1 John A.

Rice Antonio Baglioni, Mozart's First Ottavio and Tito, in Italy and Prague

One of the few singers for whom Mozart wrote more than one important operatic role, Antonio Baglioni created the roles of Don Ottavio and, four years later, Tito. His achievement reflects the length of his engagement in Domenico Guardasoni's opera troupe--he served for slightly less than a decade, from 1787 to 1795 (or early 1796), as Guardasoni's leading tenor in Prague, Leipzig, and Warsaw. The length of Baglioni's involvement with the Guardasoni company, the quantity and importance of the roles with which he was entrusted and of the music he sang, and especially the difficulty of the music that Mozart wrote for him, might lead us to conclude that he was a firstrate singer. Yet critical appraisals of Baglioni by his contemporaries were mixed; and he never seems to have reached the highest rank in his profession, either as a mezzo carattere tenor--the singer who typically portrayed the serious young lover in comic operas--or as a tenor in opera seria. One listener appreciated Baglioni's singing enough to write poetry for him. In Warsaw (where the Guardasoni troupe performed from 1789 to 1791) one Antonio Carpaccio published in 1790 a sonnet addressed to "Signor Baglioni, il quale sostiene con universale applauso la parte di mezzo carattere nell'opera italiana":

Al ritornar della Stagion novella Quando natura con ridente viso Sparge sul Mondo la letizia, e il riso, Cacciato in bando il verno e la procella. De pinti augelli in questa parte, e in quella

2 Il canto a noi dischiude il Paradiso, E sull'alto dell'aere l'Eco assiso Ripete il suono ai venti in sua favella. Sei vaga Primavera, ma l'eterno Volger degl'anni, e d'astri, e d'elementi A noi ti toglie con suo corso alterno. Sol di tua voce agli armoniosi accenti Anco nel tempestoso orrido verno La ridente stagione a noi rammenti.1

A discussion of the Guardasoni company published in 1792 contains more useful praise of Baglioni's "armoniosi accenti," singling out a particular mezzo carattere role in which excelled:

Hr. Baglioni. Erster Tenorist. Gewi verdient er mit Recht Beifall. Seine Stimme hat sich ausgebildet, ist wohlklingend, rein und voll Ausdruck, so da wenig Theater sich eines solchen Tenoristen werden rhmen knnen. Wir haben seit langer Zeit seines Gleichen nicht gehrt. Seine Hauptrolle ist Colloardo [recte: Calloandro] in [Paisiello's] 'la molinara'. Hier verbindet er Gesang und Spiel auf das Meisterhafteste.2

That approbation was countered by a hostile appraisal of Baglioni in a report on the Italian opera in Prague published in the December 1794 issue of the Allgemeines europisches Journal of Brno. The anonymous article has been plausibly attributed to Mozart's early Poesie di Antonio Carpaccio fra gli Arcadi Carippo Megalense (Warsaw, 1790), 116. My thanks to Daniel Brandenburg for telling me of this poem and sending me a copy of it. Quoted from an unknown source in Oscar Teuber, Geschichte des Prager Theaters von den Anfngen bis auf die neueste Zeit, 3 vols. (Prague, 1883-1888), II, 322-24.
2 1

3 biographer Franz Xaver Niemetschek:

... der erste Tenorist, Hr. Baglioni. Dieser Snger gieng vor einem Jahre von der Gesellschaft ab, und hielt sich einige Zeit in Italien auf [the critic refers here to Baglioni's appearances in the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice during Fall 1793 and Carnival 1794; see Table 3]; hier sammelte er nun alle Unarten der italienischen Knstler und Nichtknstler emsig auf, und so begabt, kehrte er zum Hrn. Guardasoni zurck. Er spricht keine Note so aus wie sie der Kompositeur gesetzt hat und haben wollte, ersuft den schnsten Gedanken in seinen wlschen Sprngen und Trillern, und lt uns sein einfrmiges Herumschlagen mit den Hnden fr Akzion gelten, so da man Noth hat, die Arie zu erkennen, wenn er sie singt. Freilich bedarf er solcher Schnrkel, um seine mangelhafte Stimme, die mehr ein mezzo basso ist, zu bedecken: aber weil Hr. Baglioni seine Arien in Mozarts Cos fan tutte nicht aussingen kann, soll er deshalb die Arien ja nicht fr schlecht geschrieben ausgeben; denn der grosse Mozart, dessen Geist allerdings fr faselnde Wlsche zu unverstndlich ist, hat sich Hrn. Baglioni bei seiner Arbeit sicher nicht zum Mastabbe genommen!3

