La famiglia svizzera and Operatic Genre in Dresden and Milan

Abstract

Abstract: A year after Joseph Weigl's sentimental Viennese Singspiel, Die Schweizerfamilie , premiered in 1809, it appeared in translation as La famiglia svizzera at the summer palace of the King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus. It soon became a mainstay of Dresden's Italian opera company. When a version of this adaptation appeared at Milan's La Scala in 1816, however, it was a catastrophic failure. The stark contrast between the two productions emphasizes the different ideals of the opera's creators, adapters, and audiences. The linked processes of transmission, adaptation, performance, and reception are a growing topic in opera scholarship, although studies of the early nineteenth century have generally considered cultural translations into German, rather than the other way around. La famiglia svizzera provides a valuable addition to our understanding of how operatic genre and its implications were conceived. In this essay, I trace how Dresden's adapters Italianized this opera and explain its divergent reception. The adapters—most likely Adolph Wagner and Franz Anton Schubert—barely changed Weigl's music but dramatically altered the tone, imagery, and characterization of the opera through a thoughtful Italian translation and newly composed recitatives. A reviewer nevertheless praised the opera's artistic unity and hoped for more such translations, "since German art agrees with German feelings." Milanese critics, however, specifically identified aspects of the adaptation that contributed to the opera's failure. These reviews fit within contemporary debates in the musical press about national operatic genre. I argue that La famiglia svizzera offers a microcosm of these debates, which mirrored both its creators' and its viewers' preconceptions.