Demofoonte come soggetto per il dramma per musica

The proceedings contain papers that were presented at the 5th conference on Italian operas in Bohemia in the 18th century. It was organized in 2019 under the name Il Demofoonte as the theme of a drama per musica: Johann Adolf Hasse and other composers of the 18th century and under the auspices of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Simultaneously with the conference, the modern premiere of Hasse's opera Il Demofoonte performed by the Hof-Musici ensemble under the direction of Ondřej Macek took place in the Baroque castle theater in Český Krumlov. Wolfgang Hochstein's extensive introductory study deals with Hasse's setting of Metastasio's libretto Il Demofoonte based on its performance at the court theater in Dresden (1748). Many other composers, as well as theorists, aestheticians and writers, were inspired by Metastasio's libretto, many of whom were particularly interested in the text of the "Misero pargoletto" aria of Timant, the supposed son of King Demophon. Lucio Tufano, Álvaro Torrente, Raffaele Mellace, Stefen Voss and Roland Schmidt-Hensel deal with the aria and/or the entire libretto set to music by various composers. Manfred Hermann Schmid chose a broader approach: ways of setting the divine judgments (so-called "oracles") to music, from Demofoont to Mozart's Idomeneo. Milada Jonášová analyzed seven Mozart's arias on Metastasio's librettos. Tarcisio Balbo described the unique compositional approach of Niccol Jommelli, who set Metastasio's libretto Demofoonte to music in four different versions. The advanced Prague opera company also staged its own Demofoont in 1771 at the V Kotcích theater, set to music by Jan Evangelista Koželuh, which was discussed by Kamila Hálová. Tomislav Volek looked for the reasons of the unusual historical fact that Hasse did not compose any opera for the Italian opera company in Prague, and yet a number of his arias have been preserved in the Czech archives. The inclusion of an extensive catalog of librettos and musical sources to all the hitherto known opera musical arrangements of Demofoont in the 18th century is a significant enrichment to the book.