Elsewhere the critic expressed his disapproval of Baglioni simply by ignoring him, never even mentioning, in his discussions of Don Giovanni and Tito, the roles he created.4 "Einige Nachrichten ber den Zustand des Theaters in Prag. Im Dezember 1794," signed "***k," Allgemeines europisches Journal, 564-70 (565); modern editions in Christopher Raeburn, "Mozarts Opern in Prag," Musica XIII (1959), 158-63; and Mozart: Die Dokumente seines Lebens, Addenda und Corrigenda, ed. Joseph Heinz Eibl (Kassel, 1978), 81. The critic's remarks on Guardasoni's production of Die Zauberflte in Italian translation ("Einige Nachrichten ber den Zustand des Theaters in Prag," 568) likewise carefully avoid mentioning Tamino, from which we might that Baglioni portrayed Tamino. But Il flauto magico was first performed in Prague on 22 January 1794, when Baglioni was in Venice (Prager Neue Zeitung, 1794, 24 January 1794, quoted in Ji_ Berkovec, Musicalia v pra_skm periodickm tisku 18. stolet [Prague, 1989], 86-87); so the tenor who created the role of Tamino in Il flauto magico must have
4 3

4 The contributor to the Allgemeines europisches Journal was not alone in ignoring Baglioni. The few surviving assessments of the first production of Tito are silent on Baglioni's singing. We know from Johann Carl Zinzendorf that Emperor Leopold II was delighted with Maria Marchetti Fantozzi (the first Vitellia).5 Mozart, informed by the clarinetist Anton Stadler of the success of the last performance of Tito on 30 September 1791, wrote to his wife: "der Bedini [as Sesto] sang besser als allezeit. -- Das Duettschen ex A von die 2 Mdchens [Carolina Perini and Antonia Campi] wurde wiederhollet -- und gerne -- htte man nicht die Marchetti geschonet -- htte man auch das Rond repetirt."6 Again Baglioni is nowhere mentioned. All this raises interesting questions, since Mozart wrote some of the finest and most characteristic music in Don Giovanni and Tito for Baglioni, who presumably continued to sing this music (together with that of Ferrando in Cos fan tutte) during the productions of these operas that occurred while he remained a member of the troupe. If Baglioni really was a mediocre singer--of if he excelled only in Paisiello's La molinara--how could Mozart have written such difficult and beautiful music for him? Did Mozart, in portraying Ottavio and Tito, write for an imaginary virtuoso in the hope that sometime in the future those roles would be performed as they should be? Everything that we know of Mozart's relations with singers tells us that he did not.

Background and Early Career

been someone other than Baglioni.

5 6

Mozart: Dokumente seines Lebens, Addenda und Corrigenda, 70.

Mozart: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen, ed. Wihelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch, and Joseph Heinz Eibl, 7 vols. (Kassel, 1962-75), IV, 157.

5 Antonio Baglioni was one of thirteen eighteenth-century opera singers named Baglioni, all of whom are listed in Table 1 in the order in which they first appeared on stage. Although it is tempting to conclude that all these singers belonged to a single great operatic dynasty, there is actually very little evidence of familial connections between them.7 The first important Baglioni was Francesco--a brilliant comic singer-actor who played a crucial role in the development of opera buffa during the thirty years between 1730 and 1760.8 Francesco had several daughters who became professional singers, and sometimes appeared on stage with him. The playwright Vittorio Alfieri wrote in his memoirs of a performance of an opera buffa in the early 1760s, "cantata dai migliori buffi d'Italia, il Carratoli, il Baglioni, e le di lui figlie."9 Unfortunately Alfieri did not name the daughters whose performance he witnessed, and no surviving libretto can be associated with this performance. That leaves us uncertain about which of the women on our list were Francesco's daughters. Quite possibly he fathered all the Baglioni--seven women and one man--who reached the stage between 1752 and 1764; but definitive evidence is lacking. Three of these women sang frequently in Vienna, and we know from Viennese documents that these three--Clementina, Costanza, and Rosa--were sisters. 10 That increases the probability On the singers named Baglioni and possible family ties between them see the articles by Daniel Brandenburg in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edition; Brandenburg's article "Opera buffa: The European Success of Traveling Performers," forthcoming in the proceedings of the conference "Il trionfo d'Italia: Singing in Italian Opera" (Utrecht, August 2004); and Brandenburg's forthcoming book "Far rider i savi grand'impegno!" Studien zum Sngern, Gesang und Darstellungskunst in der Opera buffa des 18. Jahrhunderts, Habilitationsschrift, Universitt Bayreuth, 2005. Barbara Dobbs Mackenzie, The Creation of a Genre: Comic Opera's Dissemination in Italy in the 1740s, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1993; Daniel Heartz, From Garrick to Gluck: Essays on Opera in the Age of Enlightenment (Hillsdale, NY, 2004), 14-17, 52-54. "Vita di Vittorio Alfieri da Asti scritta da esso," in Opere di Vittorio Alfieri, ed. Vittorio Branca (Milan, 1968), 34.
10 9 8 7

That Costanza and Rosa Baglioni were sisters we know from a contract dated Vienna, 13 April

6 Table 1. Eighteenth-Century Singers named Baglioni

Sources: Claudio Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800, VII; and (for Antonio Baglioni) Theaterzettel in the library of the sterreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna

Name

City of Origin

Period of Activity as Opera Singer

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Francesco Giuseppe Giovanna Clementina Vincenza Giovanni Anna Maria Costanza Caterina Rosa Antonio Camilla Anna Rome Milan Rome Rome Rome Roma Rome Rome ? ? ? ? ? 1729-1761 1732 1752-1771 1753-1786 1757-1771 1759-1771 1760-1766 1760-1782 1760 1764-1787 1786-1797 1790-1795 1791

