Per la versione italiana clicca qui.
I would like to take advantage of our rejoicing for the Mozart, Salieri and Cornetti’s recovered cantata by getting back into a relatively recently discovered work: a 30-measure fragment of another thought-lost piece, the Aria KV 365a “Die neugeborne Ros’ entzückt” (1780, performed on 1st December of that year in Munich) for an opera with Schikander’s libretto. It was actually a scene, i.e. an aria preceded by a recitative (which on the contrary is still lost).
The beginning of the fragment throws right away into our face the aria’s first theme (or one of its main ones):
This aria, recovered in 1996, is not a novelty for this blog, that had already talked about it (see this post*) . The fact is that this aria was elaborated and completed by Fabio Vacchi and performed for the first time by Sumi Jo (directed by Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli) in 1998 (see here):
* “[The video mentioned above is followed by these words]: Here is what happens when you find in some corner of the world the page 3 of a score (NOT the whole score): you turn it over in your hands and realize to have in them a Mozart aria having no beginning nor end, not because it is odd or nonsensical, but because the recitative (pages 1 and 2) and the rest of the aria (next pages) are missing. Anyway, we have 30 genuine measures left. They are not to be overlooked, in these times of crisis…
For the record, the Aria KV 365a was a piece with Schikaneder’s text, to be more precise for a libretto entitled ‘Peter der Grausame oder die zwei schlaflosen Nächte’.”
Vacchi’s reconstruction starts with an appropriate orchestral introduction; the vocal line begins with a long vocalization rich in coloraturas (the text is sung only from the beginning of the fragment on, although all the words of the recitative and the aria are available).
Image excerpted from ‘A Newly discovered autograph source for Mozart’s aria, KV 365a (Anh. 11a)’ by Dexter Edge
Here is the scene text. In the rediscovered page the words set to music go from “jungen” (in the second line of the aria) to the end:
Recitativ
Wie grausam ist, o Liebe, nicht dein Spiel!
Von ferne zeigst du unserm Herzen
Ein süßes Wonn- und Glücksgefühl:
Und ach! wie oft wird es Gefühl der Schmerzen!
Wir freuen uns der süßen Wunden,
Die uns dein Pfeil jezt schlägt;
Allein das Gift, das er uns in den Busen trägt,
Wird bald zu unsrer Qual empfunden.
Arie
Die neugeborne Ros’ entzückt.
Mit Reiz vom jungen Lenz geschmückt:
Doch willst du sie am Stocke brechen,
Dich werden ihre Dornen stechen.
So laden tausend Schmeicheleyn
Der Liebe zum Genuß dich ein,
Und Untreu, Gram und Eifersucht
Sind meistens ihre Frucht.
