Jérôme, Fuller version of the booklet notes (in French)

External links#

*Libretto (in Italian)