1772, in which they are referred to as "la Sig.a Costanza Baglioni, e la Signora Rosa Baglioni sorelle" (reproduced in John A. Rice, Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera [Chicago, 1998], 58. An article in the Theatralkalendar von Wien, fr das Jahr 1772 refers to Clementina, Costanza, and Rosa as sisters: "Mademoiselle Constantia Baglioni, eine Schwester der Vorigen [i.e. Clementina] hat eine strkere, aber nicht so angenehme und richtige Stimme.... Mademoiselle Rosinen, ihrer jngern Schwester, fehlt nichts zu einer angenehmen Sngerinn" (quoted in Rice, Antonio Salieri, 57).

7 that they were among Francesco's singing daughters. These sisters not only sang in Vienna. Clementina also sang in Regensburg near the end of a career that lasted more than thirty years.11 Rosa sang in Paris, Leipzig, Dresden, and--of particular interest to us--in Prague. She was in the Guardasoni troupe when it presented Figaro during Carnival 1787 and Don Giovanni later the same year.12 Joining Guardasoni that same year was a young tenor, Antonio Baglioni, who had made his professional debut in Bologna two years earlier.13 The presence of Rosa Baglioni in the Guardasoni troupe makes it likely that she and Antonio belonged to the same family. Possibly he was a late son of Francesco; but more likely he was Rosa's son or nephew--in other words, the son of Clementina or Costanza. The reason I think Antonio was the son of one of the three Baglioni sisters who had sung in Vienna is that Antonio Salieri referred to himself as a friend of Antonio Baglioni's mother. In a letter to the tenor dated 1803 Salieri wrote: "Mi saluti distintamente la Signora madre, si conservino in buona salute, e mi credino ambidue constantissimamente il Loro aff.mo amico Salieri."14 The most obvious way in which Salieri and the mother of Antonio Baglioni could have become friends is operatic collaboration. During his early years in Vienna Salieri wrote roles for all three Baglioni sisters, so he might naturally have thought of Clementina, Costanza, and Rosa as friends.15 Any of these women could have been the tenor's mother. But if any of them played Claudio Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800: Catalogo analitico con 16 indici, 7 vols. (Cuneo, 1990-94), VII, 39-40; Clementina's engagement in Regensburg is documented in Indice de' teatrali spettacoli (fascimile in 2 vols., ed. Roberto Verti, Pesaro, 1996), hereafter abbreviated ITS, 1784-85, 71 and ITS 1785-86, 144.
12 13 14 11

Sartori, VII, 38; ITS 1786-87, 166, 1787-88, 147. For sources documenting Baglioni's career see Tables 2 and 3 and accompanying notes.

Salieri to Antonio Baglioni, Vienna, 8 October 1803, in Rudolph Angermller, Antonio Salieri: Fatti e documenti (Legnago, 1985), 149.
15

Clementina created the role of Artemia in Salieri's first opera, Le donne letterate (1770), she

8 an active role in encouraging Guardasoni to engage Antonio Baglioni, the one most likely to have done so was the one already in Prague, and in close contact with the impresario, namely Rosa. Antonio's use of his mother's maiden name suggests that he was illegitimate. Table 2 is a list of Antonio Baglioni's early roles in Italy. After singing minor roles--as secondo tenore and secondo mezzo carattere, and in parts designated as "seconde parti," he rose, in spring 1787, to the level of primo mezzo carattere, in Parma and Bologna. Among the operas in which Baglioni sang in the first phase of his career (that is, before he became a primo mezzo carattere) was Giuseppe Gazzaniga's setting of Giovanni Bertati's Il convitato di pietra: the second part of a two-part entertainment presented in Venice during Carnival 1787--and a work that was to have important repercussions on Baglioni's career. The evening began with Il capriccio drammatico, in which a troupe of Italian opera singers in Germany decides, after much argument, to present an opera based on the story of Don Juan; that opera constituted the second part of the evening's entertainment. The libretto published for this production lists the singers and their roles in Il capriccio drammatico (in which Baglioni created the role of Valerio) but not Il convitato di pietra. This has led to some disagreement as to what role Baglioni sang in Il convitato di pietra. Some state that he portrayed Don Giovanni;16 others that he was the first Duca Ottavio.17 I believe Ottavio is more likely to have been his role. In some librettos printed for productions of Il capriccio drammatico and Il convitato di pietra, the cast for the second opera is given; and in such librettos the singer who portrayed Valerio in Il sang Delmita in Daliso e Delmita (1776); Costanza was the first Mirandolina and Rosa the first Lena in La locandiera (1773). One of the Baglioni sisters created the role of Beatrice in Il barone di Rocca Antica (1772). See Rice, Antonio Salieri, 120, 178, 195, 245. Stanley Sadie, "Some Operas of 1787," Musical Times CXXII (1981), 474-77; Daniel Heartz, Mozart's Operas (Berkeley, 1990), 160. Nino Pirotta, Don Giovanni's Progress: A Rake Goes to the Opera (New York, 1994), 90, 188; Michel Noiray, "La Construction de Don Giovanni," L'Avant-scne Opra: Don Giovanni (Paris, 1996), 126-33.
17 16

9 Table 2. Antonio Baglioni's Career Before Coming to Prague

Abbreviations S ITS Sartori Indice de' teatrali spettacoli

Year

Season

City

Role

Opera

Composer

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1786 Spring Bologna Vamiro (secondo tenore18) Ariarate (S) Tarchi

Autumn

Venice

Pasquinello (secondo mezzo car.19) Sig. Guerini (secondo mezzo car.)

