Germanico in Germania

Nicola Antonio Porpora

Germanico in Germania is an opera in three acts composed by Nicola Porpora to an Italian-language libretto by Nicola Coluzzi. It premiered in February 1732 at the Teatro Capranica in Rome with an all-male cast. The leading male roles were taken by two of the most prominent castrato singers of the 18th century—Domenico Annibali as Germanico and Caffarelli as his nemesis Arminio. The female roles were portrayed by castrati en travesti. The opera's story is a fictionalised account of the Roman general Germanicus and is set in Germania Inferior during 14 AD. Germanico in Germania was very popular in its day but fell into obscurity until it was revived in 2015 at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.[1][2]

Recordings

Some of the opera's bravura arias have been recorded by the singers Simone Kermes ("Empi, se mai disciolgo"), Max Emanuel Cenčić ("Qual turbine che scende"), Flavio Ferri-Benedetti [de] ("Qual turbine che scende") and Cecilia Bartoli ("Parto, ti lascio, o cara").[3][4][5][6]

The first complete recording with Max Emanuel Cenčić, Julia Lezhneva, Dilyara Idrisova, Hasnaa Bennani, Mary-Ellen Nesi, and the Capella Cracoviensis, conducted by Jan Tomasz Adamus, was issued on Decca in January 2018.

References

1. Sykes, Julian (August 2015). "300 ans après, un opéra de Porpora renaît à Innsbruck". Le Temps. Retrieved 30 April 2016 (in French).
2. Robinson, Michael F. and Monson, Dale E (1992), "Porpora Nicola (Antonio)" in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. 3, pp. 1065–1067.
3. Wigmore, Richard (2012). "Dramma per Musica: Castrato arias excavated by Sony's star soprano Kermes". Gramophone. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
4. Ashley, Tim {2015). "Max Emanuel Cencic: Arie Napoletane". Gramophone. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
5. O'Connor, Patrick (2009). "Sacrificium: Cecilia Bartoli seeks to bring the lost voices of the castrati to life". Gramophone. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
6. Vickers, David (2016). Review of Ferri-Benedetti's album Arias for Domenico Annibali, Gramophone. Retrieved 15 June 2016.

External links

• Germanico in Germania: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Complete libretto printed in 1732 for the premiere performance (in Italian)
• Detailed synopsis from the Parnassus Arts touring production (2015/2016)