La Silvia (RV 734) is an dramma pastorale per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Enrico Bissari. It was first performed on 28 August 1721 at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan on the occasion of the birthday celebrations of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth Christine, wife of Emperor Charles VI of Austria.
Background In 1718 Vivaldi had been nominated maestro di cappella di camera,a post similar to that of the German Kapellmeister at the court of Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadtb. 20 Jul 1671 - 11 Aug 1736 von Hessen-Darmstadt German Wikipedia entry Italian: Filippo d'Assia-Darmstadt in Mantua for whom he composed Armida al campo d'Egitto, Teuzzone, Scanderbeg (all 1718) and then Tito Manlio (1719) and La Candace (1720).Cesare Fertonani Antonio Vivaldi: la simbologia musicale nei concerti a programma p.xx On his return to Venice, following performance of La verità in cimento at the Teatro Sant'Angelo, Vivaldi, thinly disguised as "Aldiviva", became, along with Giovanni Porta, Anna Maria Strada and others, one of the principal targets of the gentleman-composer Benedetto Marcello's satirical pamphlet Il teatro alla moda (written 1718-1719, published 1720).Patrick Barbier La Venecia de Vivaldi: música y fiestas barrocas p167Matthew Boyden, Nick Kimberley, Joe Staines The rough guide to opera p38fuller entry in Italian Wikipedia: "Vivaldi composed this work in a period when opera was subject to a profound evolution. In 1720, after having released himself from the duties that had tied him to the "post-Gonzaga" court in Mantua, where he had been active for over a year, he returned to his native Venice. There, he became a victim of a conservative faction led by Benedetto Marcello, and was sidelined from the Teatro Sant'Angelo, where his previous works had been performed. It was due to the hostile environment in Venice that Vivaldi decided in 1721 to accept the commission to compose and stage a new opera for Milan." Note however that cast list given in Italian Wikipedia appears different.
Bissari's text had originally been written in 1710 as a play for Princess Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska,(4 March 1676-10 March 1730) second wife of the Bavarian elector Maximillian II Emmanuel.Reinhard Strohm The operas of Antonio Vivaldi Volume 13, Part 1 The opera was performed again in Milan in 1723 and 1724.Jeroen Koolbergen Vivaldi 1678-1741 1995 p40 8 of the arias are preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino.
Roles RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 28 August 1721Cast list on italianopera.orgParsons, Charles H., Opera premieres: an index of casts/performers, Edwin Mellen Press, 1993. SilviasopranoMargarita GualandiElpinosoprano (en travesti)Anna BombacciariTirsiLe magazine de l'opéra baroque . Italianopera.org states inaccurately "Marte" alto castratoGiovanni Battista MinelliNerinasopranoAnna Maria StradaEgistotenorAnnibale Pio FabriFaustulobassGiuseppe Montanari
Recordings 2001 (reconstruction of nine surviving arias) Roberta Invernizzi, Gloria Banditelli, John Elwes, Philippe Cantor. Ensemble Baroque de Nice, dir. Gilbert Bezzina. Ligia. 1CD.
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