It was interesting to see two versions of a Metastasio libretto that debuted at more or less exactly the same time--Artaserse--but it might be even more interesting to go to the opposite end of the spectrum: these seem to be about as far apart as you can get. Vinci's wasn't the first version--that was Nicola Porpora in 1724--but close enough. And I suppose I can't say for sure that Mercadante's was the last--I always get in trouble making sweeping statements like that--but, again, close enough, one would think.
This was only Metastasio's second libretto, and I feel like he was still working things out--it's a bit of a jumble. You know the story of Dido, don't you? You do. This version skips over the whole of their romance, beginning just as Aeneas is steeling himself to tell her that it's been real, but now he's gotta go found Rome. She tries various ways of getting him to stay, but none of them work, obviously. In the end she dies, and there's really nothing to soften the blow--it's not the sort of thing I expect from operas of this period. Naturally, there's a lot of other stuff going on: Iarbas, who wants to marry Dido, shows up, along with his servant Araspe. Iarbas tries to kill Aeneas, but obviously fails at this. Araspe falls in love with Dido's sister Selene, but unfortunately for both of them, she's secretly also in love with Aeneas (in Virgil, her sister is named Anna--there might be a Classical source for "Selene" but I think it's just Metastasio's invention; all the google results point to this libretto). And then there's her servant Osmida, who's also plotting to take the throne.
As I said, a bit of a jumble. I do like the fact that it does stuff with the story that I hadn't seen before--this is one of those narratives that can get a bit boring to me from overfamiliarity. And yet, I don't think it works particularly well as a drama. All the other characters and their issues never really amount to anything, as it feels like they would in a more mature Metastasio work. It's all about Dido, and eh. Again, not the most exciting story to me.
Ah, but what about the music and the differences between the two? Glad you asked. Or is that a lie? The world may never know. I thought the Vinci was pretty serviceable. It's standard music of this type, comparable to Vivaldi, with some standout moments. My favorite thing was Raffaele Pe as Iarbas. He was hilarious and awesome as Nerone in Agrippina, and he has a very appealing singing voice--I could be totally wrong about this, but I get the impression that there's more variation between countertenors than there is between other voice types. This isn't a comic role, but his sort of bug-eyed look suits it well, and brings some degree of sympathy to a not very sympathetic character.
Of course, opera seria like this tends to have a pretty basic aria/recitative/aria/recitative structures, with just one short chorus in the end--and this one lacks even that. It ends strangely abruptly, without any sort of big, climactic number. So the Mercadante version substantially reworks it to add a bunch of choruses and all kinds of numbers for multiple singers, including a few sextets for the whole cast. That's kind of interesting, as is the fact that the vocal roles are substantially scrambled--in Vinci, Aeneas is a tenor and Iarbas a castrato/countertenor (which seems odd--the "barbarian" characters in these things are generally baritones), whereas in Mercadante the former is a trouser role and the latter a tenor. So whatever else you want to say, you do get some variety. I will also note that for this production, the director decided to tie loose ends by having all the characters who per the libretto would just kind of vanish explicitly die. I can see how that would be tempting, but it really doesn't appeal to me, and it makes Iarbas more psychotic than I think was intended.
It's not the first Mercadante opera I've seen; that would be Il bravo, about a guy forced to be an assassin to protect his father, which sounds cool, but ultimately left me underwhelmed. This is...well, similarly "okay but nothing special." Hearing an opera seria transplanted to a liminal classical/romantic space is a good novelty, but the piece does nothing to convince me that he's not a pretty minor composer, and neither opera convinces me that this is a major libretto, in spite of its popularity.
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