Il gran Tamerlano
Music by Josef Mysliveček · premiered 1771
Il gran Tamerlano ("The Great Tamerlane") is an opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. Its libretto is a rework of Giovanni de Gamerra after Agostino Piovene. All of Mysliveček's operas are of the serious type in Italian referred to as opera seria.
Generally this style favored high vocal ranges, both for male and female singers, but for the character of Bajazette, emperor of the Turks, the composer created the only substantial role for a bass singer that appears in any of his operas.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Il gran Tamerlano", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Josef Mysliveček (9 March 1737 – 4 February 1781) was a Czech composer. He contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant compositional models in the genres of symphony, Italian serious opera, and violin concerto; both Wolfgang and his father Leopold Mozart considered him an intimate friend from the time of their first meetings in Bologna in 1770 until he betrayed their trust over the promise of an operatic commission for Wolfgang to be arranged with the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. His closeness to the Mozart family resulted in frequent references to him in the…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Josef Mysliveček", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.