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Le nozze di Teti, e di Peleo

[The Marriage of Thetys and Peleus]

Azione coro-drammatica by
ANGELO MARIA RICCI

For the royal wedding
of H.R.H.
The Princess of Sicily
D. Maria Carolina
with H.R.H.
The Duke of Berry

First performance:
Naples – Teatro del Fondo
24 April 1816

Critical Edition by
GUIDO JOHANNES JOERG

FONDAZIONE ROSSINI PESARO 1993

CHARACTERS:
GIOVE [Jupiter], tenor
CERERE [Ceres], mezzo-soprano
TETI [Thetis], soprano
PELEO [Peleus], tenor
GIUNONE [Juno], soprano
Mixed chorus

The theater represents a countryside with the Temples of Hymen and Love

Instrumentation: 2 Flutes/2 Piccolos, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, Timpani, Strings

This cantata is one of the five Rossini wrote in Naples to celebrate specific events in the lives of the Bourbon monarchs of Naples and Sicily. In December, 1816, Naples was restored to the Bourbon rule after its Napoleonic domination, and Ferdinando di Borbone became King of the Two Sicilies under the name Ferdinando I. He immediately began to strengthen family ties with the Bourbons of France and with the house of Austria: ties of this sort, after the Congress of Vienna, served to consolidate the power of the restored European monarchies. Ferdinando's efforts culminated in the wedding of his son Leopoldo with a daughter of Francis I, Emperor of Austria, and of his niece Maria Carolina Ferdinanda Luigia with the French prince Charles-Ferdinand, Duke of Berry.

This grand celebratory cantata consists of a series of operatic solos and ensembles interspersed with joyful choruses. Rossini borrowed many musical ideas from earlier compositions, most notably the Aria Cerere (N. 9), derived from the aria of Count Almaviva, "Cessa di più resistere," from Il barbiere di Siviglia.

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