The
Taming of the Shrew
(La capricciosa corretta)
Vicente Martín y Soler (1754-1806) is remembered today mostly for Mozart’s quotation in Don Giovanni of a tune from his opera Una cosa rara and for the invention of the Viennese waltz; however the Spanish composer quite outshone Mozart in popularity for several years as a composer of opera buffa in Vienna. The great Lorenzo da Ponte, librettist of several of Martín’s operas, perceptively noted his ability to compose ‘the sweetest melodies that go straight to the heart but which very few can match’, and the composer was noted for the variety and aptness with which he matched text and character types to music as well as for the underlying folk quality of many of his dance rhythms. No other Spanish composer achieved greater fame in his day than did Martín, who became highly regarded in Italy, Vienna, Russia and England as well as his native country. His other outstanding operas include Una cosa rara (1785) and L’arbore di Diana 1797), both to da Ponte libretti.
Lorenzo da Ponte (librettist, 1749-1838) was one of the most colourful characters of his age, his life and adventures picturesquely described in his own Memoirs. Born a Jew, yet ordained abbé in the Catholic church, his long career took in activities as various as a Venetian bordello violinist, friend of Casanova, a London bookseller, a liquor salesman in Pennsylvania, and professor of Italian at Columbia University. His most lasting achievements were the great libretti he wrote for Mozart in 1786-9 under the patronage of the Emperor Joseph II: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. in the same years he worked with many of the other successful composers in Vienna, including Martîn y Soler and Salieri.
Press
invariably slick, …cleverly imaginative... Opera Now, November 2006
first rate... Opera News
the magnetism of Bampton Classical Opera...The Oxford Times, 28 July 2006