Le donne fanatiche (S)

Gazzaniga

La contessa di Novaluna (S)

Fabrizi

1787

Carnival

Venice

Gioher (1 of 2 "seconde parti"20) Valerio

L'amore costante (S)

Gazzaniga

Il capriccio drammatico /

pasticcio

18 19 20

This designation from ITS, 1786-87, 13. This designation from ITS, 1786-87, 225. This designation from ITS, 1786-87, 226.

10

Duca Ottavio21

Il convitato di pietra (S)

Gazzaniga

Spring

Parma22

primo mezzo car.

Fra i due litiganti

Sarti Caruso Salieri Caruso Valentini

primo mezzo car. (Roberto23) Gli amanti alla prova primo mezzo car. Summer Bologna24 La secchia rapita

primo mezzo car. (Roberto) Gli amanti alla prova primo mezzo car. (Balena25) La statua matematica

Whenever casts of both Il capriccio drammatico and Il convitato di pietra are listed in a libretto, the singer who sings Valerio in Il capriccio drammatico sings Duca Ottavio in Il convitato di pietra; see Padova, 1788; Forl, 1789; Pavia, 1793 (as L'impresario in rovina). In the libretto printed for the production of Il capriccio drammatico in Udine, 1788, Valerio is described as "secondo mezzo carattere."
22

21

Baglioni's appearances in Parma as primo mezzo carettere are documented in ITS, 1787-88, Roberto defined as primo mezzo carattere in libretto printed for premiere (Venice, 1784).

133.
23 24

Baglioni's appearances in Bologna as primo mezzo carattere nelle due prime opere is documented in ITS, 1787-88, 17, according to which the summer season continued with two more operas in which Baglioni did not sing. Cav. Balena is described as the "primo mezzo carettere" role in librettos printed for productions in Udine (1783) and Pavia (1784).
25

11 capriccio drammatico portrayed Duca Ottavio in Il convitato di pietra.26 This is an important issue, because Il convitato di pietra is one of the very few surviving operas written before Mozart's Don Giovanni for a cast that included Baglioni; most of the other operas in Table 2 are either lost or were composed for a cast that did not include Baglioni. Thus Il convitato di pietra contains valuable evidence of Baglioni's vocal profile--as long as we can be relatively sure about what role was written for him. The only other opera with a part written for Baglioni that I have been able to identify and examine is Gazzaniga's L'amore costante, in which Baglioni created the role of Gioher in Venice during Fall 1786. L'amore costante survives in the form of a manuscript score (possibly an autograph) in the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris.

Vocal Profile and Vocal Development in Prague, Leipzig, and Warsaw

L'amore costante and Il convitato di pietra each contain one aria written for Baglioni. The two arias are quite different in character. Gioher's "Se rimiro quel visetto" (published, for the first time, as an appendix to this article) is an expression of love set to music in a light, comic style.27 Duca Ottavio's "Vicin sperai l'istante," the first of at least four arias in B flat written for Baglioni by Gazzaniga, Mozart, and Salieri, adopts the heroic language of opera seria. "Se rimiro quel visetto" is completely parlando; "Vicin sperai l'istante" has some simple coloratura. But the two arias have the same tessitura and range. By tessitura I mean the pitches to which most of the vocal part is limited; the range includes a few notes beyond the tessitura, sung rarely--for special effect--often near the end of
26 27

For example, in Padua, 1788 and Forl, 1789.

My thanks to Michel Noiray for sending me a photocopy of "S'io rimiro quel visetto" from the Paris manuscript.

12 the aria. Gazzaniga treated Baglioni as having a tessitura of one octave, from the F below middle C to F above, which he occasionally extended up to G, for a range of a ninth. A composer typically used the opening melody of an aria to display a singer's tessitura, and we can see Gazzaniga doing so in the opening melody of "Se rimiro quel visetto" (where only a few grace notes touch high G) and in the tune at the beginning of the Allegretto (mm. 42-54). He did the same in "Vicin sperai l'istante (Ex. 1), later requiring Baglioni to show off his ability to sing coloratura (Ex. 2) and exploiting his high G for climactic effect near the end of the aria (Ex. 3).

