• Source: Bella mia fiamma, addio

"Bella mia fiamma, addio", K. 528, is a concert aria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for solo soprano and orchestra, composed in Prague in 1787. The text of this aria is taken from the 1772 opera Cerere placata, composed by Niccolò Jommelli with text by Michele Sarcone. The aria was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1881.




Description



Sung by the character Titano, the aria is marked andante, then allegro, and consists of 196 bars in the key of C major. The vocal range reaches from D4 to A5 with a tessitura of D4 to G5. A typical performance lasts for around ten minutes. The aria contains bravura writing with difficult chromatic passages. The aria part of the work calls for a flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two natural horns in C, and strings. The time signature for the introduction is common time , then for the aria proper 34 triple metre.




History


Composed in Prague, dated 3 November 1787, the aria was dedicated to its original singer, Josepha Duschek, for whom Mozart previously wrote the aria "Ah, lo previdi", K. 272, in Salzburg. The composition of this aria was somewhat unusual; the following tale is attributed to Mozart's son Karl Thomas:

Petranka [sic] is well-known as the villa in which Mozart enjoyed staying with his musician friends, the Duscheks, during his visit to Prague, and where he composed several numbers for his Don Juan [Don Giovanni]. On the summit of a hill near the villa stands a pavilion. In it, one day, Frau Duschek slyly imprisoned the great Mozart, after having provided ink, pen, and notepaper, and told him that he was not to regain his freedom until he had written an aria he had promised her to the words bella mia fiamma addio. Mozart submitted himself to the necessary; but to avenge himself for the trick Frau Duschek had played on him, he used various difficult-to-sing passages in the aria, and threatened his despotic friend that he would immediately destroy the aria if she could not succeed in performing it at sight without mistakes.
Librarian Bernard Wilson, commenting on the story, adds: "There seems to be some corroboration of this account in the aria itself. The words Quest' affano, questo passo è terribile per me (mm. 27–34) are set to an awesome tangle of chromatic sequences artfully calculated to test the singer's sense of intonation and powers of interpretation. Apparently Mme. Duschek survived the passo terribile, since the autograph bears her name in Mozart's hand." In 1789, Duschek sang the work along with other arias at concerts given by Mozart in Dresden and Leipzig during his Berlin journey of that year.




Text






References






External links



Bella mia fiamma, addio: Score in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
"Bella mia fiamma": Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
Italian and English text
Notes by Ian Page, 2017
"Bella mia fiamma, addio" on YouTube, Cecilia Bartoli, Concentus Musicus Wien, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt
"Bella mia fiamma, addio" on YouTube, Kiri Te Kanawa, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, conductor György Fischer

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Köchel-Verzeichnis
• Bella mia fiamma, addio
• Fiamma
• Josepha Duschek
• Beethoven and Mozart
• List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Ah, lo previdi
• List of concert arias, songs and canons by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Tu che le vanità
• Matia Bazar
• Bertramka