Adriano in Siria

Introduction

The young Mozart met Johann Christian Bach when he visited London at the age of eight, and the two composers remained close friends until Bach's death nearly twenty years later; Mozart was to write of Bach, "I love him with all my heart, and I have the highest regard for him". Adriano in Siria is one of J.C.Bach's greatest works, and was the most important opera to be written and performed during the time of Mozart's stay in London.

Wolfgang and his family would have attended at least one performance, and the work's remarkable beauty cannot have failed to exert an influence on the young composer as he strove to develop his own musical style.

Background

Johann Christian Bach was born in Leipzig on 5 September 1735, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach by his second wife, Anna Magdalena. Little is known about his early schooling in Leipzig, although he probably would have started lessons in keyboard playing and music theory with his father in 1743 or 1744.

When his father died, on 28 July 1750, the fourteen-year-old Johann Christian moved to Berlin, where he continued his musical studies with his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel. From there he moved to Italy, where he abandoned Protestantism for Roman Catholicism, became organist of Milan cathedral, and began studying with the famous teacher Padre Martini - with whom the young Mozart was also to study when he visited Bologna in 1770.

Although his studies were preparing him for a career as a church musician, Italy was famed primarily for its opera, and in 1760 Bach received an invitation to compose a work for the Teatro Regio in Turin; the resultant Artaserse, his first opera, received its first performance there on 26 December 1760. This led to the commission of two operas for Naples, Catone in Utica, which was premiered to great acclaim at the Teatro San Carlo on 4 November 1761, and Alessandro nell' Indie, which was given on 20 January 1762 in celebration of the King of Spain's birthday.

All three of the operas Bach wrote in Italy were settings of the prolific librettist Pietro Metastasio, and their success established his reputation to the extent that, by the time the Neapolitan authorities sought permission to re-engage Bach for the following season, he had already received offers from Venice and London. In May 1762, the cathedral authorities in Milan approved Bach's request for a year's leave of absence to compose two operas for the King's Theatre in London.

Opera in London

Bach arrived in the English capital in the summer of 1762, as "Mr John Bach, a Saxon Master of Musick", and spent the majority of his remaining years here. During this time three significant friendships stand out, those with Mozart, who visited London as a young boy in 1764-5, with the artist Thomas Gainsborough, who painted a well-known portrait of Bach in the 1770s, and with Carl Friedrich Abel, another composer of German extraction, with whom Bach set up a famous concert series at Carlisle House, Soho Square.

But it was principally for opera, and for the King's Theatre, Haymarket, that Johann Christian Bach had come to London. The King's Theatre was exclusively (in both senses of the word) devoted to the performance of Italian opera, and most of the composers and singers who worked there were imported from Italy. Bach's first London opera, Orione, was premiered there on 19 February 1763, and his second, Zanaida, on 7 May of the same year. Both were resounding successes, and later that year he was appointed music master to George III and Queen Charlotte.

At the end of the 1762-3 season, however, the management of the King's Theatre was taken over by the composer Felice de Giardini, who clearly saw Bach as a potential threat and did not re-engage him. Unlike the court theatres of mainland Europe, the London opera houses were run on a commercial basis, and were almost constantly staving off bankruptcy. When, though, the management of the King's Theatre changed yet again in 1764, Bach was re-engaged, and soon set to work on the composition of Adriano in Siria.

The first performance

J.C.Bach's Adriano in Siria received its first performance at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket on Saturday 26 January 1765, the evening before Mozart's ninth birthday, and further performances were given on 29 January and 2, 5, 9, 16 and 23 February; the performance on 16 February, like the first, was given "By COMMAND of Their MAJESTIES", indicating the presence of George III and Queen Charlotte. The cast was led by the castrato Giovanni Manzuoli, singing the role of Farnaspe. He was perhaps the leading castrato of his generation, and after singing at various Italian theatres he had been engaged by Farinelli in 1749 to sing in Madrid, after which his fame was well established throughout Europe. He had made his London debut in the pasticcio Ezio on 24 November 1764, and while in London he befriended the young Mozart and reportedly gave him singing lessons - six years later he came out of retirement to create the title role in Mozart's Ascanio in Alba in Milan.

The role of Adriano was taken by a second castrato, Ferdinando Tenducci, who was more familiar to the London public, having sung at the King's Theatre for two seasons from 1758 and created the role of Arbaces in Thomas Arne's Artaxerxes at Covent Garden in 1762. Ercole Ciprandi, who had previously appeared in London in 1754-5 and who was described by Charles Burney as "an excellent tenor", performed the role of Osroa, but by all accounts the female singers were less accomplished.

The opera's first performance attracted an even larger attendance than the opening night of the season, with barely a third of those assembled able to find seats, and the auditorium was so packed that many were obliged to stand behind the scenes throughout the performance. Despite, or perhaps because of, the eager anticipation and high expectations of the first night audience, the evening was not a great success, and Burney reported that "every one seemed to come out of the theatre disappointed", although Horace Walpole described the performance as "prodigious".

