Description

A study of the Prague Italian opera company and its role in performing Mozart's works in the late eighteenth-century. Ian Woodfield discusses the central role played by the Prague Italian opera company in performing Mozart's works in late eighteenth-century Bohemia and Saxony. The book focuses on the organisation of the company, its annual schedules, recruitment networks, casting policies and repertoire selections. Ian Woodfield discusses the central role played by the Prague Italian opera company in performing Mozart's works in late eighteenth-century Bohemia and Saxony. The book focuses on the organisation of the company, its annual schedules, recruitment networks, casting policies and repertoire selections. The Italian opera company in Prague managed by Pasquale Bondini and Domenico Guardasoni played a central role in promoting Mozart's operas during the final years of his life. Using a wide range of primary sources which include the superb collections of eighteenth-century opera posters and concert programmes in Leipzig and the Indice de' teatrali spettacoli, an almanac of Italian singers and dancers, this study examines the annual schedules, recruitment networks, casting policies and repertoire selections of this important company. Woodfield shows how Italian-language performances of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and La clemenza di Tito flourished along the well-known cultural axis linking Prague in Bohemia to Dresden and Leipzig in Saxony. The important part played by concert performances of operatic arias in the early reception of Mozart's works is also discussed and new information is presented about the reception of Josepha Duschek and Mozart in Leipzig. Introduction; 1. Pasquale Bondini; 2. Die Entführung aus dem Serail; 3. The Italian troupe in Prague; 4. The Prague Figaro; 5. The genesis of Don Giovanni; 6. The première of Don Giovanni; 7. The casting of Don Giovanni; 8. The Leipzig Don Giovanni; 9. The 1788 Prague Don Giovanni; 10. Mozart's music in Leipzig; 11. Josepha Duschek's Academy (22 April 1788); 12. Mozart's Academy (12 May 1789); 13. Guardasoni in Warsaw; 14. The première of La clemenza di Tito; 15. The Leipzig reception of the Da Ponte operas (1792–4); 16. Guardasoni diversifies; Conclusion; Bibliography. 'No less noticeable than (Woodfield's) scholarly rigour are many signs of his capacity for intriguing speculation and lateral thinking.' Early Music