Few composers were as famous in their time as Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783), only to disappear so quickly from public view after their death. For decades during the 18th century his Italian opera seria were far and away the most popular of all in Italy and Germany, and he was highly regarded and richly rewarded during his years in Naples, Venice, and Dresden. He had a good sense of stagecraft and was a master at writing long, flowing, vocal lines that allowed his singers to illuminate the words of his texts.

Most of his operas were setting of Metastasio texts, but the libretto for Piramo e Tisbe, written in 1768, was by Marco Cotellini. It draws on the story from Ovid's Metamorphoses that Shakespeare burlesqued in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and is quite simple: the love of Pyramus and Thisbe is thwarted by the enmity of their families, and when Thisbe is told she must marry someone else, they decide to run away. Thisbe is startled by an animal near their meeting place, drops her jewel box and veil, and when Pyramus finds them, he thinks she is dead and stabs himself in despair. Thisbe returns, finds him dying, and thereupon stabs herself, and when her father discovers the bodies, he remorsefully kills himself as well.

Tisbe - Marina Bolgan, soprano

Piramo - Svetlana Sidorova De Sanghi, mezzo-soprano

Padre di Tisbe - Emanuele Giannino, tenor

Academia di San Rocco, Venice

Mario Merigo

Live Rec. Nov.3, 1997

lossless

436 Mb