Semiramide (Mysliveček)

Semiramide is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It was composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio that was first set to music in 1729. For a performance in the 1760s, it would only be expected that a libretto by Metastasio would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste. The cuts and changes in the text made for the 1766 performance of Mysliveček's opera are not attributable.

The opera was the first one ever composed by Mysliveček, just three years after he moved permanently from Prague to Italy, and just five years after he began composition lessons at the age of 24. As such, it represents an extraordinary achievement. Though produced at the minor operatic center of Bergamo in northern Italy during the summer fair there held in 1766, it attracted sufficient attention to lead to Mysliveček's commission to compose his opera Il Bellerofonte for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, an overwhelming success that established him permanently as one of the leading composers of opera in Italy until his death in 1781. The original cast was not of first-rate abilities, but the simpler arias and ensembles composed for them found widespread use in Italy and central Europe after being copied into aria collections. Versions of the arias and ensembles with sacred texts substituted for the original Italian texts were disseminated in central Europe until the early 19th century. One of the vocal pieces that was particularly favored was the trio "Se sdegni un cor fedele" (operatic trios were rare in this period). Mysliveček's Semiramide is also known to have been performed in Alessandria in 1766 and Prague in 1768, when the composer made a triumphant return to his native city. It is only to be expected that Mysliveček would seek a competent model to help him compose his first opera. In this case, it would appear to be a setting of Semiramide composed by Tommaso Traetta for Venice in 1765. Among other traits, the Mysliveček setting exhibits the same restrained virtuosity that the Traetta setting does. Mysliveček was mainly centered in Venice during his first years in Italy and received training from the composer Giovanni Battista Pescetti. Bergamo was the westernmost major city controlled by the Venetian Republic in his day.

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