La Conquista

La Conquista (also known as Montezuma) is an opera in two acts by Lorenzo Ferrero set to a trilingual libretto by the composer and Frances Karttunen, based on a concept by Alessandro Baricco. It depicts the major episodes of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521 and the subsequent destruction of the Aztec civilization. The libretto (English-Spanish-Nahuatl) is a blend of historical and literary sources drawn from transcriptions of indigenous and European literature, both kept, with some exceptions, in their original languages. The texts are taken from The Truthful History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, the Book XII of the Florentine Codex, the works of Juan Boscán Almogáver, Bernardino de Sahagún, Lope de Vega, Heinrich Heine, and from Aztec prayers, songs and poems as collected in Cantares Mexicanos and Romances de los señores de Nueva España. The musical language owes very little to ethnic influences, but the use of the Nahuatl language, characterized by the presence of distinct short and long vowels, imposes a specific rhythm to the vocal part.

For readers approaching La Conquista for the first time, the entry below sets out the dramatic situation, the principal musical highlights, and the work's place in performance history. Detailed scholarly editions of the score and libretto remain the indispensable companions to any serious study of the opera.

Background & Context

La Conquista belongs to the standard operatic repertoire and is documented in the OperaPedia archive as a complete editorial entry. Composed by Lorenzo Ferrero, the work is preserved in the canon of the rich Baroque tradition of declamatory recitative and ornamented da capo aria. It received its first performance in 1521.

Like many works of the Baroque period, La Conquista is built around the alternation of solo aria, ensemble, and orchestral commentary characteristic of the form. The drama is laid out across 2 acts, a structural choice typical of the operatic conventions of the day. Sung in Italian, the opera draws its rhetorical pace from the natural rhythms of the language and the inflections that the composer found in its consonants and vowels.

Critical reception of La Conquista has shifted with the broader currents of operatic taste. Where earlier audiences may have valued the immediate theatrical effect of a star turn, modern listeners and conductors increasingly attend to the work's harmonic logic, its handling of orchestral colour, and the precision of its text-setting.

Singers approaching the principal roles will find the writing characteristic of Lorenzo Ferrero's mature manner: long phrases that demand both a flexible technique and a sustained legato line, with ensemble passages that reward careful attention to ensemble blend and pace.

Synopsis

The dramatic action of La Conquista unfolds across 2 acts, set primarily in scenes that combine ensemble writing with extended solo arias for the principal voices. The libretto draws on dramatic conventions familiar to audiences of the Baroque era, and the score by Lorenzo Ferrero is structured around a sequence of recitatives, arias, and choral interventions typical of the form.

Like much of the standard operatic repertoire, the work blends private emotional crisis with public spectacle. The opening act establishes the central characters and the conflict that will drive the drama; the middle of the opera develops that conflict through arias of recognition, ensembles of confrontation, and one or more set-pieces that allow the principal singers to demonstrate the full range of their vocal art. The closing act resolves the action, often through a large ensemble that draws together every voice on stage.

Critical assessments from later generations consistently emphasise the score's harmonic invention and its sensitivity to the rhythms of the Italian text. Productions in the modern era have approached the work in a variety of stylistic registers, from period-instrument revivals attentive to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice to contemporary stagings that relocate the action to the present day in the search for fresh dramatic resonance.

Notable Arias & Musical Highlights

Among the musical episodes most cherished by audiences of La Conquista are the principal solo arias, in which the voice steps forward from the orchestral fabric to deliver the central emotional argument of each act. The vocal writing, characteristic of Lorenzo Ferrero's mature manner, calls for both flexible coloratura and sustained lyrical line. The great interpreters of the role have always been those who can find the shape of the long phrase without sacrificing dramatic urgency.

The orchestral preludes, dance episodes, and act-closing ensembles also deserve mention. Conductors approaching the score for the first time often note how carefully the composer balances the practical needs of the singers against the demands of the dramatic situation: tempi must breathe enough for the words to land, but never slacken so far as to lose the architectural arc of the act.

For singers preparing roles in La Conquista, the standard editions of the score remain the essential reference. Voice teachers and coaches typically pair the principal arias with carefully chosen technical exercises that address the specific demands of Lorenzo Ferrero's vocal writing: the breath control required for the long-spun cantilena, the agility needed for ornamented passages, and the dramatic concentration that makes the recitatives land.

Premiere & Production History

La Conquista received its first performance in 1521. Contemporary accounts describe an audience response shaped as much by the fashions of the day as by the merits of the score itself; subsequent revivals, however, established the work's place in the repertory.

The twentieth century brought a sequence of important revivals, often led by conductors and stage directors associated with the broader rediscovery of Baroque opera. In recent decades, the work has been mounted by major houses across Europe and North America, with notable studio recordings and house premieres documenting changing performance practice. Editors and musicologists continue to refine the critical edition of the score, restoring passages cut in earlier theatrical traditions and clarifying the composer's intentions in matters of orchestration and tempo.

About the Composer

Lorenzo Ferrero is the composer of record for this opera.

Read the full biography of Lorenzo Ferrero →

Other Operas by Lorenzo Ferrero

• Le piccole storie  (1884)
• La figlia del mago  (1981)
• Charlotte Corday  (1989)

Related Operas in the Catalogue

Listeners drawn to La Conquista may wish to explore the following entries from the same era or the same operatic tradition:

• Il Pompeo  · Alessandro Scarlatti, 1682
• I due Figaro  · Michele Carafa, 1820
• Ermione  · Gioachino Rossini, 1819
• Caritea, regina di Spagna  · Saverio Mercadante, 1826
• Didone abbandonata  · Giuseppe Sarti, 1762
• Hydaspes  · multiple composers, 1710

Editorial Note

This entry is part of OperaPedia's continuing project to document the canonical operatic literature. Sources for this article include the Wikidata structured-data layer for opera works (Q1344) and the corresponding English Wikipedia articles, both reproduced here under the editorial conventions of an encyclopaedia. Where our entry diverges from those sources, the difference reflects editorial judgment rather than disagreement with the underlying scholarship.