Europa riconosciuta

Europa riconosciuta is an opera in two acts by Antonio Salieri, designated as a dramma per musica, set to an Italian libretto by Mattia Verazi.

The opera takes place in Tyre in Phoenicia and tells a story of love, violence and political discord in ancient times. The central character, Europa, was once the lover of Zeus and helps resolve all disagreements after she discloses her identity - thus the title "Europa Revealed. " Though a traditional opera seria, the work differentiates itself from several of the typical characteristics of the genre. For example: a murder is seen onstage and an extended finale is used in both acts, a practice more typical of opera buffa. Musically, the opera is quite challenging, requiring four principal singers capable of spanning wide tessituras, sustaining long phrases, and making dextrous leaps. For example, the roles of Europa and Semele go up to a high F sharp above high C a few times and at one point Europa even sings a high G.

Performance history

Diana Damrau

Diana Damrau (born 31 May 1971) is a German soprano opera singer. She is a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera.

Early life

Damrau was born in 1971 in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany, and began her operatic studies with Carmen Hanganu at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. During her studies, she developed an edema on a vocal fold. After consulting with several doctors, she decided to undergo an alternative therapy without surgery. The treatment lasted about one and a half years. After graduating from music conservatory she worked in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig.

Career

Her first operatic engagements were in Würzburg and subsequently the National Theatre Mannheim and Oper Frankfurt. Since then, she has sung throughout the world at venues such as the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Royal Opera House London, the Bavarian State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. She was invited to sing the title role in Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta at the re-opening of La Scala, Milan in 2004, under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

Antonio Salieri

Antonio Salieri (pronounced [anˈtɔːnjo saˈljɛːri]; 18 August 1750 – 7 May 1825) was an Italianclassical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, who spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Biography

Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann's, and a protégé of Gluck's, Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers.

Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774–92, Salieri dominated Italian language opera in Vienna. During his career he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was responsible for music at the court chapel and attached school. Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still remained one of the most important and sought-after teachers of his generation, and his influence was felt in every aspect of Vienna's musical life. Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, and Ludwig van Beethoven were among the most famous of his pupils.

Europa

Europa commonly refers to:

Europa may also refer to:

Mythical characters

People

Places

Riccardo Muti

Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (Italian: [rikˈkardo ˈmuːti]; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor. He holds two music directorships: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Previously he held posts at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Muti has been a prolific recording artist and has received dozens of honors, titles, awards and prizes. He is particularly associated with the music of Giuseppe Verdi.

Childhood and education

Muti was born in Naples but he spent his early childhood in Molfetta, near Bari, in the long region of Apulia on Italy's southern Adriatic coast. His father was a doctor in Molfetta and an amateur singer; his mother, a Neapolitan, was a professional singer.

Muti graduated from Liceo classico (Classical Lyceum) Vittorio Emanuele II in Naples, then studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale; here Muti was awarded a diploma cum laude. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting by the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, Milan, where he studied with the composer Bruno Bettinelli and the conductor Antonino Votto. He has also studied composition with Nino Rota, whom he considers a mentor. He was unanimously awarded first place by the jury of the "Guido Cantelli Competition for Conductors" in Milan in 1967 and became, the next year, principal conductor and music director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a post he held for eleven years.