Ex. 1. Giuseppe Gazzaniga, "Vicin sperai l'istante," mm. 14-20, from Don Giovanni o sia Il convitato di pietra, ed. Stefan Kunze (Kassel, 1974)

Ex. 2. Gazzaniga, "Vicin sperai l'istante," mm. 44-49

13

Ex. 3. Gazzaniga, "Vicin sperai l'istante," mm. 79-85

"Sperai vicin l'istante" documents, more fully than "Se rimiro," the vocal qualities that Baglioni brought with him to Prague--the raw material from which Mozart crafted the roles of Ottavio and Tito. In writing these roles, Mozart subjected Baglioni to a series of challenges, gradually expanding his tessitura and range and increasing the complexity and difficulty of coloratura. The challenges began with "Il mio tesoro," where Mozart widened Baglioni's tessitura slightly by asking him repeatedly to sing G above the staff (starting with the opening melody, Ex. 4), to delve suddenly down to an isolated D below the staff, and to spin out much longer strands of coloratura than in "Sperai vicin l'istante." As if to compensate for these demands, Mozart wrote the aria in the same key as "Sperai vicin l'istante," and he allowed Baglioni to dwell often (at great length, already in the opening melody) on the F at the top of his tessitura, a note that he must have been able to sing with particular ease and effectiveness. That Baglioni was a willing participant in this process of vocal development is suggested by the vocal training he engaged in while in Prague, with enough frequency to exasperate one of his neighbors. The young composer Wenzel Johann Tomaschek, who settled in Prague in 1790, lived next door to Baglioni, and recalled in his memoirs that the tenor's vocal exercises annoyed him greatly. 28 We can get some idea of the challenges posed by Baglioni's exercises by those he
28

The passage in which Tomaschek complains about Baglioni's vocal exercises is quoted below.

14 Ex. 4. Mozart, "Il mio tesoro intanto," mm. 8-29

published later, after he retired from the stage to become a singing teacher: two volumes entitled Nuovi esercizi per il canto composti e dedicati al nobile Sigr Costantino Maruzzi... da Antonio Baglioni (published by Ricordi in Milan). The notes that accompany some of these exercises convey Baglioni's pedagogical priorities: "per formare la voce ed unire le corde di testa con quella di petto"; "per il trillo"; "per li mordenti e gruppetti"; "per le appoggiature"; "per le terzine"; "per li salti"; "per il portamento di voce"; "per l'arpeggio." The other exercises consist mostly of very florid passagework, with elaborate lead-ins and cadenzas that bring to mind the "Sprngen und Trillern" that annoyed the critic in the Allgemeines europisches Journal. Also crucial to Baglioni's development as a singer was his exposure to opera seria. Although he made his professional debut in an opera seria, he must have found comic opera more congenial to his voice and stage personality. In Prague during the late 1780s the repertory was exclusively comic (see Table 3). But in Warsaw the Guardasoni troupe responded to an interest in serious opera with performances of Pietro Persichini's Andromeda, Paisiello's Pirro,

15 Table 3. Baglioni's Career After Coming to Prague

From Autumn 1787 Baglioni sang in the Guardasoni troupe, which performed in Prague, Warsaw, and Leipzig with the following repertory. Except in a few cases (such as the first production of Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito) we do not know in which operas Baglioni sang, and what roles he took (uncertainty compounded by the fact that Guardasoni usually employed two mezzo carattere tenors), but he probably sang in most of the operas listed below.

Year

Season/date

City

Role

Opera

Composer

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1787 14 October Prague29 Basilio? Le nozze di Figaro Mozart

29 October Autumn

Don Ottavio Giovanni? Pantaleo? Endimione?

Don Giovanni (S) Una cosa rara (S) Lo sposo senza moglie L'arbore di Diana [repertory as above]

Mozart Martin Cimarosa Martin

1788

Carnival Summer ? Autumn31 Leipzig30 Prague ? Atar?

[repertory unknown] Elisa (S) Axur re d'Ormus (S) Naumann Salieri

Repertory for Autumn 1787 and Carnival 1788 from ITS, 1787-88, 147, which lists Baglioni among the signori attori. ITS, 1788-89, p. 90: "Lipsia, Estate 1788. Si rappresentarono in quel Teatro varie Opere buffe in Musica dagli stessi Signori Attori addetti al Teatro Nazionale di Praga per Autunno [1788] e Carnevale [1789], col descritti." Repertory for Autumn 1788 and Carnival 1789 from ITS, 1788-89, 177, which lists Baglioni as one of two tenori mezzi-caratteri.
31 30

29

16 Don Ottavio? Endimione? Basilio? Giovanni? Lindoro? 1789 ? ? ? Warsaw32 Carnival Ernesto? Gerrardo? Endimione? Giovanni? Artemidoro? Lindoro? Atar? Sandrino? Don Giovanni L'arbore di Diana (S) Le nozze di Figaro Una cosa rara Il talismano (S) [repertory as above] Il mondo della luna (S) Paisiello Mozart Martin Mozart Martin Salieri

Il trionfo dell'amore sulla magia (S) Schuster L'arbore di Diana Una cosa rara (S) La grotto di Trofonio Il talismano Axur re d'Ormus Il re Teodoro Martin Martin Salieri Salieri Salieri Paisiello Paisiello Paisiello Mozart Mozart Sacchini Schuster Maestro Guardasino

