Axur, re d'Ormus

Axur, re d'Ormus ("Axur, king of Ormus") is an operatic dramma tragicomico in five acts by Antonio Salieri. The libretto was by Lorenzo da Ponte.

Axur is the Italian version of Salieri's 1787 French-language work Tarare which had a libretto by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.

Performance history

Axur premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 8 January 1788, the title role being sung by Francesco Benucci, Mozart's first Figaro. It became one of the most famous operas in Vienna, being performed much more frequently than Mozart's Don Giovanni, which was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1788.

The finale of Axur appears in the 1984 film Amadeus. The film is incorrect in presenting Axur as being performed soon after the ninth and final performance of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in 1786, and before the death of Mozart's father Leopold Mozart on 28 May 1787.[1]

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast,
8 January 1788[2]
(Conductor: Antonio Salieri)
Axur, King of Ormus baritone Francesco Benucci
Arteneo, High Priest of Brahma baritone Francesco Bussani
Altamor, a soldier, Arteneo's son bass Lodovico Trentanove
Atar, a soldier tenor Vincenzo Calvesi
Aspasia, Atar's wife soprano Luisa Laschi-Mombelli
Biscroma, a slave tenor Stefano Mandini
Fiammetta, Biscroma's wife soprano Teresa Calvesi
Elamir soprano Franziska Distler[3]
Urson, a soldier bass Niccolò Del Sole
A slave bass
Arlecchino bass
Smeraldina soprano
Brighella tenor
Slaves, soldiers, priests of Brahma, people

Recordings

The overture has been recorded by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) conducted by Michael Dittrich, on Naxos Records. The Finale can be found on the More Amadeus soundtrack, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.

The whole opera was recorded by René Clemencic in 1989 in Siena with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Coro "Guido d'Arezzo", with Andreas Martin in the title role, and other leading roles taken by Eva Mei (Aspasia), Curtis Rayam (Atar) and Ettore Nova (Biscroma/Brighella). The recording was issued by Nuova Era in 2001 (NE 7366 & 67) and reissued in 2005.

References

  1. DVD of Amadeus: the Figaro performance occurs at 1 hour 29 minutes into the film and Axur at 1 hour 34 minutes. Mozart learns of Leopold's death at 1 hour 37 minutes.
  2. Amadeus Almanac, accessed 18 March 2010.
  3. Distler was no older than fourteen wheh she took part in the premiere of Axur (Quell'usignolo, article: Elisabeth Distler (French)). The role of Elamir had been originally created in Tarare by the boy soprano Joseph-François-Narcisse Carbonel (Alexandre Choron & François Fayolle (editors), Dictionnaire Historique des Musiciens, Paris: Valade/Lenormant, 1810, I, p. 118).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, August 15, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.