| L'arbore di Diana | |
| Genre Header: | Opera |
| Composer: | Vicente Martín y Soler |
| Librettist: | Lorenzo Da Ponte |
| Premiere Location: | Burgtheater, Vienna |
L'arbore di Diana (The Tree of Diana) is an opera in two acts composed by Vicente Martín y Soler, with an original libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 October 1787.
Da Ponte's librettos for L'arbore di Diana and Così fan tutte were the only ones of his not taken from an existing plot. The opera's premiere on 1 October 1787 marked a visit to Vienna of the niece of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, the Archduchess Maria Teresa, who was on her way to Dresden to marry Prince Anton Clemens of Saxony in person (they had been married by proxy in Florence the month before).[1] The work was enormously successful in its day, but Martín's operas have since fallen from the repertoire. A revival was performed during the 2007/2008 season at the Theater Bielefeld in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. The opera was revived and recorded in Valencia in 2008 at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía. It has also been revived in Barcelona in 2009 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, at the Minnesota Opera in 2017 conducted by Michael Christie, and at New England Conservatory in 2023.
The music consists of "an amalgam of through-composed conversations and encounters, punctuated by brief songs and ariettas"; the plot concerns the goddess Diana's attempts to defend her island as a stronghold of chastity. When confronted by the good-looking shepherd Doristo her defences fall down.[2]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast 1 October 1787[3] |
|---|---|---|
| Amore | soprano | Luisa Laschi-Mombelli |
| Diana | soprano | Anna Bosello-Marichelli |
| Doristo | bass | Stefano Mandini |
| Endimione | tenor | Vincenzo Calvesi |
| Silvio | tenor | Nicolò del Sole |
| Britomarte | soprano | Louise Villeneuve |
| Chloe | contralto | |
| Clizia | mezzo-soprano | |
L'arbore di Diana, critical edition by Leonardo Waisman, IBERAUTOR/ICCMU. Madrid, 2001.