[no tenor role] La serva padrona Giorgino? Don Ottavio? Basilio? Giocondo ? ? La contadina di spirito Don Giovanni (S) Le nozze di Figaro L'isola d'amore Il trionfo d'amore L'impresario innamorato33

Repertory for 1789 and Carnival 1790 from ITS, 1789-90, 231-32, where Baglioni is listed as one of two primi mezzi caratteri. The opera entitled L'impresario innamorato is probably fictive; the name of its composer "Guardasino" is obviously a play on the name of the impresario Guardasoni.
33

32

17 di Littuania (sic!) Gianferrante? Orfeo? 1790 Carnival ? 17 January 3 July Autumn34 ? Pirro? Palmoro? Palmoro? Aureliano? Sandrino? Cav. dell'Oca? 1791 Carnival Lent35 ? Sisara? Spring ? Basilio? "in tutto l'anno" "in tutto l'anno" Repertory for Fall 1790 and Carnival 1791 from ITS, 1790-91, which lists Antonio Baglioni as one of two primi mezzi caratteri during these seasons. Repertory for Lent and Spring, 1791 from ITS, 1791-92, which lists Baglioni among the signori cantanti. According to ITS, 1791-92, 147, a troupe that included Baglioni performed Don Giovanni and Axur in Prague "in tutto l'anno" 1791.
36 35 34

La modista raggiratrice (S) Orfeo ed Euridice (S) [repertory as above] Andromeda (S) Pirro (S) La vergine del sole (S) La vergine del sole Zenobia di Palmira Il re Teodoro in Venezia I finti eredi [repertory as above] La passione di Ges Cristo Debora e Sisara (S) Andromeda Le nozze di Figaro Axur re d'Ormus

Paisiello Gluck?

Persichini Paisiello Cimarosa Cimarosa Anfossi Paisiello Sarti

Paisiello Guglielmi Persichini Mozart Salieri

Prague36

Atar?

Don Ottavio?

Don Giovanni

Mozart

18 29 August 2 September 6 September ? ? ? December 1792 ? ? ? Summer Leipzig37 Pirro? Don Ottavio? Tito Ferrando? Calloandro? Lindoro? Sisara? Capitano? Paolino? Astolfo? Paolino? Ferrando? Astolfo? Capitano? Calloandro? Lindoro? 3 August Autumn 1793 ? ? ? ? 3 August Autumn
37

Pirro Don Giovanni La clemenza di Tito (S) Cos fan tutte (S) La molinara (S) Nina (S) Debora e Sisara (S) La dama soldato (S) Il matrimonio segreto (S) La pastorella nobile (S) Il matrimonio segreto Cos fan tutte La pastorella nobile La dama soldato La molinara Il talismano Zenobia di Palmira (S) Lo spazzacamino principe (S) Gli equivoci (S) La maga Circe (S) L'incanto superato (S) Il mercato di Monfregoso (S) Pirro (S) I fratelli rivali (S)

Paisiello Mozart Mozart Mozart Paisiello Paisiello Guglielmi Naumann Cimarosa Guglielmi Cimarosa Mozart Guglielmi Naumann Paisiello Salieri Anfossi Tarchi Storace Anfossi Sssmayr Zingarelli Paisiello Winter

Aureliano? Prague Mont'Albore? ? Nocesecca? ? Rubicone? Leipzig Venice Pirro? Costanzo

Repertory from ITS, 1792-93, 77, which names Baglioni as primo mezzo carattere.

19 1794 Carnival Simoncino Clitandro38 Barbadoro Gabbia dei matti (S) Belisa (S) I zingari in fiera (S) ? Winter Paisiello

Autumn

Prague

Costanzo or Silvio Cleante?

I fratelli rivali (S) Le confusioni della somiglianza (S)

Winter Portogallo

Duca? 3 December39 Tito?

Giulietta e Pierotto (S) La clemenza di Tito

Weigl Mozart

? September40

? ?

Il trionfo del bel sesso (S) Lo specchio d'Arcadia

Winter Sssmayr

1796

10 April41 6 May 7 August 11 December

Vienna

Silvio Lelio Ramiro Polidoro Lelio

I fratelli rivali La pietra simpatica Il moro (S) L'astuta in amore La pieta simpatica

Winter Palma Salieri Fioravanti Palma

1797

12 March42
38

Librettos assign this role and that of Barbadoro to Giuseppe Baglioni (otherwise unknown), evidently a mistake resulting from confusion between two primi mezzi caratteri (as designated in ITS, 1793-94, 168): Giuseppe Viganoni and Antonio Baglioni.
39 40

"Einige Nachrichten ber den Zustand des Theaters in Prag," 569.

Prager Neue Zeitung, 7 September 1795, quoted in Ji_ Berkovec, Musicalia v pra_skm periodickm tisku 18. stolet (Prague, 1989), 93. All information on Baglioni's roles in Vienna is from Theaterzettel (playbills) preserved in the library of the sterreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.
42 41

This was Baglioni's last performance in Vienna.

