Arlecchino (opera)

Arlecchino
Opera by Ferruccio Busoni
Alexander Moissi in the title role
Librettist	Ferruccio Busoni
Language	German
Premiere	11 May 1917 (1917-05-11) Zurich Opera House

Arlecchino, oder Die Fenster (Harlequin, or The Windows, BV 270) is a one-act opera with spoken dialog by Ferruccio Busoni, with a libretto in German, composed in 1913. He completed the music for the opera while living in Zurich in 1916. It is a number opera written in neo-classical style and includes ironic allusions to operatic conventions and situations typical of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It even includes a parody of a duel.

The premiere performance was on 11 May 1917 at the Stadttheater, Zürich. Busoni's two-act opera Turandot was also performed on the program as part of a double-bill.

The first British staged performance of Arlecchino was in 1954 at Glyndebourne. However, Edward Clark had produced a concert version in London in 1939.

The opera is in four movements with a corresponding representation of Arlecchino in each of them:

The roles in Arlecchino are derived from the Italian commedia dell'arte. It is unusual in that the title role of Arlecchino is primarily a speaking role. The composer has said that Arlecchino "has a tendency to ambiguity and hyperbole in order to place the listener momentarily in a position of slight doubt."Ronald Stevenson has described it as an "anti-opera," and an "anti-war satire."

Guido Gatti has commented that the opera itself illustrates Busoni's own particular ideas about opera as not depicting "realistic events," and also making use of music not continuously, but instead when it is needed and words are insufficient alone to convey the ideas of the text. Larry Sitsky describes the music as "tightly integrated" and "largely based on the 'row' [of tones] which appears as a fanfare at the commencement of the opera." And Henry Cowell has characterised this composition as "the only opera to betray knowledge of Schoenberg's early style before Wozzeck."