Antonio Salieri, La cifra (1789)

I don't know why it took so long for it to occur to me to check Salieri on Operaonvideo, but I just did.  And yeah, there are a few things worth checking out, most notably this, which is a holy grail as these things go: an obscure opera with English subs.  Slightly weird ALL-CAPS ENGLISH SUBS which get bigger and smaller depending on the line, which I think just depends on how long the given line is, but looks like the character is meant to be shouting when it gets really big.  It's slightly strange, but who cares?  Also: a Da Ponte libretto, if you care about that sort of thing.  Incidentally, it's kind of goofy that if you search for Da Ponte, google characterizes him as an "American librettist;" it's true that he became an American citizen later in life, but that was long after his libretto-writing days.  Regardless, it seems like he was an interesting guy; might be worth reading his memoirs.

So there are some peasants in a Scottish village.  Eurilla and Lisotta are sisters; the former is the conventional heroine, while the latter is all loud and brassy.  Their dad, Rusticone, is the mayor.  Currently, the lord of the, I don't know, province, Fideling, is looking for a wife.  And a specific wife: see, his father usurped the government seat, but then repented of his ways and wanted his son to marry the missing daughter of the previous lord.  This seems to be conveniently evading the fact that, if I understand this scenario aright, this daughter should be in charge, and his son shouldn't have anything to do with it.  Of course, the rascally Rusticone is concealing the fact that Eurilla is the daughter in question (his motives are a little murky).  Fideling figures that one of the sisters is secretly the old lord's daughter, and correctly figures it must be Eurilla; the two are in love so that's great, but complication: Rusticone claims it's actually Lisotta.  There's a box that Rusticone has containing her legacy, but it doesn't seem any help, until the characters realize that there's actually a secret compartment and a code (cifra).  This reveals the truth.  So Fideling is with Eurilla and Lisotta is with her old lover Sandrino.  And there you have it!

Yeah; fun libretto.  Da Ponte had IT, for sure.  There's one particularly notable scene where the men are out hunting wild boar and Eurilla picks up a gun that's lying there and semi-accidentally shoots one.  GIRL POWER.  As for the music, well, if this is the kind of thing you like, you will definitely like this. It sounds like...well, like Mozart-era classical music.  It may not be an all-time transcendent experience, but it's a solid, entertaining opera.  I will hear no slander of Salieri from anyone.