Giuseppe Scarlatti, Dove è amore è gelosia (1768)

From: gscarlatti69@gmail.com

To: princejoe@schwartzenberg.gov

Re: New Opera Buffa

Hello Your Royal Princeship--

Please find attached the opera buffa for your son's wedding, as requested. It includes all of the requested features:

1. 2 couples

1a. 1 of nobles and 1 of servants

2. 2 instances of crossdressing, resulting in comic misunderstandings

3. 1 purloined letter resulting in same

4. general philosophizing about the nature of love, jealousy, &c.

I trust that this fulfills the terms of our contract. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I have sent you a separate payment invoice via Paypal.

Best wishes,

G. Scarlatti

Do I mock? Eh, not really. This may not be blindingly original, to put it mildly, but it's perfectly acceptable for what it is, which is a middle-of-the-road opera buffa. It is the fate of every opera buffa to be compared to Figaro and found wanting in comparison, but I certainly enjoyed it well enough, even if it lacks much in the way of depth. The premise, to the extent that it's specific enough to even talk about, is that the two couples have opposite problems: the man in the former is excessively jealous for no good reason, whereas the one in the latter refuses to become jealous even when his girlfriend is flirting with other men. So they have to learn to adjust their sensibilities in an appropriate manner. If you were invited to a wedding where this was the entertainment, you would think, man, that was one sweet-ass wedding.

The music here sounds very transitional between the baroque and classical periods, which is appropriate, as Scarlatti's wikipedia entry says that he was friends with Gluck. He was prolific; he wrote thirty operas--and yet, in spite of that, not much seems to be known about him, even how exactly he was related to the more famous Scarlattis.

This is his only opera one that seems to be available in video form. It's interesting, because it's a serious historical recreation, as recognized by UNESCO. All the musicians are in period dress, and we see dudes messing around with the backstage machinery at times. The opera itself may not quite blow your mind, but that aspect of it is extremely intriguing, and makes it all the more worth investigating.