Motezuma

• Motezuma, ruler of Mexico (Bass)
• Mitrena, his wife (Soprano)
• Teutile, his daughter (Soprano)
• Fernando, General of the Spanish Army (soprano castrato, mostly occupied with soprano or countertenor )
• Ramiro, his younger brother (mezzo- soprano; trouser role )
• Asprano, General of the Mexicans (soprano castrato see above)

Motezuma is an Italian baroque opera in three acts by the composer Antonio Vivaldi, with librettist Girolamo Alvise Giusti.

Libretto

Giusti libretto depicts the last hours of the title character in the imprisonment of the Spanish conquistadors Hernán Cortés, here called Fernando.

The title of the libretto refers to the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II, who is known in Spanish, Italian, German and other languages ​​as " Montezuma ". The spelling " Motezuma " is the Nahuatl name " Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin " borrowed (see adjacent illustration).

Action

Act 1

Motezuma hides in his palace; his wife and his daughter Mitrena Teutile calls on it, as appropriate, to kill themselves; Finally it is placed by the Spaniards in chains. But the secret love between Teutile and Ramiro Fernando's brother, plays a role. The Mexican commander Asprano is still confident.

Act 2

While the protagonists provide verbal battles, the Spaniards win the decisive battle; Fernando, however, is stuck in a besieged by Asprano tower. The Mexicans consult the oracle: A Spaniard and Teutile to be sacrificed.

Act 3

Ramiro Fernando rescues a secret tunnel before Asprano can burn down the tower; then he brings Teutile to safety. After numerous further complications the victorious Fernando sets the wedding of Ramiro and Teutile. Motezuma and Mitrena realize that the oracle the sacrament of marriage must have meant, not human sacrifice.

Performance history and tradition

The premiere took place on November 14, 1733 at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice. Further performances can not be proven. Even during his lifetime was the Vivaldi opera to be lost.

Carl Friedrich Zelter in 1832 inherited a manuscript with extensive Motezuma fragments to the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. The manuscript was outsourced in 1943 with the archive of the Sing -Akademie in Silesia, spent the archive later by the Red Army in the Soviet Union, in 1999 in Kiev (Ukraine ) from the stream researcher Christoph Wolff found again and in 2001 the property of the Sing-Akademie in Berlin back spent. A year later, the musicologist Steffen Voss discovered the fragments; The second act is completely available and the other two acts are only partially preserved. Eleven of the twenty-two arias and ensembles are completely preserved, at least in four fragments, seven are entirely lost. The surviving parts of the score were and are supplemented on several occasions for performances, through parody (eg Malgoire ) and / or new composition (eg Curtis). Depending on which type is for completion decided that Duration is 2 1/2 to 3 1 /2 hours, with the longer versions move more in the comparable frame with the completed operas by Vivaldi. The estimated performance period for the remaining original music by Vivaldi to " Motezuma " is about 1 1/2 hours.

Performances after the rediscovery of the score

A concert performance took place on 11 June 2005 in the concert hall De Doelen in Rotterdam ( Netherlands) ( musical director Federico Maria Sardelli ).

A scheduled performance on 18 July 2005 in the baroque theater Barga (Italy ) failed because of a dispute over copyright and performance rights. The first staged performance of little fragments was supplemented on 21 September 2005 as part of the Old Town Autumn Cultural Festival held in Dusseldorf (musical direction again Federico Maria Sardelli ). A completed version of Thomas Leininger was in the Rococo Theatre Schwetzingen first performance on December 8, 2006 ( musical director Michael Form ); this production was subsequently shown also in different cities in Mexico and had 10 June 2007 premiere at the Lucerne Theater.

→ See also: editio princeps: The Case of " Motezuma "

Varia

1974, referred the writer Alejo Carpentier in his novel Concierto barroco (Baroque Concert ) on Vivaldi's opera. 1980/81 turned the director José Montes - Baquer the TV movie Montezuma according to Carpentier's novella.

1992 played the conductor Jean -Claude Malgoire for the label Astrée own attempt to reconstruct one, which was based in the so-called pastiche method on the original libretto and music from other Vivaldi operas. In the same year and on the basis Malgoires television opera Montezuma director Maté Rabinovski arose.

2006 saw the first recording of Vivaldi's music for the label German Grammophon ( full implementation of the libretto with musical borrowings from other Vivaldi operas by Alessandro Ciccolini, musical director Alan Curtis).