HASSE, Johann Adolf 1699-1783

Solimano Drama per Musica, da rappresentarsi nel Teatro della Regia Elettoral Corte di Dresda, nel Carnevale dell' Anno MDCCLIII. La Poesia è del Sigr. Giannambrogio Migliavacca ... La Musica è del Sigre. Gio. Adolfo Hasso, Primo Maestro di Cappella ... La Scene sono nuova invenzione del Sigr. Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, Primo Ingegnere Teatrale, ed Architetto ... [Libretto]

Dresda: Nella Stamperia Regia per la Vedova Stöffel, 1753.

Small quarto. Full contemporary urgundy leather with elaborate tooling gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. 1f. (recto blank, verso title in Italian), [i] (title in German) [xii] ("Argomento/Inhalt," "Attori/Singende Personen," "Mutazioni/Berwandlungen"), 92, [i] (blank) pp. i.e., 184 pp., facing pages with same pagination. Text in Italian and German. With occasional elaborate woodcut head- and tailpieces.

Armorial bookplate with motto "Manima Præstant" and "2242" in manuscript to front pastedown.

With contemporary manuscript annotation relative to performance to recto of title: "Crederei che omettendo si versi segnati con una lineetta si potesse recitar il dramma" [I believe that by omitting the lines marked with a dash the drama could be recited].

Named cast includes Angelo Amorevoli (Solimano), Angelo Maria Monticelli (Selim), Teresa Albuzzi (Narsea), Caterina Pilaja (Emira), Bartolommeo Puttini (Osmino), Giuseppe Belli (Acomate), and Antonio Fürich (Rusteno).

Binding slightly worn, rubbed, and bumped; endpapers slightly worn, with clear tape repair to free front endpaper. Browned, a bit heavier to some leaves; somewhat closely trimmed, not affecting text.

First Edition. Rare.Sartori 22255 (8 copies, only one of which is in the U.S.). Sonneck: Catalogue of Opera Librettos, 1018.

Solimano, an opera in three acts to a libretto by Migliavacca, was first performed in Dresden at the Hofoper on 5 February 1753. Loosely based on an episode in the life of Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-6 to 1566, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire), the lavish production featured set designs by noted Italian designer Giuseppe Galli Bibiena (1696-1757), the most distinguished artist of the Galli da Bibiena family.

"For several decades [Hasse] was the most widely admired composer of opera seria in Italy and German-speaking lands. His finest operas, written between the mid-1720s and the late 1760s, represent a highly systematized, rational style; they were handsomely produced and sung at leading theatres. Festival operas and vocal chamber works were composed for weddings and similar occasions at the Habsburg court in Vienna during the 1760s, by which time Hasse had come to be associated stylistically with the librettist Metastasio. Qualities described today as neo-classical also pervade his Dresden oratorios, his Venetian sacred works, and his later flute music probably for Berlin; much of his music exhibits dramatic effects of harmony, orchestration, and vocal line. He was able to compose at great speed, and his skill at adjusting to the voice of each singer was highly prized. Bel canto was for him always the sine qua non of great music, and to the beautiful display of the human voice all else was subordinated. ...

Solimano and a substantially revised Ezio, for the carnival seasons of 1753 and 1755, were imposing spectacles, with hundreds of extras for mob scenes and an array of animals including horses, mules, elephants, and camels, using outdoor space behind the stage illuminated by thousands of candles and lamps." Sven Hansell in Grove Music Online

An attractive copy of this rare libretto, with interesting contemporary performance annotation.

Item #41029

Price: $1,500.00  other currencies