20 Cimarosa's La vergine del sole, Anfossi's Zenobia in Palmira, and opera seria-like oratorios by Paisiello (La passione di Ges Cristo) and Guglielmi (Debora e Sisara). Although we do not know in what operas Baglioni appeared in Warsaw, he almost certainly sang in some of these oratorios and serious operas. When Guardasoni returned to Prague in June 1791, a few weeks before signing a contract in which he promised to present an opera seria in celebration of the coronation of Leopold II as king of Bohemia, he brought with him not only a repertory that included some of the serious dramas he had presented in Warsaw--within a few months of his reestablishment in Prague he presented Pirro and Debora e Sisara--but also a tenor experienced in opera seria and willing to challenge and shape his own voice. Mozart, in writing the part of Tito for him, took full advantage of the "new" Baglioni, whose development as a singer reached it climax in his third aria in Tito. "Se all'impero" is in the same key as "Vicin sperai l'istante" and "Il mio tesoro," but its opening melody (Ex. 5) announces a tessitura wider and higher than the one exploited by Gazzaniga a few years earlier. Baglioni was familiar with a motive in this melody from having sung it in "Il mio tesoro": the sustained F in m. 20 of Tito's aria is followed by a sixteenth-note

Ex. 5. Mozart, "Se al impero, amici dei," mm. 11-22

21 descent from G exactly as in mm. 26-27 of Ottavio's aria. The coloratura later in "Se all'impero" (Ex. 6) grows out of this motive; but at same time it must have pushed Baglioni to his limits of flexibility and range (up to B flat, a minor third higher than Gazzaniga required). Firmly based on Mozart's knowledge of Baglioni's voice and experience, "Se all'impero" was the ultimate test of the tenor's vocal powers and musicianship.

Ex. 6. Mozart, "Se al impero," mm. 98-115

Baglioni and the Operatic Repertory in Prague

Baglioni contributed to musical life in Prague not only as a singer for whom Mozart wrote wonderful music, but also as a shaper of the operatic repertory according to his experiences in Venice. He moved from Italy to Prague twice--in 1787 and 1794. Both times he seems to have

22 brought elements of Venetian operatic culture with him, and both times Guardasoni was eager to incorporate these elements of Venetian opera into his repertory in Prague. Baglioni's engagement in Bologna during summer 1787 lasted less than this one season. The Indice de' teatrali spettacoli tells us that four opere buffe were performed in Bologna during Summer 1787, but that Baglioni sang in only the first two. Why did he have to be replaced halfway through the summer? Presumably because it was then that he travelled to Prague to take up his new position in the Guardasoni troupe. Baglioni's presence in Bologna until mid-summer 1787 has not, to the best of my knowledge, been cited in discussions of the chronology of Don Giovanni. Lorenzo da Ponte, in the early version of the memoirs published under the title Extract from the Life of Lorenzo da Ponte wrote of the origins of Don Giovanni: "Why did Mozart refuse to set to music the Don Giovanni... by Bertatti, and offered to him by one Guardassoni..., manager of the Italian theatre of Prague? Why did he [i.e. Mozart] insist upon having a book written by Da Ponte on the same subject?"43 Da Ponte's questions raise others. How did Guaradasoni get his hands on Bertati's libretto for Il convitato di pietra, performed earlier the same year in Venice? And how did he get the idea of presenting a setting of it in Prague? Several scholars have suggested that Baglioni, having created a role in Il convitato di pietra, brought Bertati's libretto--and possibly Gazzaniga's score as well--with him to Prague, with the hope that Guardasoni might perform it. Perhaps the fact that Il capriccio drammatico takes place in "una citt della Germania" and that the impresario Policastro is himself a singer (like his new boss Guardasoni, a former mezzo carattere tenor) suggested to Baglioni the idea of a production of Il convitato di pietra in Prague.44 If the discussion or correspondence between Guardasoni and Lorenzo Da Ponte, An Extract from the Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, ed. with Italian translation by Lorenzo della Ch (Milan, 1999), 58. Eighteenth-century Italians could have reasonably thought of Bohemia as part of Germany, since it belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
44 43

23 Mozart reported by Da Ponte did not take place until after Baglioni's arrival in Prague, and if Baglioni did not arrive in Prague until late summer 1787, then Da Ponte probably did not start working on his libretto for Don Giovanni until August, leaving Mozart only a few weeks to write the score before the date originally planned for the premiere, 14 October.45 That would help to explain why the opera's premiere had to be postponed for two weeks. Much later in his career Baglioni had another opportunity to bring Venetian operatic culture to Prague. In Venice during Fall 1793 and Carnival 1794 he sang in four operas, including two by Peter Winter: he created the roles of Costanzo in I fratelli rivali and of Clitandro in Belisa. Shortly after Baglioni's return to Prague later in 1794, Guardasoni suddenly became interested in Winter. The critic who disparaged Baglioni so vehemently in the Allgemeines europisches Journal welcomed Winter's music to Prague, including one of the operas that Baglioni had sung in Venice:

