Il Paride
Music by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi · libretto by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi · premiered 1662 · at Dresden Castle
Il Paride is an opera in five acts composed by Giovanni Andrea Bontempi who also wrote the libretto. The first Italian-language opera to be given in Dresden, it was first performed on 3 November 1662 at the Dresden Castle to celebrate the marriage of Erdmuthe Sophie von Sachsen, the daughter of John George II, Elector of Saxony, and Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. The opera was revived on 21 June 2011 at the Potsdam Sanssouci Festival and on 24 August 2012 at the Tyrolean State Theatre as part of the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Il Paride", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Giovanni Andrea Bontempi (ca. 1624 – 1 July 1705) was an Italian castrato singer, later composer, historian, music theorist, and assistant kapellmeister to Heinrich Schütz at Dresden from 1657. He was born Giovanni Andrea Angelini, in Perugia but later took the surname of his patron Cesare Bontempi. His Il Paride was the first Italian-language opera to be given in Dresden. It was first performed in November 1662 at the Dresden Castle to celebrate the marriage of Erdmude Sophia, the daughter of the Elector of Saxony, and Christian Ernst, Count of Brandenburg. He composed two other operas, both of which also premiered in Dresden: Dafne performed in 1671 to open the Opernhaus am Taschenberg,…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Giovanni Andrea Bontempi", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.