Lo sposo deluso

"Lo sposo deluso, ossia La rivalità di tre donne per un solo amante" ("The Deluded Bridegroom, or The Rivalry of Three Women for One Lover") is a two act opera buffa, K. 430, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between 1783 and 1784. [Anderson (1937)] However, the opera was never completed and only a 20 minute fragment from Act I exists.

Performance history

Mozart had originally planned to have the opera performed by a seven member Italian troupe in Vienna. Although it was once thought that Lorenzo Da Ponte might have been the author of the libretto, scholarship by Alessandra Campana has established that the libretto was written by an unknown Italian poet for Domenico Cimarosa's opera "Le donne rivali", which he composed for the Rome carnival season of 1780. [Campana (1988–89) cited in Dell Antonio (1996) pp.404–405] According to Neal Zaslaw, Cimarosa's librettist may have been Giuseppe Petrosellini, the house poet of the Teatro Valle where "Le donne rivali" premiered. (Petrosellini was also the probable librettist of Mozart's earlier opera "La finta giardiniera"). [Zaslaw (1996) p. 415] For "Lo sposo deluso", Mozart had the characters in "Le donne rivali" expanded from five to seven, renamed the original five, and established the cast of singers for whom he would be writing. [Zaslaw (1996) 415–416] . It is unclear why he abandoned the work, although Zaslaw has proposed that it was a combination of the difficulties presented by re-writing and adapting the libretto for the Viennese audience and the fact that in 1785, Da Ponte had finally come through with the libretto for "Le nozze di Figaro". [Zaslaw (1996)]

In 2006, the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, the fragment of "Lo sposo deluso" received several performances, including:
*Bampton Classical Opera's "The Jewel Box", a programme devised by Paul Griffiths using the existing pieces from "Lo sposo deluso" and "L'oca del Cairo" as well as arias written by Mozart for insertion into operas by Anfossi, Piccini and Cimarosa. (The programme was an imagined reconstruction of a 1783 pantomime in which Mozart and Aloysia Weber are said to have taken part.)
*The Salzburg Festival's double bill of "Lo sposo deluso" and "L'oca del Cairo", and other arias written by Mozart in a programme titled "Rex tremendus", conceived and staged by Joachim Schlöme with the Camerata Salzburg conducted by Michael Hofstetter. (This performance is preserved on DVD, See Recordings)

Roles

Note that the opera was unfinished and never premiered as such. The singers' names given in the table below are those for whom Mozart wrote the roles and who were to have sung in its premiere.The setting is a seaside villa near Livorno

Existing pieces from the opera

#Overtura — an upbeat, presto instrumental piece which develops into a more lethargic pensive mood
#Quartetto — 'Ah, ah che ridere'
#:Parts: Pulcherio (tenor), Papparelli (bass), Bettina (soprano), Don Asdrubale (tenor)
#Aria — 'Nacqui all'aria trionfale' (fragment)
#:Parts: Eugenia (soprano)
#Aria — 'Dove mai trovar quel ciglio?' (fragment)
#:Parts: Pulcherio (Tenor)
#Terzetto — 'Che accidenti'
#:Parts: Papparelli (bass), Don Asdrubale (tenor), Eugenia (soprano)

Selected recordings

*"Rex Tremendus" ("Lo Sposo Deluso", "L'Oca del Cairo" and other fragments by W.A.Mozart) with Ann Murray, Marianne Hamre, Graham Smith, Josef Wagner, Marisa Martins, Jeremy Ovenden, Matthias Klink, Silvia Moi, Miljenko Turk, Malin Hartelius and the Camerata Salzburg conducted by Michael Hofstetter. DVD of the live performance at the 2006 Salzburg Festival (Deutsche Grammophon 0734250)
*"L'oca del Cairo" / "Lo Sposo Deluso", a studio recording from 1991, Volume 39 of "The Complete Mozart Edition" (Philips 028942253926)

ee also

*List of Mozart's operas

References

Bibliography

*Anderson, Emily, 'An Unpublished Letter of Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', "Music & Letters", Vol. 18, No. 2, April 1937), pp. 128–133
*Bampton Classical Opera's November 2006 performance of "Mozart — The Jewel Box" — [http://www.bamptonopera.org/repertory/mozartjewelpress.htm Press reviews]
*Campana, Alessandra, 'Il libretto de "Lo sposo deluso"', "Mozart-Jahrbuch" (1988–89), pp. 573–88.
*Dell Antonio, Andrew, 'Il Compositore Deluso: The Fragments of Mozart's Comic Opera "Lo Sposo Deluso" (K424a/430)' in Stanley Sadie, (ed.) "Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Essays on His Life and Work", (1996) London: Oxford University Press.
*Zaslaw, Neal, 'Waiting for Figaro' in Stanley Sadie, (ed.) "Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Essays on His Life and Work", (1996) London: Oxford University Press.

External links

*
* [http://opera.stanford.edu/Mozart/SposoDeluso/libretto.html Libretto]