Lo sposo deluso, K. 430
Opera fragment
Cast for existing music:
Bocconio (bass)
Eugenia (soprano)
Don Asdrubale (tenor)
Pulcherio (tenor)
Bettina (soprano)
Orchestra:
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons,
2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
In 1782, at the age of 26, Mozart had a great success with The Abduction from the Seraglio, a German singspiel. Four years later came the miracle of his Italian opera The Marriage of Figaro. Between these two milestones were two fascinating opera fragments.
Shortly after Abduction from the Seraglio, the emperor Joseph II ended his experiment with the National Theater that was to promote opera in the German language and returned to supporting Italian opera. Mozart therefore turned his attention to trying to compose an opera buffa for an Italian troupe in Vienna. He wrote to his father that he had looked at more than a hundred libretti but had not found anything suitable. Finally, he did begin work on one titled L'oca del Cairo (The Goose of Cairo), but he evidently found the text inadequate and abandoned it.
Shortly thereafter, in the second half of 1783, he started work on another opera buffa titled Lo sposo deluso (The Deceived Bridegroom). It was based on a revised version of a libretto that Cimarosa had recently set to music with great success, but this too was to remain a fragment. He composed an overture, a quartet and a trio but completed the full orchestration only for the trio. He also began work on two solo arias, writing their vocal and orchestral bass lines but filling in only a few measures of their first violin parts. Then he stopped. Why he did not complete this opera we will probably never know for certain, but lacking a commission for this work, he may have decided that other projects would have a better chance of being performed.
The music that we have from Lo sposo deluso is thus only a fragment of a first act and does not tell the story of the opera. The full title tells us more: Lo sposo deluso, ossia La rivaltà di tre donne per un solo amante (The deceived bridegroom, or The rivalry of three women for one lover). Bocconio, a wealthy and foolish old man, wants to marry Eugenia, a proud Roman woman, but is frustrated by various intrigues. A handsome officer, Don Asdrubale, becomes Bocconio's rival as he is courted by various women, including Bocconio's niece Bettina. The misogynist Pulcherio ridicules the situation.
Some years after Mozart died, his widow Constanze gave a benefit concert for herself, which included music from Lo sposo deluso: the overture and the two ensemble pieces, in which she herself sang. She had evidently had someone complete the orchestration of the overture and quartet for the occasion. The two fragmentary arias have been completed in modern times. Boston Baroque performed all five pieces in 1993.
Boston Baroque Performances
Lo sposo deluso, K. 430
Completion of arias by Martin Pearlman
March 5, 1993
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Jayne West, soprano
Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano
Frank Kelley, tenor
David Evitts, baritone