Clotilde
Music by Carlo Coccia · libretto by Gaetano Rossi · premiered 1815 · at Teatro San Benedetto
Clotilde is an opera (melodramma semiserio) in two acts by Carlo Coccia. The Italian-language libretto was by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered on 8 June 1815 at Teatro San Benedetto, Venice. Clotilde was especially appreciated for the usage of the chorus. A contemporaneous Italian writer wrote: "Nobody after Mayer has understood how a composer can take advantage of a sensible usage of the chorus. Coccia did it in this opera, avoiding those screams heard too often before". Francesco Regli in its Dizionario biografico stated: "With Clotilde Coccia taught how a chorus has to be written". Clotilde was performed also in Paris in 1821, but it was unsuccessful. In modern times, this opera was revived for the first time at the Teatro Coccia in Novara, on 7 November 2003.
This production was recorded and published on CD. In his review of the Novara performance, which used different versions of the opera, the Italian music critic Giangiorgio Satragni noted "the resounding of features of Rossini's style" and emphasized, among the pieces of the opera, Emerico's cavatina "Soave all'anima" and Clotilde's aria "Deh! Tu guida", but judged the work on the whole as "implacable nineteenth-century operatic routine".
Text from the Wikipedia article "Clotilde (opera)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Carlo Coccia (14 April 1782 – 13 April 1873) was an Italian opera composer. He was known for the genre of opera semiseria.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Carlo Coccia", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Carlo Coccia
- Arrighetto (1813)
- Caterina di Guisa (1829)