Opera in 3 acts
Libretto by Ortensio Mauro after Virgil
First performed 1709, Hof(royal court)Oper, Düsseldorf
Sung in Italian with German & English surtitles
Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 minutes before curtain up, available here shortly after opening night and everywhere where podcasts are to be found.
Prologue
Strife’s rife amongst the Gods: Ought Aeneas, the Trojan hero, come ashore in Latium after his odyssey or not? Venus, Aeneas’ mother, implores Jupiter, King of the Gods, to take mercy on her son and allow him to land. Jupiter agrees. But affairs of state must be altered first: Princess Lavinia, the ideal partner for Aeneas, was promised in marriage to Turnus, King of the Rutuli. Amor’s help is enlisted …
Act 1 Lavinia can’t get a man she saw in a dream out of her head. On the day of her wedding she confides in Nicea, her nurse: she’s certain that she’s destined to marry him, not Turnus. When he, introducing himself as Aeneas, suddenly appears before her they feel strongly drawn to one another. But Lavinia takes Aeneas’ words to mean that he loves someone else. She withdraws. Aeneas’ companion Corebus is dispatched to find out about Lavinia’s innermost feelings.
Lavinia’s sister Giuturna’s turning herself into knots about her feelings for Turnus. Lavinia tells him she’s only marrying him out of a sense of duty, so would never make him happy; it would therefore be best if he kept his distance. Turnus, deeply offended, swears revenge, while Corebus starts flirting with Nicea to find out more about Lavinia.
Act 2 King Latinus, determined that the marriage between Lavinia and Turnus will go ahead, appeals to his daughter’s conscience. But Lavinia digs her heels in: she could never control her emotions, fate has destined her for another. Giuturna tries to persuade Turnus to forget her sister. Latinus formally welcomes Aeneas to Latium. When Turnus accuses Latinus and Lavinia of lying under oath, threatening to avenge the cancelled wedding, Aeneas sides with the Latins.
INTERVAL
Lavinia wonders if committing suicide might be a way to solve the conflict and save her father and the kingdom. Aeneas finds out from Corebus that Lavinia has loved him ever since he – as she to him – appeared in a dream. He swears to avenge Lavinia in a duel with Turnus, before taking his own life. Giuturna tells Nicea that she’s Lavinia, whereupon Jupiter, in the guise of Turnus’ captain Coraltus, appears, abducting Giuturna, alias Lavinia.
Act 3 Latinus is desperate. Faunus appeared to him in a dream imploring him not to allow the wedding between his daughter and Turnus to take place, because Lavinia’s destined for Aeneas. The Trojan hero will found a new Empire in Latium and, with Lavinia, a noble race emerge, whose fame will be hailed far into the future. Giuturna’s brought before Turnus. She, still maintaining that she’s Lavinia, speaks of her love. A duel takes place between Aeneas and Turnus. Giuturna prevents Aeneas killing his rival, demanding her rights as »the injured party« to punish Turnus for her supposed abduction. She raises her sword, but can’t deliver the fatal blow; whereupon they profess their love for one another. Lavinia curses Amor and the stars for choosing her for Aeneas, who doesn’t seem to reciprocate the love for him in her eyes. Nicea encourages Lavinia to trust the powers of fate. All misunderstandings are finally cleared up when Aeneas and Lavinia next meet. And Aeneas says what Lavinia so badly wanted to hear: It was her, who appeared in his dream. Everyone praises the joys of love and restoration of peace. Amid the general euphoria, Venus turns to her son Aeneas and reminds him to follow his pre-destined path.
Agostino Steffani, en route to Italy, died in Frankfurt in 1728, and you can pay your respects at his final resting place in Frankfurt’s Dom (cathedral).
Nearly 300 years later this diplomat and high-ranking ecclesiastical dignitary’s music can be heard for the first time at Oper Frankfurt. Amor vien dal destino, and 7 other operas, were written in the 1690s for a new theatre in the Hanoverian Leinerschloss, where Steffani was in service to Kurfürst Ernst August as a Kapellmeister. It was performed for the first time in 1709, in Düsseldorf.
Steffani and his librettist chose an episode from the Aeneid, in which Aeneas and Turnus vie for beautiful Lavinia. She could save her father Latinus’ life if she promises to marry Turnus, but Cupid planted an image of Aeneas in her heart long ago ... After all kinds of trials and tribulations, which the composer embellishes sometimes lyrically, sometimes amusingly, Lavinia and Aeneas are finally united. There is, after all no cure for Cupid's arrows.
Contemporaries admired his duets most of all; Telemann and Handel were influenced by his music; he enjoyed lively correspondence with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Queen Sophie Charlotte of Prussia. Steffani even mediated in a tiff between Kaiser Joseph I and Pope Clemens XI, which resulted in his being appointed an Envoy of the Holy See. Whodunnit author Donna Leon dedicated a novel to his extraordinary life in 2012, around the same time Cecilia Bartoli shared his music with the world on CD.
