Document Actions
Les deux comtesses (n.d.) - Giovanni Paisiello
Digital Versions: Hi-res JPEG / Lo-res PDF
Background
Discussions of late eighteenth-century comic opera tend to focus on Mozart, who wrote three opera buffe with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. During his lifetime, however, his works competed with those by several other opera composers, including Giovanni Paisiello.
Paisiello’s comic operas were some of the most successful of the time. In point of fact, his operas enjoyed 251 performances in Vienna between 1783 and 1792, compared to 63 performances of Mozart’s operas. Only Antonio Salieri came close to Paisiello, with 167 performances during those same years.[1]
The intermezzo Le due comtesse, which first appeared in Rome (with an all-male cast) on 3 January 1776, was translated to French and parodied by Nicolas Etienne Framery, who also adapted Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Parisian stage. Other significant performances took place in Vienna (in Italian), in Esterháza under the direction of Haydn, and in Dresden in 1778 as Die zwei Komtessen.
[1] John Platoff, “Mozart and His Rivals: Opera in Vienna,” Current Musicology 51 (1991): 107.
Plot
The Contesse Emilie de Belles Fleurs is being pursued by the Marquis de Tersandre, who is jealous that his beloved teases other men. The Chevalier de Vantillac pays a visit while the Countess and the Marquis are away, and Jacinthe, a chambermaid, poses as the Countess, with the assistance of Prosper, the concierge of the chateau. The true Countess, however, returns with the Marquis, causing Jacinthe to deceive the Chevalier even further.
In the second act, Jacinthe attempts to persuade the Chevalier to marry her immediately. She has convinced the Chevalier that the Countess is actually the chambermaid, suffering from delusions that she is a Countess. Jacinthe’s urgency to get married causes the Chevalier to doubt her identity, and once he realizes that Jacinthe is a maid, the Chevalier decides to marry the real Countess. The happy ending is bolstered by the union of the Marquis and Jacintha.
Bibliography
Title from title page: LES DEUX COMTESSES / OPERA BOUFFON / Imité de l’Italien et Parodié sous la Musique
Genre: Opera bouffon
Siglum from Paisiello thematic catalog: (Robinson) 1.50
Composer: Giovanni Paisiello, 1740-1816
Librettist (French): Nicolas Etienne Framery, 1745-1810
Libretto based on: The Italian libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, 1727-1797
Setting: The countryside, at the chateau of the Comtesse
Premiere (French): Versailles and Strasbourg, 1778
First published: Paris: Chez l’auteur, Le Duc, de La Chevardière, n.d.
Volume in the UNT Collection: Paris: Chez l’auteur, Le Duc, de La Chevardière, n.d.
For further reading on Les deux comtesses, see:
Hunt, John. Giovanni Paisiello: His Life as an Opera Composer. NOA Monograph Series. Volume 2. N.p.: National Opera Association, 1975.
Lazarevich, Gordana. “Due contesse, Le.” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy. [Accessed 8 June 2005]. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
McClellan, Michael E. “The Italian Menace: Opera buffa in Revolutionary France.” Eighteenth-century Music 1 (2004): 249-63.
Platoff, John. “Mozart and His Rivals: Opera in Vienna.” Current Musicology 51 (1991): 105-111.
Robinson, Michael F. “Paisiello, Giovanni.” Grove Music Online, ed. Laura Macy. [Accessed 8 June 2005]. <http://www.grovemusic.com>
Zwiebach, Michael. Marriage of Wits: Comic Archetypes and the Staging of Ideas in Five Comic Operas by Giovannie Paisiello. Ph.D. diss.: University of California, Berkeley, 2000.
Physical
Dimensions: 33 x 25.5 cm.
Conservation: Foxing; cockling; discolored tape on some pages; last page has been taped around edges to prevent crumbling; extremely worn cover.
Binding: Blue paper on board with missing spine.
Comments: North Texas property plate.