Abstract
GERMAN COMIC OPERAS FROM EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIENNA Operas from Series Die zween Anton. Part 1: Der dumme Gartner aus dem Geburge oder Die zween Anton (Vienna, 1789). Edited by David J. Buch. (Recent Researches in Music of Classical Era, 96.) Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2015. [Contents, p. v-vi; abbrevs. and sigla, p. vii-viii; acknowledgments, p. ix; introd., p. xi-xviii; text and translation, p. xix-lxi; plates, p. lxii-lxv; cast and instruments, p. 2; score, p. 3-195; crit. report, p. 197-203; appendix, p. 205-16. ISBN-13 978-089579-811-4. $270.]Two Operas from Series Die zween Anton. Part 2: Die verdeckten Sachen (Vienna, 1789). Edited by David J. Buch. (Recent Researches in Music of Classical Era, 98.) Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2016. [Contents, p. v-vi; abbrevs. and sigla, p. vii; acknowledgments, p. viii; introd., p. ix-xii; text and translation, p. xiii-lxiii; plates, p. lxiv-lxvi; cast and instruments, p. 2; score, p. 3-299; crit. report, p. 301-6; appendix, p. 309-36. ISBN-13 978-0-89579-824-4. $360.]A principal focus for eighteenth-century musicological studies in recent decades has been exploring various contexts in which canonic composers lived and worked. Naturally, Vienna has received considerable attention. Many of these studies have concentrated on opera buffa, and thanks to efforts of scholars such as Daniel Heartz, Mary Hunter, John Platoff, James Webster, and others, we now have a broad base of knowledge for understanding genre. Examinations of Vienna's German-language operatic productions have not been as numerous, and amount of published critical editions and recordings lags behind as well. The current state of affairs makes David Buch's latest opera publications for A-R Editions all more welcome. Buch has been a key contributor to this avenue of scholarship with his research on Mozart's German operas and German-language works of Mozart's contemporaries. Buch has also been active as an editor of this repertoire, and several of his projects have already been published in Recent Researches in Music of Classical Era series: Der Stein der Weisen (vol. 76), Der wohltatige Derwisch (vol. 81), Der Spiegel von Arkadian (vols. 93-94), and Liedersammlung fur Kinder und Kinderfreunde am Clavier (vol. 95). His latest efforts in this vein are first two operas from series Die zween Anton.The Two Antons franchise may be unknown to opera-goers today, but it achieved an intense level of popularity in Vienna in late eighteenth century, such that July 1789 original inspired six sequels in rapid succession by January 1795. In fact, first four operas in sequence premiered within a span of only eleven months. Performances reached nearly every theater in German-speaking lands, and versions even appeared in Czech translation before series waned in popularity and disappeared from theater records early in next century. The remarkable success of original opera in series, Der dumme Gartner aus dem Geburge oder Die zween Anton, brought its librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, to attention of Vienna's theatrical world, and paved way for his later collaborations with Mozart, who noted in a 1790 letter to his wife, Constanze, his pleasure with the Antons. (Mozart also based his last set of piano variations, K. 613, on Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding auf der Welt, a popular aria from second opera in series, Die verdeckten Sachen.)For music, Schikaneder relied on a team of composers. This composition-bycommittee approach reflected realities of Vienna's competitive operatic world: with multiple theaters in city performing opera, it was important to turn out a steady supply of popular works and quickly capitalize on successes. The demand for new productions thus necessitated involvement of multiple hands. For Die zween Anton, Schikaneder likely utilized Benedikt Schack, Franz Xaver Gerl, and Johann Baptist Henneberg. …
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