Vicente Martín y Soler
Vicente Martín y Soler (
May 2,
1754 -
January 30,
1806) was a
Valencian composer of
opera and
ballet. Although relatively obscure today, in his own day he was compared favorably with his contemporary,
Mozart, as a composer of
opera buffa. He has been called
the Valencian Mozart.
He was born in
Valencia and studied music in
Bologna under
Giovanni Battista Martini. His first opera was
Il tutore burlato (
1775), an adaptation of
Giovanni Paisiello's
La frascatana, which in turn was based on a play of the same title by
Filippo Livigni. He had the libretto translated into
Spanish and adapted it to the
zarzuela form as
La Madrileña o el tutor burlado, under which title it premiered in
Madrid in
1778.
Martín y Soler is best known for the comic operas that he composed in
Vienna with librettist
Lorenzo Da Ponte:
Una cosa rara (
1786, based on the play
La luna de la sierra by
Luis Vélez de Guevara),
Il burbero di buon cuore (
1786, based on the play by
Carlo Goldoni),
L'arbore di Diana (
1787). He is also credited with introducing, in
Una cosa rara, the
waltz to Vienna.
In
1777, he traveled to
Naples, to compose his first ballet for the
Teatro di San Carlo. During this period, he worked with choreographer
Charles le Picq to compose four
ballets d'action:
La Griselda (
1779, derived from the libretto by
Apostolo Zeno),
I ratti sabini (
1780),
La bella Arsene (
1781), and
Tamas Kouli-Kan (
1781, an interpretation of
Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi's libretto). He also composed two
mezzocarattere ballets,
La sposa persiana (
1778) and
Il barbiere di Siviglia (
1781, based on the play by
Beaumarchais).
At Naples he also worked with court librettist, Luigi Serio, on the composition of
opera seria, producing
Ifigenia (
1779) and
Ipermestra (
1780).
In
1785, he moved to Vienna, where he enjoyed great international success in operas composed with texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who was simultaneously collaborating with Mozart and
Antonio Salieri. Music from
Una cosa rara was referenced by Mozart in the banquet scene in the final act of
Don Giovanni (
1787).
In
1788, he was invited to the
Russian court at
St. Petersburg, where he completed the
Russian language operas,
The Unfortunate Hero Kosmetovich (
1789, libretto written in part by
Catherine II of Russia]), Melomania ([[1790), and
Fedul and his Children (
1791, with
Vasili Pashkevich). During this period, he also completed two more
Italian language operas:
La capricciosa corretta (
1795, libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, possibly adapted from
Shakespeare's
The Taming of the Shrew) and
La festa del villaggio (
1798).
He also wrote a number of tragic ballets during his residence in St. Petersburg, including
Didon abandonée (
1792),
Amour et Psyché (
1793, based on
Psyché by
Molière,
Corneille and
Philippe Quinault),
Tancrède (
1799) and
Le retour de Poliorcète (
1799).
He died at his post of court composer in
1806.
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