The Comedy of Errors (Gli Equivoci)
Stephen Storace (1762-1796) was the son of an Italian double-bass player who emigrated to Dublin and then to London. He was a prodigy on the violin and his sister Nancy was the leading soprano of the day. Nancy moved to Vienna in 1783 and became a favourite of the Emperor Joseph II, as a result of which Stephen received two commissions, Gli sposi malcontenti (1785) and Gli Equivoci (1786). Through Nancy Mozart became a close friend, and Storace played a significant part in popularising his works in London. In his own operas he employed a number of Mozartian devices such as, notably in Gli Equivoci, extended finales. He wrote a number of English operas, including The Pirates (1792), considered by some to be his masterpiece, The Haunted Tower (1789) and No song no supper (1790), the latter being the only one for which orchestral parts survive.
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
A rare treat in an Oxfordshire country garden... The Independent
To general astonishment... The Times
...an evening to be savoured Opera
There were also reviews in Opera Now and two internet reviews, one
by Malcolm Miller and one by Roderic Dunnett.
