Gassmann’s ironically named commedia per musica, L’Opera Seria with a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi (1714–1795) and Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782), was originally premiered in 1769. Although his name is not particularly well-known at present, Florian Leopold Gassmann was an important figure in Vienna during the late baroque and early classical periods. It is well known that he introduced the up-and-coming composer Antonio Salieri (1750–1825) to Vienna. Curiously enough, I had previously heard of Gassmann as his name had surfaced when I was researching my book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet. In that book, I explained (p. 204) than Antonio Salieri ‘met the Viennese composer Florian Leopold Gassmann (1729–1774) in Venice in 1766 and became his protégé. Gassmann helped Salieri establish himself in Vienna through introductions to several highly influential figures, including the librettist Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782), the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), and even the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II’.

For me, our three-week residency in Vienna ran in three distinct week-long sections: I was delighted that my Mum came over from the Isle of Man to spend the first week with me, and she had a wonderful time. I then had a week in the middle of simply performing in the opera in the evenings and working on various ‘side quests’ during the day (including working on 3D designs for CNC toolmaking, researching and ordering a new MacBook Pro [M5 Pro with 64GB RAM], arranging and planning further UK-based silversmithing sessions as part of my current Arts Council England DYCP project, and attending a specially-arranged manuscript visit at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek; my recent BBC Radio 3 interview also aired: it is available to listen to on BBC Sounds). My wife also travelled over from the UK (bringing exciting post-scan news in the 20th week of her pregnancy) to spend the final week with me. She sampled the delights (Sachertorte, in particular) of the Austrian capital and listened to two of our performances: Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba (K. 111) on 11 March, as well as the final performance of Gassmann’s L’Opera Seria on 12 March.

It was great to spend so much time in Vienna again and to have visitors as well as friends and colleagues to enjoy it with! I realised that it is at least ten years since I first performed here with Les Talens Lyriques. We performed Salieri’s Les Horaces here in 2016 and Salieri’s Cublai gran kan de' Tartari and Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade here in 2024. 

After a week ‘off’ (well, in which I will be off to do some trumpet making with David Staff and silversmithing in West Sussex), I will be returning to record Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba (K. 111) with Les Talens Lyriques in Paris and to give further performances of this work at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and at the Opéra de Lausanne in Switzerland before the end of this month. 

I look back fondly at this Gassmann opera project, and although I could not actually see any of the on-stage action I could see and hear the audience’s reaction, and I don’t remember hearing so much laughter in any other production I’ve been a part of. In particular, there seemed to be a scene that involved some form of elephant stampede, which had the audience in stitches! After this, Korneel Bernolet played a keyboard work, Toccata in A major by Pietro Domenico Paradisi (1707–1791), which a modern Italian audience—since this co-production with La Scala and the Theater an der Wien began in Milan—would recognise as the continuity music used by the RAI (the Italian national broadcaster) when television broadcasts have to be interrupted. It was so nice to see that even after six shows Christophe Rousset was still laughing, especially as the characters on stage extemporised, added new melodramatic elements, funny pauses, humorous breaths or more extreme ornaments to add to the hilarity! Even in the final performance, when one of the singers was taken ill, Christophe Rousset sang the part without flinching: what a remarkable talent and incredible intellect he has, and he still found time to laugh! The cast comprised:

Pietro Spagnoli (Fallito, theatre director)
Roberto de Candia (Delirio, librettist)
Petr Nekoranec (Sospiro, composer)
Josh Lovell (Ritornello, castrati)
Julie Fuchs (Stonatrilla, prima donna)
Andrea Carroll (Smorfiosa, premier singer)
Serea Gamberoni (Porporina, young singer)
Alessio Arduini (Passagallo, ballet master)
Alberto Allegrezza (Bragherona)
Nicolas Tamagna (Befana)
Filippo Mineccia (Caverna)
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Laurent Pelly (Director)
Massimo Troncanetti (Set Designer)
Marco Giusti (Lighting)
Lionel Hoche (Choreography)
Christophe Rousset (Musical Director)
Les Talens Lyriques (Orchestra)

It was also great to hear the outstanding continuo team, who didn’t put a finger wrong in any of the three-hour-long shows! They comprised Christophe Rousset (director and harpsichord), Korneel Bernolet (harpsichord) and Emmanuel Jacques (cello). The string parts in general were very lavishly styled with some extreme figuration and complicated passages. As Christophe himself put it, ‘we have a Ferrari here’, describing the capabilities of his orchestra. It was a great pleasure to be involved in this production, and back in the newly refurbished Theater an der Wien.