A clue is perhaps contained within Burney's observation that the work's comparative failure "seemed matter of great triumph to the Italians"; indeed, Manzuoli had initially refused to sing Bach's music, and the pre-eminence of a German in a field that was traditionally an Italian stronghold must have bred a certain degree of bitterness and resentment; the young Mozart was soon to experience similar animosity among the Italians in Vienna. Nevertheless, the fact that the opera received six further performances suggests that it was just as popular as Bach's first two London operas.

The text

The libretto of Adriano in Siria is derived from the text which Pietro Metastasio wrote for Antonio Caldara in 1732, and which by 1765 had already been set by over forty composers. For Bach's setting, though, slightly less than half of Metastasio's original text was retained, with the recitatives being skilfully but severely cut, and six new numbers replacing existing Metastasio arias, including a trio to conclude Act Two. Furthermore an extra character was added, that of Barsene, chambermaid to Sabina. Adriano is not an especially long opera by 18th century standards, and Bach's desire to keep the action and the music flowing is evident from the contrasts of mood and colour between consecutive arias and the concision of both the 'da capo' reprises and the shortened recitatives.

The orchestra is without trumpets and timpani but does include clarinets, which were not usually employed in Italian opera houses of the period but which had been used in both of Bach's previous London operas. Emirena's Act Three aria calls for muted violins, which creates a magical new colour towards the end of the work, and violas are occasionally divided, a device for which Mozart was to develop a particular fondness.

The aspect of Bach's music which made the most important impression on the young Mozart, however, was the nobility and warmth of his melodies. Any self-respecting composer of the period would have been able to turn out virtuosic bravura arias of the type of "Disperato in mar turbato", Farnaspe's opening aria, even if their efforts would probably not have achieved the fiery energy and excitement of Bach's setting; far rarer and more remarkable, though, is the beauty and eloquence of Bach's slower arias, such as Emirena's "Deh lascia, o ciel pietoso" or Farnaspe's "Cara la dolce fiamma", for which Mozart subsequently wrote his own set of vocal embellishments (although at least one current scholar now believes them to be the work of Mozart's father).

Here we can hear J.C.Bach forming a tangible and seamless bridge between the operatic styles of Handel and Mozart, and when we hear Adriano in Siria in its entirety, it should come as no surprise that 'the London Bach', as he became known, exerted such a strong and lasting influence on the young Mozart. Indeed, the only surprise is that this influence is still not fully acknowledged and recognized today.

The Story

Act One
Antioch, 2nd century AD. The Roman Emperor Hadrian (Adriano) has overthrown the local ruler Osroa, and although he is already engaged to Sabina, he has fallen in love with Osroa's daughter Emirena. Farnaspe, a Syrian prince, declares that he himself loves Emirena, and demands that she be freed. Adriano consents, but Osroa, who has disguised himself as one of Farnaspe's followers, suspects Adriano's true motives and designs.

Meanwhile Aquilio, a Roman tribune who is in love with Sabina, has been encouraging Adriano's feelings for Emirena, and has advised Emirena to feign indifference towards Farnaspe so as not to inflame Adriano's jealousy and anger; Farnaspe is devastated when she reluctantly follows this advice.

Just as Adriano is declaring his love to Emirena, Sabina suddenly arrives, having travelled all the way from Rome to be reunited with her fiancé; both Emirena and Sabina give expression to their despair.

That night the imperial palace is set alight by Osroa's soldiers, to avenge their defeat at the hands of Adriano. Farnaspe, having thrown himself into the flames to try to rescue Emirena, is accused of having started the fire and taken captive. Resolving their misunderstandings, the two lovers are reunited.

Act Two
Emirena confides her love for Farnaspe to Sabina, who helps the two lovers to escape.

During their flight they encounter Osroa, now disguised as a Roman, who claims he has killed Adriano. He has killed the wrong man, though, and when Adriano suddenly arrives on the scene, Farnaspe is unable to hide in time. Adriano accuses him of attempted regicide, but Emirena, not having recognised Osroa as her own father, accuses him to save her beloved. Adriano, furious, imprisons all three. In spite of Emirena and Farnaspe's pleadings, Osroa remains unrepentant.

Act Three
Aquilio plays Sabina and Adriano off against eachother, refusing to let Sabina see Adriano and then telling Adriano that she has determined to leave Antioch. He then persuades the Emperor to reinstate the throne to Osroa in return for the hand of Emirena. Osroa pretends to accept this proposal, but then orders his daughter to show Adriano nothing but hatred.

Farnaspe reports that Adriano, livid with Osroa, has resolved to take him back to Rome in chains, as a token of his triumph. Osroa, considering this to be a fate worse than death, asks Emirena to leave and then asks Farnaspe to help him to take his own life. Farnaspe is unable to do so and laments his wretched state, content only in the fact that the cause of his suffering is noble.

Meanwhile, Aquilio's deceit has finally been uncovered, and Adriano, moved by Sabina's nobility of spirit (she has offered to relinquish her love for Adriano to Emirena), restores the kingdom and liberty to Osroa, consents to the marriage of Farnaspe and Emirena, forgives Aquilio, and promises to marry Sabina. All ends happily.