L'ERISMENA DI CAVALLI (Venezia, 1655).

Speranza

Let us offer some notes on a manuscript of Francesco Cavalli’s melodramma, "Erismena".

 

 

 

 

 This is a unique source, as far as is known, for an Italian opera: Erismena.

It consists of 176 leaves of good quality

paper in a contemporary goatskin binding and measures 218 x 289 mm.

The

music is by the Italian composer Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676).

The

original Italian text, by Aurelio Aureli (fl 1652–1708), is present, and it is accompanied by

an English 'rhythmic' translation.

Prefacing the main body of the

opera is a prologue featuring a different cast of characters from those in

Italian sources.

The manuscript is in an unidentified scribal hand and

dates from the second half of the 17th century.

According to Eric Walter

White, A History of Opera (London), the manuscript held a slip

of paper dated 1673 when discovered in the 1961.

Based on an assessment

of the binding, the binding expert David Pearson has dated it to 1661.

The manuscript appears to be in good condition for its age, although its

binding is somewhat worn.

 

 

On the basis that the sheet dated 1673 found with the manuscript contained a

list of provisions for the navy, White suggested that the manuscript may have

belonged to Samuel Pepys, though there is no other evidence of this.

The

manuscript bears the bookplate of the music collector Robert Smith (1741-

1810).

It was sold in 1813, and nothing of its subsequent whereabouts is

known until 1961, when it was purchased by James

Stevens Cox at a bookshop in south-west England.

On the death of Cox it

passed to his son, G. S. Cox.

Aside from a description in

White’s A History of Opera, the manuscript has received little

scholarly attention.

It does not appear to have been exhibited or published.

In the 1961 it was made available to the Lionel Salter, whose

unpublished performing score of Erismena, based on this source, was used in

a BBC studio recording and in a performance and recording directed

by Alan Curtis.
 

The

 

manuscript meets Waverley criteria 1 and 3. It is intimately

connected with Italian history and national life, and of outstanding significance

for the study of music and theatre in Italy.

It is of national importance in

being an early extant score of an Italian opera.

Italian opera

dominated the English stage in the 18th century.

The manuscript pre-dates the

next surviving examples by some 30 years.

The allegorical nature of the

prologue is also significant, and suggests that it was intended for a royal

audience.

The prologue is an early example of an opera prologue.

 

 

 

 

This is a manuscript full score of the opera Erismena by Pietro Francesco

Cavalli (1602-1676), the leading composer of Italian opera in the mid-17th

century.



ERISMENA, in three acts preceded by a prologue and with an Italian

text by Aurelio Aureli (fl 1652–1708), was first performed in Venice in 1655

and staged in several other Italian cities in the following 20 years.

Manuscript

scores of the versions performed in Venezia in 1655 and 1670 are preserved in

a library in Venezia, but without the prologue’s text.

Several printed

copies of the Italian libretto also survive.

No two prologues in the libretti are

the same, suggesting that a new prologue was provided for each production,

as was common practice.

The present manuscript of Erismena, which dates from 1660, is

unique among extant sources for the work.

The manuscript was prepared for a

performance, rather than simply for study purposes.

There are no comparable manuscripts in

private collections: the manuscript is unique in several respects, outlined

below.

 

 

In Europe, ‘Semi-opera’ or ‘dramatic opera’ - spoken drama

interspersed with musical scenes - was the dominant form of musical

entertainment.

All-sung opera of the kind performed in Italy was

extremely rare before 1700.

This manuscript of Erismena is of outstanding

significance in being the earliest extant score of a full-length, all-sung opera.

It is one of only two known examples to pre-date the 18th century,

the other being Louis Grabu’s Albion and Albanius, which was printed in 1687.

The Erismena manuscript is also the earliest example - by some 30 years - of

the EXporting of Italian opera.

The stage in 18th-

century Europe was dominated by Italian opera.

This sole 17th-century example is

therefore highly significant for the study of opera, and

Italian influence on European culture more generally, and is all the more

important for containing the complete literary text of the work.

The diarist John Evelyn wrote in his diary entry for 5 January 1674, "I saw an

Italian Opera in musique".

Some writers have suggested that he was mistaken, and that the work may

have been the FRENCH opera Ariane.

But Evelyn was well travelled, and

unlikely to have mistaken a French opera for an Italian one.

This manuscript

of Erismena is highly significant in that it provides solid evidence that Italian

opera was indeed known in Europe in the Restoration, several decades

before the Italian operas of Handel dominated London's "Mercato di Fieno" (Haymarket).

It supports

the argument that Evelyn did indeed see an Italian opera, and, as the only

opera by an Italian composer for which evidence of a 17th-century English

performance exists, is a strong candidate for being the opera seen by Evelyn.

The inclusion of an English-language singing translation of a foreign opera

libretto in this manuscript is unprecedented.

The literary text is

therefore of outstanding significance for the study of literature and

culture of the 17th century, and of Italian influence on world literature.

It is

an early example  of a translation of an Italian libretto.

The next known example, Arsinoe, ‘an opera after the Italian

manner’ based on a libretto by Tomaso Stanzani, dates from 1705.

The prologue in this manuscript of Erismena is of great significance for

different reasons.

Unlike the text in the main body of the opera, the English

words in the prologue do not appear to be a translation from the Italian.

The

English prologue features a different cast of "PERSONAGGI" from those in Italian

libretti, and was almost certainly newly written for the English version.

The

prologue is set to music, which is unusual in a stage work.

Normal

practice was for the prologue to be spoken by a single actor.

The handful of

stage works performed with sung prologues for several characters,

such as the opera Ariane (1674) and John Crowne’s court masque

Calisto (1675), were designed for a royal audience.

Their prologues were

allegories designed to glorify the king.

The English prologue to Erismena

makes similar use of allegorical personifications, in this case Fortune, Beauty,

Virtue and Fancy.

This prologue text provides new opportunities for the study

of allegory in  literature and the use of allegorical prologues on

stage. The inclusion of such a prologue in Erismena strongly

suggests that this adaptation of the opera was connected with the

royal court.

The literary texts of the Ariane and Calisto prologues also survive, along

with a few others from the 1670s.

The Erismena

manuscript is highly significant.

There is opportunity for further study of the music to

establish whether the prologue music is also by Cavalli, or whether it was

composed by someone else - perhaps Italian - especially for the

adaptation.

Indeed, the manuscript offers significant opportunities for the

study of Italian influence on European music.

Charles II was particularly

concerned that England should not fall behind European achievement in the

performing arts, and a number of Italian musicians - among them Giovanni

Battista Draghi and Pietro Reggio - were employed at his court.

Further study

of this extraordinary manuscript may shed light on the identity of the copyist

and translator, and open up new avenues for research into 17th century music

and theatre.