DRAMMA GIOCOSO IN TWO ACTS
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
The apples on the tree of the goddess Diana
sparkle gold – but only for as long as her devotees remain chaste. Amore, god
of love, has no use for chastity and so smuggles three young men into Diana’s
realm. The consequences are soon evident from the tree’s fruit. It is no
coincidence that Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the libretto to Vicente Martín y
Soler’s opera L’arbore di Diana (The Tree of Diana) at the same time as
he was also working on Mozart’s Don
Giovanni. As under a burning glass, Da Ponte and Martín y Soler blend young
love with burgeoning sexuality, both of which the goddess Diana, with her
strict morals, fights to suppress – until Amore shoots his arrows at her. L’arbore di Diana is a musical comedy
about young lovers about to enter adulthood. In the production by Spanish
director Rafael R. Villalobos the opera, with its song-like arias and
ensembles, almost has the character of a high school musical of the First
Viennese School. Conductor is Rubén Dubrovsky, whose Bach Consort Wien have
long been specialists in early music.
In Italian with surtitles
Introduction to the work 30 minutes before the performance
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