Ercole amante
Ercole amante(Hercules in Love,French:Hercule amoureux) is anoperain a prologue and five acts byFrancesco Cavalli.ItsItalianlibretto is byFrancesco Buti,based onSophocles'The Trachiniaeand on the ninth book ofOvid'sMetamorphoses.The first performance took place on 7 February 1662 in theSalle des Machinesof theTuileriesin Paris.
Background
[edit]Cardinal Mazarincommissioned the opera to celebrate the June 1660 wedding ofLouis XIVandMaria Theresa of Spain,but preparations for the staging were on a grand scale and caused a twenty-month delay, irritating the composer. Worse for him, eighteen balletentréesandintermèdesbyIsaac de Benseradewith musicJean-Baptiste Lullywere inserted, mostly at the ends of Cavalli's acts, to cater to French taste. These were not merely diversions but also served to further the plot,[1]and in the event they met with greater approval from the audience thanErcole amanteitself, helping boost Lully's position at the French court.
Performance history
[edit]After its premiere the opera was given another seven times: 14 and 18 February; 18, 22, 25, and 29 April; and 6 May. The theatre was built specifically to present the opera, and if the construction costs of the theatre are included, it was the most expensive of the French court's theatrical productions mounted up to that point.[2]
Roles
[edit]| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 7 February 1662[3] |
|---|---|---|
| Cinzia,prologue | sopranocastrato | Giuseppe Meloni |
| Ercole | bass | Vincenzo Piccini |
| Deianira,Ercole's wife | soprano | Leonora Ballarini |
| Hyllo,son of Ercole | tenor | Giuseppe Agostino Poncelli |
| Iole | soprano | Anna Bergerotti |
| La bellezza | soprano | Anne de La Barre |
| Giunone | soprano castrato (en travesti) | Antonio Rivani |
| Mercurio | tenor | Signor Tagliavacca |
| Nettuno | bass | Paolo Bordigone[4] |
| Venere | soprano | Hylaire Dupuis |
| Tevere | bass | Signor Beauchamps |
| Shade ofEutyro | bass | Paolo Bordigone |
| Licco | contraltocastrato | Giuseppe Chiarini |
| Shade of KingLaomedonte | tenor | Signor Vulpio |
| Shade of Bussiride | contralto castrato | Signor Zanetto |
| Shade of Queen Clerica | soprano | Anne de La Barre |
| Pasithea | soprano | Signora Bordoni |
| Sonno | silentactor | |
| Paggio | soprano |
Recordings
[edit]Audio
[edit]- 1980:Yvonne Minton(Giunone),Felicity Palmer(Jole), Patricia Miller (Dejanira), Colette Alliot-Lugaz (Venere, Bellezza),Ulrik Cold(Ercole), Keith Lewis (Hyllo), Richard Cassinelli (Licco),John Tomlinson(Tevere, Nettuno) with theEnglish Bach FestivalChorus & Baroque Orchestra, conducted byMichel Corboz.Audio CD:Erato[5][6]
Video
[edit]- 2009:Luca Pisaroni(Ercole), Veronica Cangemi (Iole),Anna Bonitatibus(Giunone), Jeremy Ovenden (Hyllo), Anna Maria Panzarella (Deianira), Marlin Miller (Licco), Umberto Chiummo (Nettuno, Tevere, Spirit of Eutyro) with theConcerto Kölnand the Chorus ofDe Nederlandse Opera,conducted byIvor Bolton.Recorded live,Het Musiektheater,Amsterdam, 15 & 20 January 2009; stage director:David Alden.The performance includes several of theballet entréescomposed by Lully; choreographer: Jonathan Lunn.Blu-ray:Opus Arte.[7][8]
- 2019:Nahuel di Pierro(Ercole), Francesca Aspromonte (Iole), Anna Bonitatibus (Giunone), Krystian Adam (Hyllo), Giuseppina Bridelli (Deianira), Dominique Vissi (Licco), Eugène Lefebvre (Pasitea, Clerica), Giulia Semenzato (Venere, Bellezza, Cinzia), Luca Tittoto (Nettuno, Eutyro) with the ensemblePygmalion,conducted byRaphaël Pichon.Recorded live,Opéra-Comique,Paris, 6 and 8 November 2019; stage directors: Valérie Lesort, Christian Hecq. Blu-ray:Naxos.[9][10]
References
[edit]Notes
- ^Clinkscale 1992;Coeyman 1998,p. 55
- ^Coeyman 1998,p. 55.
- ^Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Ercole amante,7 February 1662 ".L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia(in Italian).
- ^An alternative spelling is Bordigoni, according to theGroßes Sängerlexikon.
- ^Erato CD (1996, 1981)OCLC954346914.
- ^David Fallows,"Cavalli.Ercole amante[review] ",Gramophone,October 1980, p. 533.
- ^Opus Arte Blu-ray (2010)OCLC658079891.
- ^Mike Ashman,"Cavalli,Ercole amante:An action-packed early French opera that is a riot of colour and creativity ",Gramophone,June 2010, pp. 100–101.
- ^Naxos Blu-ray (2020)OCLC1224482311
- ^David Vickers,"Cavalli,Ercole amante[review of 2019 production by Pygmalion] ",Gramophone,May 2021, pp. 74–75.
Sources
- Clinkscale, Martha Novak (1992). "Ercole amante".InStanley Sadie(ed.).The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.London.ISBN0-333-73432-7.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Coeyman, Barbara (1998). "Opera and Ballet in Seventeenth-Century French Theatres: Case Studies of the Salle des Machines and the Palais Royal Theater". In Radice, Mark A. (ed.).Opera in Context: Essays on Historical Staging from the Late Renaissance to the Time of Puccini.Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. pp. 37–71.ISBN9781574670325.
External links
[edit]- L'Ercole:Scores at theInternational Music Score Library Project
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