#britannico

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Mi paventi il figlio indegno, Agrippina's aria from Graun's Britannico, an opera based on Racine's Britannicus. Sung by Ann Hallenberg.

Translation (by me):

Let my unworthy son fear me - or prepare to face my atrocious wrath. I am the mother - the august mother - and still my unjust son wants to banish me from the throne.

(Syme, Augustan Aristocracy)

[unevaguedeprintemps]

"Ci sarà in una delle prossime generazioni un metodo farmacologico per far amare alle persone la loro condizione di servi

e quindi produrre dittature, come dire, senza lacrime;

una sorta di campo di concentramento indolore.

per intere società in cui le persone saranno private di fatto delle loro libertà, ma ne saranno piuttosto felici".

Aldous Huxley

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.

.

In un discorso tenuto nel 1961 alla California Medical School di San Francisco

[evaporizzo]

It is no worse, because I write of it. It would be no better, if I stopped my most unwilling hand. Nothing can undo it; nothing can make it otherwise than as it was.

C. Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850.

[princeharrywindsor]

Brevi informazioni

Il principe Harry, duca di Sussex , KCVO ADC(nato Henry Charles Albert David,  15 settembre 1984) è un membro della famiglia reale britannica . È il figlio minore di Charles, Principe di Galles e Diana, principessa del Galles , ed è sesto nella linea di successione al trono britannico . È stato ufficialmente designato dal principe Enrico di Galles dalla nascita fino al suo matrimonio, ma è conosciuto come il principe Harry

[garland-on-thy-brow]

@soldatrose Act 2 of Graun's Britannico closes with Agrippina and Nero's "reconciliation" after their interview, and they sing a duet about it.

This is, like, the second mother and son duet that I know in all of opera seria. The first being Cornelia and Sesto's in Giulio Cesare in Egitto (technically two different ones, that they sing in Sartorio's and Handel's versions respectively, but these two duets are similar).

Agrippina. These tears in my eyes - tears they are, yes, but of joy. Nero. You see in me your loving son, and I delight in your delight. Together. Yes, I hold you, {mother / my dear}, to my breast. Let bitter malice never again disturb the beautiful peaceful calm of our heart.

[translation mine]

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Opera seria works that have mothers of adult children as characters:

Carlo il Calvo (Giuditta);

Farnace (Berenice);

La verità in cimento (notably two of them, Damira and Rustena);

Agrippina!

Graun's Britannico (Agrippina);

Il Medo (Medea);

Griselda;

Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Cornelia; historically she only has stepchildren, but the opera never makes the distinction and treats Sextus as her own son);

Graun's Cleopatra e Cesare (Cornelia, by the same token as above; Gnaeus is also treated as her own son);

Ambleto (Gerilda, i.e. local version of Hamlet's mother Gertrude; notably a controversial if not self-contradictory character; I have a feeling that the early productions and maybe even the librettist did not know what to make of her);

Catone il giovane by Giambattista Neri (Cato's wife Lepida);

Graun's Silla (Fulvia - not that Fulvia - is there but she is not meaningfully contributing to the plot).

This list is incomplete, feel free to add.

[garland-on-thy-brow]

"libretto in Italian and German on facing pages; added title page in Italian; ballets decribed in French"

Love the random French for ballets.

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Just finished reading the libretto of Graun's Britannico. I think it is a cool translation of Racine's tragedy into Italian opera.

Mostly it keeps close to the scene structure of Racine's play, with two exceptions.

(1) Unlike the play (that opens with Agrippina complaining in front of Nero's shut bedroom door), the opera starts with the embassies episode (when Agrippina wanted to ascend the throne and Nero prevented her), which was not in the play. 

It allows to start off with a showy chorus scene, while at the same time establishing the shift of power from Agrippina to Nero.

(2) The last scene of the opera is the banquet at which Britannicus is poisoned: offstage in the play, it is made onstage in the opera. Due to the swiftness of the poison, Britannicus dies with no last words, which for a title character of the opera is sad. 

The last words of the opera are Agrippina's, denouncing Nero, followed by the chorus that promises punishment to Nero and a blessed afterlife to Britannicus.

The narration of Junia's subsequent escape to the vestals is omitted: last we hear of Junia, "she faints offstage". This is a loss that leaves the opera's ending weakened: Junia's flight is one of the most interesting parts of the play, genius not despite but because it is a narration of offstage events (Junia has already succeeded in escaping Nero's stage and script).