Premiere at the St. Petersburg Opera on the Occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the Theatre

In June, the St. Petersburg Opera celebrates its 35th anniversary. The premiere of the opera Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the music and then the words) by Antonio Salieri, staged by People's Artist of Russia, artistic director, and founder of the theatre Yuri Alexandrov, is timed to coincide with the round date. The premieres will take place on June 23 and 24.

“The round date is an occasion to joke a little about the theatrical life. Antonio Salieri’s opera Prima la musica e poi le parole is about life behind the scenes. The story in the work is not banal – in conditions of extreme haste, when there is no time to compose something new (only four days are left before the premiere), the artists are trying to fit the existing music of the opera buff to the text of the opera seria, which is being composed before our eyes. Hence the name: “First the music and then the words,” says Yuri Alexandrov.

About the opera

Emperor Joseph II who liked to arrange competitions between composers (as well as between librettists), ordered his favorites A. Salieri and W. A. Mozart one-act comic operas on theatrical backstage theme for the festival in honor of the Governor-General of the Netherlands. At the same time, Mozart was supposed to write an opera to a German libretto by Stephanie Gottlieb Jr., and Salieri to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti. Both couples did not form by chance: Mozart and Stephanie wrote their only successful opera at that time - The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782), and the collaboration between Salieri and Casti was the most popular buff opera Trophonius' Cave written in 1785. As Mario Corti writes, it was in fact a contest between the Italian comic opera and the German Singspiel.

The parody of the opera seria (Italian serious opera), the display of behind-the-scenes intrigues already in the first third of the 18th century became one of the everyday plots of the buff opera and became especially popular in the second half of the century, when the opera seria was going through an obvious crisis. One of the most famous works of this kind was the Opera Series, written by Salieri's teacher Gassmann in 1769 to a libretto by R. de' Calzabigi.

Both works were presented to the public in Schönbrunn on February 7, 1786. In Salieri's opera, the famous Nancy Storace sung the part of Eleonora, Francesco Benucci sang the part of Maestro, and Celesta Coltellini sang Tonina. Salieri's work won and as was believed at that time, proved the superiority of the Italian buff opera over the German singspiel.