Mayr: L'amor conjugale

 

Opera no 68

Mayr: L'amor conjugale

Soloists

Opera Fuoco

David Stern

There is a fascinating group of Operas from round the turn of the 19^th century which all share the same basic story as Fidelio. I want to explore some of them in this part of the project. Winton Dean’s chapter on Beethoven and opera has been a very helpful guide here.

Mayr was an important composer who features in the history books largely because of his setting of Medea in Corinto and this version of the Fidelio story. The character names are changed but the basic  plot is broadly the same. Much of the music is Mozartian in style – though the more you hear of opera  of this period them more you realise just what a genius Mozart was – but there are some places which looking forward to early 19^th century opera. It is rather an unbalance work. It is quite short and some it is is quite light, but there are two huge arias, one for the Lenora and one for Florestan characters. These are both impressive and show real expressive breadth. Curiously some of the music in the latter part of the opera seems almost to be a straight lift from Cosi fan Tutte – surely it can’t be coincidence. Dean doesn’t comment on this and I’ve not found any reference to it elsewhere. Very odd.

Would this opera be worth listening to if it were not for Fidelio?  I’m not sure. Some of it is impressive but elsewhere it shows a mastery of the standard tropes of late 18^th century opera without anything particularly distinctive.