Man, remember when I was so naive that I thought I'd potentially be able to watch every opera available in video form? Whereas these days I discover something new almost every day, I feel like. Such as this, which just appeared on OperaonVideo (although it was uploaded in 2019). An opera by a largely unknown baroque composer, which is always of interest to me. Found the libretto (it's not hard to find; it's linked in the video description), stuck it in google translate, and watched it. BAM.
So Polidoro (or Polydoros) was Priam's youngest son. In the Iliad, he's killed by Achilles, but this seems to be based (more or less; as always there is artistic license) on the account in Hyginus' Fabulae, in which he's spirited away and raised by his sister Illona and her husband Polymestor (here called Polynestore), the king of Thrace. But there's a twist: Illona knows that the Greeks want to stamp out all trace of the Trojans (which seems to represent substantial mission creep from the original purpose of the War), so to keep him safe, she raises him as her son while pretending that her actual son with Polynestore, Deifilo, is Polidoro. I don't understand how that would be remotely feasible, but that's what they say. If you're keeping track, that makes Polynestore Polidoro's brother-in-law and Deifilo his nephew. So here (at this point I'm just talking about the events of the opera), Achilles' son Pyrrhus (Pirro) comes along; he wants the Thracians to give him Polidoro so the Greeks can murder him. Also, he wants Andromache, Hector's widow, who is the lover of Deifilo, whom everyone (including both him and Polidoro) think is Polidoro. Polynestore is weak and venal, so he's willing to give him up for cash. When Polidoro (who thinks he's Deifilo) learns about this, he gets super-pissed-off, and comes up with the idea that he should pretend to be Polidoro (whom he actually is) and Deifilo should pretend to be Deifilo (whom he he actually is) so he can sacrifice himself in the place of his friend. Well, that's the plan, but it doesn't happen, and Deifilo is killed (off-stage), though his ghost makes a brief singing appearance. So in revenge, they take off Polynestore, presumably to be murdered, and Pirro leaves amidst threats that the Achaeans are going to murder the Thracians. The end.
Sort of a dark plot for a baroque opera, and if you think all that stuff about Polidoro's and Deifilo's identities sounds confusing...well, you ain't wrong. I'm somehow put in mind of one guard who always lies and one who always tells the truth. Also, the whole thing raises thorny philosophical questions: if you've gone your whole life thinking you're a certain person, and being treated by everyone else like that person...how are you not that person? Seems Highly Questionable.
This is the first time the opera's been done in modern times. It has a rather minimalistic production, with the characters in frilly eighteenth-century period costume with no props or anything on stage--just a minimal vaguely classical backdrop. I rather fancy it might be closer to how the piece was originally performed. Polidoro and Deifilo are sung by countertenors; Pirro by a mezzo.
So wot's it like? Well, it's all right. If you're looking for Vivaldi-esque pyrotechnics, you will come up blank. Lotti (1667-1740) may have lived most of his life (let alone his adult life) in the eighteenth century, but to my ear he sounds much more like a seventeenth-century composer. There are a fair few of what the libretto refers to as arias, but they strike me as much more arioso-type things--very light, wispy sorts of tunes. Hey, I'm not complaining; I like seventeenth-century opera more than most people (I think that statement is both true and an extremely easy thing for anyone to do, if they want to). Still, Lotti is no Cavalli; I found this basically pleasant, and interestingly unusual in its tone, but that's about as far as it goes.
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