Interview: Pierpaolo Polzonetti
In L’orfanella Americana (1787), a libretto by Porta inspired by Goldoni’s La bella selvaggia and set to music by Pasquale Anfossi, we have the most explicit reference tothe revolution, which began to be seen not so much as a war against the British, but as a real revolution within England. Here, in fact, we have English soldiers fighting against other English soldiers, replacing the Spanish characters of Goldoni’s literary source.
To give an idea of the modernity of this body of operas based on American themes, let me mention La quacquera spiritosa, an unusual comic libretto by Giuseppe Palomba. After being premiered in Naples in 1783, it was remadein Vienna in 1790 as a "pasticcio" opera. This means that the libretto was altered by Lorenzo Da Ponte to fitnew music written by
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love withappears to havehomoerotic preferences. The Quaker woman points a gun to his head, forcing him to sing her a love aria. The young man then sings an aria in which he compares himself to Dido and the Quaker woman to Aeneas, thus reversing the gender roles. This is avery unusual dramatic situation in opera.Eventually they get married and decide to go to America, where they plan to have many Quaker children.
The theme is a classic one. The name itself - Vertunna - refers to the myth of the Etruscan-Roman god of seasonal changes Vertumnus, who, disguised as a woman, seduced a nymph who wasdisgusted by men. The story is also featured in Ovid's Metamorphoses. At a symbolic level, revolution, seasonal change (then astronomical revolution) and the subversion of gender roles are all interrelated. A work of art is symbolic, even in the case of comic opera, which is, after all, a realistic genre.
many different, great composers of the time, such as Haydn, Mozart, Cimarosa, Paisiello etc. If so many prestigious composers contributed to this opera, perhaps it was because it was on a subject that was perceived then as trendy and important. This opera is about a young American Quaker woman whose fathersent to Italy in order to marry an old Count. When she arrives in Italy, however, she falls in love with the count’sservant. Being a good American Quaker, Vertunna-this is her name-pays no attention to class differences, which are irrelevant to her. This is already a revolutionary topic for the time. But the most surprising fact is that theservant she falls in love withappears to havehomoerotic preferences.