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{{Short description|1753 opera by Johann Adolph Hasse}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{distinguish|Solimano (Perez)}}
{{Infobox opera
| name              = Solimano
| composer          = [[Johann Adolph Hasse]]
| image             = Solimano (Hasse Dresden 1753) 1. Solimano (Angelo Amorevoli).jpg
| image_upright     = 1.0
| caption           = [[Angelo Amorevoli]] as [[Suleiman the Magnificent|Solimano]] in the premiere production (costume by Francesco Ponte)
| librettist        = [[Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca]]
| premiere_date     = {{Start date|1753|02|05|df=y}}
| premiere_location = [[Opernhaus am Zwinger]], Dresden
}}
'''''Solimano''''' is an opera in three acts composed by [[Johann Adolph Hasse]] to an Italian-language [[libretto]] by [[Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca]]. Loosely based on an episode in the life of [[Suleiman the Magnificent]], the opera premiered on 5 February 1753 at the [[Opernhaus am Zwinger]] in Dresden. The lavish production featured set designs by [[Giuseppe Galli Bibiena]]. The tenor [[Angelo Amorevoli]] sang the title role.
==Background==
Hasse was a favorite of [[Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria]] and composed multiple operas for her court in Dresden, beginning with ''La Spartana generosa'' performed in 1747 to celebrate her betrothal to [[Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony]]. His librettist for ''Solimano'', Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca, was a student and protégé of [[Metastasio]]. Migliavacca's libretto was loosely based on the early 17th-century [[tragedy]] ''Il Solimano'' by {{ill|Prospero Bonarelli della Rovere|it||fr}}, which in turn was loosely based on an episode in the life of [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] who had his eldest son [[Şehzade Mustafa|Mustafa]] killed as a traitor. In the opera Mustafa's name is changed to "Selim" while his younger half-brother and rival [[Şehzade Cihangir|Cihangir]] becomes "Osmino". [[Roxelana]], Suleiman's consort and Osmino (Cihangir)'s mother, was a central character in Bonarelli's play, but she is only alluded to in the opera. Migliavacca also changed the tragic ending. In the opera Suleiman recognizes his folly in believing Selim (Mustafa) to be a traitor and spares his life. The two brothers are reconciled and marry the Persian princesses Narsea and Emira with whom they had fallen in love.<ref name="Wolff">Wolff, Larry (2016). [https://books.google.com/books?id=cxGxDAAAQBAJ ''The Singing Turk: Ottoman Power and Operatic Emotions on the European Stage from the Siege of Vienna to the Age of Napoleon''], pp. 79–107. Stanford University Press. {{ISBN|0804799652}}</ref>
==Performance history==
''Solimano'' premiered on 5 February 1753 at the [[Opernhaus am Zwinger]]. The production designed by [[Giuseppe Galli Bibiena]] with costumes by Francesco Ponte was a lavish spectacle with real horses, camels and elephants on stage and hundreds of [[Extra (acting)|extra]]s in addition to the seven main singers and the chorus of soldiers. The final scene, a brilliantly lit Turkish camp at night, had ships sailing on the [[River Tigris]] with the [[hanging gardens of Babylon]] in the distance. The opera ran for twelve performances, and according to contemporary accounts, the ladies of the Dresden Court paid the [[Swiss Guards]] to hold their places in the opera house so they revisit the most spectacular scenes on each evening it was performed.<ref>Yorke-Long, Alan (1954). [https://archive.org/stream/musicatcourt006847mbp#page/n117/mode/2up ''Music at Court: Four Eighteenth Century Studies''], p. 84. Weidenfeld & Nicolson</ref> Hasse revised the score when ''Solimano'' was revived at the Opernhaus am Zwinger in January 1754.<ref>{{Almanacco|match=Solimano}}</ref> ''Solimano'' proved to be Migliavacca's most successful libretto and was subsequently set by several other composers, including [[Domenico Fischietti|Fischietti]] (1755), [[Giovanni Battista Pescetti|Pescetti]] (1756), [[Davide Perez|Perez]] (1757), and [[Baldassare Galuppi|Galuppi]] (1760).<ref name="Wolff" />
