|
''Maometto II'' (or ') is an 1820 opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Cesare della Valle. Set in the 1470s during a time of war between the Turks and Venetians, the work was commissioned by the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. Della Valle based his libretto on his earlier play ''Anna Erizo''. The name of the title character, Maometto II, refers to the real-life Ottoman Sultan and conqueror of Constantinople Mehmed II, who lived from 1432 to 1481. Regarded "in some ways (his ) most ambitious opera"〔Brauner, Patricia and Gossett, Philip, "''Maometto II''" in Holden p. 787〕 and as "the best of Rossini's Neapolitan operas",〔Philip Gossett, in Mays, p. 55〕 ''Maometto II'' failed to find an audience in Naples and, "to help ensure () success in Venice and Paris, he smoothed out the most audacious elements of the score".〔 Venice first saw it on 22 December 1822 and then, translated into French and changed significantly, it was presented as ''Le siège de Corinthe'' in 1826. Until the preparation of the critical editions of ''Maometto II'', the composer's original intentions remained obscure. The introduction to an early version prepared by musicologists Philip Gossett and Patricia Brauner (along with Claudio Scimone) notes some of the difficulties of determining what Rossini had intended: Extraordinary for its dramatic power and the nobility of its musical content, ''Maometto II'' is also an opera that poses many textual problems, since Rossini's successive revisions were made directly in the autograph score. Using copies of the score dating back to the original productions of each of these versions, the critical edition reconstructs the text of the first version (Naples, 1820), which reflects the composer's original intentions.〔(Introduction to an unpublished critical edition of the score ) from the 1980s on humanities.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2012.〕 A new critical edition was prepared under the supervision of Philip Gossett and edited by Dutch scholar Hans Schellevis. The first performances which used it were given by The Santa Fe Opera during its 2012 season and the German company, Bärenreiter, released the score for rentals in 2013.〔(''Maometto secondo'': Score of the critical edition. )〕 ==Composition history== The opera was written as Rossini's composing career was beginning to slow down to one opera per year, and it appeared almost a year after ''Bianca e Falliero'', although it was succeeded very quickly by ''Matilde di Shabran''.〔Osborne, Charles p. 101〕 In accepting the commission from the San Carlo in May 1820, it became clear when Rossini began composing the opera, that it "would be the most ambitious of all () works for the Italian stage".〔Osborne, Richard, p. 64–66〕 As it turned out, "its composition process was long and laborious, the circumstances of its making unexpectedly fraught".〔 From early 1820, various political upheavals threatened the rule of King Ferdinand I and these prevented theatrical productions and extended the composition process. During this time, Rossini "modified della Valle's libretto, accentuating the human aspect of the tragedy, playing down the political and nationalistic elements".〔 By late 1820, the political situation was sufficiently under control to allow theatrical activity to continue and, while the production of ''Maometto II'' missed many deadlines, its first performance took place at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 3 December 1820. However, the opera "was not much liked by the Neapolitans"〔Osborne, Charles, p. 102〕 since the composer was "moving in a direction the Naples audience was reluctant to follow".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maometto II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|