Music first, then words

Emperor Joseph II , who loved to organize competitions between composers (as well as between librettists ), ordered a one-act comic opera on the same topic for his festivities in honor of the Governor-General of the Netherlands. A. Salieri and V. A. Mozart : theatrical backstage ^[1] . At the same time, Mozart was supposed to write an opera on the German libretto by Gottlieb Stefani, Jr. , and Salieri on the Italian libretto by Giambattista Casti . Both couples did not come together by chance: Mozart and Stefani wrote his only successful opera at that time - “ Abduction from the Seraglio ” ( 1782 ); the fruit of the Salieri and Casti community was the popular opera buffa Cave of Trophonia, written in 1785 ^[1] . According to Mario Corti , in fact it was a contest between the Italian comic opera and the German singspiel ^[2] .

The parody of opera series (Italian serious opera), the demonstration of behind-the-scenes intrigues in the first third of the 18th century became one of the most popular subjects of the opera buffa and became especially popular in the second half of the century, when the opera series experienced an obvious crisis ^[1] . One of the most famous works of this kind was the Opera Series, written by Salieri's teacher, F. L. Gassman , in 1769 on the libretto of R. da Calzabigi . Alfred Einstein , analyzing the libretto on this topic, found that the best among them, the “thinnest”, was Calzabigi's Opera Series, while the “ Theater Director ” Stephanie Jr. was one of the “most rustic” ^[3] . Salieri, according to Einstein, was in a winning position, since Casti's libretto, in contrast to Stephanie’s composition, is “a truly masterly model with a label of opera satire” ^[3] .

Both works were presented to the public in Schönbrunn on February 7, 1786 . In Salieri’s opera, the famous Eleanor part was performed by the famous Anna Storaccce , the Bandmaster was sung by Francesco Benucci, and Tonina by Celeste Coltellini ^[4] . The victory was won by the work of Salieri and, as was thought at that time, proved the superiority of the Italian opera buff over the German singspiel ^{[2] [5]} .

Bandmaster - Baritone

Poet - Baritone

Eleanor ( prima donna ) - soprano

Tonina ( subretka ) - mezzo-soprano

In extreme haste, when the premiere is only four days away and the court bandmaster Count Opitsio does not have time to compose something new, he finds among his old manuscripts beautiful music composed for the opera buff. However, the music does not approach the libretto, written by the court poet and intended for the opera series. The bandmaster, insisting on the priority of music, makes the poet adjust his lyrics to the available music. Moreover, the count promised a special reward if his protégé, the singer of the opera buffa, would sing in the opera. However, the poet also has ready-made texts for all occasions.

Donna Eleanor, singer of the opera series, comes to the audition; having failed to fit into the music of the buff, she is furiously removed, and the attention of the bandmaster and poet is attracted by the charming Tonina, the buff singer. But Tonina makes her demands for music and text.

In the midst of the work on the opera, Eleanor returns - in the struggle for the party, the singers try to sing each other, forming a comic duet ^{[1] [6] [7]} .

In Salieri’s opera, the musicologist L. Kirillina believes, “a real stylistic-artistic experiment of mixing and reflecting in each other a“ serious ”and“ comic “topos” is undertaken. Unlike many essays on this subject, the viewer observes not just backstage intrigues with the vagaries of prima donnas, inevitable rivalry and intrigue (although the singers can’t do without rivalry as well), the creative process of the opera’s birth is presented here in satirical form ^[1] . Salieri's work is a self-parody of the genre; it seems that the composer is testing the opera before the advent of a new era ^[4] . Here is the conflict of series and buff and the eternal conflict of music and drama in the opera genre ^[4] . The audience at the same time recognized in the characters of the opera its famous faces; thus, the unprincipled and ambitious Poet resembled the court poet Joseph II Lorenzo da Ponte ^[1] .

As for opera stylistics, the parody of Salieri and Casti opened up a perspective leading even not in the 19th century, but in the 20th, - in this century it was already impossible to perceive the buff-opera in its “pure” form, it either had to be psychologized as Mozart did in his best comic operas, or, writes L. Kirillina, “to modernize stylize and parody, reflecting in double and triple light” ^[1] . We are talking about such works as “ Love for Three Oranges ” by Sergei Prokofiev and “ Ariadne on Naxos ” and “ Capriccio ” by Richard Strauss ^{[1] [4]} .

In the era of romanticism, the work of Salieri, like the vast majority of his contemporaries, was almost forgotten; when interest in him revived in the middle of the 20th century, “Music First, and Then Words” became one of the composer's first operas that returned to the stage ^[8] . In November 1967 it was staged in New York , in 1973 - at the International Festival in Dubrovnik ; then a series of productions followed - in Trier , in Linz , at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto , at the Bolshoi Theater in Warsaw ^[8] . The 200th anniversary of the writing of the opera was marked in 1986 by a number of productions - in Lisbon , Rome and Tokyo ^[4] . In 1989, it was delivered by Staatsoper in Berlin, and in 1991 she returned, together with the “Director of the Theater”, to the Schönbrunn greenhouse ^[4] . Finally, in 1992, more than 200 years after writing, the premiere of Salieri’s opera took place in Russia - at the Chamber Music Theater , staged by B. Pokrovsky ^{[1] [9]} .

• Kirillina L.V. Stepson of History (On the 250th Birthday of Antonio Salieri) // Academy of Music: Journal. - 2000. - No. 3 . - S. 57-73 .
• Muginshtein M. L. Chronicle of the world opera. - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria, 2005. - T. 1. 1600-1850 . - S. 190—191 . - ISBN 5-94799-423-2 .