The opera received its first performance in modern times on 16 August 1997 at the [[Innsbruck Festival of Early Music]] in a production conducted by [[René Jacobs]] and directed by [[Georg Quander]]. [[Thomas Randle]] sang the title role with [[mezzo-soprano]] [[Iris Vermillion]] as Selim. A recording of the performance was broadcast on [[BBC Radio 3]] the following December.<ref name="IFEM">[[Innsbruck Festival of Early Music]] Archives. [http://www.altemusik.at/nocache/programm/archiv/archiv-opern-und-oratorien-ab-1977/detail/?tx_eventcalendarfw_pi1%5Bitem%5D=1001 ''Solimano''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201212110/http://www.altemusik.at/nocache/programm/archiv/archiv-opern-und-oratorien-ab-1977/detail/?tx_eventcalendarfw_pi1%5Bitem%5D=1001 |date=1 December 2016 }}. Retrieved 1 December 2016.</ref> In February 1999 Jacobs conducted the same production at the [[Berlin Staatsoper]] to mark the tricentennial of Hasse's birth. On that occasion Thomas Randle reprised the title role while [[Vivica Genaux]] sang the role of Selim. In his review of the Berlin performance critic George Loomis wrote: "Hasse's arias emerged as not just musical pleasantries, but also vital studies in character. Intense rhythmic energy conveys Solimano's volatile nature, soothing melodic pathos defines his wrongly accused son, Selim."<ref>Loomis, George (10 February 1999). [https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/10/style/a-grand-solimano-in-berlin.html "A Grand ''Solimano'' in Berlin"]. ''[[International Herald Tribune]]''. Retrieved 1 December 2016.</ref>
==Roles==
{| class="wikitable"
|+{{sronly|Roles, voive types, premiere cast}}
!Role
![[Voice type]]{{efn|In the 1997 revival at Innsbruck, the original castrato roles of Selim, Osmino, and Acomate were sung by a [[mezzo-soprano]], a [[countertenor]], and a tenor respectively.<ref name="IFEM" />}}
!Premiere cast, 5 February 1753<ref>[[Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca|Migliavacca, Giovanni Ambrogio]] (1753). [https://books.google.com/books?id=_bBbMAUAlWQC ''Solimano'', dramma per musica]. Stössel (libretto printed for the premiere performance)</ref>
|-
|Solimano ([[Suleiman the Magnificent]]), ''Sultan of the [[Ottoman Empire]]''
|[[tenor]]
|[[Angelo Amorevoli]]
|-
|[[Selim II|Selim]], ''Solimano's eldest son, born from a previous consort''
|[[castrato]]
|[[Angelo Maria Monticelli]]
|-
|Osmino, ''Solimano's younger son, born from his consort, [[Roxelana]]''
|castrato
|Bartolomeo Puttini
|-
|Narsea, ''daughter of the Shah of Persia and a prisoner of the Turks''
|[[contralto]]
|[[Teresa Albuzzi-Todeschini|Teresa Albuzzi]]
|-
|Emira, ''Narsea's sister and fellow prisoner''
|[[soprano]]
|{{ill|Caterina Pilaja|WD=Q111575957}}
|-
|Acomate, ''General of Solimano's [[Janissaries]]''
|castrato
|[[Giuseppe Belli (singer)|Giuseppe Belli]]
|-
|Rusteno, ''Grand Vizir and Roxelana's son-in-law''
|[[bass (voice type)|bass]]
|Antonio Fürich
|-
| colspan="3" |''Soldiers, slaves, courtiers, pages, guards ''
|}
==Recordings==
There are no complete commercial recordings of ''Solimano''. However Selim's act 2 aria "Fra quest'ombre" sung by [[Vivica Genaux]] can be heard on [[Decca Records|Decca]]'s ''Baroque Divas'' and one of the sinfonias from the opera transcribed for lute can be heard on the [[Oehms Classics]] recording ''Opera for Lute''. The act 1 triumph scene ("Marcia alla Turca" and the soldiers' chorus "Viva il prode, viva il forte") appears on Phoenix Edition's ''1001 Nights: Breezes From The Orient'' performed by the [[Berlin Radio Choir|Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choir]].<ref>{{OCLC|925379498}}; {{OCLC|839079403}}; {{OCLC|704992892}}</ref>
==Notes==
{{Notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*[[Pietro Metastasio|Metastasio, Pietro]] (1835). [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_Ukmm4uNZUZIC#page/n117/mode/2up/search/Solimano ''Opere di Pietro Metastasio ''], Vol XXXII, pp. 116–118. C. Mezzana {{in lang|it}}. (Letter from Metastasio to Migliavacca dated 13 January 1753 in which he gives a detailed critique of the ''Solimano'' libretto)
==External links==
{{Commons category|Solimano (Hasse)}}
*{{IMSLP|work=Solimano (Hasse, Johann Adolph)|cname=''Solimano'' (Hasse)}}
* Bonarelli, Prospero (1620). [https://archive.org/details/ilsolimanotraged00bona ''Il Solimano'']. Stamperia di Pietro Cecconcelli (the source of the opera's libretto with illustrations by [[Jacques Callot]])
{{Johann Adolph Hasse |state=collapsed}}
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{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1753 operas]]
[[Category:Operas by Johann Adolf Hasse]]
[[Category:Italian-language operas]]
[[Category:Operas]]
[[Category:Operas set in the 16th century]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Suleiman the Magnificent]]