Unter den brigen Stcken, die diese Gesellschaft seither gab, gefiel am meisten die Oper Fratelli rivali, vom Kurf. baierschen Kapellmeister Hrn. Winter. Sie hat auch in Venedig das vorige Jahr Beifall erhalten, und verdient ihn. Hr. Winter hat sich Mozart zum Muster gewhlt, und lieferte im gegenwrtigen Stcke einen lieblichen Abdruck des Mozartschen Geistes. Er ist gegenwrtig in Prag, und komponirt fr Hrn. Guardasoni eine neue Oper; wir wnschen, da er seinen Ruhm damit vermehre.46

This critic's knowledge of the recent Venetian origins of I fratelli rivali suggests that the opera came directly from Venice to Prague. The most likely conduit was Baglioni. Mozart is in any case unlikely to have started composing Don Giovanni until he cleared his desk by completing the Sonata for Piano and Violin, K. 526, on 24 August 1787.
46 45

"Einige Nachrichten ber den Zustand des Theaters in Prag," 570.

24 History seems to have repeated itself: the tenor apparently brought a score of an opera in which he had recently created a role in Venice, and urged Guardasoni to perform it. As in 1787, a new opera resulted, this time not by Mozart, of course, but by a composer whom music lovers in Prague (if the contributor to the Allgemeines europisches Journal was typical) considered a successor to Mozart. Winter, following in Mozart's footsteps, came to Prague in 1795 and presented Il trionfo del bel sesso (ironically, on an old libretto by Bertati). That Baglioni played some role in the origins of Il trionfo del bel sesso is hinted by an anecdote in the autobiography of the singer's next-door neighbor Tomaschek, who closely associated the new opera with Winter's relations with Baglioni:

Whrend der Zeit [1795] fgte es sich, da der Kompositeur Winter, der damals die Oper Il trionfo dell bell sesso fr's Prager Theater schrieb, den ersten Tenoristen Baglioni aufsuchend, in mein Zimmer trat, und mich beim Klavier antreffend nach der Wohnung des Gesuchten frug, der gerade neben mir wohnte, und mir durch seine Sangbungen oft sehr lstig war. Winter nannte sich und sprach sehr freundlich mit mir.... Er ging zum Baglioni, und ich hrte in einigen Tagen darauf seine Oper, die nicht ansprach, und dem Impressario Quardasoni mehr als Don Juan kostete.47

Tomaschek's pairing of Don Giovanni and Il trionfo del bel sesso in that last sentence is significant. Guardasoni did not commission many operas. Don Giovanni and Il trionfo del bel sesso are, to the best of my knowledge, the only drammi giocosi per musica he commissioned for Prague during the years when Baglioni sang there. Exactly what role Baglioni played in the origins "Wenzel Johann Tomaschek, geboren zu Skutsch am 17. April 1774. Selbstbiographie," Libussa: Jahrbuch fr 1845, 349-98; continued in Jahrbuch fr 1846, 321-76; Jahrbuch fr 1847, 411-41; Jahrbuch fr 1848, 487-94; Jahrbuch fr 1849, 485-503; and Jahrbuch fr 1850, 323-50. The passage quoted here is from Jahrbuch fr 1845, 371.
47

25 of these operas we do not know, but it seems likely that without him neither Don Giovanni nor Il trionfo del bel sesso would exist. Apart from the music that Mozart wrote for him, Baglioni's behind-the-scenes shaping of the operatic repertory in Prague was probably his most important contribution to musical life in the Bohemian capital.

Vienna and Venice

The production of Il trionfo del bel sesso came close to the end of Baglioni's tenure in Prague. In April 1796 we find him in Vienna, making his debut as Silvio in Winter's I fratelli rivali. He sang in Vienna during the entire theatrical year 1796-97. On 7 August 1796 he created the role of Ramiro, the romantic young lover in Salieri's Il moro. In Ramiro's "Quanto, quanto o Stella amabile," perhaps the last in the series of arias in B flat written for Baglioni since 1787, Salieri exploited exactly the same tessitura as Mozart in "Se all'impero" (Ex. 7) and the same long-held F to which Mozart had gravitated in "Il mio tesoro" (Ex. 8). Baglioni's last appearance in Vienna,

Ex. 7 Antonio Salieri, "Quanto, quanto o Stella amabile," mm. 1-12, from Il moro, A-Wn, KT 301

26 Ex. 8. Salieri, "Quanto, quanto o Stella amabile," mm. 20-33

in a performance of Palma's La pietra simpatica on 12 March 1797, seems to have marked the end of his career on the professional stage.48 He returned to Venice, where he spent the rest of his life as a singing teacher--"il bravissimo Signor Baglioni" who taught Da Ponte's niece and published vocal exercises for singers entering an operatic world soon to be dominated by Rossini.

He did not apparently return to Prague, where several tenors succeeded him: Santo Sala and Luigi Benedetti, primi tenori (ITS, 1796-97, 81), Luigi Benedetti and Vincenzo Zardi, primi mezzi caratteri (ITS, 1797-98, 108), and Filippo Scalzi and Cesare Massa, primi mezzi caratteri (ITS, 1798-99, 118).

48