Jommelli’s Endimione

ed. by Iskrena Yordanova

Niccolò Jommelli (1714-1774) played a significant part in the transformations of 18th-century musical language that created the foundations for the development of the classical style. His greatest successes represent a stylistic combination of Italian brio, German complexity and French decorative elements, welded together by an extraordinary flair for dramatic effectiveness. His carrier developed in Naples, Venice and Rome, and he worked at the court of Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg in Stuttgart for 15 years,  but a close link with Portugal made him one of the most performed composers in the royal and public theatres of Lisbon during the 18th-century. For this reason, a large collection of his compositions is held in the Portuguese libraries.

L’Endimione [ovvero il Trionfo d’Amore] was composed in the spring of 1759 for the new theatre in Stuttgart but the score for that occasion is lost. The forthcoming critical edition by Iskrena Yordanova (Divino Sospiro-CEMSP) is based on the manuscript score of Endimione in Lisbon’s Biblioteca de Ajuda, the only one surviving nowadays. The printed libretto from the Portuguese Stamperia Reale shows the occasion of the Portuguese performance at Queluz Royal Palace – June 29th 1780 – the name day of Pedro III (husband of the Queen Maria I). This serenata is a gemstone of Jommelli’s repertoire, a wonderful example of the composers’ ability to serve with sublime music the dramatic functionalities of Metastasio’s text.

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